Today we have Lisa Nelson joining us. Lisa runs eNutritionServices, a business that aims to help people take control of their health. Not only is she a work at home mom, she also offers a service that many of us could use!

1. What is your business?

eNutritionServices helps you make small changes that lead to long term weight loss, lower cholesterol levels, and high blood pressure control. Professional nutrition education and coaching provided by your own personal registered dietitian.

2. How did you get started?

This whole idea to start a business came in a roundabout way. I was not actively seeking to work, but I was toying with the idea. I left a great position with a state health department at a time that I wanted to stay home and care for my daughter. While being able to stay home with my daughter is a blessing, I found that I wasn’t satisfied and missed being part of the working world. I came across a site that provided nutrition advice via phone that got me thinking. I did not start with a big plan. I just wanted to keep my foot in the nutrition door and maintain my sanity while caring for a soon-to-be two year-old.!

My business evolved gradually. If I had thought about what I was trying to tackle at the beginning I would have been overwhelmed and afraid of failure. Taking on a little at a time was much less stressful and has worked well.

3. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

Hmmm. . . . .I cannot really say I made mistakes. My biggest learning curve has been marketing, something I knew very little about prior to starting this venture. My business has benefited as my marketing knowledge has improved. I have learned that the traditional routes (MD’s and health clubs) are not necessarily the best ways to market my services. I am turning more to publishing articles, participating in social networking services, search engine optimization, and launching my own ezine. Also, switching to core programs has allowed me to niche my services so potential clients can better understand what I can do for them.

4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)

This is my first business. I have been working from home since July 2007 – coming up on 1 year this summer!

5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

This is one juggling act that does not end. I am able to do a little work almost everyday. Usually a couple hours in the morning while my oldest daughter plays and a couple hours in the afternoon during naptime. I enjoy taking a break mid-day to play with the girls and get outside. I find this break actually benefits the work I do. My best ideas seem to pop up randomly when I am doing something else (then I am in a mad rush to get them wrote down before I forget)! I have found the days I do not make time for a break to be less productive. The girls need mommy time and I need downtime to get rejuvenated. I try to remember that the reason I choose not to work outside the home was so I would have more time with my family. Spending hours sitting at a computer was not the goal!

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

I have two little girls. Katelyn is 2 ½ years-old and Keira is 4 ½ months-old. If you can do the math I was about 6 months pregnant when I got the idea to start my own business. Maybe I should thank the pregnancy hormones for the crazy turn my life has taken!

7. When do you usually work?

I usually work on a laptop computer from my kitchen counter. I had to give up my half of my daughter’s room, which I previously used as an office, when baby number 2 came along. One of these days we will get around to moving to a larger home. . . . . .

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

Deciding what I do. If I do not want to work in a certain area I do not have to. For example, I am focusing on the areas I am especially interested in – weight loss and heart health. I am able to develop my own programs that I feel will benefit clients the most.

The worst is the juggling act – family versus work.

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

This May I launched an ezine – The Heart of Health. I will be using this as my main marketing tool from here on out. I will be sharing with readers a little about what is going on in my life, an article related to cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight loss, and program highlights. I am really excited about starting this ezine and the regular interaction with individuals that are looking for nutrition help. If you are interested in subscribing, go to http://eNutritionServices.com/ezine.html.

I also just released a new program – Lower Cholesterol Levels 2.0. I am very pleased with this program. It will take clients step-by-step through the changes necessary to lower their cholesterol levels. I almost have the updated blood pressure program ready for release this June.

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

Patience and Passion. Make sure what you are doing is something you believe in and will make you happy whether you make a substantial income or not, because most likely things will be pretty dismal on the income side for awhile! Be ready to learn more about marketing than you ever dreamed and remain patient that your hard work will pay off. Good luck!

It´s quite easy to get caught up in working, looking after and playing with kids and the daily hustle and bustle that keeps us so busy these days. But it´s important to remember that not everyone is so fortunate. Often, just a few minutes of your time can do wonders to lift the spirits of someone else who is dire need of it.

There are plenty of ways to do something for someone in need and you´ll find that you benefit from it as well. Taking a moment to pull off a selfless act is probably the best thing you can do to make your life that much more meaningful. And, it can be seriously motivational knowing that your life isn´t as bad as you thought!

