A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
—JOHN A. SHEDD, SALT FROM MY ATTIC (1928)
STEPHANIE IS A SINGLE WOMAN WHO WANTED TO START her own business so she could support herself independently. She researched and devoured books like Good to Great by Jim Collins and Rework by Jason Fried. She then experimented with a number of ideas including teaching piano, nannying, tutoring, baking bread, desktop publishing, sewing pillowcases, cleaning houses, and playing the harp at weddings.
While most of her ideas have been somewhat profitable, one of them hit her a home run. An avid music lover, Stephanie discovered that she really enjoyed playing the harp for weddings and special events. Plus, she was paid well. To build her business, she began by targeting the local market of brides, networking with wedding vendors, and attending bridal shows and other wedding conventions. Today, she is booked with high-paying gigs almost every single weekend.
The money Stephanie has earned from this business venture has allowed her to complete nursing school debt-free, and it has freed her to choose jobs in the medical field that she enjoys, rather than ones that simply pay the bills. She says, “When I file taxes, every year the income from my harp business is greater than the income from my work as a Certified Nurse Aid or as a Registered Nurse.”
With multiple income streams and no student loans, Stephanie has flexibility in life. If she chooses, she can move anywhere and have little to no problem finding jobs in her field.
It makes me so happy to hear stories like this one. I just love how rewarding the entrepreneurial spirit can be and the far-reaching impact it can have on you and those around you. Whether you are single or married, there are many ways you can earn income, even if you don’t want a regular full-time or part-time job.
While I don’t believe that every woman needs to have a business or even make money in any capacity, I believe there are a number of reasons savvy home economists should consider looking for ways to increase their families’ incomes. Maybe your family has debt you really want to pay off and your current income doesn’t give you much wiggle room to attack your debt. Perhaps you are single or a single mom and are looking to establish more financial security. Or you might be looking for a way to increase your household income to give you some breathing room to be able to enjoy a few vacations or fun family outings each year. Maybe you are a mom whose kids are grown and gone and you are looking for a way to use your skills to make a difference or have more money to give generously.
There are many, many reasons for looking for ways to make more money, and there are many families and women who are searching out creative at-home options to give them more flexibility. Unfortunately, because many women do want to work from home, there are many scams out there (I’ll talk about this in a bit). This is why it’s important to make sure you are working for a reputable business or working for yourself.
What Is a Successful Business Idea?
If you’re thinking of starting your own business, it is important to begin by defining what a successful business is. You need a target for which to aim before you even get started! Remember, a successful business is going to look different for different people. There is no one-size-fits-all path to getting there.
That said, I believe a successful business idea will hit the three following marks:
• provide steady income (This may take some time to develop—but this is the long-term goal!)
• be fulfilling, not exhausting
• play to your strengths
First, there is no point in starting a business or pursuing a business idea if it’s not going to generate a profit. Your idea must consider the market for your product or service. Not only do you have to ask yourself if there are people out there who need whatever it is you have to offer, but you also have to consider if those same people are willing to pay for your product or service.
Keep in mind that financial success doesn’t happen overnight. Don’t expect to start making a load of money right off the bat. While it takes time, the long-term goal of any successful business should be to make a good and steady income for the hours you invest.
Second, your business idea must be satisfying. Don’t bother investing the time and energy it will take if you don’t enjoy what you do. All that fuels is frustration and stress. Also, if you envision working sixty to seventy hours a week all the time, sacrificing time spent with your family, feeling exhausted and burned out, and not having any downtime or margin for self-care, your idea is probably not worth pursuing.
Finally, your business idea must center on your strengths. I talked about that in the previous chapter. Doing something that does not align with what you are good at will likely end in failure.
In a minute I’ll cover some groundwork that will provide the foundation for getting started. But first, let’s discuss the realm of business opportunities.
What Are My Options?
In the previous chapter, I encouraged you to consider what your skills, talents, passions, and knowledge are. Defining those will give you a clearer picture of the business that might work for you. Let’s look at some ways to run your own business.
Online Service or Product
An online business is run completely or primarily online. This a great option in this Internet-driven age. This includes online retailers or marketplaces (Etsy, eBay, Amazon); online services (graphic design, website design); virtual assistants (UpWork); technologists (creating iPhone and smartphone apps); and bloggers.
