4 Main Reasons Why WAHM Business is on the Rise
Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 5 Comments
There is a growing trend of moms quitting their 9 to 5 job and heading back home to start a new venture, WAHM business. The success of mompreneurship and the advance of technology and internet contributed to more work at home resources online. These successful mompreneurs inspire newbie moms who want to set up a home based company.
The reasons why WAHM Business is on the rise are:
- Today’s Moms have Entrepreneur Mindset. Moms who used to work for high paying jobs say “NO” to simple and low pay work at home jobs such as data entry. Stay at home moms no longer want to work part-time for basic pay. What they want is to take ownership of the job and set up an enterprise.
- Today’s Resources for Work at Home Focus on Online Business Opportunities. The successful mompreneurs share their expertise and provide guides on how to start a home based company. More and more online home business ideas are explored and created. Service-based business, freelance writing and blogging are examples of online WAHM business. Online home based company is low risk and easy to start with the low cost investment.
- The Advance of Technology and Internet. Mompreneurs use technology and internet to provide work at home learning resources for moms in the forms of e-books, audios and video tutorials, podcast or database library. The easy access of learning materials via the internet and the low cost of learning encourage moms to learn and venture into setting up a small company.
- The Growth of Business Outsourcing. Large companies no longer hire permanent staffs hence they outsource service related activities to small business owners. WAHM business is growing due to the demand of business outsourcing. Moms who own a small home based company offer their expertise based on job contract. Virtual Assistance, bookkeeping, proof-reading, transcription, copywriting are examples of service based business which can complement to the need of large companies.
WAHM business is still a business although it is run from home. Moms basically need to learn about time management and setting goals. Time management is important; moms need to schedule their work efficiently in order to complete the task for their clients in time. Running a company from home is not easy; moms need to set goals as a direction. Overcoming challenges and finding ways to improve your business are ongoing process in goal setting.
Overall, a home based company can be rewarding if one strives to make it work. Moms will find fulfillment in career and personal development while staying at home to attend their family.
Viviana W promotes work at home resources from her blog, http://resourcesformomsandkids.com.
Author: Viviana Widjaja
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Are You a Mostly-Sane WAHM, Too?
Posted on | June 13, 2010 | 4 Comments
I have a confession.
I’m a mostly-sane WAHM. I’m far from the ‘got it together’ work at home mom that I’d like to be.
I believe that there are a lot of women out there like me – clutching onto your sanity while juggling family, daily work requirements, basketball practice, ballet recitals, PTA meetings, and the many other responsibilities we carry on our shoulders.
If you’ve been a WAHM for more than a minute, you know the predicament we face. We chose to work from home so we could spend more time with our children. This is great in theory. What happens, though is that we end up with no scheduled and defined work time, so it becomes a struggle to find time to spend with our kids. When you hear other people say “It must be so nice to work from home so you can spend time with your kids all day”, you roll on the floor laughing. If only it were so simple! Finding the balance between work and home can be a constant struggle especially when work IS home.
I remember the days when I worked out of the home in an office job. I had two separate and distinct compartments in my life. There was the office, where I could work in peace and quiet, focus on projects and be productive. And, then there was home, where I was able to focus on my children and have fun. I had scheduled working hours, and also distinct family time.
Now, I have the ‘hom-ffice’, an odd melding of home and office. The line between the two compartments is unclear. My office is now an extension of home. And, home is becoming an extension of my office.
Because of this dilemma, I find that I’ve got the focus of a gnat. Here’s how my work day goes.
I wake up, grab a cup of coffee, and sit in front of the computer to check my email. Fifty new messages. No problem. I get ready to tackle the first one.
“Dear Nicole, I was wondering if you might be interested in” …
“juice in a sippy cup, pretty please my pretty mommy?”
Whoa!! Ok, brain switch! I turn and look at my little girl who just crawled out of bed. She is a perfect picture of childhood, with her big brown eyes, sweaty wildly curly hair and big grin. I hug this rosy-cheeked angel and go to the kitchen to get juice. Then, I sit back down and attempt to read my email
“Dear Nicole, I was wondering if you might be interested in my new affiliate program selling” …
“the new Lego robot I built!”
