Running your own business is a lot harder than it sounds. For one thing, you have no real boss except yourself. There´s no one to push you to work harder or threaten to fire you (except clients, but it isn´t exactly the same) and that can really be difficult for some people.

Being your own boss isn´t easy. It requires a lot of motivation and drive, something that can really be lacking after you´ve been up for several nights with a baby or sick child! Being the boss means forcing yourself to ignore the fact that your husband is watching your favorite movie just feet away, and working on that last order anyway. Are you strong enough to resist the temptation?

Self-Evaluation:

Can you . . .

Continue to work with kids fighting in the background?

Say no to dinner with your best friend because you need to get an order out?

Field insults from an angry client . . . even if it wasn´t your fault they are unhappy?

Type while rocking the baby in his bouncy seat?

As a work at home mom, you will be your own boss in many cases, BUT that doesn´t mean it´s all hard work and stress. You will also have the advantage of taking time off when business is slow. You´ll be able to spend time with your kids throughout the day and enjoy watching them grow and hit all their milestones . . . because you´ll be there.

There are good and bad things about being your own boss, but if the bad outweighs the good for you, you might want to look at other options. Can you find a job where you have a boss that you need to check in with several times a day to keep you on track? This is an area that needs to be carefully thought out before you leap into starting up your own home business.

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Even if you aren´t super famous yet, you probably receive a fair amount of email each day. Whether you use separate email addresses for personal and business, or combine them, chances are you waste a good chunk of time each day sorting through your email, not being productive.

Email filters can be your best friend in this case. Your spam filter will get rid of a lot of junk for you, but something always makes it through. If you notice an overabundance of “Get rid of wrinkles NOW” or other similar ads making their way into your inbox, you can set up a filter to automatically delete them.

Divide your other emails into categories . . . different areas of your business, personal, family, etc. and then create email filters and folders for each of these. Now, I use mostly Gmail, so I´m not very experienced in how other email programs work for setting up their filters, but it should be relatively simple. Find the “Filters” button and click on it, then set up a “New Filter”. This should give you a few options.

Most email filters can be set up to catch emails from certain people or addresses, that contain certain words in the body or that contain certain words in the subject line. If you get a lot of emails from one person or association, like PayPal, then you may want to set up a folder specifically for that and then tell your email program to send all emails from that person into the right folder. You can also specify whether or not the email stays in the inbox. I personally prefer to delete them from the inbox and just move the emails over into the folders . . . it keeps everything nice and neat.

Set up as many email filters as needed. You can access your folders easily and will be able to process your email far faster!

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Being a work at home mom can be pretty stressful. You´re balancing kids, housework, and deadlines . . . but it is far worse if you don´t eat right. Chowing down on a chocolate bar might be something to give you a fast energy boost, it won´t help your waistline at all, and gaining weight is a good way to lower your energy levels. So, try one of these quick and easy snacks next time you need an energy boost . . . they´re healthy and the rush will last a lot longer than candy.

• Granola bar: Sweet and chewy, so you really feel like you´ve eaten something and all the grains offer a good carb boost.

• Toast with peanut butter: A complete protein to help you keep moving for longer.

• Bananas: Always a tasty and energy-boosting snack.

• Yogurt: Add some granola for a more complete snack that will fill you up and give you more energy.

• Nuts: A handful of nuts is a good source of protein and is a healthy way to create that energy boost.

Staying on top of everything isn´t possible every day, but at least you´ll feel more able to get things done when you eat properly. Snacking is often necessary, particularly around 10 am and 3 pm, times that our regular meal-time energy starts to wear off and we begin to droop.

One way to judge the results for yourself is to keep an energy journal. Just note what you eat and when you feel energetic and when you don´t. You´ll quickly see the correlation between snacking and staying alert and get a good idea of which foods last longer.

What do you snack on?

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Every Saturday, we´ll be taking a look at a step towards building your own home business. I know there are a lot of moms out there who would like to be work at home moms, but just aren´t sure how to go about it, so this From Work to Home series is designed to take you from developing a business idea to leaving your outside job. This is Part Five of the From Work to Home series. To see all articles, click here.

Why Create a Business Budget

Creating a business budget allows you to plan ahead. You need to know how much money to save up or ask for as a loan and then you can estimate how long it will take to reach this point. It´s also important to figure out how much your business will cost you to run on a monthly basis and estimate your sales. The first few months you probably won´t break even, but having a business budget will help you price your products or services so that you can aim to pay back your loan and start earning a real profit.

Having a proper business budget will help you stay on track when all you really want to do is spend your newly earned money on brand new equipment. It will remind you where you are going and should serve as a checkpoint each month where you can see how close to your monthly and end goals you really are.