Melinda, one of my readers, has worked online in two different ventures for a number of years. For three years, she was an online tutor for a company called Brainfuse. She loved this opportunity because she was able to create her own schedule. In addition, for the past seven years, she has been purchasing infant and children’s clothing at garage sales and thrift shops and reselling these items for a profit on eBay. Again, she’s able to set her own hours and choose how much (or little) she works based upon the time and energy she has.
Pros:
• low start-up cost
• global target market
• flexible hours
• no commute
Cons:
• competitive market
• potentially long hours due to “being open” 24/7
• lonely (lack of social interaction and face-to-face connection)
• distractions (housework, children, unannounced visitors knocking on the door)
Home-Based, Face-to-Face Business
While any home-based business will likely involve the web on some level, there are certain jobs out there (or ones that you can create) that offer products or services that are not necessarily web-based except for having a website to advertise your services or products. Some face-to-face services include: dog sitting, working as a nanny, interior designing, or being a home organizer, life coach, consultant, or clothing designer.
For the past twenty or more years, Kristine has been cleaning houses. She works around sixteen hours total per week and is usually finished by the time her three kids get home from school. The income she’s earned from this job has helped pay for vacations and allowed for margin in her family’s budget.
Depending on the type of home-based, face-to-face business, the pros and cons of the business will vary.
Pros:
• flexible hours
• flexible “roaming retail” services (give clients and customers face time if they prefer)
• little to no commute
Cons:
• distractions (housework, children, unannounced visitors knocking on the door)
• figuring out how to set up an environment or space conducive to work
• may be costly, depending on services or products offered
Direct Sales Companies and Multi-Level Marketing
A sales business (think Thirty-One Gifts, Pampered Chef, dōTERRA, Young Living, and Mary Kay) can be run both offline and online, usually both. This type of business is especially great for those who love people, sales, and marketing.
Three years ago, Brittany started a business selling essential oils. She loves the opportunity to help people find more natural remedies for common health problems. Plus, she has done well income-wise! From the beginning, she’s made around $500 per month with this business. While sales businesses require a lot of effort and cold calling, there is also great income potential.
Pros:
• high earning potential
• organization provides most start-up materials and training
• less financial risk if business fails
Cons:
• income generally based on how much you work
• high pressure to recruit; high-pressure sales strategies and methods
• higher rate of cynical customers
Brick-and-Mortar
A brick-and-mortar business is run out of a shop or physical space and is one that markets to your local community only. These include florists, bakeries, dry cleaners, restaurants, and music studios. Depending on what kind of products or services you offer, you may have no choice but to open your own store, especially if your products or services generate a high demand.
Gloria owns a clothing resale shop in the small town of Stockton, Illinois, called Glad Rags Boutique. She offers like-new, ready-to-wear clothing for the whole family. In addition, she has partnered with three tuxedo retailers to offer a full line of men’s formal wear for rental or purchase. Before Gloria became the owner, she used to shop for her family’s clothing at this consignment store. Twelve years ago, when she heard it was possibly going out of business, she purchased it in order to prevent it from being closed down.
She says:
I am not always an outgoing person, but this store has given me the opportunity to meet someone new almost every day. Some people become regular customers, and of course, I have regular consignors as well. Some of these people would have never crossed my path other than me working daily at my store. Some of the relationships develop into a deeper friendship, and others are just in passing, but it is a joy to me to see how God uses those relationships in my life. I also love that because I am my own boss, I am always able to make the decision of closing the store, if needed, to be able to spend time with family or deal with family emergencies.
Pros:
• legitimacy due to physical location
• opportunity to supplement with online presence
• word-of-mouth advertisement can spread quickly in local community
Cons:
• limited customer base
• higher start-up cost (space, rent)
• long hours
Traditional
While this book targets non-traditional ways to generate income, it is worth noting that traditional work might be the path for you. Robyn e-mailed me with a great suggestion. She offers,
For moms with kids who are in school, ask if you can work in the lunchroom. I started working at the beginning of the school year as a cafeteria/recess supervisor, which pays $19 an hour in our district. It’s combat pay for sure, but only one hour a day! And, it led to me being offered another position in the district. I’ll be working in an elementary school library in the same school district as my kids, with the same hours as my youngest. Same days off, same holidays, and full benefits (which we desperately need)!
