The Truth about Starting a Home Based Business

My husband LOVES What About Brian. I’m not much of a TV fan, but even I got a little sucked in last night as Deena decided to start up her own cupcake business. My main question was how much it would cost me to get them to mention my website in an episode. HA! Yet in realizing that would be a rather unlikely scenario, I decided to just sit back and watch the show.

What I liked about it was that even though it was a bit dramatic, you know what? Starting a home based business is really a lot like it this in real life. It really is stressful – you really do get big orders and have no-show babysitters.

But unlike in a job, you can’t call in sick.

And you do get well wishing friends and family members nosing in on how you run things.

And you do get exciting moments when ideas just flow and you want to do all of it at once, but you just can’t.

And you do struggle with just how big you want your company to be.

And you also get some inappropriate clients that hint at a little more than just cupcakes! (ok, TK blatantly asked Deena out, but that’s beside the point!)

And you do get big breaks in which you get to find out what you are really capable of.

The point is, they somehow wrapped up all of these glorious moments of starting a home based business into one episode and I wanted to both hug Deena and slap her upside the head at times. I actually thought it was a good taste of what it would be like for all of you parents wondering if starting a home based business is something you want to consider. Yes, it was a bit dramatic, but life as a work at home parent can be far more dramatic than anything we could ever find on TV!!

Although I particularly liked it when Deena had to drop off the three girls at her husband’s office when her babysitter couldn’t babysit, I’m thinking about what would really make this an inspiration to other budding entrepreneurs… something like how she leverages referrals to build her business or how she could get some good (realistic) PR.

I may just have to watch this show more often to watch our budding Mompreneur evolve as the season progresses. Wow – I can’t believe it – I actually want to watch TV!
[Shhhhh - don't tell anyone!]

PS :: ABC has a fun distraction for moms wondering what style of TV mom you are – don’t spend too much time on their Moms of ABC site!