INSPIRATION THURSDAY: A WAHM Business Plan

For today’s Inspiration Thursday, I wanted to share my recent thoughts about my business. When I quit my job in May, it was partly because I knew that I couldn’t go back to work for someone else full time and still have inspiration, patience, and tenderness to be a good mom. After expending all of your mental energy in a job that you’re not passionate about, it’s hard to come up with activities for the kids, keep up the garden, and do laundry. You just want to sit around and do nothing.

And sitting around doing nothing is not good for me. The two of us don’t go together well.

When I decided not to go back to work, it wasn’t because I wanted to sit around and do nothing all day. And it wasn’t an easy decision, because we can’t survive on one income. I needed to make money.

There are two sides to this: I have a “day job,” and I still have my business that I’m trying to develop. My day job is freelance writing. It’s a lot more fun than answering customer service phone calls from the office all day, and I get to use my brain and be creative, but it’s still not my ultimate dream.

My ultimate dream is to make Tmuffin come alive as its own business.

But I haven’t created a business plan or figured out exactly where my money is coming from. It’s hard to find a balance when you combine passion with income. I want to make enough money to live, but my focus isn’t on the money; it’s on the passion.

One of the parts of my business that I’m most passionate about is blogging and connecting with others. Yet this is one of the parts of my business that will bring in the least profits. I didn’t realize that I craved this connection until I began to sincerely follow other bloggers and connect with fellow mamas during my maternity leave.

I crave the connection, but I also crave creating. I feel most fulfilled when I’m sharing, creating, and connecting all at once. And I like to do this in a different, unique way. When I paint a portrait, I’m trying to capture the spirit of a curious child, unlike so many portraits that capture a stilted pose in too-old clothing on a too-still toddler. When I sew a wool soaker, I’m trying to create something that I would use, but also that I haven’t seen before. I put little pockets on the back of my soakers and add padding into the wet zone because it’s cuter and more practical. I try to go above and beyond with everything I do and not just replicate what others are doing.

In light of this, I tried doing some visualization recently about how I would picture Tmuffin if there were no limits on anything.

The first thing that popped into my mind was my tag line: “Goodies and tidbits about natural living, moms, and their babies.” Tmuffin is all about making life easier for parents. It’s about parenting. It’s about motherhood. I thought of the significance of Tmuffin and the tag line, and these are some ways I rephrased it in my mind:

Art and sharing.
Shiny, pretty things that make life easier for moms and babies.

It’s a lot. I love the creative, artsy aspect of it. And I thrive on education, whether it’s teaching prospective parents about birth or showing a mama how to wear her baby so she can get a snack or a shower, or so she can feel like a real person again. And then again, I love learning more about mothering and parenthood. And this is all interwoven under a canopy of natural living. Because that’s just me.

As Tmuffin, I want to learn. I want to share what I’ve learned. I want to capture the interplay between parenthood and childhood. And I want to create shiny new things that make everybody’s life easier.

Has that narrowed it down a bit for you? Yeah, it hasn’t for me either. So does that mean this is what my business card should look like?

Maybe. I’m getting there. This is the way that feels right for me. I once mentioned that I don’t like taking the fastest route to a given destination. This is my meandering path.

P.S. I took away the linky tool because this blog party was more like a one-hit wonder. But if anyone wants to join in in the future, let me know, and I'll add it back.