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Can a Single Mom Start a Business?

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Published: 12Jun2009
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If you are a single mom and want to own your own business, there are a few things you need to know before you make the commitment.

First, regarding money, you should have 18-24 months of living expenses available - separate from start-up monies. If you are counting on child support, take a close look at your ex. Is his job history stable? Is he at risk of being laid off? Does he have any savings and would he continue paying if he lost his job?

A few months after starting my business, half of my monthly income disappeared. My ex lost his job and my child support was gone. I had to look very closely at whether I would keep my business or go get a job, and ended up acquiring a lot of debt to keep my business.

Time is your other important consideration. How much time are you with your kids and how much time are you available to run your business? Is there daycare or an after-school program available? If you want a full-time income, you need to expect to work full-time to get it. Seriously - 40 or more hours per week are required to make a full-time income.

Some network marketing companies (aka multi-level marketing) promise a full-time income only working part-time hours. I have never seen this happen. Mostly I see full-time hours for part-time income.

If you are interested in this type of business, you should consider building a customer base and perhaps some business builders under you before quitting your full-time job. For most single moms, they do not have the time to work their full-time job and begin building a part-time business at the same time. You need to take a good, hard look at this and perhaps put your business idea on hold until your kids are driving.

In analyzing your situation and your expectations, remember this: you will have one shot at raising your children to be great adults. Your responsibility is first to them since they have no way of taking care of themselves yet. You can start a business later. This consideration needs to be part of your analysis.

Next, get a realistic picture of your potential income. Talk to others who have gone before you, and keep in mind what you bring to the table. Do you already have a long list of potential customers from your job, or nobody? Compare where you are now to others in this business and where they started. Evaluate how long it took them to make the kind of money you are looking for.

If, after looking at your savings, your time and the income potential, you are still interested in starting your business, there is planning to do.

Who will make up your customer base? If your target market is not 'viable' or does not fit into your lifestyle, you will need to reconsider. For example, if you want to be a wedding planner, you need to understand that your clients will probably want to meet with you in the evenings and on weekends. As a single parent, this probably does not work for you, since that is usually family time.

When I started my coaching business, I first thought I would work with the people at my old job, but they work regular business hours and wanted to meet with me in the evenings. I tried it with a few people, but it just didn't work. I became exhausted. Then I thought I would love to work with restaurant owners because of my past experience, but they were not interested. Neither of these target markets was viable.

Learn a lot about how to market your business before you start. There are two components to this - 1, learn business planning and marketing fundamentals and 2, standards in your industry. For example, financial planners are mostly not permitted to use any kind of results numbers in their marketing and must get approval from 'compliance' before publishing their marketing content. You don't want to get fully vested in your new business and get hit with a big surprise like that.

If you have already started your business, get busy! Study, study, study. Read free articles and ebooks, take free teleclasses and read books. Then you can identify the gaps in your knowledge and hire experts to help. Good luck!

For a free ebook on sales training, claim your copy of Audrey Burton's popular FREE Special Report, "Closing the Sale is Not Complicated!" at => http://www.TigressCoaching.com .

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