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Mum to Mumpreneur - A Real Life Guide

By Jodi Gibson

Struggling to find the answers you need to run your work at home business? Are you a solo business owner looking for great business tips? Wanting to start your own business but are unsure where where to start? Jodi Gibson, virtual assistant, social media specialist, blogger and writer from "The Scribble Den", covers all the basics of being a work at home parent in business including: - social media - cost effective marketing - blogging & websites - branding - work/life balance Also includes handy resources and 17 inspirational stories and advice from 17 real life successful work at home Mums. Mum to Mumpreneur is an invaluable resource for any solo business owner.

I suddenly got very busy with commissioned work and my EBook has gone on hold while I work for clients needs.  I see a great future in providing a service business though my writing and artwork. 

I also read reference books a great deal as we never cease learning.  I like the look of this book.


 Books » Arts & Photography » Language Arts » General
Teach Yourself Make Money from Freelance Writing

By Claire Gillman

Make Money From Freelance Writing takes you step by step through every avenue for making an income from professional writing. Covering everything from travel writing to writing self-help features and full-length book commissions, it also includes writing for new media and the practicalities of finding a route to market/self-publicity. Each chapter contains a diagnostic test, case studies, practical exercises and Aide Memoire boxes. Each chapter concludes with a reminder of the key points of the chapter (Focus Points) and a round-up of what to expect in the next (Next Step) will whet your appetite for what's coming and how it relates to what you've just read.

About the Author

Claire Gillman (Cumbria, England), Author and Professional Freelance Writer: writing professionally for over 25 years. Claire has written over a dozen non-fiction books ranging from a documentary style review of The Parachute Regiment to guides on raising teenage sons and living with ageing parents. Claire is currently an editor for Writers' Workshop, specialising in non-fiction. Her critiques and advice to potential authors have helped several of them secure an agent and obtain a publishing deal. She has also run and organized numerous writing courses and workshops, both in London and at residential centres.

2,000 word first draft for my EBook chapter. I think this chapter could be called.
'Can Marriage Survive an Artist/Writer?

This is 'first draft' and your input and ideas are welcome.

Thank you for reading my blog post.  I am 25,000 words into writing a Book that will cover this creative time management subject and I have blogged about it on and off for the last 3 years across several blogs I run so it is time I settled down this year and got it 'out there.'

I taught time management to business owners back 35 years ago and have had some great teachers in the field myself.  However applying it to a labour intensive creative field that needs intense focus is not as easy. I was fortunate that in my years as an exhibiting artist I was successful enough to be able to employ a studio assistant who doubled as sales person at exhibition and part time housekeeper cook if thongs were slipping at home. As a writer my funds do not run to that and I do work, though self-employed - writing this EBook and ghost writing while writing my novels.

I was firstly an artist potter sculptor and non-fiction writer. I did aspire to one day write a novel but I have a passion for my art career that spanned decades and I would never have stopped creating art to write my novel if i had not chosen to put it aside - been forced to put it aside, due to becoming carer for a family member with an illness that made it impossible for me to work in the public's view.
I grieved. It was like the death of someone close and personal o close my art gallery, retire from public gaze and stop painting.

I wrote a lot while I grieved, but I never thought of myself as a writer. I did on line counselling. It helped me deal with my grief. I created gardens. Painting with flowers. But I wasn't working for 3 years. I was also ill and caring for someone who was very ill. A case of both of us told to 'make our final arrangements. 

I decided I didn't want that life. I didn't want to physically die nor want my partner (dementia) to mentally die, so I sold the home, bought a caravan and touring car and took off and over the course of two years I worked out a routine were I could find enough time each day (or night) to become an effective writer. Gee - I discovered I actually was a writer and had not known it.

In doing this, and the eco-therapy and exercise in nature health has improved although we cannot change our genes or our age and need to work with what we have.  On the other hand, with age we don't have that pram in the hallway and the effect that has on a writer.  There will always be something you have to 'deal with,' so be true to the commitment to your art/craft and need to be creative and fit it in where you can.

