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A Home Business WorksHomeschool-Success.com |
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Homeschooling and A Home Business - can you make it work?Do you want to homeschool but concerned about how you can afford to? Are you currently homeschooling and never seeing your spouse because you have to work different shifts? Do you like the idea of setting your own hours? Would you like to involve your children first hand in the financial and lifestyle benefits of an entrepreneurial venture? |
| For many homeschooling families the idea of running a home business is an appealing idea to give them the necessary income and flexibility of time. It certainly has provided the flexibility and income that our family needed to home educate our children. It is not always easy balancing a business while homeschooling, but the rewards and time freedom are worth it. When I first started a home business I wasn't even officially home schooling. I was a full-time Art teacher who desperately wanted to be home with my children. Since my income was the larger income in our family quitting was not an option. I started searching on the internet for options. I soon realized that I would need to do something that could leverage my time because I only had so many hours in the day. Since the whole point of starting a home business was so I would be able to spend time with my children, I had to find something that would generate enough income without full-time hours. That is when I first came across network marketing. Although the first company I chose was not a good fit for me, and I did not have the necessary skills or marketing education I needed to be successful, I did see the power of leverage and knew that network marketing was the way for me to build the income and time freedom I was looking for. Now I help other people avoid the mistakes I made and build successful network marketing and direct sales businesses. I have found that challenges in my life have made me stronger. I have tried to reason with God that I am strong enough and really don't need more challenges, but He knows best. I don't necessarily see the benefits of those challenges until I have emerged through, but keep that thought in mind, particularly if you decide to homeschool and run a home business! When I was 7months pregnant with our third child I faced one of those many challenges. Through school politics, I found I no longer had a teaching position to return to in September. I had a choice: I could find another teaching position and have to leave my new 4 month old baby at home or I could work at building my home business and continue to stay home. I chose the later. I definitely would NOT recommend someone quit their job while building their network marketing business before they have built their income to the same level, but it certainly did provide strong motivation for me to succeed. When your income drops by almost two-thirds you have to be very creative and work hard to get the job done. At that same time, I very hesitantly enrolled my oldest child in Kindergarten. I just wasn't sure if I would be able to make enough money to stay home so I thought we would try public school. At the first night of open house I had huge reservations. All the time the teacher was making a big deal about all the things the children were going to learn - "this wasn't like when WE were in Kindergarten". I kept wondering what my son would be doing since he already knew everything she rattled off. In less than 3 months I saw my little boy's enthusiasm for learning plummet. I had many events in that short time period that lead me to home school my children, but the final event was my little 5 year old pretending he was still sick from the strep throat he caught from a classmate because he didn't want to go to school. I decided at that point I was determined to stay home and build up my income through my business, so pulled him out of school. It took the rest of the school year to "de-school" him. I often wonder how hard it must be for other children who have been in public school much longer.
I think one of the biggest challenges I had was that I did not have any business background and basically started out learning by trial and error, mostly error. I mistakenly believed that if I followed what the person who sponsored me into my company said I needed to do it would work out. I learned the hard way that was not true. For anyone getting started in a home business, that wants to earn a decent income, you need to develop professional skills. The one-size-fits all marketing will not work for most people. You may get lucky, you may have a similar personality, similar strengths and weaknesses, and environment that your sponsor has - or you might not. If you want to build your business by design, rather than chance, you need individualized training. The skills I learned not only helped me to build my business in a professional manner, it helped me to become better organized and be a more effective teacher for my children. That is another advantage of having a home business and home educating your children. They will gain insights and develop skills that have real life application they would never learn in public school. Public schools are designed to create workers not entrepreneurs or creative thinkers. Children do not get a financial education in public school or learn how to work for themselves. Particularly my oldest has learned so much from my home business. He knows he wants to work for himself and already has a greater understanding of finances and good financial principles than people much older. Many other home educators discuss the advantages of home businesses in educating our children: Christine Field, Raymond Moore and others. So how do you get the business education you need? |
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