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Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
If you are looking to start a home business and are a parent, you may have to make special considerations. You will need to be able to work without punching a clock or having to be available at particular hours, otherwise, you’ll have to get a babysitter. If you don’t want to hire help, you will definitely have some special challenges. But, it’s not impossible. In fact here are the top ten home business ideas for you that don’t require clock punching, or answering to anyone but yourself.
Stock Photographer
Stock photography is used in numerous applications, from websites and blogs to print ads. The demand is quite high for good and unique photographs to use for these reasons. Therefore, most stock photography companies allow independent contractors to upload pictures for sale on their websites. You can also start your own website offering the images for use.
Graphic Designer
Designers are needed everywhere; the demand is high. If you’re good with using creative software to make webpages, advertisements, banners, book covers (eBook and paper) and more, you can work for many companies at the same time performing these services. While it’s deadline based, you can still work at 3 am if you need to.
Freelance Writer
As a freelance writer, there are many different opportunities today based on your skill level. You can write for so-called content mills, individuals looking for writers, as a copywriter writing specific sales copy, or you can write for yourself and publish your own books as PDFs or via Kindle Direct Publishing.
Arts and Craft Seller
If you’re artsy and like creating art, you can do more than just create. You can sell, and you can make bank. Sites like Etsy.com, DeviantArt.com, and Art.com make it easy for individuals to upload pictures of their work to sell. You are responsible for shipping it on time, and you’ll give a percentage of sales to the website you list on. You can also start your own website but usually, you’ll make sales faster working through an established and trusted venue. 
Amazon Seller
Fulfillment by Amazon has started a trend in individuals selling both new and used merchandise through their service. Learning how to sell on Amazon can take a little time but there are people who are making six-plus figures doing it, and you can too. This is something you can do on your own time, with your children in tow.
eBay Seller
Yes, eBay is still around, selling on eBay is a little harder than the other choices, but many people do it successfully as a full-time job. If you have access to the right products, you can do it too. Again, this is something you can do on your own time. The only thing that might take a lot of work on your part is packing and shipping.
Lifestyle Blogger
You’ve likely seen the movie, “Julie & Julia” right? Well, Julie started out as just another blogger, blogging about her adventures cooking from Julia Child’s cookbook. She became very popular, sold the rights to her story, and a movie was made. She made money off the deal, of course. Today, bloggers blog about all sorts of things and earn money through advertising, affiliate marketing, and product promotions. You can, too.
Herb Gardner
This work-at-home business takes a little time and work, but it’s healthy, the children can help, and you can make about 60K a year from your back yard if it’s allowed in your area. You can sell at farmers’ markets but you can also sell directly to restaurants if you plan and market right.
Virtual Assistant
If you’re detail-oriented and like to work at your computer, the life of a virtual assistant might be for you. Don’t want to be tied to one office or person all day, every day? Consider becoming a virtual assistant, which allows you a more flexible work environment.
Social Media Manager
If you love social media, consider starting a social media management business. You’ll be paid to hag out on your favourite platforms, all day! It doesn’t require a large investment or special equipment to get started, especially if you already have a computer and internet service.
Working from home is often a parent’s dream. They can be near their kids, not have to work by someone else’s clock, and still, earn enough money to not only pay for needed items but vacations, dream cars, and more.
It might be time for you to consider starting your own business. I know it was the best decision I ever made for me and my family! If you are unsure where to start, take a peek at the Studio’s resource page, there is plenty there to help you get started today.
Tell me, if you could start your own business TODAY – with nothing stopping you, what business would you launch?
I’d love to hear from you, tell me in the comments or join us over in the Studio Workshop, my free Facebook group for women in business!
Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
Top Ten Home Business Ideas for Parents
How goal setting can help in the pursuit of happiness.
the pursuit of happiness
In your pursuit of happiness, you’ve likely focused on all of the obvious things – de-stressing and doing the things you enjoy. However, did you know that setting goals can also contribute to your happiness?
It doesn’t matter what type of goals you’re setting yourself, just the process of goal setting itself has its benefits. Keep reading to discover why goal setting can help in your pursuit of happiness.
Writing Down Goals Helps you Visualize a Better Future
One of the reasons goal setting can help to boost happiness is because it forces you to think of your future in a positive way. Visualizing what you want and how your perfect life looks, will automatically make you feel happier.
It’s short-term happiness, but it does help to get you started in terms of thinking more positively. If you’re stuck in a rut for example, and you’re creating goals to help you out of it, you’re going to find it great to visualize how your life is going to be once you’ve overcome your current situation.
They Help You See the Progress You’re Making
Of course, it’s not just the setting of the goals which you’ll be focusing on. You’ll also be working towards them, ticking your short-term goals off the list as you go along. This allows you to see consistent progress.
As you see that you’re getting nearer to your goals, it can have a wonderful effect on your happiness. Often, the reason we give in to negative thinking is that we don’t see anything changing. With goal setting, you get to actually see how things are changing and celebrate your progress.