• Write a letter to a sick kid. Make a Child Smile lets you send a postcard, note or small gift to a child who is struggling with a health issue. You can also write their siblings or parents. Let me tell you, reading the stories on this site will make you so grateful that your own family is healthy!

• Donate some toys. Many towns and cities hold toy drives to collect gifts that will be given to families on Christmas Day. You can also donate toys to your local battered women´s shelter or the fire department where they will be used to comfort children who are going through a tough time.

• Sponsor a child. There are literally dozens of programs available that let you sponsor a child in a foreign country. For just a few dollars a month, you can send a kid to school and make sure that he or she is properly nourished.

• Help a girl go to school. Girls worldwide have a far lower graduation rate than boys, but if you want to help a girl make it through, there is a very neat project in Africa that provides adolescent girls with cloth menstrual pads. Since many of these girls are too poor or simply have no access to hygiene products, they tend to miss school every month thanks to menstruation. This project lets you donate pads that could change their lives.

• Donate food. There are always food banks that could use some extra food. Pick up a can of beans or a bag of pasta next time you´re doing your shopping and stick it in a box to take to a food bank. It costs very little and once the box is full, donate it.

• Give some soap. Homeless shelters are the perfect place to do some good. Even donating a box of hotel size soaps is a big help, or buy some toothbrushes and travel size tubes of toothpaste for them to give out.

• Make a quilt. Got a bit of extra time in the evenings? Then why not chip in to make a quilt for someone who really needs it? Ugly Quilts makes blankets for homeless people. Love Quilts creates cross-stitch quilts for sick children, you just donate one square. Heavenly Angels in Need uses baby quilts to cover NICU isolettes.

• Help a mom. Donate formula, bottles, and baby toys to a women´s shelter or your local free clinic. These can be used to help moms who just don´t have the means to give their baby what they need.

There are plenty more options out there to help someone. It doesn´t need to take much time or energy and can make a huge difference in someone else´s life. We sometimes forget in between holidays that these people still need a helping hand.

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This week, we have Donna Hunnewell joining us as our Mompreneur. She runs a charity calledThe Wish Project, which helps moms like you and me with basic needs. This is the first charity that we´ve featured here on At Home Mom and I hope you are all inspired by this woman´s giving heart.

1. What is your business?

It is an Internet-based charity goods bank (similar to a regional food bank but we bring home and baby goods to more than 105 charities in the region for cost efficiency). Since all referrals, confirmations and weekly E-newsletters are done online, we are considered as an online-based charity. Members of our financial team live in four different towns so we rely heavily on the Internet to communicate.

2. How did you get started?

I left high tech when I got pregnant at 35 and finally had time for charity work. After a year of volunteering with many agencies (the time when my first child was born), I ended up on the City of Lowell’s Hunger/Homeless Commission which I am now chairperson of. I was a new mom when I started this and the only way I could run a charity was on the Internet so the online version of QuickBooks was great! I can do invoices at midnight and our book keeper and chief financial officer always have the latest updates on what I am doing without having lots of meetings.

A bird’s eye view of all the homeless shelters and pantries each month showed me a hole in the system that I could fix. We needed a big free warehouse where 500+ caseworkers could come to get home goods, furniture, baby gear, backpacks, toiletries, and diapers — everything their clients needed. By adding a new layer of support to the entire social service system, we help them work much more efficiently. Now they can all focus on helping clients instead of spending half of their time securing basic goods like cribs for babies.

3 . What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

I used a cell phone, got a minivan and jumped right in to help, with my babies in the back. I sold my own stuff on eBay to fund our first year. If I had just taken my business plan to some bankers, I might not have needed to chase funding so hard these three years. As a woman and mom, people saw me as a zealous mom and had no idea that the business would grow so big and so fast. We now help 23,000 clients annually in our third year and have a 13,000 sq ft warehouse with eight staff.

Originally, we started out using Excel for book keeping which only got us one year’s of entries in. The first time somebody sorted improperly, our records were garbled and we had to re-enter everything. That was when we moved to using QuickBooks Online.

