Making Work at Home Work by Mary M. Byers

I have recently been blessed by the opportunity to review books and I am excited! I love to read and since Alaina’s birth I have actually made it more of a priority. There is nothing more relaxing for me than to snuggle with a good book. Making Work at Home Work by Mary Byers is my first book review. I will be adding many more in the future, and will be making a special link so that you can view all my reviews at once. I know I have many friends that love to read and have requested me to share my books online—(Ahem…Julie & Becky). Here is my answer to your request, conveniently stored in my blog. Enjoy!

I first picked Making Work at Home Work to review because the title intrigued me. How can you be a stay at home mom and have your own business? How can you possibly balance family, household, and sanity and do it all from one place—your home? I have been a SAHM for almost 3 years now and I still struggle with just getting the housework done! I would love to leave my current part time job and do it all from home, but how? I was hoping this book would answer my questions to the possibility of making it all work as well as guide me to a new at home career.
Mary Byers not only answered all of my questions on balancing family, business, and household, but she outlined just about everything you need to do to run a successful business as well—she even included tax information and retirement plans! By the end of this read (actually after a few chapters of this read), I became jazzed about the possibility of working from home and being successful at it.

In the first half of the book, Byers helps you focus on setting realistic expectations for your business. She covers everything from putting together a business plan, balancing family time with work, keeping up with household chores, and scheduling your work hours. With all these factors, one thing really stood out to me. Byers understands that running your own business does come at a cost, but it should not interfere with your main priority--family. For example, she makes it clear that you should not panic about turning away business if you don’t have time. She also gives great suggestions in dealing with these customers politely and making attempts to work with them at a later time. I know that any small business owner would be scared to turn away or lose business when they are concerned about their survival (especially in this market), but the bigger picture is the survival of your family and making sure you have time for them. Her focus is RIGHT ON!

I think the trickiest part for any SAHM to start a business would be finding the work hours. Byers addresses this with multiple solutions. She mentions using nap time, exchanging babysitting time with a friend, hiring the teenager next door, and negotiating part-time daycare. One of her other ideas for keeping children out of the office is paying your kids to let you work. Personally, I do not like this idea. I could see the kids taking advantage of this and making sure they always get paid to leave you alone. On the flip side, she does talk about involving your children in the business and having them do things like stuff envelopes or sort papers. I appreciated this and liked the idea of having your children feel more a part of the income of the family. (I would also be more willing to pay them from time to time). Being a Domestic Diva (aka SAHM), I also enjoyed her advice on housework (having everyone pitch in, getting a schedule, or even paying for some help), as well as making dinners (food exchange, recommendations of good cook books, cooking for the future). She also included some great quick recipes in the back of her book (BONUS! I love free recipes!).

The latter half of the book focuses on making your business successful and pulling in the dough. Her overall theme is “you gotta spend money to make money.” I had not considered the need or possibility of subcontracting help or putting away money for those days your business isn’t making money. She also discusses expenses such as buying a faster computer or Xerox machine. While it may not be vital to your business, if it saves you time and sanity it can easily become an asset—not to mention a tax write-off! (And yes she does talk about tax time!)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Byers gave me a lot of great ideas on how to run my own business. She spent time on topics I had never considered. I was hoping this book was going to give me ideas on what kind of business I may be able to start. Looking at it now, I realize that that is a personal choice that I need to reflect on and think about. No one can guide me to that except myself and those who know me well. Once I have that figured out, I know I will be using this book as a vital tool to starting up my business and making it run smoothly. In conclusion, if you are looking to start your own business or already have one, I highly recommend this book. It will guide you in making wise choices to ensure your business runs smoothly.