Let me tell you how a working mom came to be a work-at-home mom.
A change in status really does a lot of things to shift your priorities. You realize that some of the things you thought you enjoyed do not matter anymore. As soon as you experience that one change, you will begin to reassess your life and shift everything so you are more focused on the object of your priority.
I am, of course, speaking about motherhood. It’s quite heartbreaking every time I hear my son cry in the morning when I leave for the office or have him reach out to someone else when he is in pain.
So that being said, the road toward being a work-from-home mom was clear.
But the big question was, how? And more importantly, was I ready for this next big shift?
There are a couple of things that you have to ask yourself first.
Are your finances stable enough to allow your family to survive with your unstable income?
Remember that freelance work will mean you will have no income if you have no projects. There will be a dip in your income in the beginning as you build your portfolio. If you need to keep a steady cash flow so the bills get to be paid, that’s alright. You can start freelancing part-time. For instance, I had to spend a few hours writing my articles after I got home from my day job.
Is your family supporting your decision?
I wanted to be a stay-at-home working mom for the longest time but I had to wait until I had my husband’s full support. He had to shoulder more of the financial burden as I was getting my freelancing job in order.
What career path will you go into?
I am talking about online jobs of course. There are several things that you can enter into but it has to be something that you are passionate about. That is very important. If you want to succeed, you need to capitalize on offering something that you are already good at – or at least a niche that you are patient enough to learn.
I will be honest with you. This journey to be a working mom from home was with a lot of doubts. I had to do a lot of thinking and research to make sure I will not fall flat. This was something that I really wanted to work on. I’d like to believe that the passion I placed into this endeavor was what helped me succeed.
Well, I got a lot of help from an outsourcing website called Odesk.com (now Upwork) too. I will explore that further as it rightfully deserves a whole article on its own. There is so much to discuss! But the bottom line is, I got my first few projects from this site.
In the freelancing world, all you really need is to find someone who is willing to take a chance on you.