Motivational Monday Interview with Alice Seba
This week marks the last of our Motivational Monday interviews of 2007, and it´s a good one! I´m very impressed that Alice Seba was willing to do an interview for At Home Mom, being that she is extremely busy (we even communicated via her virtual assistant!) and very successful, offering an alternative to hardcore, sneaky internet marketing with her website, Internet Marketing Sweetie. She was kind enough to answer my questions and here are her answers to inspire you!
What is your business?
We provide a variety of services and courses to help people build profitable online business online business. At InternetMarketingSweetie.com we focus on educating people and show them how they can create online business that are financially and personally rewarding. We teach them everything from getting started, to building traffic, keeping that balance between life and work and more. As a service provider, we provide writing services, pre-written website content, website building tools and more.
How did you get started?
After the birth of my first baby, I started my hunt for something I could do from home. I began by working with a direct sales company, but found it didn’t fit well my need for freedom and to actually be able to do all my work from home. While working in direct sales, I turned to the Internet for ideas and support and came to know a great community of work at home moms who also wanted to run their businesses online. At the time, there were few moms in the community doing it full time. I decided to take it upon myself to figure out how to run a full-time online business and share those discoveries with other moms.
3. What mistakes did you make when you were starting out? What did you learn from them?
I’ve made so many, it’s hard to remember them all. But that is actually a good thing! I think the important thing is to get out there and do something and its okay if you make mistakes along the way – because they are LEARNING experiences.
In my time with working other work at home moms, one of the biggest mistakes they often make is not taking action. They think they know what they want to do, but aren’t sure if they have it figured out yet…so they do nothing in order to avoid failing. You won’t learn what works if you don’t try something. And the really nice thing about making mistakes with an online business is that they are often inexpensive and easy-to-fix. That is one of the pluses of working in cyberspace.
But back to the original question about my mistakes, I really do find it hard to answer. Of course, I’ve made plenty of silly blunders like deleting my home page, accidentally allowing spam to go to my mailing list (long story!), spending time on ridiculous traffic-building programs, putting too much work on my plate, trying to sell products that were total duds and the list goes on. The end result is a more focused me that has come to understand my limitations, what works and what doesn’t. If I hadn’t made those mistakes, I wouldn’t be where I am now.
4. How long have you been working from home? (was this your first business or have you had others where you worked from home?)
It will be 6 years in March 2008. As I mentioned, I did start out in direct sales and then quickly moved to trying to help myself and other moms start online businesses too. Although, I have owned a variety of different websites (and on a variety of different topics) since coming online, the main focus has been on providing information, selling products as an affiliate and developing my own informational products as well.
5. What are your tricks for balancing work, kids and household chores?
There are two very important keys: 1. Don’t expect too much from yourself and 2. Get help.
Although we moms are pretty amazing people and can get a whole lot more done than the average human being…we are not superhuman. There is only so much time in the day and you’ve got to sleep into there. When scheduling tasks, I always give myself more time than I need – because it always takes longer than I thought it might, there are always interruptions or something else comes up. I make sure my planning is flexible enough to allow for all those unexpected things.
And most importantly, I always ensure there is plenty of time for me and my family – and even some time for me on my own. Work and household chores can wait if needed.
One of the easiest ways to expect less of yourself is to get help. Whether it is childcare, help around the house or in your business – you need help. We have to get rid of the silly notion that “I can do it better myself”. Sure, you might be very good at a lot of things, but you can’t be good at everything all at one time…and when you’re trying to balance business, household, family and everything else, things to tend to pile up quickly.
Whether you are outsourcing some of your workload, hiring a housekeeper or using a trusted daycare service…start getting some help. If you’re on a budget, find other moms to partner with on projects and share the work. Get the kids and Dad involved in the chores. Alternate playdates with a friend and get stuff done while the kids are playing at your friend’s house.
It really is a myth that working at home is easier than working outside the home. When you work out of the home, your day is compartmentalized. Your kids don’t (usually) interrupt you at work and your clients (again, usually) don’t interrupt you while you’re changing a diaper. It’s all about finding the balance to get everything done, dealing with the interruptions and getting the help you need to fill in the blanks.
6. How many children do you have? How old are they?
I have two boys, aged 4 and 6.
7. When do you usually work?
It actually varies. I am a firm believer in scheduling (although in my pre-business and pre-baby life I despised scheduling), but I don’t think that as work at home moms, we can take canned advice that goes, “Set your work hours and stick with them.”
(And blush – I have probably given out that canned advice in the past, but I know better now!)
Not every day is the same. Sometimes I have more errands to run. Sometimes I have a yoga class. Sometimes I volunteer at my kids’ schools. Sometimes my kids are sick. You just never know what’s going to happen.
I take the time to carefully plan my whole day the night before. I figure out everything I need to do – business and personal – and then schedule in the most efficient way possible. Sometimes that means I work a couple hours in the morning and then a couple more after the kids go to bed. Sometimes that means I work a few hours mid-day and then take the rest of the day off. It really does vary based on what’s going on that particular day, but it is still very well planned.
8. What is the best part of being a mompreneur? And the worst?
The best part is the freedom. I love being able to create the schedule I want and I don’t have to fit in a block of 8 hours at the office and another hour for commuting.
The worst part can also be the freedom. You have to be disciplined, but you also need to be flexible. It’s not always easy to achieve, but it is possible.
9. What are your plans for the future of your business?
I plan to continue to do a lot of the same. There is plenty more to be done to help people create businesses that are financially and personally rewarding. There are a number of courses and programs in the works to help complete that picture for my clients.
10. What advice would you give new work at home moms?
I think the advice has already come up in this interview (you ask good questions!), but to sum up:
Take action and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
Set definite goals, but don’t expect too much of yourself in terms of the time you can dedicate to everything.
Get help. It is not mom’s job to do everything.
[...] a quick heads up, Alice Seba of Internet Marketing fame is extending her course giveaway. She`s got self-study courses on copywriting, press releases and a [...]