Teleseminar Tonight

I've joined with Jill Hart, founder of Christian Work at Home Moms (cwahm.org) and the author of So You Want to Be a Work at Home Mom? to develop a teleseminar series for moms who work from home. Tonight is our second program. It starts at 7:30 central and lasts for an hour. We'll be discussing “Realistic Expectations: What You Need to Know about Working from Home Successfully.” You'll learn:

*The Toughest Thing about Working From Home

*Developing an At-Home-CEO Mentality

*6 Childcare Strategies to Lighten the Load

*Setting Policies to Insure Your Success

*Adopting the Seasonal Approach to Growing Your Business

If you'd like to learn more, or register for the program, I invite you to go to http://www.theworkathomegirls.com/. If you register for all four sessions, you'll get the first program in a MP3 format so that you won't miss anything. Hope you'll joing us!

www.makingworkathomework.com

Mind Over Matter

I'm continually amazed that the feedback on my book Making Work at Home Work focuses on the mental aspect of working from home. By far the majority of those who have written to me have said that what helped them the most was the idea that their mindset makes all the difference when it comes to making work at home work.

It does.

When you approach your work with a loving, forgiving attitude, you'll find that you thrive. When you approach it with pre-child expectations and a perfectionistic attitude, you're more likely to be disappointed and frustrated. At least that's what I've found to be true.

One thing I've noticed about myself: I'm harder on myself than I am on others and my expectations of myself are higher than others' expectations for me. In some ways, this has been responsible for any success I've had. But it also makes me my own worst enemy.

Today, I invite you to ask yourself this question: How am I responsible for making work at home harder than it has to be? Then listen quietly for the answers you hear.

When I asked myself this question, here's what I heard:

• Don't be so tense about deadlines. If your clients are comfortable missing them, you need to be too.
• You need to lighten up.
• Recognize that what didn't get done today can get done tomorrow.
• Client satisfaction with you is more important than your satisfaction with yourself.
• The value you think you bring to a project may be different in the client's eyes. As a result, don't be so hard on yourself.

Notice that I didn't give myself an excuse to slack off, miss deadlines, or lower my standards. But I did give myself permision to be kinder to myself. And that's made all the difference when it comes to saving my sanity in my at-home business.

Fellow Entrepreneur Offers Advice

Today I want to wrap up the interview with Revka that posted last week. You may remember she runs Berries and Cream Blog Design. When I asked Revka what she'd recommend to other work-at-home moms, here's what she said:

I would also advise entrepreneurs to start out right by taking the steps I am only now taking: realize that working from home/owning a business means that you will have much less time for volunteer work and other activities; work with your spouse to set mutually agreeable goals, guidelines, and boundaries for your business; and set a specific dollar amount monthly sales goal as soon as possible.

One last piece of advice - free isn't always best. Be willing to invest in your business as you are able, and always get the best {fill in the blank} you can afford. Sometimes the best option is free, but don't make a decision based solely on whether one option is free and the other isn't.

I agree with all of the above as they all were hard-earned lessons for me personally. Doing the above will help you save your sanity and preserve your profit. The sooner, the better!

By the way, Revka is one of two entrepreneurs I know who have an e-mail auto reply that advises clients/potential customers regarding office hours. In addition to running her at-home business, she's the mother of four children, three of which she currently homeschools! Her auto reply indicates that her office hours are from 2-4 and includes contact information for another individual if a client needs to reach someone during this time. This is an effective use of technology and one I use when I'm traveling so that my clients know why I'm not getting back with them right away. Although I leave my cell phone number "just in case" on my auto reply, I've never had a client use it.

Thanks, Revka, for letting me share your story. Now, friends, what's one change you've made to your business that has made a big difference? Leave a comment and let's get a discussion going!

Find Your Strongest Life

Whoops! I'm sure you noticed that the third part of my profile of Berries and Cream Founder Revka appeared ahead of the other posts. I apologize and take full responsibility for that.

I'll be sharing some advice from Revka in a future post but today I want to share information on a new book titled Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham. Marcus is a proponent of working from your strengths, not your weaknesses. And though we can't all do what we love all the time, he's made a compelling argument in this book that we can increase the contentment in our lives by doing what we love and are good at as much as possible. Here's an excerpt:

"The conventional image of a successful woman today is that she's a virtuoso juggler, somehow moving fast enough to keep all the many aspects of her busy life in the air at the same time. Conventional it may be, but it's also quite sad. The core skill of juggling is throwing, not catching. To keep every object in the air, you have to get rid of each one as quickly as possible, barely allowing it to register on your fingertips before you toss it up and away, preparing for the next object to throw.

A strong life is the opposite of juggling. Juggling requires you to keep everything at bay, up in the air, away from you. The secret to living a strong life lies in knowing how to draw a few things in toward you. It asks you to be discriminating, selective, intentional. You can find energizing moments in each aspect of your life, but to do so you must learn how to catch them, hold on to them, feel the pull of their weight, and allow yourself to follow where they lead."

Wow. The above is profound advice. Instead of juggling, I'm working to catch--and embrace--each aspect of my life. Julia Klein of C.H. Brigg Company advises: "Forget the idea of 'balancing' work and family. Think of 'integrating' instead, making everything and everyone an important part of a holistic life."

October has arrived and in my neck of the woods, this means a new season. Thanks to the above, a new season of my mothering life is dawning as well. I'm no longer willing to juggle. Instead, I'm focusing on integrating everything. We'll be looking at how in the days ahead.

Embracingly Yours,