OK now for the personal bit.  No the family have not always respected my need to create. I believe that was the driving force for me to make sure I was financially successful in my creative field and I always treat everything I do as a business, not a hobby as I cannot expect the family to support the time I sped doing something if it had not contributed in some way to the family’s wellbeing.

While the artist author finds reward in the achievement of something they are proud to have created in the real world, the family is the great leveller and wants to see your work as producing some perks for them. Materialistic perks being something money buys. When my children were young that was $5. for helping with a few chores. 

Re ease of combining a creative career and  having family  respect your  work hours. The personal stuff - thrown in ADD, bipolar and learning difficulties. Who has 'normal' children?  

Yes there were years when it was hard to be creative. So hard, concentration and financially, I worked in a health science field on night duty for several years and did not lift a pen or a brush.  I was not happy during that time and it almost wrecked my marriage.  Oh having said that :-) I must add, my husband and I are still very much in love after 44 years of marriage.

My creativity came as a shock to him and his family, when we first married.  When you are a writer or an artist, it is a little like you have a lover, a third person in the marriage. That is a lot for the family to deal with. I don't know how to express it as being less. It is worse for them than if you had an affair because the passion for the lover would eventually wither and you might once more return as a devoted spouse.

 However when the passion is for an art form, painting, writing, you name your creative addition, it has a hold on you as no human could grab you and the passion only increases with age. What hope does the poor family have to defeat their rival for your love?

How can you have your passionate creative affair and a loving spouse who will tolerate your ‘lover?'   Your occasional need to send the night in another room with your art instead of coming to bed with your spouse?

Sometimes when I felt the need to become obsessed for a period of time with a creative idea in my head and bring it through to a physically viewable to others project I have asked my family for permission to take this time away. I have explained that I will be there as a physical presence however I need to escape in my mind into my creativity.  I have placed an amount of time on this creatively obsessed time.

Usually I asked the family for one week for an art work, one month for a novels draft. I tell them I am there for them and will come out of my trance in the event of a family emergency or their need to talk. I also have the house and garden manageable and the freezer filled with precooked meals to be thawed and heated and lots of supplies on hand before I go off into this creative trance.  These creative holidays do become the subject of family jokes.

We kept the fun in them.  They work because I don’t block the family from my mind at any other time when I am painting or writing and that are around. I will put aside my work and listen to them, give them my full attention, when they walk in the door and when they want my attention. I need to show them how important they are or they would have a right I feel to object to my bringing a creative passion into the home.

In all honesty there were times when I came close to not holding the one or other together. Desperately hard to stay true to your work as an artist and author in the early years when the work isn’t paying well and the family have a need for your financial help. There were times when I gave too much up to be what others needed me to be for them and I could not give up any more and the relationships were strained. Then there were times when I could get this message across and draw back into my need to be creative despite the family desiring more from me than I could give them and nurture my own needs.

Was it good planning,  luck or was I just blessed with exceptionally wonderful husband, children and now grandchildren that  we as a family made it through the difficulties caused by my not being content in a traditional go to work to earn a set wage, then come home and be there 100% for the family, type of life?  I don’t know for sure though it was my no one goal from childhood, to achieve this and I treated it, as I have all goals I have achieved, by seeing the goal clearly, planning the action plan, then working from a daily to do list.

As with all goals, I was always flexible and willing to modify the action plan and to do list to get to my goal. I often stumbles, had a couple of falls but was up and regained  sight of the goal as soon as I could and restructured my action plan to get there, if the old action plan had failed me. 

My accountant once told me I succeeded in art because I was adaptable. Perhaps that’s the secret to combining the creative career and family too.  The family needs to know they are more important to you than your creative passion but you also need to maintain your right to have that creative passion and not squash it under a doormat and give every inch of your creativity to the family.  For sure mowing lawns and baking cakes is creative and satisfying but while those things might please the spouse and kids it does not sustain the creative individual for long. They need more.

