If you are a work at home parent like me, you often find yourself frustrated when trying to work at home. There are so many distractions – the laundry needs to be done, the dog wants to go out, kids always want something, the phone is ringing, or a neighbor stops by. Try to plan your day so that your frustration is minimal. I am a stay at home mom and work on my eBay business frequently throughout the day.
For example, the hours of 4 – 7 PM are the worst for me. I am starting to get tired because I have been busy since about 7 AM. The kids are coming home from school and want something to eat, about every 5 minutes. They are watching TV and playing video games and making background noise. The kids and their friends are going in and out of the house slamming doors, and just basically being kids. I have to start thinking about dinner, getting my son to ball practice, taking my daughter to dance, and helping with homework. This is also known as “the witching hour.” I don’t even try to work on my business during this time. It is just too frustrating with all the noise and distractions.
If you are a stay at home parent, just remind yourself that the kids are one of the reasons you work at home in the first place. I know how it feels to have a pile of business related items on your desk, but you just can’t sit down and work because you are too distracted. You want to check your email for sales, write on your blog, answer emails, or work on a new idea.
Just remind yourself that your business will be there later and that your kids come first. Ask yourself this question: 10 years down the road, which will be more important – that email or your relationship with your child?
Suzanne Wells is an eBay Power Seller, eBay consultant, Author of The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to Successful eBay Selling, and mom of 2.
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AMEN to this!!
I’m new to working from home (full time) and as much as I am so thankful to be able to do it….. there is a lot to be said for “clocking out” at 5:00!!
It definitely takes some creative scheduling for us WAHM’s to get it ALL done and be there for our families!
“Just remind yourself that your business will be there later and that your kids come first. ”
I hope you have an eBay name like mom2four, so I can tell your priority is your child. I pay for, and want my item on time.
If your child comes first, I’d rather take my money and give it to a store that believes the CUSTOMER comes first.
I think you missed the point of this article – if you can’t provide good customer service and still put your child first then you shouldn’t be working from home.
We live in a world were more people need to put their children and families first – not just moms – but dads to. If your wife was sick and needed medical attention – but you needed to get to the mail for a customer – would your wife or your customer come first? If you answer the customer, then you probably aren’t married or won’t be for long and I really hope you don’t have any kids yet:(
The key to being a sucessful work-from-home-mom is knowing how to find balance so that neither your children or your customers have to sacrifice.
That might include, for example – having a statement in your auctions that says “Items will ship in 3-4 days”. Chances are, even a busy mom can find time for the post in that time, and the customer knows up front what to expect.
“I hope you have an eBay name like mom2four, so I can tell your priority is your child. I pay for, and want my item on time.
If your child comes first, I’d rather take my money and give it to a store that believes the CUSTOMER comes first.”
I’d be pretty concerned if a mother ever puts a customer before her child. That also doesn’t have to mean you get bad service. She didn’t say put your business on the back burner for a month or even days.
If we had more moms at home putting a priority on raising their children well we wouldn’t have such a lost generation of kids with no direction or values.
No one besides God should come above your family, including business.
I guess your missing out on some great businesses if you are limiting your purchases to people that don’t list that they have kids. Do you know how many of people in this world do not have kids? Men have them too and even stay at home with them! And chances are, you are even buying from them without your so clever way of not purchasing from those that are proud of their kids (not that the others are not!). And, if the only bad customer service on ebay was those like mom2four, it would be a miracle! Do you ever think a mom2four may be 75 years old?
Dear “your customer”,
I have a strong feeling you have never shopped with a WAHM especially not any that post or author posts here on this blog. We are all a bunch of very honoring women who CHOOSE to work from home, however that doesn’t mean we don’t have HONESTY and INTEGRITY and good CUSTOMER Service. I think you should give us a try before KNOCKING us!
Alyssa
wow, “your customer” is so wrong….if you don’t work your biz, it won’t be there later!!!! It just take great planning to work it all out. I worked 31 yrs and had 4 children all I ever wanted was to stay home. Finally got the chance when my youngest (twins) were seniors in high school. I missed out on lots of their “firsts” that I can never get back…I envy the moms of today that have the wonderful business opportunites that allow them to do BOTH. Go get them wahms!!!!!!!!!
“If your child comes first, I’d rather take my money and give it to a store that believes the CUSTOMER comes first.”
