Living in the digital age means there is a wealth of opportunities for people to create their own businesses from home and still reach a broad audience all over the world. If you're a stay-at-home mom looking for a way to generate income, starting your own business could be life-changing. Consider these tips from Snappy Socks to help you get your business organized and manage your life as a parent.
1. Find Your Business Idea
The first step in starting a business is finding the industry where you can flourish and the niche you can fill. Start by conducting market research. This is how you find your target audience, get to know your competition, and identify the product or service missing from the market that you can efficiently offer. Studies cited by Cint show that effective market research involves using a customer-centric approach to data collection and identifying opportunities for growth within your chosen industry.
2. Create Your Business Plan
With your business idea and market research, you can start drafting your business plan. To make it as thorough as possible, include details about the product or service you supply, how you intend to operate your company, and what your financial projections are for the next several years. Remember that you may share this plan with potential lenders, so include your plans for funding as well. You'll resort back to this plan to help you keep your goals on track.
3. Form an LLC
Registering as an LLC gives business owners guaranteed asset protection and limits their personal debt liability which could otherwise put their personal assets in jeopardy. Having this extra layer of protection removes a large amount of stress and puts entrepreneurs’ minds at ease, so they can stay focused on growing their business. Additionally, forming an LLC allows a business to freely open a separate bank account in order to clearly track revenue and expenses, making record-keeping easier than ever. You can learn the requirements for forming an LLC and register it on your own, but the easiest way to file is to use a top formation service.
4. Designate a Schedule
Juggling a new business and parenting duties requires dedication and an organized schedule. You need a good work/life balance to make your process more sustainable and to nurture your relationships with family and friends. For example, you can hire a sitter to come during the daytime so you can finish all your work by late afternoon and have the nights and weekends to spend with the people you love.
5. Find Funding
One of the first steps to securing funding is to assess your credit score and financial history, as this will help determine how likely you are to receive a loan from a bank or other lender. Once you have gathered this information, you can explore different types of financing available to you such as angel investors, venture capitalists, grants, and crowdfunding. These options can provide the capital needed to get your business up and running, but it’s important to do your research and ensure that any source of funding is right for your business.
6. Get Organized
Owning and operating a business comes with a lengthy paper trail, especially if you keep records the way you should. Better manage productivity and simplify operations by digitizing your paperwork. Save all your important documents as PDFs, and then you can keep them on your phone or other devices to have available when you're on the go. If you're out and need to quickly find some information, you can just pull it up on your phone and keep moving.
7. Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Taking care of children and trying to do anything else is exhausting. Depending on your child's age, you may need help managing it all. For example, the University of Nevada, Reno notes that a toddler needs much more attention than a sleepy newborn, but an older child just needs something to safely divert their attention while you work. Create a support system that you can access any time you need help with the kids or your business.
It may seem like something as forming an LLC isn't going to make much of a difference when you're feeling overwhelmed. However, when you combine these tips and implement them into your plan for work/life balance, you'll see a return on the time you invest. Just remember to take some time for yourself every now and then to avoid burnout.