Interview with a Work at Home Mom, Interview 2

This is the second interview in my series on WAHM's. Shiloah is a Mom of seven children that she also home schools. You have to admire Shiloah's dedication to her family.

How long have you been a WAHM?

My entire married life. I chose to stay at home with my children and have always done things to make money at home such as babysitting, MLM home business, and now my own business.

Tell me about your business?

My business is designed to support homemakers and share ideas needed to maintain a home and family. It is mostly articles on a website. I also feature eBooks, a free newsletter, and a Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition contains over 817 articles in areas such as recipes, crafts, holiday ideas, taking care of yourself, family ideas, marriage help, and more.

What inspired you to start your work-at-home business?

I was a new homemaker with lots of ambition and interest in my new passion. I did lots of searching online. This was around 1997 that were very few places to find homemaking ideas or inspiration. I decided that it was because I needed to do it! I could combine my passion (home and family) into helping and encouraging women around the globe and they could in turn share and enrich my life.

What did you do before becoming a WAHM?

I was a manager at McDonalds and going to college.

How many children do you have at home and what are their ages?

There are seven: 11, 9, 8, 6, 4, 2, 6 months

How do you juggle family and your online business?

I never let the business run me! God and family are first, everything else comes second. If I keep to that mentality it is never a difficulty.

You also home school your 7 children, how do you manage to do all this?

My children are taught responsibility at an early age. Everyone helps. We have a great chore system, an organized home, and everyone knows what is expected of him/her. We have our down days, but for the most part, our home and school run fairly well!

Where and how do you advertise and promote your work at home business?

Much of my advertising has come from word of mouth. I do advertise on other similar websites, google, and the email groups I ran over the years. I also give out business cards to everyone I meet as we always capture attention with our little brood.

What are your biggest challenges?

Customer service has been difficult for me. Sometimes I'm shocked by other's attitude and behavior. I have alleviated this difficulty by hiring a customer service rep.

Keeping up with the maintenance ofsite is sometimes overwhelming with the 2,000 pages and the new ones being added weekly.

Handling all 40 volunteers, their articles, and all the new updates from them is also overwhelming.

I just finished two books, one is an eBook (101 Ground Beef Recipes), and one is for homemaking classes in church. Doing these took up all extra website time and put me behind for a while.

What are your WAHM goals for 2007-2008?

To increase my sales, Deluxe membership, and staff. This I will be doing for the rest of the year by myself as my husband goes off to fight for freedom in Iraq for 1 1/2 years.

What advice do you have for WAHM's

Never give up! Believe in yourself. You can do anything you put your mind to!

Links to your site/s?

http://www.homemakingcottage.com

http://www.ahomemakingjourney.com

http://www.creativejubilee.com