Do you want to be a work at home mom? Do you long to take your job and shove it? Would you like to be your own boss and have a flexible schedule?
If so, I can completely relate.
Two years ago, I was on maternity leave for my third child (born just 17.5 months after my second child), and I was desperate to figure out how to become a stay at home mom. My husband was in graduate school and had been for quite some time. We both felt as if he would never finish his Ph.D. (though he finally did in December, 2012).
I had a blog, though it definitely wasn’t making any money (and still doesn’t make much :)). I belonged to a group of financial bloggers, and one day, one of them posted on the forums that he was looking for someone to do a small task for him every week. I responded and began working for him. Two years later, we are still working together.
Likewise, I went on the discussion board and asked if anyone would recommend working for a job site like Elance or oDesk. Another blogger said he had never worked for those sites, but he was looking for a freelance writer. Perhaps I would like to write for him instead? Yes, thank you!
Looking back, I feel so lucky about the way those jobs just sort of fell in my lap. I attribute it all to the connections I made through the blogger group.
From those two jobs, I gained more and more jobs. I didn’t have to advertise. People who saw me blogging for various bloggers would contact me to see if I would also write for them. My virtual assistant tasks also grew, to the point last year that I had to let some clients go because I didn’t have time to do all of my work and spend time with my kids.
Now, I am trying to grow my business further in preparation for my kids going to preschool. I’ll have more time then, and we need to ramp up our income to pay off our debts.
To grow my business, I have been contacting companies, soliciting my services. I have been turned down by several, which is to be expected, but I also secured another freelance writing job this way.
While my experience is unique, I want to help you if you want to be a work at home mom, too.
It can be a wonderful experience to do what you love AND have flexibility in your schedule and time to spend with your kids.
Please let me know what topics you would like me to tackle. What questions do you have about being a work at home mom? What concerns do you have? Let me know in the comments or e-mail me privately, and I will work your questions into the series.
Photo credit: edenpictures via Flickr Creative Commons
I shared this post at Gratituesday.
I’d love to be able to find those companies that could use my services. I’m too shy to start my own blog, but I feel like I have some info to offer….
What types of services would you offer?
How well do you have to write to do these jobs? Is this something you trained for? Thanks
I don’t have a journalism background, but I did major in English and also taught English for 10 years at the community college level.
I have a master’s degree in exercise physiology. When employed FT and PT in the past (I’ve moved a bunch of times) I’ve written articles for newsletters, written and presented lectures, researched exercise equip, written staff training manuals… Just not sure where to turn at this point. Thanks for any suggestions.
I too would be interested in virtual assisting among other things but I cannot seem to get a position even with my strong background. And I also teach highschool writing and research papers for homeschoolers. How do I get started?
Stay tuned for upcoming posts!
Out of interested how much content where you producing each day?
It varies by day, but I would say 3 to 10 posts a day.
I would LOVE to be able to work at home but I can’t see it ever happening, at least for a long time. I never thought I would want to especially going to university for so long to get my career but now that I`m nearing the end of my maternity leave I’m having serious anxiety about having someone else essentially raise my daughter. When I do work, between working and commute I’m away from home for 11 hours 🙁 I genuinely enjoy my job but in a perfect world I’d love to only have to work away from home like 2 days a week. A girl can dream!
I felt exactly the way you do. I had to work when my son was little, so we decided to do it differently with our younger two.
I would love to work at home! I home school; I’m home a lot. I have a medical back ground and love the medical field. I am very nervous about how/where to find work at home jobs. Which are for real? I don’t even know where to start!