If you’d prefer to take a more traditional route before venturing out on your own, consider looking for part-time work in your local or nearby community, whether for a corporate company, local government, or a retail store.
Take 5
By now, you may have a rough idea of what you can do or you may be tossing around different ideas that might work. Before you move forward and begin to explore your options, I encourage you to ask yourself the following five questions:
1. Am I so passionate about this idea that I’m willing to put in the work to see it through?
Your idea needs to be your brainchild, something you are wholeheartedly excited about and in love with. Because, believe me, you’re going to need that passion on those long and hard days when you feel like giving up.
I will never forget an e-mail I received a few years back from a woman I didn’t know. She told me she wanted to start a website that was similar to mine, but she was having trouble coming up with a name. She said she didn’t have any ideas at all, but figured I probably had some. Her request: could I please tell her some of my best name ideas so she could use one of them for her website?
While I love helping budding entrepreneurs and try to answer as many questions e-mailed to me as I can, I didn’t take the time to respond to this woman’s e-mail. Why? Well, had this woman e-mailed with a list of possible names and a succinct vision for her site, I would have been happy to offer some input. However, she didn’t appear as if she wanted to work hard or was invested enough to put in time, thought, and effort to see her idea succeed; it seemed she just wanted me to give her my best ideas so she could use one of them.
If you’re hoping someone else will give you a big leg up with getting a business started, I can almost guarantee you that you’re not going to be successful. That might sound harsh, but I stand behind this statement. Successful business owners take initiative. They put in backbreaking effort and hard work. They don’t wait for others to spoon-feed their success. They make things happen.
2. Who is my potential customer?
Once you land on an idea that has a potential market, the next step is to define that market. Don’t just say, “My business is going to help everyone.” That is rarely true. Instead, your business is going to meet the needs of a specific type of person. Do yourself a favor from the start and define who that person is.
For instance, before I write a book or release a product, one of the exercises I do is create a fictitious person to represent the potential customer or reader. I decide how old she is, what her personality is, how many children she likely has, and more. This might seem a little over-the-top, but it really helps me solidify for whom my book or product is created. When I can picture a face for my target market, then I am able to write the book or create the product to meet the specific needs of that person.
You cannot meet the needs of everyone with every product, so define your market from the beginning. This will help you determine the best approach to target your intended audience. Reaching teen guys versus middle-aged moms, for example, takes a completely different strategy.
3. Can I afford the start-up costs?
While many may disagree, I strongly believe that you should never go into debt to start a business. If you do, you’re launching with a noose around your neck. And that’s not a good place to begin.
If you don’t have the money needed for the start-up costs, go back to the drawing board and downsize your idea, or save aggressively for six months or more in order to have the cash necessary to cover all of the start-up costs. Ideally, you’ll want to be able to cover the first three to six months’ worth of costs with your savings, without even making a dime of profit.
Not only will this cushion relieve a lot of stress that is often involved with starting a business, it will also allow you to invest some or all of your initial profits back into the business. This will give you an even stronger foundation for your business.
Looking for some ideas to build up some cash, whether to invest in a website, material for your product, or a place to set up shop? Here are a few things for you to consider:
• Go through your house and sell items you no longer need. Hold a yard sale. De-clutter and make money at the same time.
• Significantly cut your budget for a season. Think extreme. And think temporary. Stop eating out. Don’t buy new clothes. Challenge yourself to save every dollar you can.
• Temporarily work an extra or part-time job. Use the money you make to put into your new idea.
• If you have to buy supplies or products, do it as lean as possible. Buy used. Make do with what you have until you can afford to purchase something better or more.
4. Have I done enough research?
Most people are so eager to jump ahead and start a business that they don’t take enough time to do the necessary research. I recommend that you read at least ten to twenty business-related books before you move forward with your idea. (I’ll include some of my favorite books in the Resources section at the end of this book.) The knowledge you learn will help you shape your business and create a solid action plan.
