Doing it all, family and work.

• Staying off Facebook?

  A couple of months ago, I read a post in a forum by a business expert stating their considered opinion about staying off Facebook and social networking sites. This post has stayed on my mind for a while now. I won’t go into the identity theft aspects now but read this article today confirming my suspicions that this is not the way to go for businesses.

  Facebook is continually making changes to their pages hoping to enhance their utility and value. In my opinion:

  Facebook pages are part of a grand plan to dominate the Internet to a far greater extent than Google does today.

  Once such change, seemingly minor, is the Facebook page “Like” button that supersedes the familiar “Become a Fan” button. Larry Brauner

  Now, lateral thinking is an art, and some do it better than others. If you do not own your online identity in all major mediums, your business identity is compromised. With businesses such as Knowem keeping track of where your identity may already be used, it is so much easier to keep track of where you should be registered.

  Go well and stay productive.

• Making some money from home.

  The phenomenon of eBay has been much written about. It is hard to find someone that has never bought something from e-Bay. It has provided a fantastic avenue for millions of people to get their business or hobby started. Craigslist today is reaching a similar audience making it a viable source for many businesses to earn a living.

  To some extent the sheer size of these popular sites makes it difficult for new people to launch their business especially when necessity is driving the earning leaving marketing plans developed on the hop. So are there places where people can start with more visibility? Yes, places like Etsy, eCrater and a multitude of virtual malls with Atomic Mall being a leader in 2008 offer many different avenues for product based businesses to offer their wares to develop successful business channels.

  Another perceived disadvantage is that these are primarily product based market places. There is also many different service based avenues for developing new channels for your business. A few, like Liveperson offer a channel for a wide variety of services having the advantage of referring between service types, while many are service type specific. Examples are for computer services Guru.com, a large competitive market, Rentacoder with more variety in the levels of services that can be offered, Elance with more internet tech services, for psychic services Keen and many more business niches.

  Launching out into business can be a big step, but with a market place for just about any product or service is available. From places that treat you almost as an employee through escrow, marketing and abuse controls to those that barely do more than offer a central place for visibility means it is possible to find a place suitable for your wish for independence balanced with your risk tolerance.

  Come and join me on
  
  

• We need the money

  So, bubs is settling. The visitors have gone. The thank you cards are done. The hospital bills start arriving. Work calls to enquire in a round about way whether your maternity leave plans are still on track, and you start thinking.

  Why do I want to leave my children? How can I stand another day without adult conversation? And all day swing between the two ends of the barometer. Slowly living on a single income starts entering every decision you make, where to vacation, where to buy the summer’s outfits, what to have for dinner.

  Work beckons, people you know, work you’re familiar with, the office is convenient. Daycare, expressing, overtime, stress, how does it balance out. Calculators such as cost of working are only taking into account the added cost of working with a child.  The Living Wage calculator gives a better idea of gross earnings needed to live in various USA towns. Here, in Sydney, Australia, the cost of daycare is compared to having another mortgage payment going off each month.

  In countries where medical and retirement benefits are not socialised at all, or only partially, other issues also arise. If you are not in the work force, how do you cater for your retirement or your medical expenses? Certainly for families where a partner’s benefits can cover the other partner this is less of an issue so long as the relationship continues. Similarly for retirement benefits, if one income can make an adequate contribution each period towards a future retirement, many decisions are easier to make. But this post is not a social commentary, except to keep in mind sometimes going back to work is the only long term viable decision.

  For me, once there was a second child, the costs of working outweighed the salary most reasonable jobs would pay. By reasonable, I mean a job that would still let me be home every evening to care for my family. There were certainly jobs that paid more, but for me, what was the use of working 60 hour weeks when you have children at home that needed caring for, your children?

• work at home mum

  Wake me up before you go, go …. (WHAM, 1984)

  Yes, those were the days. Single, career oriented, in love and doing what I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy being married and looking forward to our silver anniversary. The children fill my days with joy and other nonsense.

  Soon after the birth of my daughter, I found my whole self disappearing. A large part of this was not working. It was really difficult when I had put so much effort into having a professional life, to suddenly have no deadlines, no rush of doing a good job, and no money of one’s own.

  After two years of messing around with part time administrative jobs I was overqualified for, stupid network marketing spiels that always never survived any analysis, I found a way. I get the rush of doing a good job, have some money of my own, and do not to have a boss to dictate to me whether I would be able to go see my child’s performance nor whether I could stay home because there was a teacher’s strike.

  Bless the internet and entreprenuerial companies that make it possible to work without selling all your friends.

  nature, serenity and seclusion – get away from it all.