Having to juggle earning a decent paycheck and taking care of the kids is quite the challenge for many women. Few corporate jobs offer flexible work hours that allow mothers to work and still leave enough time to take care of their kids. Fortunately, there have been a lot of work at home opportunities that opened up in the last decade, giving moms the best of both worlds—time for their children and a decent monthly income. If you find the right opportunity with the right company, you can work at home to supplement your family’s monthly income or even earn enough to match what you used to earn monthly with a full-time corporate job.
For many mothers, taking that leap from a full-time corporate job to working at home while spending time with the kids can be a difficult decision to make, especially for those who have a pretty stable position at their companies and those who earn a sizable monthly income. So how do you even start with the process?
Perhaps the biggest challenge for many work at home moms is actually finding the right opportunity that allow them to utilize their existing skills while being able to work right from home. This is why the first and most practical thing to do before anything else would be to look for a work at home job, preferably in your existing line of expertise. Be it a position as a copywriter, a web designer, a customer service representative, or a professional advisor in your particular field of expertise, you have to stick to what you know first before you can expand your horizons. Work-at-home opportunities are typically very skill-oriented, as you will be directly representing yourself and your skills. Hence, it is important to stay within your field of expertise.
Some moms also opt to start their own businesses instead of looking for a telecommuting position over the Internet. The beauty in starting your own business is that you get to be your own boss and you get to work in an industry that you enjoy. However, the problem with starting a business from scratch is that you have to undergo product development and raise money for capital, which is not always achievable for many people. This is where direct selling fits perfectly in place. Direct sales is actually quite an attractive work at home opportunity for mothers, as they get to start their own independent venture while at the same time have ready access to an existing product base and support system. If you want to get into an industry like direct selling, where you can determine your monthly income and have control over your own schedule, then the most important thing to focus on is looking for the right direct sales company to join.
There may be a lot of existing WAHM jobs out there but the fact still remains that taking on a position, especially if it is full-time, as an employee for a company will still eat up most of your time. Even in a work at home setup, if the company you work for requires you to be working at a particular time, you have to be present. This means that you still have to allocate more time for work and you still have to work around your schedule to fit in time with your kids, instead of the other way around. Supposing you work as a virtual assistant, you may have the luxury to do this right from home but you still have to follow a schedule or meet particular deadlines. This is the biggest struggle for many work at home moms, especially when their kids are at home with them competing for their attention.
With direct sales, this does not have to be the case. Many direct sales companies were established with the goal to offer profitable and realistic opportunities to work-at-home moms. Many of these companies were founded by work at home moms as well so they understand the demanding schedule and responsibilities that work at home moms have to deal with everyday.
If you join the right company, you can earn a sizable commission on your personal sales, attend fun home parties, and have freedom over your schedule, all for a minimal startup fee. There are quite a number of direct sales companies that do away with imposing monthly quotas on their independent consultants, this gives work at home moms the rare opportunity of tending to their kids’ needs first and then working during their extra time.
When joining a direct sales company, the first thing you should take a look at is the product base. Choosing the right company that offers products that cater to your personal interests is ideal, as it will be easier for you to sell them. If your friends are also interested in the same products, then the initial process of launching your own direct sales venture will be easier. Of course, you still have to work on building your network but at the onset, it is perfectly fine to start with people in your circle of trust. Consider selling to friends and family as your training stage, where you can practice your marketing skills to people you are comfortable with. However, don’t stay too long in the “training stage”, if you want to succeed in direct sales, you have to get out of your comfort zone sooner than later and start getting valuable sales leads, which should be outside your personal network of family and friends. If you are able to properly discuss the benefits of your products and answer questions in a knowledgeable and professional manner, word will eventually spread of your venture, as your customers will likely tell their friends and family about you and your products.
If you are interested in cosmetics, then joining established companies like Avon and Mary Kay may be a good move for you. However, one disadvantage to joining top direct sales companies is that competition can be too much to handle for someone who is new to the industry, especially since there are likely to be many sales representatives who have started ahead of you. Votre Vu may be a good option for work at home moms who are interested in cosmetics, as the company is still relatively new and offers a line of high-end skin care products at relatively affordable prices. Work at home moms who are interested in jewelry can join companies like bCharmed, Paparazzi Accessories, Jewel Kade, or Chloe + Isabel. These companies are all newcomers to the industry, giving you the advantage of being one of the first to introduce their products
