Learn 5 great tips for long term success running your own business as a Work at Home Mom (WAHM). While building a successful business requires some of your precious time upfront, the rewards are well worth it.
Work at Home Moms (WAHMs) have to spend their time wisely in order to succeed – after all, they are working two jobs! While building long term success requires some of that precious time upfront and an ongoing commitment to your business, the rewards are well worth it.
5 Tips for Long Term Success:
1) Create a business plan. In order to achieve your dreams and goals, you must first write them down. If you don’t know what you’re working towards, how can you measure your progress? On average, approximately 67% of people have specific goals. Of these 67%, approximately 10% actually have those goals written down as a business plan. Surprisingly, only 2-3% of them go on to achieve their goals.
What did the 2-3% do differently? Their written plans were more than a simple statement of their end goal. You must go beyond that and break it out into the steps required to achieve your goals, including deadlines and benchmarks. Once you determine what steps need to be taken, you also need to decide which tasks you can do yourself and which ones are better suited for outsourcing to a virtual assistant or some other resource. You can’t do it all yourself.
2) Organize your workday. Work in blocks of time rather than jumping from one thing to another throughout the day. Multi-tasking has its virtues, but your entire workday shouldn’t be a juggling act. Too much of a good thing can actually decrease your productivity due to errors and back-tracking.
How do you decide how to structure your day? Keep a journal of your daily work activities for at least one week. At the end of the week, sit down and review your notes to see which activities can be grouped into categories (e.g., writing blog articles, answering emails, social networking, etc.). If you work with multiple clients, you can group the work you do for each of them into a block of time as well.
3) Find your target market. There are literally thousands of marketing programs floating around online for entrepreneurs… it can be overwhelming. Before you spend your hard earned dollars on the “latest and greatest” marketing plan on the web, do some good old-fashioned research.
Think about your target market – write it down. Who are you selling your products or services to (include age range, geographic area, etc.)? How does it help them solve their problems? Do they belong to certain groups or forums online? How do they find out about your product or services? Who else is offering a similar product or service? What makes your product or service unique?
4) Build trust and credibility. Easier said than done, right? The best way to accomplish this is by becoming an expert in your field. Learn new skills, read articles, attend teleseminars and workshops. Once you are confident in your own knowledge and skills, it’s easier to convey that confidence to others. Write helpful articles, design your own teleseminars and workshops to educate people and share your insights. Create and give away some free ebooks that have real value. Communicate regularly with your customers through a blog or newsletter. All of these things build trust through familiarity and by providing useful information to the people who need it.
5) Be patient. Making a quick buck is always nice, but it shouldn’t take the place of your long term strategy. If you try to “trick” people into buying second rate products or services just to rake in a few dollars, it will come back to haunt you. It’s much better to slowly build up your customer base with people who like and trust you – they will reward your efforts by being repeat customers who refer all their friends and family to you. Being a successful WAHM takes time, hard work, and persistence (Rome wasn’t built in a day!), but the long term benefits are worth the “blood, sweat, and tears!”
