Online Business for WAHMs – Be Duped or Be Wealthy

by Cwynire Thursday, October 28, 2010 0 comments Mama WAHM

It is typical for a Staying at Home Mom a.k.a. SAHM to consider doing business from home (thus becoming a Working at Home Mom a.k.a. WAHM), mainly due to the need for extra income or pure boredom, or possibly both. I am a WAHM myself, at least most of the time. There are times I do go to the office with my children (WOHM – oh what ever with these terms!). Now with 9 kids (5 of my own + 4 anak susuan) … being home-based is the preferable option.

source image: ramblingsofawahm.com

Be Duped

From my observation, a lot of WAHMs tend to find online business as a good opportunity for income, mainly due to the hype and lures of making money online. Some may fall into the ‘traps’ of the so-called home-based entrepreneur programs that end up scraping up WAHMs’ invested money and worse, their confidence in doing business from home. Fraudulent online money-making schemes have severely damaged the credence of genuine online entrepreneurship, so bad that sometimes I avoid using the term ‘Internet Entrepreneur’ just to not get the wrong impression – how sad!

Internet Entrepreneur Redefined


I believe for those with pure intentions of creating online entrepreneurs, it is a responsibility to uplift credibility of online entrepreneurship and disassociate it with online scams, quick-cash & such. Entrepreneurs, online or not, should not be merely a business person who makes money, but moreover a creative, innovative, open to change, highly motivated individual who can create a new business or venture, grow it and drive it to success.

“Entrepreneurs are persevering, are lovers of challenges, are action oriented and are quick to learn, and adopt techniques to perform better as well as improve their business. They are independent extroverts who have the ability to lead people, manage them effectively, and steer their business toward its success. They are intelligent and able to utilize their skills, time, resources, and energy effectively. They are emotionally stable and healthy. They set reasonable, realistic goals and determine the ways to achieve the goals without fuss, have good communication skills as well as the ability to judge people and trust them accordingly. They have business acumen even without attending any business school and have the right instinct to make the right decision at the right time. They have the ability to make maximum use of the available resources and do not fear failure and are able to solve problems and seek solutions to existing problems easily.”
- source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Essential-Qualities-Of-An-Entrepreneur&id=398886

Therefore, an entrepreneur whose business is on the internet should be NO different in qualities to those who are doing physical businesses.


Be Wealthy

Wealth can be measured in many ways. Money of course is the most attractive measure of this. WAHM-entrepreneurs should not be too lured by the money no matter how tempting, but focus on building the business. Think long-term. Be market-oriented instead of sales-oriented. It will reward you eventually.

When attempting to dive into the online business world, WAHMs should firstly do research and find out as much information regarding the business of interest (other than solat istikharah for Muslimahs). You need help, so you seek help. Do not ask for opinions from a few people, but rather research from as many resources as possible – the people around you, articles & reviews, etc., then make a bold decision based on your findings. While not all businesses promise instant success, a false start can hurt you very badly. If you are not successful in doing a good research prior to starting business online … you will be travelling down a dead-end tunnel for sure! Quick money may be exciting but the excitement often ends as quick. Get involved in such things 2-3 rounds and you’ll find that you end up with nothing and is nowhere near grooming yourself into an online entrepreneur.


Start Small, Think Big

Why dive into a hype that normally has a short lifespan, when we can create our own business and put our heart into it. We may start small, but we must THINK BIG & PLAN BIG. When my husband & I started doing My1Stop Virtual Shopping Mall, we started small but we dreamt big. More importantly, we woke up and get on with our plans. The website started just as any other common "nobody"’s website would – unpopular. It would have maintained that way if we hadn’t had the dynamics, perseverance & confidence to grow it. In less than five years, it climbed from the 20+ millionth website in the world to top 115 thousand in world rank, and still climbing in the huge competition of billions of websites in the WWW. Some have asked us, how did we do it WITHOUT any huge investment nor massive paid advertising - we started with only RM2K. What matters most is that … it CAN be done. I have always known this & have full confidence in the business, even when others didn’t (you know how skeptical people can be with online business). Not making considerable income at first should not stop you from growing your business. Sometimes, you just need to re-strategize and evolve.

I believe that all WAHMs should have the desire to be real entrepreneurs and not take a shortcut to achieving wealth by being involved in quick-money programs, otherwise suffer the misconception that women are easy target for being conned. Let’s be wealthy, not be duped :D