Also, talk to everyone you know who has started a business or who works in the field or industry you’d like to enter. Tell them about your business idea, ask them for input, and pick their brains on the lessons they’ve learned along the way. This counsel could prove invaluable. Truly, every great idea I’ve ever come up with has been initially sparked by something I read or someone I talked to.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Reading Ken Coleman’s book, One Question, inspired me to ask well-crafted questions. One quote that I loved from the book was, “Good questions inform. Great questions transform.” Getting the right answer often starts with asking the right question, not a broad or vague one. Think about what you need to learn or want to know and ask specific questions around those topics.
For instance, ask,
“What do you enjoy most about owning your own business?”
“What are some of your biggest challenges?”
“How do you acquire new clients?”
Then, genuinely listen to the answers and ask follow-up questions. You’ll learn so much!
One last thing: keep an open mind. Don’t assume that because some people are in completely different industries or markets that they don’t have valuable information to share. In fact, some of those very people will have some of the best ideas. My husband, Jesse, suggested that I start a Facebook page way back when few bloggers had them. I wasn’t entirely convinced—especially because he doesn’t know a lot about blogging—but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. Well, Jesse’s suggestion turned out to be brilliant! In fact, Facebook is consistently one of our top sources of blog traffic every month with, at the time of this writing, over 750,000 followers. His seemingly crazy idea turned out to be a crazy-good idea!
5. Am I willing to fail?
If you take the leap of faith and try new things, you are going to fail at least some of the time. Expect to succeed, but willingly accept failure. Not every business idea is going to be a slam dunk success. In fact, most of them won’t be.
As I talked about in the previous chapter, when I was pregnant with my first child and had to stop working, we took a huge hit in our income. As I was trying to get my wedding business off the ground, I considered other part-time things I could do from home. One idea I had was to teach creative writing classes out of our home. I had always loved writing and figured that local homeschool moms would jump at the opportunity to enroll their children in creative writing classes—especially if they were inexpensively priced.
I was stoked and expected big things! I spent hours writing up advertisements to place in homeschool newsletters. I had visions of at least forty children signing up. I excitedly strategized how I could break the classes up. I eagerly calculated numbers, anticipating a good earning potential from these classes.
Problem was, not everyone in the community shared my enthusiasm.
Instead of forty children signing up as I had hoped, only four signed on. So much for my big plans! I worried about how on earth we were going to pay our bills since my fabulous idea had pretty much bombed. I wanted to throw my hands up and quit. But I couldn’t. I had made a commitment to teach these children—all four of them—and I had to see it through.
When I look back at those classes and the measly four sign-ups, I realize that not only did that experience prepare me for some greater failures I would have down the road, it also taught me that it’s okay if things don’t turn out as expected. I could still carry on and do my best whether I taught four students, forty students, or four hundred students. Whatever the outcome of our efforts, what matters most is that we give it our best.
Sometimes our brilliant ideas don’t automatically come to fruition. Alexa learned this very thing. Here is what she has to say about what finally worked for her:
In the summer of 2012 I got divorced and my two kids and I moved in with my dad. I was working two jobs at the time and was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
I tried a number of online businesses before one finally stuck: writing blog posts for companies. When I first decided to give this a try I was working as a personal lines insurance agent. Since I knew a lot about insurance, I decided to target insurance agencies and insurance marketing companies.
I would simply do a Google search for insurance agencies with a blog and then if I found an agency that didn’t have regular blog updates I would e-mail them letting them know I could help. I’d also respond to job ads on job boards (mainly the ProBlogger.net job board) for anything insurance related. I got most of the insurance types of jobs because I was an agent.
After building up my portfolio I started expanding into personal finance. If I saw a personal finance website with many authors I’d simply e-mail the owner to see if they needed another writer.
By October of 2013, I finally had enough writing clients to completely quit my day jobs and freelance full-time. I had been making around $2,500 per month for the past year or so and this month I’ll finally have cracked the $3,000 mark.
To make a long story short, I now make more than what I was earning from both of my day jobs combined. I purchased a trailer for my daughters and me to live in and put it on an extra lot my dad had. I don’t make a lot of money from my online business (yet) but I feel like I’ve provided for my daughters and I have allowed myself to have a schedule where I can be there for them. Which to me is the best thing in the world.
