You need your income to sustain a decent quality of life. However, when it comes to working in most capacities, finding a reasonable balance between your work life and your family can be challenging. Whether it’s because of the many responsibilities you have at work, the schedule you’re required to work, or the limited amount of time off you have, there are many instances in which the workplace does not make it easy for you to be there when your family needs you the most.
So how can a woman make a living for herself and her family without having to compromise so much of her time and energy?
Starting a Business
According to an article in Forbes, over the past 20 years or so, women have been starting more businesses than men. As they seek to find equality and balance between work and home, they develop micro businesses or entrepreneurial home based businesses in which they call all the shots. Women are now able to chase their own passions, while generating enough income to take care of their families. As a result, they find themselves more freely available to their families when necessary.
Does this sound like something that interests you? Of course there are things that must first be considered to ensure that you can sustain a living on your own; however, for many women this seems to be the answer to all of their problems. If you do believe that this could be beneficial for you and your family, you’ll need to first consider the type of business you’re going to start. Below are just a few flexible options you might consider:
Virtual Assistance
If you come from a work history dealing with clerical tasks and administrative support, then you might do well by starting your very own virtual assistance business. Such business forms allow you to set up a home office and provide the same clerical assistance to businesses that you would if you were in their office. With various technologies you can do anything from create documents and manage files, to updating databases and handling client relations. The perks to this type of business is it is fairly easy to start and does not require that much initial investment. You can set your own hours, take on as much work as you’d like, and more importantly operate from the home.
Blog Writing
If you’re passionate about writing or particularly knowledgeable in a certain area of life (i.e. personal finance, parenting, etc) then starting a blog writing business is an ideal way to make money from home. Sharing information with the world on the daily basis and monetizing your blogs with advertisements can often help you to accumulate a reasonable amount of money each month. Not to mention you could also offer your writing services to other blogs and get paid for guest posts or blog management tasks.
Insurance Agents
Now that insurance is a must have for US citizens (to avoid tax fines), the need to sell products and services to consumers is heightened. Insurance companies such as USHealth Group provide customizable insurance policies for families and individuals. Such companies will likely hire independent insurance agents to do the marketing and sales for them. Depending on the insurance company you decide to work for, you could be paid on commission or by the hour for your services. Since you’re an independent agent you wouldn’t have to worry about having set hours like you would working a physical job and you could work as often or as little as you’d like.
If you believe this is a job you’d consider, be sure to check out the reviews of companies to see how other agents rate them. For example, USHealth Group Insurance has several agent reviews with details about their working experience. This allows you to get an idea of who you would be working for and how beneficial it would be to you.
Customer Service Representatives
If customer service is your thing, then becoming a virtual customer service representative is a great avenue for making money from home. Many major companies hire customer service reps to work from home in various capacities. You could be selling a product or service, answering customer concerns, or even handling the cancelation requests. Either way, you’re generally allowed to choose your own schedule. This is typically a great idea for someone who wants to work from home but doesn’t necessarily want to do all the legwork of “owning their own business”. Essentially you’re still very much in control, however, the logistics of the business remain in the hands of the company itself.
It is without a doubt very challenging to find time to be the career oriented woman, the mom, and the wife. If you find that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find work and life balance then maybe it’s time for some changes. Whether you decide to start your own business, become an independent agent of an established business, or become a virtual employee for an established business, they all give you more flexibility and control on managing your career and your life.
About the Author
I ♥ your comments