A good mother is the epitome of diligence, hard work, dedication and BALANCE – to everyone she serves, whether it be her children or her customers.
For a woman to be a successful mother AND entrepreneur, she is in class all her own. This woman is obviously in that class.
I would much rather deal with a person who I knew possessed these characteristics than a corporate image who simply claimed to “put the customer first.” It’s a tagline that most businesses use – why wouldn’t they? At least when I’m dealing with a dedicated mother, I know she puts her heart into her work.
What kind of person would shun a woman for prioritizing her children? SHAME ON YOU!
You are obviously not a mother to make such an indecent comment. And anonymous at that – how very brave.
Balance is the key and you can have it all working at home means your Flexible many of us are not driven by our familes every whim.
We train our children and families to respect out time when we are working. We do not feel the need to drop everything unless it is Important to do so and then we find a way to reschedule what we need to do.
Now there are people that cowtow to their familes 100% and it does efffect their business if they do. So it is up to the wise consumer to decide if they want to do business with a person who might not have perfect customer service. But it should the business owners also need to be unfront about delays and such and just not ingnore the customer until they decide to get around to it. That is bad for anyone that is working from home and it what make people not want to do business with those calling themselves WAHMS.
I am one that believes you can have it all but you need to work for it.
Those of us that depend on our income take it serious and honor what we do and our customers.
Dear Ms. “your customer” ~
It takes a villiage to raise a child. I sure hope your not in my village..
Should she just throw them back in day care, go back to her corproate job.. and leave the ebay shipping to the the “non-kid” people?
Give me a fricken break. Get over it. This woman has sold over 12 THOUSAND items on ebay.. and thats NOT BECAUSE SHE SHIPS THINGS LATE!
One of the attractive perks for sahms is flexibility in our schedules so that we can balance family and business. This balance is does not take anything away from either, but rather enhances both.
Putting our children first means answering emails at 4pm instead of our usual 1pm because our child has a recital at 12:30 – or entering data into our database after the kids are in bed so that before bed tv time becomes family time.
Brick and mortar businesses have set business hours – and even close thier doors unexpectedly due to inventory seasons, family deaths, etc. If you were out of milk for your midnight cookies and your local grocers wasn’t open, I’m sure you wouldn’t vow to never purchase from them again because they put their employees first by not making them work past 10pm. And how dare my doctor refer me to another physician on a Sunday afternoon because he chooses not to work the weekend my daughter falls off her bike and breaks her wrist!
Please think about how illogical your comment seems to those of us who have chosen a home-based business to provide for our family. I call the shots as does ANY business owner. The choices I make provide both superb customer service as well love and security to my family.
The customer comes FIRST in my business – my family comes FIRST in my life. I challenge you to find any reputable company who doesn’t adhere to these same ethics. May God bless you on your search.
I am thankful to be able to work from home. My family is my most important motivation. Just because my family is my priority, doesn’t lessen my customer service at all. I think most can say that it doesn’t. Have a blessed day!!
“Your Customer” ~ I am flabbergasted at that comment… You must be a VERY angry and selfish person to make a comment like that.
Thank GOD you are not my parent…
Suzanne ~ You’re article was WONDERFUL and thank you for posting it…
Sometimes we has sah parents just need to ignore ignorance like that. We are raising America’s future and we need to believe that we are doing a great job.
We has sah parents have the hardest job/occupation in the WORLD.
It’s sad that people like that make some sah parents question what they are doing…
Again, Thank you for the wonderful article… Keep it up.
Heidi
Thank you all for all your wonderful comments so far! You guys really get it! When you work from home – you have to set boundries both with home and with customers.
If you owned a store, customers would not be showing up after hours looking for service and yet when I work from home and customers think it is okay to call me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – no kidding. I have gotten calls at 5am on a Sunday! I don’t answer business calls after 5pm or on weekends. If I worked in an office – customers would wait and my family would get my weekends/evenings.
Of course – you also have to set boundaries so that you have working times as well – and that is the whole point. It’s not about neglecting your customers – it’s knowing where to draw the line between good business and obsession.
Putting our children and our families first doesn’t mean we don’t give excellent customer service and conduct our business in a professional and timely manner.
It does mean that we schedule and put in the extra time and effort so that neither our customers nor our children are neglected.
Thank you for this great piece. It’s an excellent reminder of what is truly important in life…our kids and our family. They will be here long after a satisfied or dissatisfied customer and they should be our number one priority.