I’ve slowly learned over the past few years that when you have your own business or are trying to start working from home, failure of some kind is inevitable. This may be sobering to some of you, and while I’m not intentionally trying to dampen your optimism and visions of grandeur, the truth is, building something from scratch is usually a lot harder and a lot less successful than we plan or hope for.
However, contrary to what I thought in the beginning, I’ve come to realize that failure is my friend. I’ve learned much more through failure than I have through success. As a matter of fact, without my experience in failing, I would have never had the opportunity to start my blog, MoneySavingMom.com.
Remember, success is almost always guaranteed to those who are willing to try, try again. Even if your first or third or fifth idea doesn’t work, you’ll eventually land on something that will be a success.
Dos and Don’ts of a Successful Business
As you begin planning to launch your business, here are some rules and guidelines to consider:
Do Your Homework
Don’t take your business venture lightly. Rushing into anything without careful planning and research is a way to set yourself up for failure. Take time to research business laws that apply to your idea. You will probably need to consider one or more of the following to legitimize your venture:
• specific licenses or permits for your business or product offerings
• zoning laws for a physical office location
• legal registration of your business under the appropriate entity (that is, S corp or LLC)
• procurement of a federal tax ID number and setup of a separate bank account used solely for business income and expenses
• Check out the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA.gov) for great starter advice and guidance as well as state-specific requirements and information. They offer “how to start a business” kits that cover a wide variety of business types and ideas. They also offer free consulting to help you get started. My friend Joy and her sister, Jen, own The Cupcake Tower—a business that offers custom cupcake stands. Joy told me that when she and her sister were first starting their business, they contacted SBA.gov and were able to get free consulting advice from retired CEOs who volunteer with the SBA.
In addition, I recommend contacting your local Small Business Administration office to let them know the kind of business you are planning to start and to ask if there are any licenses you need to obtain or anything you need to know to start your proposed business. Depending on the size and nature of your business, it may also be wise to talk to an attorney who has experience helping small business owners so you can get input on how to legally structure your business. Most attorneys will offer a free consultation via phone or in person to briefly discuss your needs and options.
I also strongly encourage you to meet with an accountant to get guidance on federal and state-specific tax issues, bookkeeping, and anything else you need to consider for your unique business idea and situation.
Do Set a Few Scary Goals
It’s good to take risks. It’s good to do hard things. It’s good to push ourselves. And it’s good to step outside our comfort zones. So when you’re starting out, set goals that scare you, at least a little.
If you always stay where it’s easy and safe, you’ll miss a lot of interesting and exciting opportunities. You’ll never reach your full potential. And you’ll also become stagnant. You’ll grow old sitting at the starting gate waiting for the gun to go off.
When I began writing this book, I set a scary goal to get a solid draft of the manuscript written in less than three months. If you know anything about writing a book, it’s not an easy task and this was a really, really tight deadline. But I set that audacious goal knowing it would push and motivate me to get it done more quickly. Even if I didn’t hit that deadline, I knew I’d have a much greater head start on the book than had I not set the scary goal.
Corinne and her husband set a scary goal to pay off their student loans in one year. They have made much progress so far and are actually ahead of schedule. She writes,
We’ve sold things, done bake sales, and earned extra here and there. I’m amazed at how much we’ve been able to pay off of our student loan already! All by setting a goal that seemed unrealistic.
If setting scary goals seems, well, scary right now, begin by setting a few small goals to help propel your idea into reality. After all, if you don’t know where you want to go, how will you know when you’ve gotten there? If you don’t live with purposeful intention, aimlessness will be the default.
One thing that has been amazingly effective for me is to set specific goals for our businesses: from the income we hope to generate in a week, month, or year to detailed projects we hope to accomplish in a specific time frame. We don’t just set big goals; we also break these down into bite-sized chunks.
One of my first online money-making ventures was to resell books I had purchased wholesale. I sold these on my own website, as well as on eBay. Because it was a new business and I didn’t have a big customer base built, I set a goal to make $200 each week. This meant that I had to make forty dollars each weekday. Once I had this goal on paper, I started to brainstorm every free option I could contrive to drive more traffic and sales to my site. Some of them worked, some of them didn’t, but had I not had that very specific goal, I doubt I would have been as driven to be creative.