Families survive when we love each other for those things we can love about the other person but we respect those things that we cannot love and allow the other person to develop traits and act in ways that would not be on our list of what we would like that person we live with to be. I put that in italics because it is atrociously worded but it says what I want to convey so it’s there for now as a place holder until I work out how to say it better.  Love your suggestions on that.

The creative person must insist that those who love them must love what they can about them and respect their need to express their creative passion. 
    I have seen creative passion wreck families. It wrecked the one I grew up in.  I did not want the conflict between my creative passion and my desire for a loving family not succeed for me. That gave me foresight and actually helped me prevent some of the problems my own creative parents had. I was born into a family of creative geniuses and saw the effect first hand on the relationships and I made a goal that was different to that of many of my school friends.

I did not aspire, as the other girls did back in the 1950’s, to marry and have a house and children.  I wanted more. I wanted the creative career. I also wanted a happy family with a strong emphasis on the family being happy. I knew that that was not just a case of marrying, having a house and kids.

During those times when I was unable to juggle both the happy family part and the creative career, I put the career on hold and worked for a time in an unfulfilling for me career as a short term measure that allowed me to see the family though to a better place where I could get back on track with my creativity. 

I NEED to be creative.  I also had a major stoke at age 32. Even my body shuts down when I cannot be creative. I think artists and writers need creativity like others need air and we die if we don't get our needs filled. 

Even my husband, my big kid in his senior years and likes to see my writing put fuel in the car and buy him a fishing holiday and that is why he dutifully puts his noise silencing head phones on to watch TV (while I still need to watch him as he has frontal lobe degeneration brain illness) and… to be continued… 2,000 words in one sitting is 'enough,' and that is my cue to go spend personal time with someone I love as I want the relationship as well as the writing career.

Raleigh, NC (March 20, 2012) – Lulu.com, the leader in self-publishing, launched a new ecommerce platform today along with major site upgrades that will give authors and readers the absolute best self-publishing experience for buying and selling books in any format across the globe.

Powered by leading ecommerce platform provider Elastic Path, the upgrades are designed to maximize author agility in a rapidly changing publishing industry and ensure that readers can easily find remarkable works anywhere in the world including the places they already shop like Amazon.com, the iBookstore(SM), and Barnes and Noble’s NOOK® Bookstore.  Customers can expect an even easier to use Lulu.com with new capabilities such as registration-less checkout, faster browsing times, enhanced international language and currency support, improved address validation, and customizable marketing tools for authors – adding to Lulu.com’s already free publishing services.

“Lulu and Elastic Path have made publishing and buying quick and easy,” says Matt Dion, Vice President of Marketing for Elastic Path.  “Lulu is a great example of an innovative company providing their customers with a compelling value proposition, cementing Lulu’s leadership position in the publishing technology arena for years to come.”

The new platform creates an entirely new infrastructure for Lulu.com to build upon, which greatly increases the speed at which the company can release new features and updates in the future to better equip customers with the tools they need, when they need them.  One example being Lulu.com’s soon to be available ecommerce APIs (Application Programmer Interfaces), which enable businesses and publishers to build Lulu.com and Elastic Path’s ecommerce tools into their own branded websites – absolutely free.  

“We’re constantly looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to take advantage of the ever-increasing opportunities in publishing today, from easily creating print and eBooks, to expanding author reach to more places,” says Bob Young, CEO of Lulu.com.  “We’re in the business of removing limitations for creators and with these upgrades, we’re providing publishers, authors, and their readers, with a world-class ecommerce experience.”

With just a few clicks of a button, anyone can upload content to Lulu once, and sell it through a global network of premier retail channels as a print book or eBook – all for free. Creators set their own price for their titles and keep up to 90 percent of the profit whenever their works sell.  Learn more about self-publishing and the new and improved Lulu.com by visiting, www.lulu.com.

