I shared this a few years ago and recently was asked for tips and lessons we’ve learned over the years.  So I thought I’d dust this off and share again. 

Last night a friend sent me a picture that was a reminder of how blessed our family is to work from home.  When we got married we really didn’t have any plans on being small business owners, but God had other plans and through the last 10 years we have been blessed to see our family grow closer as we’ve been able to move to working from home.

I know many others have the same goal of being able to set your own schedule and spend more time at home with family.  If that’s your goal then let me share some things we’ve learned over the years.

10 Tips for Starting a Family Business

1.  Be Passionate & Unique

The longer you spend in the business world, you will notice that a small fraction of people come up with ideas and the rest of the world tries to make money copying those ideas.  It is sadly this way in most market areas.  If you are just starting out, then start out strong and be in the idea creator!  Find a problem that needs to be solved, and something that no one else is doing.  The more passionate you are about your niche the more you’ll enjoy your work, and the more people will see you as an expert to listen too.  People can see passion and it will make a big difference on how far you go!

2.  Get On the Same Page

If this is truly going to be a family business then you need to all have the same goals.  This seems simple, but really it’s not.  If you start off with different goals and visions then your dream of a business that brings your family closer will never happen.

This is one point that we had to learn the hard way.  Southern Savers was my passion from the start but we never thought it would grow or be a business, it was just a hobby.  As it got bigger I poured more time into it, but my husband hated it.  Our family was almost to the verge of falling apart.  It took us coming together and getting a common vision for things to turn around.  Today things are much stronger thanks to long conversations and hard decisions 11 years ago.

3.  Remember That It’s About Family

One more point here… if you are starting a business to spend more time with your family, then do that!  Set time limits to your work, hours that you don’t turn on a computer or answer emails.  If the two year old responds to you calling her name with “hold on mama let answer this email” you may have a problem.

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