Hi everyone!

Just wanted to share an interview I did with Scott Fox and fellow virtual assistants extraordinare Diana Ennen and Tawnya Sutherland. 

Many thanks to Scott for including me in this panel.  There are some great tips to keep in mind if you want to start a career as a virtual assistant.  I’d welcome any questions or comments here!  Would be more than happy to help someone get started and avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made.  

As always though, if you are seriously considering becoming a virtual assistant, the best training I can recommend is VAClassroom.com.  They currently have a Back to School special on their most popular courses.  If you’re just starting out, I recommend the Internet Marketing and Social Media Marketing Certification course combo to get you started.

Looking forward to your feedback and comments! 

I received the book, “So You Want to be a Work at Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business” by Jill Hart and Diana Ennen , as a gift from Diana.  I met her on Twitter and was bummed I didn’t win a contest giveaway where this book was a prize.  She VERY graciously offered to send me a copy to review for my website!

First off, I got this book in the mail on Friday, 10/2/09 and I finished reading it by Sunday, 10/4/09.  No small task with two baby girls under the age of 2.  However, I honestly found the book very easy to read, and filled with great resources and advice for anyone who is thinking of starting a home-based business.  I just wish I read this book 18 months ago when I started my new career! (The book just came out this year, so that wouldn’t have been possible.)

Anyway, I digress…

One of the the things that I really liked and appreciated about this book is how clear it is about setting realistic expectations.  That is one of the things I continue to struggle with as a Work at Home Mom (WAHM).  I have spent countless hours on the internet doing research about working from home, and I never really found a website, blog, person, etc. that gave a good description of what it’s like to work from home.  Truth be told, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to start this blog so that I share my experiences with others in hope that it would help someone, anyone, make the transition easier.

Being a WAHM is the most difficult, yet rewarding thing I have ever done.  And, the most important “job” I’ll ever have is raising my girls.  But its a lot of hard work, late nights and constant balancing act between work and home.

This book, “So You Want to be a Work at Home Mom” explains some real life scenarios of working at home with your kids.  The distractions, the benefits of flexibility, and the pitfalls of poor time management. They even included a sample daily, weekly and monthly to-do list to help readers stay on track!

Just as important though, is a list of home-based business opportunities  that you can research to see what’s right for you.  There is no one size fits all when it comes to a home-based business.  With the internet, you can find a job doing just about anything – you just need to identify what you love to do.

The book is also chock full of real business resources such as marketing and public relations advice, a list of websites to help with your marketing endeavors, and tips to help you get started on the right path.  It’s so much easier to start a business on the right foot, with the right tools and systems, rather than trying to go back and change things later.  This is critical when it comes to bookkeeping!

All in all, I think this is a must read book for anyone who is considering starting a home-based business.  It will give you real world examples of being a WAHM.

If you would like to get your copy of “So You Want to be a Work at Home Mom, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

About the Authors
Diana Ennen has been a leader and mentor in the work at home industry since starting her business in 1985. She is the author of many books including Words from Home: Start, Run and Profit from a Home-Based Word Processing Business. Please visit her website www.virtualwordpublishing.com for more information.

Jill Hart is an author, and owner of Christian Work at Home, Inc. She runs the very prestigious website www.cwahm.com. CWAHM.com is designed to help moms (and dads) find and request information regarding work at home (telecommuting) jobs, home businesses, and other information of special interest to Christian parents who desire to work from home.

Again, a very special thank you to Diana Ennen for sending me a copy of this book. I greatly appreciate it!