When I first attempted staying at home with our eldest children, I did all of the cliche things - maybe THE most cliche thing. I tried to learn to sew. This was before the home internet, mind you (*no, not in the dark ages, apparently I am one of a select few who have lived equally in the time before internet, and the time after wide-spread internet) and this is what most women did to start an income from home. We made stuff. It turns out I am very bad at making stuff. Not 'stuff' in general, but the kind of things that I saw other mothers selling. I wasn't incredibly gifted at sewing (much to the disappointment of my mother, who is a fashion designer, and my Nonna, who was a professional seamstress for a clothing label) and that was never going to be a way for me to personally make money. So I tried buying and re-selling jewellery from China. The jewellery was beautiful and something that I really loved! Bright, bold colours and shapes. Kitschy things like food-shaped girls necklaces and bracelets. But... the market was completely over-saturated. It turns out that as soon as eBay and home internet in general, was widely available, every entrepreneurial mother out there was making or re-selling cool jewellery. And as with over-saturation of anything in the market - when there is too much of something, the value of it goes down. Fast forward to my 3rd business venture. Child care. I had kids at home. I loved children. I was creative and smart and energetic - and this was the first venture that made some income, and allowed me a little bit of time at home with our kids. But it really didn't give me the independence and freedom that I was looking for in my life and in our homeschool. For example - we couldn't just take a trip somewhere (or anywhere!) because I didn't have enough seats in the car to cart 6 + children around, and I don't know if I could have handled that with 3 toddlers. We couldn't take a family holiday on short notice. I couldn't go to homeschool classes with extra little people. I just wasn't feeling it and it wasn't a good fit for me. And I think that a lot of women get stuck in this space - looking for something to just 'make money' to fill in the gaps in their family income, so that we can be with our children. I mean, they are worth it! We would do anything to make it work. However, my freedom came in the realisation that I didn't have to choose. I didn't have to choose between my career and my children, and take up something to just fill in the gaps. By the time I had started full time homeschooling, I was a fully qualified therapist. I just had to figure out how I could take my professional skills, and all of my experience and resources, and move them in to my home space. Or at least, work out some kind of system where I could work at certain times, and spend time with our children for the rest of the week. It can be done! and I am going to blog about it over the next few weeks. But the very first thing that kicked me off was... 1. A good business mentorI couldn't afford an in-person mentor (yet) so I looked online for different business courses, and found Leonie Dawson, who (back then) only offered one course. And it cost a heck of a lot of money (which ended up being worth it, as it got me out of my bricks and mortar workplace, and where.I wanted to be... at home with my children). I LOVED her blogs. I loved that she homeschooled and had a career path that was soooo enviable to me. And she was real. No grey guys in white suits telling me about their 50 hour work week ( I DID NOT have time for that). But another mother, juggling some of the things that I was, and making it work. At the time of this article, LD is still offering mini courses (so much more affordable and I still regularly take them!) which I highly recommend, for anyone getting started. Having the knowledge and skills to take YOUR personal skills and gifts, your professional experience and your work history, and to be able to offer it to people while also starting your homeschooling journey is priceless. The mini courses that I really loved this year were: 40 Days To A Finished book and 40 Days to Create and Sell an E-course. When I first started, my biggest win was having the tools to be able to continue my job as a university tutor and mentor, in to the private sector (eek! advertising! believing in myself! marketing myself - scary, scary, scary!). Just kidding. It FELT scary but it wasn't that scary...after I did it a couple of times!
My first realisation was that people needed my skills. I knew I was good at my job, and that I could work outside of my office with the same skills, but I feel like a lifetime of working in different organisations, left me feeling a little replaceable. I mean, you leave a job and they find somebody else, right? But I didn't realise how much I had internalised this, until I had people jumping at the chance to tutor with me (!!!). Let me tell you a story of the first time this happened, and how this led to me being able to work from home permanently and homeschool for over 10 years and even more importantly, be able to have more children than I thought I would be able to with a career (6 children PLUS my perfect career - how is this real life?!) and... (drum roll) paid home help... My mother always said to me 'you will know when you have really made it in life, when you can afford somebody to help you cook dinner and clean your house'...
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