It’s a shame that someone has the nerve to condemn you for placing priority on something so special.
And to “customer comes first”, good luck finding great customer service in the corporate world. Half the time you don’t talk to a human on the phone and when you finally do, they speak broken English. I’d personally rather talk to a busy mom any day!
Thank you all so much for your comments. I actually wrote that article as a reminder to myself to stop working and give my kids attention when they are home in the afternoons. I tend to be a workaholic – starting my work at 6:30 am as soon as the kids get on the bus, working until 3 pm, then starting again in the evening from 8-11 or 12. If you check my eBay store and feedback, you will not find any comments regarding slow shipping, poor communication, or unacceptable service. Thanks again for your support.
I just want to note that some of the WORST customer service I have received on ebay has been from the big corporation type sellers. The ones who have warehouses that items are shipped out of and etc etc. They take days to respond to emails, sometimes they take weeks to ship, and above ALL, they do not CARE about me as their customer. I’ve had nothing but excellent communication and top notch customer service from all of the MOMS I have shopped from.
Also, I want to say that it saddens me deeply to see such blatant ignorance in the world as that which came from “your customer’s” comment. They clearly have no idea about life in general and I sincerely hope this person has no children!
“Your Customer”, wow! I’ll tell you this I am a WAHM to 4 children. I get up at 6 am, to get my work done and packages shipped. My hubby doesn’t leave for work until 11:30 am, so that is my work time. I do check emails throughout the day, and I ship within 24 hours. In addition to that my customer service skills have been praised by many of my customers!
That being said my children are my priority. I could certainly make more money working for another business, and you could certainly pay a company that doesn’t care about children to ship your products to you. You will find business is business, period. I can get you a better price, better service, better packaging and faster delivery than the big boys. Why? BECAUSE I put my children first! This is more than just a business to me! It’s a way to help my hubby support our family, while we do the raising, not a day care! It’s to show my children dreams are attainable, if you just work at it!
I’m sorry for you if you don’t give work at home moms a chance. You are the one missing out. If you would rather give your money top corporate America, please feel free. They won’t remember your name, they won’t make you feel special, and you’ll get your product, when you get it.
I prefer to work with my fellow WAHM’s, because I have found the service to be superior! And many of us include that little something extra!
I wish you the best finding that somewhere else.
I was always taught that your children come first, and you, the parent comes in second. I have sacrificed many a time for my children.
The children come first always and forever in my mind. I raised 2 boys to become responsible adults. They in turn with their own children. make their children first also.
All other things come second, including your business!
So many of my fellow WAHMs have already said it so well… But I’m so horrified I feel I MUST add my .02!
I wonder if “your customer” ever stopped to consider that a WAHM doesn’t have to take off work as a “sick day” to tend to a child’s momentary needs… So she may actually get your order taken care of MUCH FASTER.
Working from home is a balancing act and moms are the best ones to do it. I work my business every day. I produce products every day and go to the post office 3 times a week. All while doing this around my children. My hours are not set but I always get 4 -5 hours in a day.
I also have great support from my husband and that is another key factor in being successful WAHM. Having help to give you a break.
My children do come first but right after that is my website and customers. It can be done. I shop from WAHM’s whenever I can because I am supporting a family to survive. Not a store to make millions.
Personally, my kids AND my business come first. The word is called BALANCE.
As I’ve seen already mentioned, a balance between the two enhances both kids and business.
We try hard to make a successful business AND be good moms at the same time.
If we didn’t have good customer service, timely shipping, etc., we wouldn’t have a business long. And if we weren’t good moms who put our kids’ needs first, we still wouldn’t have a business long. Because we’d be too busy caring for very unruly children!
It works, trust the many of us that do it.
As both a consumer, mother, and entrepreneur that works from home, I can understand the concerns of the commenter that wants their order shipped on time. For me, I have found that being able to work around my family allows me to give better service than I ever get with any store.
Each morning I check my messages to see if I have any orders. When I do, they get packaged up and out the door in time to go with my mail carrier at 10am. Orders that come in later in the day often get driven by me to the post office so they can get on their way before the PO closes.
