Hi,
Well, I am starting a series on my home business journey, and am so glad to have you come along:-)
Before I begin, I would love for you to share with me and my readers about your own home business journey. Leave a comment and let us know what owning a home business has meant to you.
My home business journey was actually birthed in my homeschooling years. We belonged to a homeschool group, and on Fridays, my kids took classes with other kids who were homeschooled. Well, of course, this was a great time for the moms to get together and socialize! I can remember talking with one mom, in particular, who I spent a lot of my time there with. Many of our conversations centered around the fact that we both would have loved to start a home based business. But then we always were stumped at what we would do for a business. The idea sounded glamorous, but in reality, we had no idea of how we would bring it about.
When my daughter was in her senior year of homeschooling, I started wondering what in the world I was going to do after she graduated. For ten years, my days had been filled with teaching, and then trying to catch up on cleaning, shopping, cooking, etc. Now, I was going to have all this time on my hands and had no idea how I was going to fill it.
I have to also tell you that I was in quite a depressed state. I had had some really hard challenges in my life prior to this point, and they had left me feeling quite down, so my motivation was also down. This isn’t a good state in which to try to find a new version of life.
What did I do? Stay tuned! Come back next Monday!
Hi!
I have been reading your e-mails for months. I just decided to write you and thank you for your articles. I have owned my own business for the past 15 years. I am a nurse and operate a small assisted living facility. It’s certainly trying at times with long hours
caring for the elderly and supporting families facing their loved ones’
memory impairments. I can truly say that only by the grace of our Lord I make it some weeks. The joy of serving others is immeasurable. I have grown in being a business owner in realizing that that my business is not a ministry and my responsibility is to provide a service to the standard of excellence
and a fair price to my clients. My responsibility is to make a reasonable profit, pay above standard salaries, and pay the bills. Being a nurse for so many years interfered at times with proper business sense. However, I feel that I now have a balance. My husband has been very supportive spending long hours without me being home. I am now seriously thinking it is time to extrapalate my self from the business and spend time with my family. I have been relying on the Lord for direction and today a gentleman contacted me stating he was a commercial realtor and wanted to know if I would consider selling my business to an interested party. With the current economic times, I feel this would be a blessing. however, I am cautious and will not blindly say “This is it an answer from God” Now, I am considering a home business I have been investigating for several and I am disconcerted with the obvious scams lurking out in the web. How can I parlay my nursing experience into a internet business? I know my letter is long but any advice would be appreciated. Thank you and God bless you.
Sincerly yours,
colleen blais
Hi Colleen,
Thanks for your comment. I admire you for the business you have run for 15 years. My dad was in an assisted living facility for about a year and a half, and what a difference it can make to the person and their family.
If you are considering a home based business that incorporates your nursing skills, I have a few suggestions.
1. Run a nursing agency from home. You would be more on the administrative end, staffing nurses for those who need them. When my dad was in a nursing home during the last week of his life, we wanted someone to stay with him through the night. I spoke with a lady who ran an agency and she filled our need. SHe was on vacation at the time, but still ran the business by her cell phone. So , most of the work should be from home.
2. Medical Transcriptin, medical billing or coding – you have the background to transition nicely into any of these.
3. Geriatric Care Management – assess an older person’s situation and determine what is needed to enable them to keep living in their home.
4. Elder Care in home – with this one and the one above, you would be out of the home a lot. But you should be able to have a more manageable schedule.
5. Senior relocation – you could be the one who arranges a move for an elderly person from their home to a different facility – assisted living, nursing home, etc. You would work with the person’s children in many cases (who may live out of town) and arrange for as smooth a transition as possible.
Those are just some places to start. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.
Laurie