About Lulu:

Lulu.com, founded in 2002, is a one-stop shop where, with a few clicks of a button, anyone can publish anything in a book for free and sell it to customers all over the world.  Lulu has helped over 1 million creators publish in over 200 countries and territories.  Creators set their own price and keep full creative and copyright control over their works.  With over 1.2 million titles in their catalogue, Lulu is the clear leader in self-publishing solutions.  To learn more visit www.lulu.com.

About Elastic Path Software:  

Elastic Path is the leader in digital commerce technology and expertise for enterprises selling digital goods and content. Major global brands such as Google, Time Inc, and Virgin Media rely on Elastic Path to monetize digital relationships with their customers in ways that are frictionless, social, and everywhere.

I ended my last blog post by explaining how I use facebook and do not allow it to use or waste my time. This discipline also saves me hours every week.

I do know some wonderful people through facebook who I would enjoy talking to about everyday life matters. The thing is, that takes time and it is sedentary time. My life as a writer is sedentary while I am physically writing and it is a discipline for achieving a life balance that my recreational and friendship base needs to come from the active world.  I will not get fit walking by sitting and talking on Facebook about the need to walk.

Yes I want friendship and I need exercise. Put your walking shoes on and meet me at the riverbank or beach for a walk but don't ask me to spend an hour on facebook taking about my not having enough time to fit exercise into my writer's life.

We all have different needs and goals in our life. I am sharing mine. Don't do as I do as that will not work for you. Respect yourself and set goals, action plans and to do lists that work for you.  If you write about a world of celebrities talking to people on facebook about the life of the rich and famous may be exactly the research and stimulation you need.

I write about inland Australian history, the bush, nature, mystery, crime and I strive to lighten these serious subjects with a touch of humour in my fiction and time management and earning a living as a creative person, books, balanced healthy lifestyle and Australia  travel in my non-fiction so the pages I like and statuses I read will reflect this. I make sure facebook does not upset the balance of my sedentary creative career and active leisure lifestyle choice.

 Another time saver I have put into place is how I use facebook.
I am very strict with my use of facebook. Harsh some might think.
I hide from view all statuses that do not assist me in my life. That means I do accept friends who request to be my friend, however I only keep those friends comments visible to me if I gain something from reading their posts.

For example a friend asked a question about how to manage time and fit writing into a busy life. That is an   intelligent question, one that is on every writer's lips and one that we all want to learn more from.  I found it stimulating to read, it motivated me to achieve my life balance today and not to self-neglect or neglect my external responsibilities or my creative work. I learn by reading others comments to that question.   However I don't keep posts that are consistently negative not domestic in nature in my view nor authors who only friend you to promote a book and never' give' anything that stimulates or teaches me anything.

So facebook becomes more like a word prompt stimulating and resource packed educational newspaper for me rather than a chat forum with friends.  That is how it works best for me and I’m the one needing to pack the most into my day.  This is my way to time manage facebook.  People who request to be my friend, who constantly invite me to play games knowing I am an author are not my friends, so I delete them.
I use facebook and do not allow it to use or waste my time. This discipline also saves me hours every week.

I love to blog about life balance because as a creative person I need to work hard to achieve it myself.

I'm writing an EBook about it.  This helps triggered my own commitment to a balanced life today involving the essentials, family, earning food on the table, creativity, exercise, and getting enough sleep. Those to me are the essentials to time plan for at the start of each day and never cave in on.

 Apply the A, B and C priority order to things and do the A priorities, the B's if you can and only do the C's if you want to, have the time or if they work their way up to an A.  Often times they just go away f not done and nothing terrible happened. 

 

Achieving Life Balance.

I strive to achieve a life balance while novel writing and have come to the conclusion that there are too many things I need to do in one day to achieve a balance of all of them over as short a space of time as one day. I need to make choices - goals, action plans and a daily to do list. 