Why it’s Important to Set Goals to Help Others
While personal goals are no doubt important, it’s also important to set goals to help other people. Setting a goal to make somebody smile that day, for example, will really help to boost how you feel.
Studies have been carried out over the years, which have shown those who set goals to help others, are generally happier than those focusing solely on personal goals. So, don’t forget to focus on making others happy too.
Overall, goal setting can really help in the pursuit of happiness. It keeps you focused and helps you actually achieve the things you want in life. Whether it’s relationship goals, financial goals or career goals – they’ll all help you to become a happier, more successful person.
I would also like to mention that a little TPOH goes a LONG way on a long day, so – why not hit play and listen to their album below, while checking out these goal setting tips.
P.S. Join us inside the Studio Workshop Community and share your goals! We’d love to hear them and support you on your journey to happiness.
the pursuit of happiness
the pursuit of happiness
Starting an Online Business: How to Set Clear Goals
Starting an Online Business:
If you are starting an online business, you are joining the ranks of hundreds of thousands of others. There are many tasks to achieve when it comes to your online business. One of the most important and perhaps the most beneficial ways to achieve success is to set clear goals for that business.
There are several ways on how to go about setting clear goals. For many individuals, their goals are so broad that success is something that never happens. However, you can learn to rely on your set of goals to achieve success if you set them up correctly.
How to Set Clear Goals for Your Online Business
1. Be specific
When you set a goal, it is imperative that you be specific about that goal. Simply stating that you want to reach a specific target audience or to make money is not a specific goal. A specific goal would be something like “I want to gain 100 more likes on Facebook in the next three months.” Or, “I want to make an additional $5,000.00 in the next three months.” Goals need to be specific to be successful.
2. Write everything down
No matter how trivial you may think it may sound, it is imperative to write everything down on your action plan. Without writing it down, it is as though you are not declaring it to the world.
3. Break it down
Break down your goals into sub-goals. It is as though you are choosing a niche and then choosing a sub-niche. For example, if your niche is women over forty, perhaps you could break that down even further to make it divorced women over forty. Break it down and be specific.
Breaking down your goals makes them easier to reach. If you have a goal to gain three more clients in the next six months, break it down on how you plan to reach that goal. For example, “I will guest blog on other sites” or “I will join LinkedIn and promote my business.” However, you want to do it, make sure to break it down precisely.
4. Put a timeline to your goal
Giving yourself a deadline to achieve a goal is probably the best thing you can ever do for yourself. You are accountable to yourself and your business partners by attaching a timeline to your goals. By doing this, you put a little pressure on yourself to achieve that goal by or before the set time.
5. Be accountable
Being accountable to yourself and someone in your new business is an excellent way to make, keep, and achieve goals. Giving your word is a powerful tool not only reaching but also in exceeding clear and specific goals.
When your goals are specific and clear, success is just a stone’s throw away.
Get started on your business with these free resources from inside The Virtual Studio
Be sure to join us inside the TVS Workshop Community for inspiration and support the journey ahead!
Starting an Online Business
Inspiring Greatness: Cindy Sherman.
Cindy Sherman is the first woman to break $1 million in a photography sale. She studied painting before she became a photographer and is known for her conceptual and chameleon-like self-portraits.
Below read a snippet on how she speaks on her budding career as a female artist in Time Magazine’s FIRSTS Women Who Are Changing The World.
I never felt pigeonholed as a child in terms of my potential. But I did feel that I’d probably be expected to settle down and get married and have kids at some point. I definitely remember from all the old movies and TV shows from the time, like The Donna Reed Show and Leave It to Beaver, all these women that were portrayed as these perfect moms. I never really saw myself as that. I never imagined myself getting married, I never imagined myself in a bridal gown, and I really never imagined myself having kids – and I never did.
In an issue of LIFE magazine, I saw Lynda Benglis as a young artist throwing paint on her floor. I don’t know how old she was then. I was probably in high school, but it was the first time it dawned on me that a woman could be an artist.
When my career got started in the ’70s, I did feel like I was being taken seriously. I didn’t really notice any kind of difference between men and women artists until I would say the early ’80s, when specific men started to become very successful. Even though I was critically successful, it was definitely a big distinction between what their work sold for and what my work sold for.
As I evolved in the ’70s, I think I took for granted what the first wave of feminist artists had to go through. I never felt like an activist because I didn’t experience that kind of fighting., It’s not like I would say I’m not a feminist, I just couldn’t quite identify with those women. Of course we’re all feminists, right? We all want women to be seen as equals. I am shy and not a person who can debate and take on critical political talk. But at the same issues definitely piss me off and show up in my work, and I definitely have always used my work as a forum to address a lot of things that I can’t say, that I can’t articulate.
Cindy Sherman, American photographer and film director.
Tell me, who inspires you? Share below in the comment section or join the conversation in the Facebook group.