{WAH Wednesday} Schedule

This feature is going to talk about our adventures as Work at Home Parents.

I have been a Work-at-Home Mom for the last 5 years.  I started my own business in 2008.  Now, this was before I was a mom.  I had it down and things were going well.  Then I became a mom and I had to change the way I did things.  I rolled with the punches.  We added another child and more punches.

In August 2012, I closed the doors on our in-house business options.  I had been praying for God to either close the doors all together or turn it around so that it would bring in the money we needed it too.  I am still working from home, but more in the writing aspect of things.  In October, we went from one work at home parent to two.  Boy, how did things change!  It hasn’t been easy.  In November, I added a marketing consultant to my plate.  It’s outside sales and 100% commission, it is so flexible and that works for us.  2013 rolled around and we need some steadier income, so I picked up a part-time job along with everything else still on my plate.

If you are keeping track the plates are: Marketing Consultant, Writer/Blogger, Part-Time Sales Associate and Mama.  It's a full course meal!

The key to success with working at home is having a schedule.  We had a great schedule before we moved.  It needed minor adjusting, but it was working well.  Hubs and I had a system.  Now that we moved our schedule isn’t working as well, mainly because Little Mister is having behavior/eating/sleeping challenges.  As parents we need to step in and be stricter with our schedule and set better boundaries.  It also doesn't help that we are getting limited cell phone service - different animal.

Here is our basic schedule - we work in outside sales and this works well for us.

We try to get up by 7:30am and get done with getting ready and breakfast by 8:30.  This way Hubs can be out the door by 9am.  He goes out and does the outside sales part of his job from 9 to 12 ish.  While he is out I get some blogging/writing stuff done.  Since Little Mister is still a morning napper I set Little Miss up with a quiet activity and get some calls out during naptime.  We make Little Mister get up by 12 and we eat lunch.  Hubs does some emailing work and minor follow calls.  We put both down for nap around 2.  This is the time that we blast out phone calls.  They get up around 4 and we close up for the day with our sales job.  I will get some more writing and blogging done after bedtime.  Hubs will get some research done for businesses to contact during that time too.

Seeing that we work from home we have very flexible hours.  We have found that if we are not careful we can get off task and the whole day is gone.  It is very important to be intentional about what we do each day and how we spend out time.

If you have read much on the site here you also know that this job is not bringing in the sales we need.  This flexibility is also giving Hubs the opportunity to find a better position.  Working at home is difficult on a good day.  However, it is so very rewarding.  I am thankful that Hubs has been able to spend some of this time with us.  I will miss him when he starts working at an office again.