Earn $1300 a week working from home ...

This year I am juggling part time teaching, part time mother and part time small business. So overall "Kaos" is my middle name at the moment ...

picture via Keep little kids occupied, work from home article

When people discover that you run a business from your front room they remark, "Oh it must be so good working from home", and then people have images of you traipsing around in your jimmy jams having lots of tea, watching Oprah and taking your time to lovingly cut fabric out and make things.

The reality is far from that.

Advantages with conventional employment is that if I am having a bad day, I can effectively do the bare minimum and the money will still end up in my bank account at the end of the month. Working from home is different, you need to be driven and disciplined and most people just don't get that.

If I spend a day on the couch, my business suffers. If my daughter is sick, my business suffers. If the neighbours who are building an extention are jackhammering the drive way, my business suffers.

I recently stumbled upon an article at Anthill Online which spoke about making your business appear bigger than it actually is and it took me back to a conversation I had had with some fellow crafters about why why we work from home, why we "do" craft. Often the answer is because of flexibility of hours and the fact that we are accountable only to ourselves.

So it has been with great interest to watch some of our local crafters move from kitchen table manufacturing into getting their own studio and then expanding interstate.

While I would love that for Konstant Kaos eventually, the key word is eventually. Perhaps wise old Margaret understands that once you are on that expansion roller coaster, it is very hard to come off. And when you do come off, it might be in a blaze of glory!

For every article that talks about the wads of cash craft-at-home workers are making,and the changing craft marketplace, there is also an article like this one that talks about the falsehoods of hobby-cash that etsy portrays and how it's idealism pedals a false feminist fantasy of being able to have it all simply by working at home ...

So I pose the the question, out of all of you that read my blog, why do you have a crafty business from home? Is it because of the flexible working hours? Is it because you get time to do crafty things and get paid for them? Is it because you have a child? Is it because you can traipse around in jimmy jams and watch Oprah?

Business Mums Conference

I am waiting in anticipation for my conference pack to arrive for the Business Mum's Conference on the 20 - 21st of June at Homesglen.

Since starting on the Konstant Kaos roller coaster, it has been hard to find the time to completely focus on my business and where it is going. Generally this happens in the wee hours of the morning when the house is silent, the cats are sleeping and I don't have anything else to do ....

The theme of the conference is Recharge Your Business and the presenters look quite good.

Perhaps I will see you there?

Is your business in recession?

One of the small business blogs that I catch up with each week is the Tall Poppy Blog. A worthwhile click through and bookmark!

Picture by Andreas Kammel (c) 2005

One of the posts recently stuck with me over the last week, it was called "Is your business in recession?". Quite a few people have asked me whether I am adventurous in starting a small business in this "economic climate". Is there any good time to start a business? The fact that people are strapped for cash generally means that they will look to purchase something unique, and longer lasting rather than cheap and nasty.

Taken from Anne's blog (I hope she doesn't mind me re-posting!):

There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs. He was hard of hearing so he had no radio.He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers. But he sold good hot dogs.He put up signs on the highway telling how good they were. He stood on the side of the road and cried; buy a hot dog, mister? And people bought. He increased his meat and bun orders. He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade. He finally got his son home from college to help him out.

But then something happened. His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?” “Haven’t you been reading the newspapers?”“There’s a big depression.” “The European situation is terrible. The domestic situation is worse.” Where upon the father thought, well, my son’s been to college, he reads the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know.

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs. And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight. “You’re right, son” the father said to the boy. “We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”