Advice on running a web based business

[Workingmumadviceseeker]

Hello

First time on here and hoping you can help! I?m ten weeks pregnant and keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well with the baby. Currently my partner and I live in inner London but we have always wanted to move to the seaside to experience a different type of life. The problem is that my work is tied to London.

I?m really interested in hearing from mums who have set up their own web-based business and how they manage to juggle the time-consuming stress of running their own business with the equally time hungry work of bringing up kids. I?m hoping that after my maternity leave, I could try a different type of work, but everyone I know who runs their own business seems to work longer hours than those in employment!

If you have had any success in this or any tips or ideas I?d be grateful for your advice.

Thanks very much!

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I run a work from home blog and information website (www.domestic-entrepreneur.com) which explores my attempts to earn money from home, concentrating mainly on online business models. I?m still learning but am already starting to see some results from all my hard work, which is satisfying. There are plenty of ways in which you can start to make money online ? the best thing to do is to start to read, read, read and do some research. Some of the ways I earn are:

Virtual assistance services

Freelance writing

Writing my own eBooks: the non-fiction ones are mostly around this very subject ? how to earn money from home around a family! I also write fiction (you can find me on Amazon under Celina Lucas ? non-fiction / Celina Grace ? fiction)

I?m about to launch my first paid e-course which will teach people how to set up a business from home.

Some other possible income streams (which I haven?t pursued ? only got so many hours in the day!) are affiliate marketing, creating online directories, creating niche mini-sites, running an online shop?

PM me if you?d like more details ? hopefully this has given you a few ideas.

Don't know why that link didn't work: www.domestic-entrepreneur.com

What kind of business?

Running a web-based retail business is just as hard as running a shop. If you don't know anything about retail or shops then don't do it until you do! Also remember you have to buy stock...amazing how many people don't realise this.

Hi guys

Thanks very much for your tips. I'll check out your website ceasnake! I'm not really sure of what sort of business I would run. I guess I'm looking for ideas on what has worked (or not) for other mums. All research at this stage! Thanks for your input. xx

i have a web based shop and it doesn't take up much time but then it isn't very successful either at the moment!

My biggest mistake was thinking that once you had a website you had your presence on the web and you would start getting customers straight away. You don't, you have to put some real effort into advertising and creating links with other websites. It takes time to move up the Google rankings to the first couple of pages (they say people don't look beyond that when they do a Google search). SEO becomes a bit of an obsession!

Awinawin is right. You need stock and plenty of it. In the same way I wouldn't bother going into a RL shop if it had very little on the shelves, I don't go to webshops unless they have loads to. I know of websites where they don't have the stock, they order off suppliers when they get an order but that is costly (suppliers often have minimum order values and charge postage if you have a low value order) plus it isn't great customer service if your customer has to wait a week to get their stuff.

You also have to factor in other costs like bank charges, payment fees (I use Paypal which is one of the cheaper ones but it adds to the costs), postage and of course the advertising. Actually getting a decent website put together was quite costly although it looks professional as a result. I could have got an 'off the shelf' package but it wouldn't have looked so good I don't think nor given me so much functionality.

On the up side, you can fit it in around the children more easily. I can sit in front off the telly with DH in the evening and do stuff on my laptop.

If you have some money to spare, you could try buying a business that is already established to avoid all the start up hassles and getting your Google rankings up. You could hit the ground running.

Most of all do your homework before hand, know your competition and look for a USP.

/\ great advice from BigBoobiedBertha (childish tee hee at the name!). Whatever online business you go for, teach yourself search engine optimisation (SEO) because without traffic to your site, you?re dead in the water. The subject is vast, but you can start off with:

Building inbound links (getting others to link to your website) ? write great content, try article marketing, guest post on relevant blogs.
Use ?good? links within your sites so Google will be able to categorise your pages properly.
Write fresh, optimised content with relevant keywords regularly.
Make sure your pages are titled properly with your keywords.

I?m about to submit an article on this very subject to Ezine Articles, I?ll post a link when it?s up and running.

Thanks BBB. Great name indeed! What's your website? I'd love to take a look. And thanks to you too Ceasnake. I look forward to your article.

One thing I would say is that for it to be successful, it has to be something that would also work as a non internet business. Simply being web based doesn't mean it's different / good enough to make any money.

Do something you love, or you'll get bored or hate it if it doesn't work straight away.

Article on building links is up and running on Ezine articles here

and one on building a very cheap and easy website with WordPress here

Thanks Technoviking, hopefully having a web based business will free me up to do more of the things I love. Will check out your article ceasnake.

Hi,

I have a similar dilemma in that I used to work in TV in London before children. We wanted to move to a small village near Winchester, Hampshire to be nr our family, friends and for a better environment for the children. It effectively ended my television career as the commuting/childcare costs combined were just too high to make it feasible.

I had always enjoyed working and whist I love being a stay at home mum tremendously and my children are more important than anything, I really missed the stimulation of work and, to be honest, we were struggling without me earning. For the last two years I have been setting up a special events film company covering weddings, newborn video diaries, christenings etc etc. The work is building and it is definitely a challenge juggling children, housework, husband, setting up a business but it is definitely beginning to pay off.

I do tend to look after the kids during the day and work in the evenings/weekends but then if I had a job during the day for someone else's company I wouldn't get to spend so much time with the kids (we have two children - a 3 year old and a 1 year old). Everything in life is a bit of a tradeoff and this is just one of mine. I make sure I have at least one or two evenings a week off doing work to spend with my husband and he does shift work so he is away quite a few nights anyway. I get frazzled and sleep deprived sometimes... but at the moment it's all definitely worth it.

Business Link were invaluable to me when starting out, they emailed me loads of information on the basics - even down to the definitions of sole trader and limited company - so I could decide how to start out. They did do free business courses for people starting out although I'm not sure whether they do now (with the recession).

I've heard that having a Twitter account is key now for helping with your site seo. I am speaking to a marketing director next week about this and will post back when I have more info!

I also totally agree with Technoviking - do something you love! It's better to spend a bit of time finding out what that is rather than jump at something you're lukewarm about. You'll be spending hours and hours of your life on it and you have to truly believe in it, both for your own sanity, and also to be able to sell it effectively.

Elisse
www.filmsinbloom.co.uk