15 Mistakes To Avoid Making In Your Home-Based Businesses As Stay-At-Home Moms

     Running a business from home and also managing the home can be a challenging process and especially when you don't know what to do. It is more than jumping at a business idea or purchasing goods because it generates a lot of cash flow. To succeed in a home-based business, you need to be business savvy or at the very least, know the rudiments of the business. There is a secret behind succeeding in any field, a know-how that gives you a headstart to succeed in your mini-businesses from home.

There are so many profitable business ideas both online jobs and physical or offline jobs for stay-at-home moms including mini importation, thrift wear, drop shipping, producing skincare products, sale of foodstuff, creation and sale of information products, virtual assistance services, content creation, affiliate marketing, blogging, typing, proofreading, and the list goes on. 

Home-based businesses work a little differently from the conventional workplace or stores. Here are a few tips to guide you and help you succeed as a stay-at-home mom or work-from-home mom.

Mistakes to avoid in your home-based businesses

1. Your business should be more about other people than you. When you start a business with the sole aim of reaching your goals and making money for yourself, it will get lonely in little or no time. Instead, aim at helping other people reach their goals and making their lives better by giving them value. Not something that has little value or offers something that they don't need to reach their pockets. Find out what is in demand and offer it to your customers the way that no one else does. Helping others will transform your work and give you passion and motivation.

2. Don't charge too much for your products and services. Your prices should be a little bit lower than is obtainable in local stores to attract more customers rather than being at par with others in the same business with you. Your emphasis should be on selling more, you can make much more from huge turnovers than from increased prices. Don't forget that what you have to offer is readily available with other vendors who have more visibility than you do, they are also more accessible and have built trust with more people than you at the moment. This is not meant to discourage you but to arm you with information on what you are up against. Building trust and achieving huge turnover be your target.

3. Make your products or services stand out. Explore ways at making your products and services more attractive and different from what your competitors are offering or at least, let your offers and delivery be different.

4. Don't start a business or offer services that are unpopular. Choose a product or service that is in demand where you where live for mothers, children and families. You can offer homeschooling services, cleaning, shopping, selling baby products, children's books, toys, kitchen utensils, etc. Go for products that have the wow factor - new designs, fun to use and durable.

5. There is no perfect time to start a business from home. A lot of new moms may choose the option of waiting until their babies are grown before they venture into any business, it is still okay if that is what you want. The journey of motherhood can be very demanding and adding a job to it will be very stressful, to say the least. On the other hand, your business will fare much better if you start it early enough and learn the ropes until your kids are grown and you have more time on your hands to dedicate to it. There won't be a time when it will fit perfectly like a puzzle, start where you are, build on it and expand as you grow.

6. Be bold. Don't shy away from telling people around you what you have to offer, they may have been on the lookout for it. Be prepared against getting discouraged by the people who care about you. It can be very disappointing but hey, you are the one footing your bills so unsolicited advice or not, keep putting one foot in front of the other.

7. Be consistent. Don't give up because it did not go off to a great start as you expected, most businesses don't at first. If you keep persevering and fine-tuning your skills, products and services, it will not be too long before you become a pro. You will learn a lot from taking steps forward and taking action instead of wishful thinking. 

8. Develop a savings culture. While it is tempting to splurge on your profits, it would be better if you keep some of your profit to plough back into the business to scale it up or invest in training and courses to increase your expertise. Don't remain at the same level for too long.

9. One step at a time. It is good to dream and plan for your goods and services to go global, at the same time, take baby steps. Focus on getting your first sale, then ten and so forth. If you are so bent on a million sales at the beginning, you may not be able to sustain the tempo because you will get discouraged. You are still moving forward even if it is a little slow at the moment.

10. Don't try to build everything from scratch. Build on already existing businesses and tweak them to make yours a little different than what is obtainable. You will save yourself a lot of time and avoid trial and error that can force you to give up.

11. Face your fears. Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone and try something different. It doesn't matter that your beginning is small you, will grow in time and gain valuable experience along the way. Besides, you never know how much your business will help you in future. Your side hustle may be your saving grace.

12. As your business grows, get hired help. This is an investment in your business to free up more time for you to focus on your kids and work. It has become more expedient that we get more involved in the lives of our children than a nanny by being intentional in our parenting. Hire help to clean the house, shop, do the laundry, run errands and whatever else you need. As much as you can, don't outsource childcare.

13. Take care of yourself. Don't get sidetracked with many expectations from family and work that you forget to take some time off for yourself. You are important, you are the driving force behind your business and home and you need to be at the top of your game.

14. Invest in your growth. You will not be a stay-at-home mom forever, you may choose to reenter the workforce or make your side hustle the major hustle. Either way, invest in training and coaching programmes that will take you to the next level with your business goals.

15. Teach your kids what you know. When your kids start asking questions about your work, don't shoo them away. Explain what you do and how you achieve it. Teach them good work ethics, money matters and how to start a business of their own if they so choose. It is not enough to work and build an inheritance for your kids, teach them how to sustain it and build for the next generation.