The shift to working from home, sometimes called telecommuting, is causing a big stir in the corporate world and allowing many workers more flexibility in their lives. It is providing moms a chance to further their careers, contribute to their family’s income and do something they love while staying home with their children. With all of the great things about being a work at home mom, it takes a lot of hard work to make it a success. Some moms find it difficult to strike a harmonious balance between working at home and maintaining family time. However, it can be done and many moms are successfully blending their work and family lives together. Here are a few tips to help you ensure that you are a successful work at home mom.

When working with children at home, interruptions are bound to happen. Try to set up a schedule and plan out your day every day. Post it where everyone in the family can see it. Since this sets up a routine for your day, something that children thrive on, it helps you stay more organized and focused rather than running around not knowing what to do next. Block out not only the time you need to work, but also any time that involves your children – activities they are involved in, the time they are in school, even when they wake up, take naps, and go to bed. It can also be helpful to block out meals, snacks, breaks and, more importantly, time for yourself.

Making a to-do list also helps keep the day structured and organized. Include not only the tasks you need to do for work, but also include tasks for your children and spouse. This lets them see exactly what they can do to help you out around the house while you are working. Make sure to cross off each task as it gets done. Also, set up a rewards system for your children to give them motivation to do the tasks and praise for a job well done.

Create space in the house that is just for you to work. Set it up as you would any other office – include your computer, a phone, fax and any other equipment and supplies you may need during the day. Some moms have “work stations” set up around the house to allow them flexibility to be with their families while they work. For example, I have my office set up, but I also have a spot in the family room where I can take my laptop to check email or complete a quick task while my daughter plays. That way, you can keep an eye on your children and still be with them wherever they are.

Have special areas in your office for your children to play while you work. For older children, have special toys or activities that are kept only in your office. That way, they will be more inclined to play with them and stay busy while you are working. For infants, having a swing or bouncy seat with a mobile and toys can keep them occupied and provide them with a place to nap during the day.

While most of the focus of working at home is with your children, don’t neglect your spouse. Make sure not to take your spouse’s help for granted – don’t immediately ask your spouse to watch the kids as soon as they walk in the door. Set aside time to be a family and time to be a couple. You’ll find that your spouse will continue to support you and your business even more and be willing to help out as much as possible to ensure that your business is a success.

Above all, when working from home, never be afraid to ask for help. So many of us moms want to be supermoms and do it all, but knowing your limits and asking for help is the true sign of a supermom. Help can come in the form of a housekeeper taking care of keeping the house clean, finding a sitter to watch the kids so you can focus on work or even hiring your own assistant to help take care of any work overload. Whatever the solution is for you, know that it will help keep a good balance between your work and family lives.

Working from home is truly the best job in the world and one that, although it takes a lot of hard work, you can be successful in. Many companies are taking a hard look at telecommuting to cut down on costs and increase productivity. If you are interested in working from home, I recommend talking to your employer to see what your options are. If telecommuting for your current job is not an option, but you still would like to stay home with your children, there are hundreds of businesses that you can start and run from home. I suggest coming up with a few things that you enjoy doing to see if a business can be built from one of them, or even seeing if you can perform your current job as a freelancer. Whatever your choice, choosing to work from home is a rewarding opportunity that you will not regret.

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Then life happened.

Whether it was a spouse’s job change, family crisis, health concerns – whatever the case, you need to head back out into the corporate world to find a job. You try to avoid it at all costs by pushing yourself to get more and more clients, but it’s not happening fast enough. Luckily, you are able to find employment but want to make sure it’s as temporary as possible to get back to your business full-time. But how do you keep going with your business when you’re working 40 hours or more a week for someone else and taking care of a family?

It’s doable – very doable in fact. But you need to be prepared for some seriously hard work and long hours.

The first thing you absolutely need to make sure you do is take care of yourself. Yes, you are going to be putting in some very long days and most likely working quite a bit on weekends as well. However, you need to make sure you are still getting some sleep each night and making time for your family. Be aware of how you are feeling each day and take some time for yourself when you begin to feel stressed and overwhelmed. It’s okay to take a day off for yourself now and then to rest and re-energize – it will help keep you healthy and motivated. It’s not easy to work long hours to set up a business when you are sick and not feeling well!

Set up a schedule and daily to-do list for yourself. Include not only the hours you work at your job, but also the times you are going to work on your business and even write in time to spend with family and relaxing. Many VAs’ schedules revolve around their families, which means they work during children’s naps, after everyone is in bed and before everyone else gets up in the morning. Getting yourself organized each day, right down to scheduling what item on your to-do list is completed when, will ensure you are much more productive while you are working on your business.

Also, make sure that you do not quit your job before you are truly ready. Make sure that you have a good-sized safety net in place for just in case (many recommend at least three months’ worth of your current salary) and wait until you have a few definite clients in place to take the leap. After all, you are going back to work because you need the income; you don’t want to find yourself in this situation all over again after another few months. Making sure all your ducks are in a row before you quit will ensure that you do not find yourself struggling and needing to find a new job yet again in the near future.

Most importantly, do not be hard on yourself. You have not failed as a business owner, as it can be sometimes easy to think. It is simply a temporary setback in plans, and it has happened to many VAs and other business owners. There is absolutely nothing wrong with needing to find employment while you are working on your business. Things come up in life that are unavoidable and not finding a way to support your family would be worse than getting a job. The important thing is to make the most out of the opportunities you are given and learn from this experience. You will not only come out stronger, but you will appreciate your future business success that much more.

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Blog readers want to be able to type in the address bar of their browser a name that is easy to remember and will get them where they want to go. They don’t want to have to search for your site in order to find your niche blog. As a matter of fact, if they do a search and you’re not at the top of the search engine rankings, they will probably find another blog in your niche. The best way to avoid that is to choose a domain name that is right for your niche blog.

The domain name needs to have the following factors:

• Easy to remember
• Easy to type
• Should be dot com as opposed to dot net or dot org
• Needs to contain the main keyword of your niche
• Do not use hyphens, underscores or any other symbols that aren’t easy to remember.

With these factors in mind, start thinking of what you’d search for if you were looking for your site. Come up with 10 different possible domain names. If you come up with some that are long, look for catchy ways to shorten them. Use an acronym that’s easy to remember if needed.

After coming up with a handful of possible names, run them through a domain checker to see which ones are available. If any are, go ahead and purchase them through a domain registrar so they don’t get bought by someone else. Also, if the dot org, dot net or dot info is available with the same keyword name, purchase them as well, so others can’t. This helps prevent sending someone to another site accidentally.

As mentioned somewhat in the opening paragraph, the domain name and the title of your niche blog can be the same, and as good practice should be. It’s the easiest way for your readers to remember your blog. Not only will they remember the title of your blog, but they will then also remember the domain name easier, sending them right to your blog.

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