These are things I easily fit around picking up/dropping off at school or errands. Many businesses do not feel an urgent need to get orders out, but I love my customers and know that they are just as eager to get their items as I would be. You can read a recent article I wrote about this here:
http://supermomshealthandwellness.com/blog/supermom-says/if-this-makes-me-a-dork-so-be-it/
There may be WAHMs that are not in a season of life to give good customer service, but I think you will find that most women that do the hard (HARD! You’d be amazed at how much time and money it takes to set up a decent web site and business!) work of establishing an online business are extremely motivated to keep their customers happy.
I totally agree with what you have written in the article. Just because we work from home, there’s no ‘working hours’.
Remember, the main reason why we’re working from home is because of the kids. So, in times of need, the kids will always come first.
Even employees get days off and entitlement to leave….why should we? Just because we work from home doesn’t mean that we give up LIFE.
‘your customer’, get real. grow out. Yeah, hope this person is not married and have no kids. Gosh….
oops, i meant ‘why shouldn’t we’?
I sure hope “your customer” is anonymously embarrassed and hangs their head in SHAME! I am APPALLED at your comment. How dare you? HOW DARE YOU??!!! To make the presumption that I can’t both be a good Mom and provide not just good customer service but superior customer service is completely ignorant and just plain stupid. The fact that I have 2 children is completely invisible to my customers – and you better believe that I work hard to keep it that way and without sacrificing anything to my children’s needs and wants.
You know what? KEEP YOUR DAMNED money – I don’t want your business. You go right ahead and stick with your corporations and their faux claims of putting the customer first and after you get through your automated system and when you’re done waiting on hold maybe you’ll be able to understand the rep who answers the phone and since they work so closely with the products like us WAHMS do (because yeah… they put their whole heart and soul into their job as we do our businesses) – I’m sure you’ll receive the kind of service you deserve. I’d rather do business with customers who are rational, decent, understanding, compassionate human beings. I don’t know what you are.
OUR CHILDREN COME FIRST.
I do not care who you are. If you do not put YOUR children First. You are not a persone I would want to deal with. If you believe kids are of no imortance then by all means do not suppot us or look at our business. Give all you suppot to all the corporate people and leave us alone.
I for one charish my kids and when they need me I am there. I am WAHM and I am doing all this for them. If I lose my children all this work I am doing will be for nothing and a wast of my time. My children and I are close because I am a WAHM. The work right a long with me when they want to. I do not make them,work with me it is all up to them.But it gives us a lot of time together and WE LOVE IT.
Thank you for letting me vent about this person.
Be Blessed Everyone,
Blessings, TrinaLynn
Owner of — “For My Angels”
I consider myself a work at home mom and my sons are 38 and 40 years old. I have chosen to raise a nephew who is now 5 years old and I consider it an honor to once again handle the enormous responsibility of molding a beautiful child into a kind and productive adult. I have a desk next to mine with an older laptop that he uses and is learning on, and we spend a lot of productive hours together right here in my office. When we are done, all orders are out and business taken care of, we hit the pool in the back yard or do some other fun thing.
The comment about customer service running second to children first must have been made by someone whose mom did not instill values such as love and respect for the virtue of motherhood. To you I say, you have been unkind, disrespectful, and just plain rude to these mothers who are so proud to juggle a job right along side child rearing, and quite frankly you do not have any right to come in here where we love and respect each other, spewing your venom. So what you got an item late? I have been ripped off twice by different individuals on eBay and both times it was a man. I have yet to recieve bad service from any of these work at home moms. Just so you know, if you had posted your manure on one of my websites, I would have removed it and blocked you in a New York second. Now run along and create havoc somewhere else, will you.
My customer service is great because my business is one of my kids. I have 5 children plus my online store and each need their own time. The business time is when the kids are playing but if they ask me to kick a ball with them I can. They even tell me to work when I don’t feel like it. My customers love the custmer service I provide. You all are right if a store is closed you wait till it’s open. The differance in that kind of store and our businesses is that just because we’re closed means we can still send that order out in the middle of the night unlike the brick and mortor. You might get the package before you think you should. Remember that please.
Please this is a no brainer of course the kids come first “Your Customer”. I put my kid first everyday. It may be 2 pm before I am able to get on the PC some days depending on what is going on with him and our schedule but I work hard at what I do.
I am a non classified non profit weight loss support service and the determination to stick with something that at the moment isn’t reaping a huge profit takes a lot of guts and courage. I have worked hard to get my business to where it is right now and I am more and more becoming a force to be reckoned with on the internet.