Our business goals propel us to constantly tweak our processes so that we are more efficient in running our businesses. They motivate us to look for out-of-the-box marketing ideas. And they challenge us to not be content with the status quo.
Where do you hope to be financially in a year from now? How about three years from now? What about five years from now?
Choose two or three specific financial goals for the next few years and start thinking of practical ways you can get there. What can you do outside of your 8-to-5 job to build additional income streams? When can you start? What do you need to do to make your idea work? How big of a customer base do you need? How much do you have to save for your start-up costs and by when? When do you need your website up and running? What kind of marketing will you do?
Once you have your big goals written down on paper, break them down into bite-sized monthly and weekly chunks. Don’t be afraid to be specific. Even if you don’t come close to hitting them, you’ll be much farther along than if you didn’t try at all.
Do Be Willing to Sacrifice
Starting a business is going to require sacrifices, especially in the beginning season. There are going to be time sacrifices and monetary sacrifices. You need to consider how much money and time you have to invest.
And sometimes sacrifice means more than that. It can mean stretching yourself outside of your comfort zone or education or job qualifications in order to discover other options.
I recently received an e-mail from a stay-at-home mom. A graphic/web designer by trade, she was interested in part-time work but wasn’t able to gain much traction finding work in that particular field. Her goal was to replenish her savings account and start digging her family out of debt to be able to save for a house. She felt hopeless trying to find a job that fit her exact qualifications.
In her case, I believe she needed to generate an idea on her own, something that wasn’t dependent on finding availability in a certain job or company. Yes, that means this woman would need to stretch herself mentally and sacrifice her comfort zone to research other options. Remember, finding clever ways to make money is not going to be easy at first. But the payoff (sometimes the literal one) is worth it.
Do Experiment, Experiment, Experiment!
There are many different job opportunities available, so don’t be afraid to try something new. And then if that doesn’t work, try something else.
For most of her working life, Gayle has had a part-time side job in addition to her full-time job. She says:
I have helped a small local business owner reconcile the books each month; I have conducted telephone surveys for a research company; I have delivered Sunday newspapers before the crack of dawn; I have been hired by a neighbor to sort through their garage full of stuff and run a garage sale (keeping 50 percent of the profits); and I’ve helped my wedding organizer friend haul flowers and decorations on Saturdays during the spring and summer—her busy seasons. There are many options out there!
I love how willing Gayle is to experiment with a bunch of different possibilities. It works for her and can work for you!
Do Say Yes
Sometimes opportunities—good opportunities—will come your way that you haven’t even been looking for. Some people might approach you for help because they recognize your value, skills, homemade product, or expertise. Don’t immediately say no. Take time to investigate the opportunity. Ask questions. See where it leads. Following is an inspiring e-mail that I received from Linnea, a woman grateful for having said yes.
I felt compelled to write to you about my home business that I started about 14 years ago. My business name is Sewing Services: Police-Sheriff-Fire. I began this business when our daughter was about 4 years old.
The local police department approached me about doing sewing and alterations for them. I have had a passion for sewing ever since I was in 4-H where I learned the basics of garment construction. Not really believing that this request would amount to much, but knowing that this would be a way to pay for the “extras” that we might want in our lives, I decided to give this offer a try. Admittedly, at that point, I wasn’t sure I wanted to work with law enforcement. I thought of police as being rather “cold” and distant.
To my absolute amazement, my workload was far more than I expected; other law enforcement and fire agencies began to call me for services. And I fell in love with our public servants who keep our communities safe. What can I say? They stole my heart. Never in the last 14 years have I had to advertise. I even have a back-up seamstress who helps me when I get overwhelmed.
What I love most about this woman saying yes, despite her initial hesitation, was what she told me toward the end of her e-mail. Linnea wrote how her work created in her a desire to contribute to her local community. She began volunteering with the police department’s Crisis Intervention Team, a program that offers training for police officers to work with people who have a mental illness or mental impairment and who are in crisis.
Do Something
In Seth Godin’s book Poke the Box, he challenges people to stop spending so much time researching, planning, and goal setting. Instead, he suggests you just go out and do something. Stop staying stuck in a box; bust through walls and make things happen.
