When you’re a work at home mother, it’s definitely a benefit to be able to work for yourself, control your working hours, and the income you get too. It’s why this kind of job and lifestyle appeal to so many working mothers. However, you have to think of whether it’s something that you really need to be sure about doing. Remember, when you work from home, you’re running your own business. If you’re not experienced at this, or you have no idea what it requires, you may want to make sure that you’re ready to take on everything from sales and customer services to finance and marketing before you make the plunge.
Now, when you are already a work at home mother, you may already know this. Moreover, maybe your business isn’t in the financial position that you wish it were. When that’s the case, you’re going to want to make sure that you can do something about it. Because if you want to work from home, it as to be profitable. No matter how much you want to make, you need to be making the amount that you need or want. If you know that you’re struggling financially you may need to make a few changes with your approach to working from home.
So let us look at ten things you can do to help you manage your money better, promote your business to get the income that you really need.
1. Assess Your Current Situation
The very first thing you should look to do here is take a good look at your current situation. What are the issues? Do you need to increase your income? Alternatively, maybe you need to work out how to bring down your costs? Spend a day or a few hours really digging around with your finances to work out where you are today. This will then give you a starting point.
2. Work on Your Personal Finances
Now, when you’re self-employed and you work from home, it can often feel like your business and personal finances collide. And, they do. Therefore, you will also need to sit down and look at your personal finances too. Do you need to drastically change your spending habits or look for a poor credit loan to see you through? Just make sure that you understand where you are with your personal finances, so that you can work to improve them at the same time.
3. Track Your Income
When you’re ready to start making some changes, one of the first things you need to be able to do, is track your income. If you don’t really know how much you make, tracking your freelance income is the best way to see exactly how much you make each month. When you see the figures, it can also be the motivation you need to work on increasing them. So get this system set up first.
4. Cut Your Expenses
Next, you’re going to want to sit down with your expenses sheet and work out how much you spend each month. You can do this with both your business and personal finances at this point. Think about what you need to do to reduce the amount that goes out, so that you can free up more cash – particularly if you’re prone to overspending.
5. Sell to Your Existing Client Base
Now, when you want to be able to increase your income to improve your financial situation, the first place to look for this is your existing client base. Most of the time, you will find that there is room to make more money based on what you’re already doing. Check in with your clients and make sure that you’re doing everything you can do them. You may spot more opportunities to offer services that allow you to earn more.
6. Market Your Business More
Then, you’re want to work on more marketing methods. If you’re not doing anything now, then it’s time to promote your business. Think about the kind of customers that you want to target, and then based on that post, look at what tactics you can use to attract new customers and increase your income.
7. Focus on What You Offer
Something that will help you to generate more business is the option of being able to really focus on what you offer. When it comes to packaging your freelance services, you’ll want to make sure that you can offer the best of the best. Do you need to add more services to your offering or make your products more effective? This may help you to attract more business.
8. Improve Your Branding
Another thing that can work in your favor here is to start to work a lot more on your branding. If you don’t already have a clear brand in place, you may seem unprofessional. So think about the fonts and colors that you want to signify your brand. Working with a designer can be a good idea for you here.
9. Set Targets
Now, as you’re starting to get more serious about improving your business finances, you absolutely have to put some targets in place. When you set goals for your freelance business, you’re giving yourself something to work for. Now that you’re tracking your income, you should find it easy to stay motivated when it comes to marketing and looking for new clients.
10. Follow Actionable Steps
Lastly, you’re then going to want to make sure that you are starting to follow some key steps to really start turning things around. While this may seem like a lot of work, it really doesn’t have to be. Sure, there’s a lot for you to try to focus on if you want to improve your financial situation, but you can definitely do it on your own terms. Go as slow or as intense as you want to, but just make sure that you’re looking to apply some of the things you have learnt to improve your business finances.