4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)

All my adult life, I have worked from home one way or another. Firt, as a remote sales rep then later as a corporate trainer at medical and engineering companies. I did spend five years traveling and giving trainings. As a result, I am very familiar with doing expenses and budgets weekly remotely. That is why I love the QuickBooks Online software.

5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

My husband and I married late in life so we are both used to doing it all. We both really appreciate anything that the other has time to do. We both made serious career choices to be there for our kids. Our kids come first - jobs second (except for a few cases of really big speaking engagements or awards that I had to attend).

The fact that QuickBooks lets me work late at night on the grants, budgets and other financial information - when the kids are in bed suits me fine. And, with the financial software, we hold fewer meetings. Most of the time, we will settle a financial related question over a phone conference where we are all log in. That really helps when our board members and our volunteer staff hate meetings.

I am okay with the fact that I will not be the most organized mom. Last night, my son had a cub scout cake baking exercise. I got the award for most inappropriate cake because it was like a big Lego and had plastic toys on top (non edible). My son though that was fantastic! I have the time to have fun with my kids and they have my odd sense of humor.

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

I have two children. My girl is five years old and my boy is seven, and they are at kindergarten and 1st grade respectively. This is the first year that both are in school all day. I built a $300,000/year charity while changing diapers etc. over the last seven years.

7. When do you usually work?

Much of my time is spent on the computer at night. I work 80 hours a week but always rely on multi-tasking. My cell phone is my lifeline; caseworkers, clients and the chairman of the board are used to talking to me while I’m grocery shopping, driving, and handling doctor’s appointments (I draw the line at OB). I work frequently on the laptop while cooking and waiting for the kids to get off the bus.

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

The only downside is not having health insurance. That is a killer. We spend $20,000 a year out of our net pay to have health insurance. Other than that I love my life. The Internet has helped in making the business a reality. I would not have been able to start this charity if I can’t sell things on eBay, exchange emails with caseworkers at night and handle the financial work on the PC. With kids, you just can’t get much done on the phone.

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

We are working on a strategic plan using Business Plan Pro software. That plan is critical to us in order to launch a capital campaign to raise money to own our own building someday. The high rent for the 13,000 sq ft warehouse is a budget breaker. With any luck, we hope to download our financials from QuickBooks into that to get it done fast.

Charity founders have a lifecycle of about three years. By the fifth year, the board wants you to go away. So I am thinking that my next career may be in politics (behind the scenes) or I may start a new school system based on ‘ethics’ that will work better than our current public school system.

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

Work smarter, not harder at what you love. Find something only you can do really well. The pay and benefits may be awful but use this time to really love what you are doing with your life. Do not ever think that having a kid means you do not exist. Not at all! Throw in an art class, a writing class… build your spirituality; whatever will give you more balance in life. During the first weeks of being a new mom, when I felt like I had lost myself in diapers and really missed my expense account - I would do daddy maintenance. Just grab your purse and leave the kid with your husband or relative. Dads can learn to build their own confidence in parenting and everybody wins! I have seen too many moms investing everything into their kids with no sense of perspective.

With all the talk about virtual assistants lately, I figured it was only right to interview one. So, today we are joined by Frances Palaschuk, founder of Ultimate Biz Assistant. She has extremely affordable prices, and though her business is just getting off the ground, she is already facing the challenge of being a work at home mom with gusto!

1. What is your business?

My business is an eMarketing virtual assistant business. I support business owners with all of their eMarketing endeavors including blog setup, maintenance, and optimization, autoresponder management, eNewsletter management, Social Media Coordination and more.

2. How did you get started?

I resigned from my long time full time position and took almost a year to build the foundation of my business. I had been keeping up with the virtual industry for about 5 years so I already knew of the possiblities.

. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

Well, my business is in the early stages so at this time there are no mistakes to report.

4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)

This is my first business and it’s been only a few months officially but in the works for over a year now.
5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

This is a good question; my main 2 tricks are work around nap times, and send them to daycare 3 days a week! As for the chores, well I do make dinner everyday (I love cooking!) but the other stuff sometimes get pushed back. Or, my hubby takes over.

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

I am a 2 year old daughter and a 12 year old stepson.

7. When do you usually work?

I work mostly late at night, for a few hours in the afternoon, and 3 days a week normal business hours. Pretty much any time I can, I must say I love it!