I’m undoubtedly a big advocate of doing a lot of research ahead of just jumping into any business idea, but I also believe wholeheartedly that you learn much more through hands-on experimentation than you can ever learn through reading about something or taking a class about it. So do your homework, get good counsel from others who have run businesses before, and read as many business books as you can get your hands on, but don’t spend so much time planning, brainstorming, and preparing to launch that you never actually push the start button.
Don’t Fall for Scams
Mei, one of my blog followers, wrote to me about wanting to earn money, but based on her previous experience she worried about advertising scams. She writes,
In the past I’ve bought into the scams of stuffing envelopes or assembling crafts at home for extra income. Both of these so-called opportunities were definite scams and I didn’t make a penny. However, I didn’t let that stop me from trying again. Since I have been a crafter since I was very young, when I saw an ad for making extra money at home assembling crafts, I figured that would be an easy one for me to do and something that I already enjoyed doing.
Mei paid for the mail-order assembly kit and eagerly waited for it to arrive. When she got it in the mail, the assembly consisted of a particular number of cheap straw hats, ribbons, and flowers. The instructions were simple: glue a ribbon around a hat and then glue a flower on the ribbon. Seems idiotproof, right? Especially for someone who is naturally crafty. Well, after Mei submitted her finished kits to the company, she received a letter back from a “supervisor” saying she would not receive any compensation because the flowers were placed incorrectly. Since Mei had followed the directions perfectly, she knew this couldn’t be right. It was then that she realized she had fallen for a scam.
Mei is not alone in suffering the disappointment that comes when you realize you invested time and money in something that wasn’t authentic. Ever notice how many messages about how you can make hundreds of dollars a week working from home clutter your inbox or junk mail folder? Yes, scams are out there. In fact, they are everywhere. Some are easy to dismiss, but others can look legitimate and convince you that, yes, you can make a lot of money, starting now, doing practically nothing. These offers are akin to e-mails advertising weight loss products that claim you can eat anything, all day, and still lose weight.
The best way to determine a scam is by researching the business. Ask around. Check out the company on the Better Business Bureau’s website (BBB.org). Do a Google search for the business name and the word scam. Finally, if the opportunity demands that you invest a significant amount of money up front, beware.
Don’t Feel Discouraged
A mom of a baby and a toddler recently e-mailed me in desperation, with many tears and much frustration as she communicated her struggle trying to attain financial freedom. She said:
I want so badly to find a way to earn money from home, but it feels like I just can’t ever quite find a way to do it. Just when I think that I’ve discovered an idea that will work, something comes along and sets me back. I think my biggest struggle is not the limited hours I have to work because of my children, but the deep-seated fear and insecurity I’ve had since my childhood.
In the past, she tried a number of different business ideas, including working for a multi-level marketing company, working the overnight shift, and delivering newspapers in the early morning. These admirable attempts at bringing in income either never took off or left her so exhausted she could barely drag herself out of bed to take care of her kids.
I want to give women like this one some grace to help relieve the pressure.
Let’s face it. Life isn’t perfect. Our schedules aren’t perfect. Our living situations aren’t perfect. Our timetables aren’t perfect. Some of you may have no trouble launching your business idea. Others of you may find it more challenging (though still doable!). Don’t stress if you’re in the latter bunch.
Some of us are in seasons of our lives where our responsibilities seem maxed out. We are caring for newborns, helping with aging parents, tending to family members who are sick, and time wise we can’t afford to put in even a ten-or twenty-hour workweek.
Do the best with what you can. As I’ve said before, do something. Start small. And when your life season affords more breathing space, pick up the pace. Do what you can, when you can, where you are!
Don’t Give Up
Babe Ruth said, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.”1 When I started Covenant Wedding Source, my long-term goal was to build a business that would earn a part-time side income and allow me to stay home while my husband was in law school. I never would have dreamed that ten years later, I would be running a large blog, writing books, speaking to audiences around the country, and have an amazing team working for me.
Many times, people look at me and only see the accomplishments and successes. What they don’t see are the hours, days, weeks, months, and years I worked very (very) hard and saw little return on my investment. They don’t see the many (many) times I’ve come inches away from shutting it all down from frustration and discouragement.
The success of MoneySavingMom.com is not because I’m really smart (if you only knew how much I struggled with math in school!) or because I’m naturally techie (I would be nowhere without my tech team!) or because I have a master’s degree in marketing (I didn’t even go to college!).
