Jill Hart 2.0

This week’s featured Work at Home Mom is Jill Hart of CWAHM. Jill has been a reassuring presence in our community for many years. Her love for the work at home mom is evident. I am especially excited about Jill’s decision to move her massive website over into Wordpress. Way to go Jill!

Enjoy meeting her

When did you first decide to look for a way to work from home?

When I got married in 2000 I knew I wanted to be working from home by the time we had kids. I knew there must be a way - I had seen other that had done it, so I figured, “Why not me?” I set out researching ways to work from home and in the process my website, devoted to work-at-home moms from a Christian perspective, was born.

How did you sort through your ideas for a work at home business?

I actually didn’t. Every opportunity I came across excited me. I’d read success stories of other WAHMs and want to jump on board, join their business and be a success, too. After a few failed attempts I realized that researching all of these businesses and then writing about my findings was what really kept my interest. So, I’m still sorting through all the ideas out there, but now I also share what I find in order to help other moms.

Where did you look for inspiration?

*Way* back in 2000 there weren’t mommy blogs (at least not that I knew of) to keep me inspired and entertained. I found most of my inspiration in books and from conversations with friends. I’m blessed with two great friends that I made in college. They’re the type of friends that tell it like it is instead of just telling me what I want to hear.

Is there anything that you’ve tried that you would say didn’t work for you?

Oh yes, I fail miserably quite a lot. My business is constantly evolving. I tried direct sales first and that was pretty hysterical. Wish I had videos. I’ve also tried different things on my website that haven’t worked. One of those things for me has been affiliate programs. They just don’t seem to be effective on my site. I tried them, gave them a chance, and then moved on when I realized it wasn’t working for me.

What do you love about what you are doing to work at home today?

I love that I get to hang out with my kids every day. I love that I get to work with other moms. Occasionally I’ll get a sweet email from a mom who has found success at home through resources on my website. It’s amazing to get to be a small part of that.

How are you applying Web 2.0 tactics to your business?

I just migrated my entire website over to Wordpress. It was a huge undertaking as my site is now thousands of pages of content, but it was worth it. Now if I can just make RSS easy enough for my moms to give it a shot I think they’ll be hooked. It took me a while, too, but now I’m addicted to Google Reader.

What are your hopes for the future?

I hope to do some more writing. I have a book that I just finished that I’d love to see in print. It’s in the works, but I’m not counting on it until the contract is in my hand. I’d also love to develop a platform that would make it easier for moms and companies to connect to help with telecommuting placement. I think it would be amazing to be able to help moms find at-home jobs directly through my website.

What advice would you give a new work at home mom?

The two best things that were shared with me when I was just starting out are:

1. What you give comes back. It may not be financially or even business-related, but what you do for others comes back eventually. The more we help one another, the more we all succeed.

2. Don’t give up. Working from home is hard work. It’s not going to happen over night and it’s not going to be wonderful all the time. But, if you hang in there, the benefits eventually outweigh the cost.