Plenty of moms today stay at home.
After a year of battling the decision to quit my job, I finally
“put my foot down”, as they say, and returned home
to raise my daughter.
It wasn’t the easiest decision, but, let me tell you, it
sure wasn’t the toughest! I enjoy every minute of being
home to raise my child. Furthermore, being home has done wonders
for my family as a unit, and drawn us closer together. When I
was working my full time job I barely had time to prepare a decent
meal. But today?
I’m a health nut, and so is the whole family (ha)!
But now, there’s another dilemma.
Being a stay at home mom has not affected my personality,
of course, so I still have a lot of creative energy pent up inside!
I thought to myself one day, “what better way to use this
energy than to work towards a goal—perhaps start a business?”
Not only would it bring in a nice supplementary income for my
family, but having a business (or craft or hobby) would enhance
my creative skills and strengthen my business expertise. I call
it the project of my lifetime.
The first thing I did was a little soul searching
to seek God’s direction for the type of business or project
He would have me to embark on. I realized right away that although
my personality was suited for several types of business ventures
(selling crafts, designing websites, or providing secretarial
services), I would soon either have to narrow it down to one choice,
or start a business that combined all or most of my skills and
interests. For me, choosing the right business was the hardest
part.
Once I settled on freelance web design and writing, it soon became
my ultimate goal to find out as much as possible about these particular
industries.
In my thought, education and information is what separates the
amateurs from the professionals. My goal was to be a professional
in my field. This is where networking is highly important.
If you’re like me, the internet is probably
one of the very best tools you can use for research. Not only
is it a few feet away from me as I embark on my daily chores,
but I keep my computer on at all times. Thankfully, we are using
a broadband connection and can stay online 24/7 without having
to worry about tying up the phone line. This, I should stress,
is very important for moms who have businesses that require them
to be online quite often, but who will need access to the phone
as well.
Once online, I begin my networking research by going to a search
engine. My favorite one is Google (www.google.com) just because
of its enormous searching capabilities. As a former library assistant,
I can attest that Google is highly recommended in the academic
and librarianship fields.
I search for information in my fields using as many search terms
and combination of terms as possible. With each result that I
feel is important to me, I visit its webpage and bookmark it for
future reference. Once I’ve bookmarked a bunch of pages,
I go through each of these websites and study them, taking notes
on what I feel is important to me in my field.
I promise, you will find contacts this way, and it will be so
much easier to network once you have a list of people whose companies
and organizations you have researched online.
In addition to an internet search, I feel that it is also important
to find any books or other publications that are related to your
industry. Study them and find out more about the authors. Find
out if they have websites and how to reach them.
Now that you have a compiled list of contact people, it’s
time to work the list! Before contacting these people individually
(they are probably very busy), see if they offer newsletters,
or other mailbits. You are looking for information on how they
got where they are today. Remember, you are the amateur. They
are the professionals. So, any information you receive from this
contact list regarding their biographies and information on the
field itself is important enough for your notes. Take plenty of
notes, and keep them in a file folder. Every time you find a new
piece of information on your subject matter, drop it in your file
folder. And finally, if you absolutely need to contact your list
of professionals for more information, I would recommend sending
an email.
But don’t forget about networking with fellow
amateurs! You can make some of your best friends and closest contacts
online by joining mail lists such as Yahoo groups or MSN groups.
These groups along with technologies such as Instant Messenger
make it easier for you to find people with similar personal and
professional interests and literally network with them on a regular
basis. You will find out so much about your industry and probably
learn more from each other regarding your profession than in any
other way.
Last but not least, be sure to network with the
most important contact of all: your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Remember that it is He who gave you the passion and the calling,
and it is He who will be with you each step of the way on your
new journey.
Happy networking!
Article by:
Demetria Zinga is a Navy wife and mother of a fun preschooler.
The founder of Christian
Ladies Connect and Christian Ladies Talk Radio,
a ministerial ezine and online radio podcast for Christian women,
she has a passion to help other women in thei