In the daily to do list I do not strive to achieve a balance of everything. It is sufficient to achieve a balance over a lifetime.  It is OK to focus strongly on one thing and do a minimum of others and neglect some things entirely for bursts of time.  That is neither failure nor being out of balance that is how to get something important done. 

Set some limits. E.g. - Even when writing my novel draft I will get a minimum of 7 hours sleep. I will log off and exercise for 3/4 of an hour. I will take many brief activity sessions throughout the day, and can use those to get essential chores done.

Do decide what you can give up for a period of time. I give up facebook and TV and garden and housework maintenance at times when devoted to my novel. 

Do be flexible. :-)

I cannot exercise read novels, read reference books and write all in the same day as Stephen King says he does. I am me not him. So I alternate doing those things so I am constantly learning through reference, being inspired by great writing or writing. Then I need to put my types of writing into blocks as I write both non-fiction for a steady small income and my novel.

I am in the non-fiction EBook producing phase right now although my novel is calling to me. I focus on completing the one sedentary job I have to work with at a time and I will not return to my novel writing until I have this EBook finished, published and the marketing program in place. It might not be my first love but it is some income while I focus on my novel.

How to handle outside distractions.

Set work, activity and sleep hours. Log them in as ‘not negotiable except in an emergency.’

Accept that family come first if you want to end the novel with a family. Stop writing and listen to them when they want to talk. Make friends accept your working hours. Tell them what they are. Tell people who drop in during working hours that you are working and you are not available.

Today I started work at 9am. I will log off for activity breaks every hour. I stay working though the coffee breaks and even lunch. I am always reluctant to stop and move. I know it is essential for health so I make it a discipline that I must do.

Multi-task.
Make the shopping trips your exercise outing by taking stairs, walking quickly, carrying the groceries further.

Make family outings as active as possible, throw a ball for the dog and run with them. Run in a park or on the beach with family. Play active games not sedentary ones. Focus all your sedentary time to your writing business.

I am an artist as well as a writer. I have a choice. I can choose to paint in a sedentary way, seated at an easel.  If I choose to do this then I must add it to the rotating blocks of sedentary work I already do as something to alternate between novel writing and non-fiction writing or reference reading and fiction reading.  I do this occasionally though not enough to satisfy the painter in me.

My other alternative and the one I want to develop is to combine my painting with exercise. I plan to pack a backpack painting gear into the car and drive to places that require a hike to get to the scenery. Then while I am resting and taking in the splendour of the view, my reward for exercise, I can paint a small painting during my after exercise rest then enjoy my return to the car exercise. 

Did I say multi-task? Lol!

I am always thinking multi-tasking.

I will have a weather tight plastic container with some small art work or prints of art works alongside me as I paint and when people ask if they can watch me paint, as they do, I invite them to look at the finished art work. 

It is a soft sell.

I do not have any price on show and I do not suggest they buy. However when they ask, as they usually do, I am willing to sell.  I could also just happen to have a new copy of my book with me and a pan to sign it.

I also have business cards ready to share and wear sign-writing T-shirts while on the job, in public. No I do not like painting in public. I would prefer to paint in private without an audience. By overcoming my fear of working in public I am able to combine work, exercise and creative satisfaction and a family activity into one part day event and get some grocery money or even enough to fill the car with fuel.

That makes my husband smile end come home feeling he too has had a great day’s exercising and getting some eco-therapy.  Then he settles down to watch the news on TV and puts the noise silencing head phones on and I quickly flick on to the ABC news on the Internet and read the parts I want to know about in five minutes and then I have my evening free to read or write creatively with a pre-set deadline when I will leave my creative passion and get to bed. 

I do allow an up to three hour variation on that deadline. I can function well on five hours sleep for short periods of time and sometimes then the writing passion is upon me or the novel only has one more chapter left to be finished, it is great to know I gave myself permission to cut into y sleep time once in a while. I strive to be flexible and not dogmatic with my life balance ideals. I do need to watch tough that that flexibility does not allow me to grow three dress sizes while writing a novel.


