Tips for Making the Leap to Stay at Home Writing Mom

My partner and I get a lot of e-mails from women that are trying to find a way to write and stay home with their kids.

In a nutshell, here are the basics for working at home - if you're ready to make that jump take this information into consideration:

• Get a space to work in at home
  It is important that you have a space to call your own. Even though you work primarily work online writing, you will still need a place to write and a place to keep your paper files with things like rates you charge a particular client, IRS papers, state license filings.
  
  
• Be legal I've seen it happen too many times to other people not to warn you about this. The IRS and your State Tax department don't really care that you didn 't know you needed to pay taxes or file a DBA to do business in your home state. You'll get hit with a letter asking for
  money and it will usually have a large amount of penalities and interest.
  The best way to find out what you need to do to be in business for yourself is to check with your secretary of state.
  
  
• '|Be Prepared to Work on a Schedule
  It may not be 9-5, but you will need a schedule.
  My current schedule is based around the schedule of both my kids and my partner and I
  find I'm very productive when I spend my days with my family and then after dinner and after the kids have hit the hay for the night, I work on writing.
  Our toddler takes a roughly one to two hour nap in the afternoon, I use that time to
  market every single day.
  
  
• Market Your Business or Fail
  Just because you're good doesn't mean people will beat a path to your door. You MUST market your business if you expect to make a living at it. This many years later, I still market my services every single day and as a result, I have a very steady income stream.
  
  
• Don't Neglect Your Partner or Your Children
  Working at home can be a real challenge. Some people have trouble finding time to work. Other people find too much time to work and wind up putting in 18-20 hour days. This will only lead to burn out and feelings of neglect from your family. Keep your work schedule reasonable and remember, you're supposed to ENJOY this!
  
  ....tips on where to market coming up.....next post!