I believe wholeheartedly that plain ole hard work and perseverance have been the key ingredients for the success of my business. I just plain refuse to give up. This doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes scrap ideas that flop (I do—often!), but this means that even when it’s hard, even when I experience setback and failure, I am committed to keep plugging away, to keep experimenting, and to keep learning and growing.
Early on in my blogging journey, I had an experience that tested my fortitude and commitment to being in business for myself. A year after we started MoneySavingMom.com, a large international retail company hired a group of twelve frugal bloggers and paid them to record videos on saving money and to upload those videos to their site. Because I had been working with this company on some projects at the time and was also closely connected with a few of the bloggers, I found out about this project early on. It sounded like a great idea (I’m all about encouraging people to save money!). The problem was that the domain name this company had chosen to host these videos was MoneySavingMoms.com—exactly the same as my domain name, only with an added s at the end. I should have known better from the beginning and purchased that name myself, but I didn’t think to do so. Live and learn, right?
As if to add insult to injury, not only were these bloggers asked to actively promote this new site on their own blogs, but this retail giant advertised this group on the bottom of every single one of their store receipts nationwide. Then, they launched a nationwide Money Saving Moms Contest.
I was unsure what to do. On the one hand, I knew that in a court of law I could prove first use of the name “Money Saving Mom” since my site had been set up and actively run for a year. Legally, even though I didn’t have a federal trademark, because I had been using the name in commerce for longer than this company had, I owned the common law trademark.
On the other hand, it was overwhelming to think of pitting myself against an international brand that was massively bigger than me with more legal and financial resources than I could even dream of. I was a tiny gnat in their universe, and frankly, I felt as though I couldn’t tell them to stop using the name. Jesse and I knew whatever small amount of money we had saved would get drained pretty quickly if we pursued legal action.
But the hard truth was, if we didn’t do something, it was slowly going to kill my brand! Internet searches for “Money Saving Mom” and certain other related terms resulted in their website popping up before my site on search pages. I knew that the more time passed and the bigger they built their site, the less of a chance I would have to continue building my brand and site. I could see the writing on the wall—and it spelled impending business disaster.
In the middle of wondering what on earth I was going to do about this unexpected situation, one of the employees from this company e-mailed me and said in so many words, “We hope you are okay with our new site and the fact that the name is almost the same as yours.” Um, no. I wasn’t okay. But I did feel pretty powerless.
Long story short, after exchanging a few e-mails with the retail giant and getting nowhere, we talked to an attorney who assured us we were in the legal right because we owned the common law trademark and could prove it. After a lot of deliberation and prayer, we got courageous and sent an e-mail that politely asked this company to remove the name from their site, shut down MoneySavingMoms.com, remove the link to the site on their store receipts, and discontinue using it, or we would be forced to take legal action.
To this day, it sounds crazy that little ole me sent such a gutsy e-mail, but I just couldn’t stand by and watch my hard work dissipate without putting up a fight. Much to our shock, they backed down. Apparently, their legal team knew they didn’t have a case, they were just waiting for us to call them out on it. Almost immediately, they scrubbed their website of all references to “Money Saving Moms” and profusely—shocking!—apologized that it would take them nine days to remove the reference off their store receipts.
We were ecstatic, amazed, and blown away! Had we tucked our tails between our legs and surrendered without a fight, it’s likely our business would not exist today. But we didn’t give up. And we didn’t lose heart or faith, even though we were face-to-face with a gigantic worldwide retailer. This victory fueled my courage and continually reminds me to not run away or give up when that seems like the much easier option.
Maybe over the years you’ve had a flurry of fits and starts but nothing worked out. Maybe the last business idea you had cost you more money and time than you could afford. Maybe the idea of launching your company seems like something that will take forever.
Whatever your situation, I want to encourage you to not give up. You may need to change your plans, tweak your dreams, or alter your course. You might need to shelve the idea and start a new one. You may need to extend the deadline or revise the game plan. That’s all part of learning and growing.
But no matter what, don’t give up. Winners aren’t quitters. Keep going, keep pressing forward, keep learning, keep experimenting, and someday soon, you will start to see fruit from your effort.