Stephen King is my mentor when it comes to striving for a life balance as a writer.  He writes candidly of the time when he neglected all things aside from his writing and how he overcame this self abuse and worked hard to achieve a life in balance even following a serious set back.  This is a great book for any creative person struggling to  achieve balance in life to read.

What is a domain name? A domain name is the internet address of a website or blog. For example, bloggermuse.com is the domain name of my how to earn money blogging website. Choose domain name carefully.

The domain name leads people to the business. Don't lead people to someone else s business.  Ditch the free domain names that end with another companies business name. They look unprofessional. If you are happy to appear to be n amateur blogger and do not want to urn money for your effort then use free domain names.

Things to consider in choosing a domain name.
Don't use a name that will confuse people about what you do.

• Your domain name should be simple, obvious, and as short as possible. However I could not have a shell.com domain name because people would associate the word shell with the petrol company or the sea shell and she would receive too many contacts from people not interested in her art. You do not want to be constantly replying that you do not sell the service or product requested.
• Ideally your domain name should leave an impression in your memory and be pronounceable. It does not need to have a literal meaning. Don't try to say your whole business name or what you are selling into your domain name. My fridgemagnetart.com was not my best choice of domain name. On the other hand doggiesblog.com has grown steadily in the search engine rankings. I believe the easy to remember aspects of the latter name makes a lot of difference
• Don't use numbers or dashes (without very good reason). So the say. I changed a blog from kathyshell.net to kathy-shell.net when people read it as 'Kathy’s hell' instead of  'Kathy Shell' however when I took out the longer kathrynshell.com I did not complicate the longer domain name with a hyphen it would have looked gimmicky and become too long. I have had a huge success with the hyphenated domain name, gray-nomad.com I believe it can work well if the domain name is short.It is often a subtle balance between what will ans what will not work. If you see a good domain name, grab it before someone else gets it.
  
• If a domain name does not work for you, don't hang on to it, try again with a new one if you believe it is better. The sooner you have the best domain name for you or your product, the better.
  

I'm Kathy Shell, a professional writer and web designer of twenty websites and blogs. This is an excerpt from the EBook I am writing that teaches how to earn money from blogging.
f you want to be a professional blogger and earn money at it, invest in one or more of the excellent books written by the experts that I have suggested below.

I'm Kathy Shell, a professional writer and web designer of twenty websites and blogs. This is an excerpt from the EBook I am writing that teaches how to earn money from blogging.

This will guide you to setting up an easy to manage blog (or website), from start to finish using a simple click and drop website like Weebly.com where you can focus on the content and effectiveness of your website and blog posts and will not be required to learn about HTML and WordPress unless you desire to. I've omitted how to use WordPress and got straight into the information a writer needs to know to make a success of their blog and have it earning money for you as fast as possible.

We'll be using Weebly. It's by far the easiest to use good looking and versatile blogging system I know.

Creating a website and running it though Weebly can be free if you wish however I suggest you take out the Pro Weebly subscription that allows you to run ten blogs and websites. Then when you are certain of what you want to blog about, purchase your own dot com domain for each site. It will be a lot easier if you purchase it through Weebly for the one fixed price.  Companies might be cheaper however some are difficult to work with. 

Setting up a blog.

Once you set up your website in Weebly and take the easy to follow tutorials there, go to the page tab and create a blog. You can make the blog or the website page, your home page. If you plan to earn money from your blogging then choose the blog as your opening page. If you want to create a landing page to promote or sell from then make the a website page the home page.  If you have taken out a Weebly Pro account you can remover the Weebly name from the base of your home page and you can also have private and password protected pages and PayPal shopping carts. Try a free website and blog today and if you like it take it to the Pro level and come back and learn more.

If you want to be a professional blogger and earn money at it, invest in one or more of the excellent books written by the experts that I have suggested below.