Brain switch again. I swivel my office chair and see my son, his blue eyes twinkling, and his face beaming proudly, holding up his Lego creation. I ‘ooh’ and ‘ahhh’ over the new Lego invention — a robot that can climb walls. I rub his blonde head and tell him how wildly creative he is. He grins and goes back to Lego-building.
I swivel back to work, and try to get as much done as I can between the many interruptions, karate practice, dinner and bedtime stories. Oftentimes, late at night, you can find me working, while watching late night TV shows. My husband comes in to check on me. I swivel my chair to get my good-night kiss and I tell him that I just want to wrap up a few last projects. I stagger to bed late at night only to start again, before the kids wake up in the morning.
Are you seeing the pattern? Is there any wonder that I’m mostly-sane? Look at your own days and I’ll bet they are very similar to mine.
Despite the frazzled hours and days, and all the distractions, I love being a WAHM. The honest truth is that I wouldn’t trade my job for any corporate job in America.
However, as I meet more and more work at home moms, it’s becoming apparent that I’m not alone in my struggles. Other moms are setting expectations that are just not matching reality. What can we do about it?
1. Reclaim your office:
If you have one room that you can dedicate to your work, stake your claim on it. Clear out all toys and non-work items. Make your “hom-ffice” a real office. No more messing around with half a commitment to your business. Your office is your turf. Protect it.
2. Buy a timer:
If your children are old enough to understand the concept of time, invest in a timer. It’s a life saver. The next time you need uninterrupted working time, tell the kids that you’re setting the timer for 20 minutes. If they give you 20 minutes of uninterrupted work time, then reward them with quality time with you. Play a board game together or go to the park.
Set goals this month to reclaim your work area and your time, and you will take a step closer to being a happy, relaxed, and successful WAHM!
Nicole Dean is a mostly-sane WAHM, and proud owner of http://www.ShowMomTheMoney.com a fun and informative site to help moms find success working from home & http://www.ShowKidstheFun.com a site full of activities for kids!
Author: Nicole Dean
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Hybrid and Electric Cars
Forget Employee Engagement Initiatives; Hire the Right Mix of Employee Personality Types
Posted on | March 8, 2010 | 5 Comments
Now, I know that most that read this blog are work at home moms and are not thinking of employee engagement initiatives and employee personality types. However, some of you may have advanced your company to the point where you need outside local help. If you have hired employees or are planning to in the future, this article is a good read for you.
After talking with a friend and fellow business owner, I noticed some things about his employees compared to the employees I had for one of my businesses. I also noticed the difference between our companies.
My company was innovative and always ahead of the competition, creating new trends instead of waiting for them to come knocking on my door. His company is behind, way behind, and now he wants to play catch up by implementing employee engagement initiatives. The difference in the employee personality types we hired, including the difference in our own attitudes affected the company’s advancement.
The difference between us, the company owners, was that I wanted to be ahead of the game and continued looking and thinking of new ways to do things that were different from anyone else. Problem was that as soon as I did something new, everyone else copied and did it too. Nevertheless, this was okay, because it made our industry better and I can be proud that I had a hand in that. It also forced me to keep finding new things and ideas so that I would continue to stay different.
In the other company, he wanted to stay small. He didn’t want to be innovative or grow too big. He intentionally made this choice. Moreover, his site design is about 6 years old. This tells me that during this time, he didn’t do anything to keep up. I am assuming here that he felt if he kept doing what he was doing, nothing would change.
Now, he is a very smart man. At the time, 6 years ago, he was ahead of the game. However, he failed to take into account that new companies would arrive that would challenge the status quo as he did back then. He failed to take into account that technology could change so fast as it had the last 5 years. But really, who woulda thunk there would be 10’s of new social media sites within a year, when for so long there was only MySpace. He also had no one trying to copy him or force him to innovate.
The difference between our companies was like the American carmakers and the Japanese carmakers.
American carmakers were comfortable where they were. Nothing forced them to change. They had a large enough loyal following – “buy American” citizens would say, and if they landed into trouble the government would bail them out, which has happened a couple times already in America’s history.
Japanese carmakers didn’t have that comfort. They needed to stay innovative if they wanted to be competitive and gain market share. American carmakers had the technology long ago to make electric cars and buried the technology. Japanese carmakers used the technology to give the customers a solution to their problem of uncontrollable gas prices. Now the American carmakers are playing catch up!