I have had times where I have had to put my kid first a lot of times this year and let my business dealings take a back seat. I sure hope you weren’t dropped on your head when you were born. Ok that was a bit mean on my part but mmm did your mom put your first?
Suzanne ~ your article was so right on ! I sometimes find it difficult to quit working, I work into the wee hours of the morning hitting bed at 4am if I am lucky and getting right back up at 8am with the baby and my 3 year old. I don’t sacrifice my customers satisfaction but if my kids need me, they get me and my business can wait for a bit, your right there is a reason we all stay home
Thanks for the great article! I have to admit that being a stay at home Mom is one of the hardest jobs there are, but also one of the most rewarding. I wouldn’t trade it for the world! I work from home as well. There are sometimes challenges when working at home with children, but there are challenges in everyday life. Even if we were working in a busy office with no children every day I’m sure there would be distractions and challenges.
Thanks for the great article!
What a jerk! That person is either not a mom or a VERY selfish mom. Thank goodness the ratio of caring, balanced and loving WAHM is MUCH higher than people who leave rude and anonymous comments on wonderful blogs!
I for one would not want to give my money to
Anyone that would let their kid go with out just to get me my
Items! I love buying from other work at home moms!
I know my money is going to help a family and not just another CEO
Get yet another big bonus he doesn’t need!
I work from home yes kids always come first but I do have strongly
Set work hours. I don’t let people stop by to set and talk don’t answer
The phone to calls that are not about my business don’t clean the house
In these hours (the times my kids are in school and late at night)
But 100% if my kids need me in them hours I am there for them first.
I totally agree with what Jennifer says:
“I sure hope “your customer” is anonymously embarrassed and hangs their head in SHAME! I am APPALLED at your comment. How dare you? HOW DARE YOU??!!! To make the presumption that I can’t both be a good Mom and provide not just good customer service but superior customer service is completely ignorant and just plain stupid. The fact that I have 2 children is completely invisible to my customers – and you better believe that I work hard to keep it that way and without sacrificing anything to my children’s needs and wants.
You know what? KEEP YOUR DAMNED money – I don’t want your business. You go right ahead and stick with your corporations and their faux claims of putting the customer first and after you get through your automated system and when you’re done waiting on hold maybe you’ll be able to understand the rep who answers the phone and since they work so closely with the products like us WAHMS do (because yeah… they put their whole heart and soul into their job as we do our businesses) – I’m sure you’ll receive the kind of service you deserve. I’d rather do business with customers who are rational, decent, understanding, compassionate human beings. I don’t know what you are.”
I work my business with set hours of operation. All of my customers know this, there is even a recording of my business hours on my voicemail, and an instant reply email when I get an email froma customer letting them know this…I have NEVER had a customer complain about this , and they have ALWAYS come back during normal business hours. I even have a phone line set up just for business calls. After 5PM I shut off the ringer on the phone.
I am appalled by “Your Customer”‘s comments!!! I put my children first…and my business secon. That in no way means that I put my business on hold for days…or for any lengh of time for that matter. It simply means, that when my children need me, or have an activity going on, or heaven forbid something terrible happens to them, I am there for them. I would like to know which corporate businesses will allow you to call off of work for 4 days in a row because your child has the flu or is in the hospital. Or which corporate job allows you to on a seconds notice drop everything to tend to a child emergency??? You would be fired….that is all there is to it. And, just because I take this time off does NOT mean that my business suffers for it. If my business hours are from 9-5, and my daughter has a play at school at 2:00, I can take that time off but still insure that products are delivered on time. I hand-deliver most of my products, and do not ship unless my custome specifically wants me to, or in case of distance. Either way, I guarntee that my product arrives…and almost always, it is there sooner than my customer expected. I could go on and on ranting abou this…the comments from “Your Customer” really burn me up…
To Your Customer: I really do hope that you find what you are looking for and receive it in a timely fashion, regardless of whom you buy it from. I also hope that you have read these posts that we have all provided for you, and begin to reconsider your thoughts and feelings about us…if not, that is all right…just stay clear from us. May God bless you…and may he give you the understanding that you so desperately need.
Well, with all that, “Your Customer” is certainly not MY customer!!!!
P.S. Since we should have a screen name like “mom2four”, I think it is only appropriate that people like you have a screen name like “dontcareaboutfamilyvaluessodontevendealwithme”, so that we can make the decision whether to deal with you or not.
(Sorry that this post is so long everyone….I just had to get that out!!!)