Plenty of moms today stay at home. After a year of battling the
decision to quit my job, I finally “put my foot down”, as they
say, and returned home to raise my daughter. It wasn’t the
easiest decision, but, let me tell you, it sure wasn’t the
toughest! I enjoy every minute of being home to raise my child.
Furthermore, being home has done wonders for my family as a
unit, and drawn us closer together. When I was working my full
time job I barely had time to prepare a decent meal. But today?
I’m a health nut, and so is the whole family (ha)!
But now, there’s another dilemma.
Being a stay at home mom has not affected my personality, of
course, so I still have a lot of creative energy pent up inside!
I thought to myself one day, “what better way to use this energy
than to work towards a goal—perhaps start a business?” Not only
would it bring in a nice supplementary income for my family, but
having a business (or craft or hobby) would enhance my creative
skills and strengthen my business expertise. I call it the
project of my lifetime.
The first thing I did was a little soul searching to seek God’s
direction for the type of business or project He would have me
to embark on. I realized right away that although my personality
was suited for several types of business ventures (selling
crafts, designing websites, or providing secretarial services),
I would soon either have to narrow it down to one choice, or
start a business that combined all or most of my skills and
interests. For me, choosing the right business was the hardest
part. Once I settled on freelance web design and writing, it
soon became my ultimate goal to find out as much as possible
about these particular industries. In my thought, education and
information is what separates the amateurs from the
professionals. My goal was to be a professional in my field.
This is where networking is highly important.
If you’re like me, the internet is probably one of the very best
tools you can use for research. Not only is it a few feet away
from me as I embark on my daily chores, but I keep my computer
on at all times. Thankfully, we are using a broadband connection
and can stay online 24/7 without having to worry about tying up
the phone line. This, I should stress, is very important for
moms who have businesses that require them to be online quite
often, but who will need access to the phone as well. Once
online, I begin my networking research by going to a search
engine. My favorite one is Google (www.google.com) just because
of its enormous searching capabilities. As a former library
assistant, I can attest that Google is highly recommended in the
academic and librarianship fields. I search for information in
my fields using as many search terms and combination of terms as
possible. With each result that I feel is important to me, I
visit its webpage and bookmark it for future reference. Once
I’ve bookmarked a bunch of pages, I go through each of these
websites and study them, taking notes on what I feel is
important to me in my field. I promise, you will find contacts
this way, and it will be so much easier to network once you have
a list of people whose companies and organizations you have
researched online. In addition to an internet search, I feel
that it is also important to find any books or other
publications that are related to your industry. Study them and
find out more about the authors. Find out if they have websites
and how to reach them. Now that you have a compiled list of
contact people, it’s time to work the list! Before contacting
these people individually (they are probably very busy), see if
they offer newsletters, or other mailbits. You are looking for
information on how they got where they are today. Remember, you
are the amateur. They are the professionals. So, any information
you receive from this contact list regarding their biographies
and information on the field itself is important enough for your
notes. Take plenty of notes, and keep them in a file folder.
Every time you find a new piece of information on your subject
matter, drop it in your file folder. And finally, if you
absolutely need to contact your list of professionals for more
information, I would recommend sending an email.
But don’t forget about networking with fellow amateurs! You can
make some of your best friends and closest contacts online by
joining mail lists such as Yahoo groups or MSN groups. These
groups along with technologies such as Instant Messenger make it
easier for you to find people with similar personal and
professional interests and literally network with them on a
regular basis. You will find out so much about your industry and
probably learn more from each other regarding your profession
than in any other way.
Last but not least, be sure to network with the most important
contact of all: your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember that
it is He who gave you the passion and the calling, and it is He
who will be with you each step of the way on your new journey.
Happy networking!
– Demetria Zinga is the founder and owner of
www.faith-media.com, a technology and consulting firm which
specializes in web design and hosting, graphics and print
designs, internet marketing, and e-training. She is also the
founder of www.christianladies.net, an interactive ezine, blog,
and podcast for Christian women.