How to Create a Business Budget

To do up a proper budget, you will need to spend some time thinking about everything your business will have to do. How are you going to start selling? If you will be selling products through Etsy or taking a sample around to stores to find one that will place an order, you only need one or two of each product to start off with. However, if you plan to start up at a craft fair or with your own shop out of the garage, you´ll need far more stock right off the bat.

Start Up Costs
Is there any special equipment that you´ll need? How much will it cost you? To save some money, you can look on Ebay or at second hand shops to see if you can source equipment a little cheaper. Don´t rule out things like a desk or worktable and any smaller tools that you might need, such as screwdrivers or paintbrushes. You will also want to figure out exactly how much you´ll need to buy enough materials to get your business off the ground. This is all included in the start up cost part of the budget.

Another thing to consider when budgeting for start up costs is any training, certifications or inspections that you´ll need. Some businesses, particularly those dealing with food and children , will require you to have special training or a home inspection before you can actually start up. This can cost anywhere from $10 to hundreds of dollars, depending on what you need to do. Investigate all the regulations related to your chosen business idea, before you get started on the budget.

Product
Decide now what products you will be making to get started. Figure out exactly how much each one will cost you, in materials and time. Don´t forget to put a price on your time. This can start out fairly low to begin with, but you should definitely not eliminate it. For materials that can be used for several items, like a block of wax, figure out how much you can make and then divide the cost by this number. For example, if you can make ten candles out of $25 of wax, each one is costing you $2.50 in wax alone.

For the profit side of things, you´ll want to check out the competitors and their prices. Then work out how much of a profit margin you can add to your products while still staying competitive. This is a process that might make you reconsider some of your products!

Not everyone will have products, you might be starting up a service-based business. In that case, you will need to decide how much your time is worth and study how much the market can pay. Don´t forget to add in any other costs, such as new furniture or equipment necessary. For example, if you are going to start up a medical transcription business, you will need to invest in a headset and foot pedals.

Other work at home moms will be doing projects or jobs on a per-job pay rate. For this sort of thing, you have quite a few options. You can charge by the hour (don´t forget to incorporate non-billable hours into the price), the project or parts of the project, such as page or word. Again, take a good look at the competition to get a feel for how to price your services.

Promotion
No matter what your business, you will need to do some basic promotion. This doesn´t have to be expensive, in fact, you can do a lot for free, like placing a business listing in a business directory. However, it´s a good idea to have some professional looking business cards and you may want to have flyers printed up as well. Other promotional costs can include taking out ads in the local paper or paying someone to leave flyers on car windshields.

Taxes
Talking to an accountant is a good idea when you are planning your business budget. Find out what exactly you can deduct and what tax bracket you will be in. This varies from place to place, so you will need to talk to someone who knows the tax laws where you live.

Doing your budget up on a program like Excel or OpenOffice Calc will allow you to change the numbers as needed and to use formulas to make everything easier. Having a business budget is like having a road map . . . you know where you are and where you need to be and the budget will help you get there safely.

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If you are a mom, you know how it is when your baby just decides that sleep is highly overrated for a night or two, or your toddler figures 3 am is a fine time to get up and play. As a work at home mom, you have a bit more flexibility than a mom who has to go in to work . . . but there are times when deadlines loom and you just spent two nights trying to calm a colicky infant and are dozing off at the computer. Here are five ways to stay awake long enough to get your work in on time after one or two of those nights:

1. Coffee. It´s a bad habit, but it works. And once in a while, you even need it. Anything with caffeine and sugar will help, so if Pepsi is your poison, go with it and deal with calories later.

2. Breakfast. Without fuel, your brain isn´t going to go any faster. Even a quick bowl of yogurt, cornflakes or a banana will help you wake up and stay more alert. It doesn´t have to be anything complicated.

3. Exercise. Yeah, I know, the last thing you want to do after sleeping only 2 broken hours in the past two days is go for a jog, but it does help you wake up. Take a quick jaunt around the block or even do some jumping jacks in the living room to get that blood pumping.

4. Shower. Turn the water temperature down a bit so you get cooler water . . . it´s bound to jolt you into consciousness! Not pleasant, but definitely a good last resort method.

5. Cold air. Turn on a fan and point it at your face while you work. A splash of water on the face can really help this one work better. Often having some chilly air will zap you back into the real world, at least, long enough to get some work done!

It´s not easy having to work while sleep deprived. And often it´s a tossup between taking a nap or working during the baby´s morning sleep . . . work is the winner too often. As moms, our first obligation is to our children and that can be hard to remember. Obviously, you need to meet deadlines, but if you have a bit of leeway, take it. Lay down and doze off for half an hour, you`ll be more refreshed later and able to work a bit more. Even with a toddler begging you to play cars.

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Are you a work at home mom running your own business? Add your biz for FREE to the At Home Mom Business Directory.