As a new parent, there are a lot of good reasons why you might want to shift your professional life to a home-based telecommuting role, or even start up your own web-based entrepreneurial venture outright.
A baby is a key priority in anyone’s life, and working from home allows you to spend as much time as possible with your new child.
Working from home also gives you a great degree of flexibility in setting up your schedule, such that you’re able to structure your day around the needs of your child, while still making headway in your profession.
Working from home, online, as a new parent, is also a way of staying engaged with the outside world and keeping your life balanced.
Here are some tricks for making an online business work, as a stay-at-home parent.
Use virtual services and assistants to help outsource the traditional infrastructure of a business
A traditional brick and mortar business will have a lot of infrastructure working in its favour, not least of all the address of the business itself.
People naturally tend to look for signs of professionalism before engaging with a company. In this regard, traditional businesses often have the upper hand, as they have physical premises to visit, and a physical postal address to send mail to.
Luckily, virtual services and assistants do exist that can help you to outsource and replicate some of this traditional infrastructional. A virtual address in Las Vegas area, for example, allows you to receive mail at a professional-sounding physical address, and have scans of those letters sent to you online.
Pay for a professionally designed website, and get some testimonials and work samples up as soon as possible
An integral part of the success of any web-based professional is, of course, their professional website.
When your job takes place entirely via the internet, your website is your first handshake with a prospective client, your storefront, your billboard and leaflet, all rolled into one. It has to be as close to impeccable in its presentation as possible.
One issue that a surprising number of web-based professionals have, is that they take their websites for granted, and treat them almost like an afterthought.
If you’re capable of putting together a sleek, professional looking site on your own, by all means do it. If not, be willing to pay for a professional web designer to do the job for you. Then get some testimonials and work samples up on your site as soon as possible.
Collaborate with other entrepreneurs whose skills complement yours
In many cases, you can become even more successful as an entrepreneur, by collaborating with other entrepreneurs whose skills complement yours.
If you’re a freelance copywriter who focuses on producing brochures, for example, you can team up with a graphic designer, and sell your joint services to your clients — as they would otherwise need to employ a graphic designer separately, anyway.
Network as much as possible, and join up with other entrepreneurs when you see an opportunity.
