How to Uphold a Professional Business Image from Home

Venturing into a home business has its share of pros and cons, just as working outside of the home does, and one of the major challenges that women face as business owners is their children.

The decision to start a home business usually stems from a need to be home for your children, while still being able to contribute to the family finances. Unfortunately, because children are the prevalent reason behind a home business, it can come as quite a shock when you start having trouble managing your children and a professional business.

Is it possible to put forth a professional image with your children underfoot and fighting in the background?

The way you handle yourself while communicating with customers reflects on you and your business, so it’s wise to carefully consider how you plan to maintain the required expertise and authority while still being a full-time mom.

Here are 3 important ways you can implement an image of professionalism from home:

1. COMMUNICATION - While it isn’t always possible to avoid speaking to your customers on the phone, there are some alternatives that you can offer while making personal phone contact a last resort. If you have a website, set up a live support option. This can usually be done for free through your hosting cpanel with a pre-installed script, if you don’t know how ask the person who maintains your website to do it for you. Make sure the support button shows up on every page of your website, and whenever you’re online turn it on! Providing your customers with this option will allow you to appear professional and it will offer them a quick solution to their problems or questions in real-time. Most live chat programs will chime and pop-up on your screen when someone wants to chat, so even if you go into another room to be with your children, you can turn your speakers up and attend to your customers as needed.

Instant messengers are also a popular way of meeting with your customers. You can place a button or your messenger name on your contact page for customers who would like to get in touch with you that way. Of course email is a wonderful communication tool, but the downside is that customers may be waiting on you to check and answer your email and sales could be lost. Email is not 100% reliable, they bounce, get lost, or show up days later so you should always provide something more then an email address.

Listing a mailing address on your website isn’t always necessary, but depending on the nature of your business it may beneficial. If you don’t want your home address listed on your website for the world to see, just list a post office box. If you don’t have one, look into renting one under your business name just for this purpose.

If a customer insists on speaking to someone on the phone, but it’s not ideal for you, then consider hiring a VA to do it for you. A VA is a virtual assistant who makes it her job to provide administrative services to businesses like yours. She can receive and make all your calls for you, though depending on the nature of your business, some training may be necessary to ensure that she is able to answer questions and offer support to your customers. VA’s charge anywhere from $10-$45 an hour for their services, and most even offer retainer plans that will give you additional discounts. But the best part about using a virtual assistant is that you only pay her for the time she works. So if she only spends an hour a day taking phone calls, that doesn’t amount to a lot of money for the invaluable service she offers you.

2. BUSINESS HOURS – When you work from home it is very easy to work into the early morning hours while your children are sleeping and more often then not your email program is open and you find yourself responding to inquiries. Of course this is great for you, but what it’s telling your customers is that you are always open for business and that you clearly work from home. You need to set boundaries and guidelines from the moment you open for business. What are your business hours? Don’t just state 9am-5pm when you don’t work all those hours. It’s better to say that you’re in the office from 9am-1pm because then your customers know that they can contact you during those hours and actually reach you.

When choosing what your hours are going to be, make it clear to your husband and older children that when you’re in the office during that time you are working and can’t be disturbed. This is obviously more difficult with younger children, but by setting regular and shorter business hours it will be easier to keep your children occupied when you do work. If your customers must speak to you on the phone, set certain hours that they can call you when you know there will be no clinging kids and background noise, such as nap time.

A separate business line is perfect for this, because then you can turn the ringer off and switch it over to your business voice mail during the hours that you do not accept phone calls. Remember to state your business hours on your voice mail message, and don’t forget to stop working during non-business hours and just be mom.

3. ALL ABOUT YOU - How do you feel when you sit down at your desk to work? Do you feel tired and unmotivated about working? Working from home gives you the freedom to show up for work looking however you want, and for many women this works out fine. However, if you do find yourself lagging, you may want to make the extra effort of showering and dressing before you go into your office. Even if you get up a few minutes before the kids to grab a shower and rev up with coffee, you’ll be surprised by how much your spirits improve by the time you start working. Even if your customers never meet with you face to face, feeling professional will reflect positively on your work.

If you have a website you should have a page about you and your business. Include a professional picture, your background, education, achievements, and information on how and why you started your business, along with your interests and goals. You’ll be amazed by how much credibility and authority this page will add to your business image. Your customers aren’t going to hand over their money to just anyone, so instead of slapping up a few words about yourself, go the extra mile that will earn their trust and confidence in you.

It may take time to establish and put forward the impression you want your customers to have, but once you do, you’ll find yourself easily balancing your business and children under one roof.