Katie Katie Parsons is the creator of Mumbling Mommy and is a freelance writer, editor and communications specialist. She works from her home office on the east coast of Florida. Most often she writes about life in a combined family of five children and what it's like being a full time work-from-home parent. Feel free to pitch guest post ideas or just drop her a line at [email protected].

It’s no secret that working from home is on the rise. Have a home based business seems to be trending. Whether you promote skin care products, or own an Etsy shop, or freelance write, or work a traditional job from your home office, the convenience and flexibility that working from home affords is a modern-day luxury, especially for parents. I’ve written before about the pitfalls of self-employment in general and misconceptions about freelance writers working from home offices. I’ve also written about things you will miss about your regular job when you switch to a home office.

You’ll need to build in cuddle time with your toddlers

Today though I want to talk about a few key realizations that you reach eventually after you’ve decided to run a home based business:

Having a Home Based Business

  • You still have to work. Obviously there is always work to be done, and a lot of the time you have to find the self-motivation to make it happen. While you may have some flexibility in your working hours, you won’t be able to say “yes” to every invitation and you may even have to give up some of your evening and weekend hours to get everything done. Some people confuse flexibility with procrastination. If you commit to working, then you must get that work done on time and accurately.
  • You eat more. If you are conscientious about it, and actually keep track of what you are consuming in a day, this might not happen to you. But if you aren’t paying attention, it is easy to pack on some extra weight in the form of unnecessary calories consumed just because you walked through your kitchen too many times. If you can, schedule meals and have healthy snacks ready – just like you would if you worked in an office.
  • Your home is your first priority. I’m not telling you that it SHOULD be that way; I’m merely pointing out that it WILL be that way. Working at home is a constant reminder of everything you really should get around to doing, like laundry or dishes. If there are small kids at home and you opt for no child care help, they ARE the priority. If you do not do well putting other things in front of your work, or stopping in the middle of projects and then picking back up later on, then you won’t do well working in your home.
  • People don’t understand. Unless you have friends who also work from home or own a home-based business (I’m lucky to have many of these), most people will not “get” the fact that sometimes (and maybe a lot of the time) you need to work. You may be asked to volunteer for certain things during important working hours, and face confused stares when you decline, explaining that you need to work during that time frame. For some reason it is difficult for some people to wrap their brains around the fact that just because you aren’t physically going “to work” you still have work to do. I can’t quite explain it. But I’m telling you anyway.
  • The pajama novelty wears off – fast. The idea of not having to get ready for work every morning undoubtedly sounds amazing in theory – but it gets stale. Some days all you will want is a reason to get ready for something, anything, other than to be at your house. I suggest getting out a few times every day, even if it is unrelated like to work out or run some errands — which is easy for me to say since I have no idea what your work or family schedule looks like. If there is a day that you really and truly cannot get out of the house, get ready anyway. It’s good for you.

What is some advice that you wish you had when you started working from a home based business?

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Category: Working From Home

Tags: Freelance Friday