A Work-at-Home Mom

People often ask me how do I manage to be successful at work and mother of two beautiful daughters at the same time. They find it very difficult to believe that I work at home where I also care about my girls all day long. I agree that it might sound impossible to be successful as professional and as a mother at the same time, but, I must say, when there is a good will and real commitment everything is possible.

What else can I say? I have chosen to work at home because it was always something I was dreaming about. When I became a mother of two beautiful girls it was practical, but also very difficult not to have a working office and to work in my private room next to my daughters. I’ve been thinking of employing a babysitter, but then I thought how difficult it would be for her to stop my kids from entering into my room. So I decided to take everything on my back.

Of course, everything is much easier for me because I do not have a specific time when I have to be working. I can always choose whether I am going to work for two hours early in the morning while my kids are still sleeping, then three hours after lunch after putting them in bed again and in the evening when my husband is back home.

The other problem is how do I find clients if I do not have a permanent employer?

Well, my presence on the internet helps me a lot. There are many sites where I can find out if employers are looking for someone with skills that I have and I always apply if I think that I can do a good job. Also, if I did a great job the first time there is a big chance that the employer will call me again or recommend me to his colleagues. It is always very important to give your best, even if the price is not very motivating.

But, a work-at-home mom often needs to be sure that she has done everything she could to optimize her business. I use every chance to recommend myself to everyone and I always encourage my friends to speak about me and what I do.

Recently, I search online and came up with an idea to print my skills, information about myself and what I am able to do on the items people often use and to hand them to everyone I meet. So I decided to order a lot of promotional products such as pencils, USB drives, stress balls, T-shirts, caps, promotional toys and things like that.

Then, I chose carefully which material I was going to give to some friends and people I know. For example, I gave promotional mugs to people who like to drink beer, and I gave promotional toys, stress balls or baby T-shirts with my name, my profession and contact information on it to people with kids.

In the beginning, I had not known if it was going to do any good for my job. After a while I had a phone call and a man asked me if I could do the job for him. He said that he saw a mug at his friends place and asked him about me. He confirmed what I hoped for, a personal recommendation is a much stronger recommendation than a search on the internet is. He said that he had never noticed what is written on that mug before the moment he started to think about a job he needed to be done. And that’s how he stumbled upon me and our talk in the park a few months ago.

The other day I received an e-mail from a woman, whom I had met a week before. While I was speaking with her, our daughters were playing in the park. I gave her daughter a little stress ball with information about me and she took it home. The woman said that she was surprised when she saw what I am doing and how strange it is that we had not been talking about my job then, because we are in the same business. We arranged a meeting, and now she is my permanent employer.

I am sure that there are many ways to find clients even if you are working at home with two kids around you. If there is a will – there is a way. This is just a little tidbit of advice that helped me lad a few jobs, and the price I paid was well worth it. Try it out and let me know how it goes for you in the comments!