What does this have to do with employee engagement initiatives? Everything!
No matter what employee engagement initiatives we try, our attitudes, innovative versus too comfortable to change, already molded our hiring process and the employee personality type we chose. I hired employees who wanted to make a change and bring new ideas into the business. He hired employees who would be consistent and not have aspirations that would lead to them leaving the company.
He had to use employee engagement initiatives to encourage his employees. I also wanted to have a low attrition rate or high retention rate in my company but that was not my priority when hiring.
Daily, I would encourage my employees to think of new products and services we can do for the customers, as well as improve what we already have going.
Weekly, he discussed with his employees how to keep doing what they are doing.
Two things he had said was, “we will never get any more customers than we are currently getting, no matter what we do”, and “we can never brand our company”. I know what you are thinking, “how can he be saying these things, having a friend like you.” I know, I know. I will work with him on those issues, but now is not the time. When people have such strong convictions, you have to tread carefully and slowly.
Another behavior that has molded our employees was, when someone approached me with a new idea, I would encourage that person to work on that as an assignment. When someone approached him with an idea, he would say, “not now.”
After a long time of working with an employee the way we did, my employees will eventually run out of ideas and then leave to find a new company where they will be refreshed. His employees will get comfortable and fight change, staying where they are because they are now afraid of anything different or unknown.
What effect does our attitudes and the employee personality types have on the company’s advancement? There are pros and cons in both situations.
The pros of working with innovative CEO and employees are that they will stay ahead of the competition and there is no need for employee engagement initiatives. The cons are that the company will be unstable because there will be a high turn around of employees and lots of time will be wasted on hiring and training. You may be thinking, “what about focus.” With the right CEO, she will keep the team focused on the company goals, while still keeping innovative.
The pros of working with a comfortable CEO and employees are that the company will be more stable and the CEO will have employees he can depend upon to help run the company. The cons are that the employees will fight change that will be needed to keep the company afloat and ahead of the competition and a wasted effort will be placed on employee engagement initiatives.
Lessons Learned
Your attitude can be either innovative or comfortable for a successful company. However, either way, you must still keep ahead of the competition because times keep changing. If you sit back and do nothing, thinking things will always stay the same, you are wrong. Like the American carmakers, the competition will leave you in the dust.
Having both employee personality types in your company is important for a solid company that still grows. Use those employees that are afraid of change as the managers and the employees who handle menial tasks, while having those who are innovative work with the development of the company’s technologies, products, services, and marketing. Don’t waste your time on employee engagement initiatives to change your employees.
Find innovative employees that are:
- Fresh out of college
- Have a history of not being at a company for long but have made a difference while there
- Are creative types with lots of hobbies
- Have had many businesses of their own
- Their resumes will be formatted differently than the typical resume and their cover letter will contain enthusiasm
Find employees that are “afraid of change” that:
- Have a history of staying a long time at one company
- demonstrate dependability at other companies
- moved up the corporate ladder but haven’t made a big impact on the company
- took a long time to move up the corporate ladder
- Their resume will be formatted like everyone else’s and their cover letter will not stand out as different
Don’t try to change your employee’s personality type from comfortable to innovative, or vice versa. You can never change people; people change themselves. In addition, if you hire correctly, you will hire them for who they are, so why try to change them. Instead, take advantage of their personality traits with how it can work best for your company. This is why employee engagement initiatives are not necessary.
Don’t try to keep your innovative employees. Let them leave. This way you can replace them with fresh new employees with fresh new ideas, keeping your company fresh and new.
Remember, either type of company can have the same sad ending. The innovative company can fail due to the loss of dependable employees to run the company, and the comfortable company can fail due to the loss of market share. However, failing can be prevented if you take the best of each employee personality type and use them together to create a solid, steady growing company.
Now before I conclude this post, I need to say that if you are the one afraid of change, you must read Who Moved My Cheese?
Goodness, now that I think about it, it took over 9 years to write this article – that is 9 years of running my own business and working with other businesses to discover this thesis and solution. I wish I had found an article like this years ago. It would have saved me tons of money and helped my business grow steadier and more solid. Perhaps, it can also help my friend not waste time on employee engagement initiatives
and concentrate more on employee personality types.
Tags: employee engagement initiatives > employee personality types
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