Supporting Your Work at Home Wife
The new trend in our society is working from home. Many womenare leaving the corporate world to come home and care for theirfamilies, but they still desire to contribute financially. Itcan be challenging to work from home, especially for women whohave children to care for as well. Is your wife is one of the growing number of work at home moms?Here are ten key tips on supporting her:1. Encouragement is key Sometimes all that your wife needs inorder to be successful with whatev...
...er she is working on is alittle encouragement. Often times she won't have anyone elsearound to give her the encouragement that she needs and you maybe the only person that can give her the encouragement she needs.2. Help with whatever she is doing Depending on the businessthere may be extra work that could be done by you. For example,with my wife's website, Christian Work at Home Moms(www.cwahm.com), she will often need someone to write a script,setup an email account, or proofread a document. Some of thetasks aren't going to be the most glamorous but 5 minutes couldsave your partner hours of time and added stress.3. Be positive It's easy to be a positive influence on your wifeand her business. Listen to her when she talks about herbusiness. Don't put down her ideas for business growth - helpher think of new ideas to help her business grow. Remember thatjust because she is working from home, that does not make herbusiness any less important or legitimate. If you are a positiveinfluence on your wife and take an interest in her business,there's no telling how big the business might grow! As wives, weneed our husband's support and encouragement! 4. Watch the kidsYour wife is at home with the kids all day every day. Sometimesshe is going to need a chance to work with no distractions. Ifthe kids are constantly asking questions and bugging your wifeshe can't get anything done. Don't wait to be asked. Beproactive and offer to watch the kids.5. Listen Your wife might not have a large support system orother co-workers to bounce ideas off of. She is going to needsomeone to talk to and more importantly listen to the ideas shehas. I think this goes hand in hand with encouragement. You willneed to listen and encourage, sometimes that is all she needs.6. Let her run the show This is her job her business she gets tocall the shots. I know that the way my wife and I handle thebusiness decisions is that she runs all of her ideas by me andwe mutually make the decisions. A lot of the decisions can becostly and take a lot of time. Those decisions should be madetogether but ultimately it isn't your decision.7. Be a part of the business Many wives want their husbands totake part in their home business even if it's just helping tostuff envelopes. Taking the time to do even small things likethis will encourage your wife and show her that you support her.If there isn't a way to be directly involved with your wife'sbusiness, pick one day a week and do the dishes or another chorethat will free up some time for your wife to work at herbusiness.8. Don't let her give up. Most work at home moms will tell youthat it takes 3-4 years to build a successful business. Itdoesn't happen overnight. When your wife feels discouraged,listen to her and ask if she would like your input on thesituation. She will need your encouragement to stick with it. Wewives do not like to fail our husbands and we sometimes feellike failures when our businesses are not doing well. Remindyour wife of the time that it takes to grow a business and thatEVERY business has times during the year when sales are slow. 9. Surprise her This may not sound like a business tip, but agreat way to help your wife stay motivated is to bring herlittle "surprises" - flowers, her favorite candy, a businesssupply that she can't bring her self to spend the money on. Allof these are great ways to remind her of your support.10. Pray Most importantly, this business is going to needprayer. Never underestimate the power of prayer to help you getgoing and keep the whole project rolling. If you aren't talkingto God on a regular basis it will be very hard to stay on track. By following these ten simple tips, you can help strengthen yourwife's home-based business. She will appreciate your efforts andyour marriage will benefit as well. Supporting your work at homewife is one of the best ways to show you care.
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