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

The best part is being able to see my kids and be here all the time. There is not a worst for me!

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

I have set my sights high. I am motivated and ready to go! I have many things in the works including developing my business into a multiVA structure sometime this year. I hope to put other Moms who want to do this through the right training to be able to work with me and keep up their skills through ongoing training and support.

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

The key peice of advice is “If you ever feel that you made the wrong decision then you most likely did. Always go with your gut instinct and do what you feel is right”.

Check out Ultimate Biz Assistant if you are looking for a North American based VA.

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Today we have the chance to talk with Terah Logan, a work at home mom who runs Desert Pet Sitting. She´s a mom who is passionate about her business, something that definitely helps when it comes to success, as you´ll see from her interview! We were brought together thanks to Intuit.

1. What is your business?

Desert Pet Sitting - Reliable and Affordable In-Home Pet Care

2. How did you get started?

I was working a “dead end” job, my bosses were good people, but simply the job wasn’t going anywhere. I was the front desk person at a contractors office and with the housing market, business was very slow. I worked about 45 hours a week and barely made ends meet. My 9 yr old daughter spent early mornings AND after school in childcare, so I was missing her very much. So while all this was going on - in one week literally, three people asked me to care for their animals and homes while they were away, they offered me some cash to do it, and a great idea was born. I saw an opportunity - people needed help to care for their animals - and I ran with it. About a year later and a leap of faith, I quit my job and now am a full-time Pet Sitter in the Palm Springs, CA area. My business is growing and I will soon need to hire help and I am expanding into other Southern California cities.

3. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?

Not staying organized! I had no idea how unorganized I was until I started this business. Forgetting keys, or paperwork cost me time and money in the beginning and it did not take long for me to impliment organizational systems and stick to them. I have learned in my business not making a daily list, or utilizing a calendar program will only cause me to have a hectic stressful day, and probably cause me to lose profits and that really hits home. Ouch!

4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)

I had dabbled in MLM and Internet businesses, but this is the first business that is actually paying the bills without a day job. I have been full-time, self employed for a year now.

5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?

I hire help! Pure and simple. I am a single mom, my family lives quite far away, so help is not always easy to come by. It is not a luxury at all for me to do this - it is worked into my tight budget, but I see it as a way to free me up to focus on the priorities I have right now; which are growing my business and connecting with my daughter. Cleaning or small administrative tasks are not always a ‘priority’, but they certainly need to get done. I have help that comes to my home once or twice a week that assists with cleaning, laundry, as well as stuffing envelopes or running errands to the post office, even dropping flyers off to the doggie parks! She also helps my daughter with projects or homework when she can. It’s money well spent.

6. How many children do you have? How old are they?

One daughter - 9yrs old.

7. When do you usually work?

Due to the nature of my business my schedule is very flexible but generally I take care of pets and homes mornings and evenings and do admin work through out the day. Some weeks I can work 7 days all day long caring for pets, but it never feels like ‘work’.

8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?

The best part is the freedom to manage my schedule as I need to. No more childcare, rarely a schedule conflict that I can’t work out, and the self-esteem of working a dream into reality is awesome! I have always wanted to work for myself but just did not know what to do. I am so glad I recognized a need and ran with it.

The worse part is - and this took me some serious thought because it was a hard question - I probably won’t be able to take a vacation until next summer because I am really working this business right now and I am a one person operation for the most part so I get tired, but considering I live in beautiful Rancho Mirage (very close to Palm Springs, CA), and I love what I do, I think I will manage.

9. What are your plans for the future of your business?

I plan on hiring other pet sitters as sub-contractors and earn income from that source. I plan on franchising to other Southern California cities (already in the works!). I am also starting to distribute a line of holistic dog and cat food and wish to grow that income source as it will create a nice residual income.

10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?

Stay organized and focused. Create daily ‘to do’ lists and utilize a calendar program that gives you reminders. Never rush out the door without double checking you have everything! I know it sounds obvious but it’s two seconds that can save time and money. Get help when you need it and learn to say no because it’s life’s little redundant (yet important) things that will drag you down if you don’t have help. Make sure family and friends understand that just because you are home, does not mean you are not at your job working! They don’t know if you don’t tell them!

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