In this episode, we discuss:

• Five things you need to know before you start working from home.
• What does it take to be successful working from home?
• What are the biggest mistakes people make when starting to work from home?

About our guest: Lesley Pyle is the founder of HireMyMom.com, a boutique service connecting Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses with top-notch Virtual Professionals across the country. She began her work-at-home career in 1996 with the launch of her first website: Home-Based Working Moms. She has a Master's degree in Public Relations from the University of Stirling, Scotland while on a full academic scholarship and as an Ambassador of Goodwill for Rotary International. She also has a BA in Journalism / Public Relations from Texas State University. Pyle has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. She and her husband live in Texas and have four children.

Rhonda: Thank you so much for joining us! I am really excited to be able to introduce to Lesley Pyle, and she is the founder of Hire My Mom, which is a boutique service connecting entrepreneurs and small businesses. She began her work-at-home career in 1996 with the launch of her first website, Home-Based Working Mom. So, for all of us moms out there, we can relate to her business. Whether it's a full-time hustle, a side hustle, we're going to be sharing some tips on working from home. Lesley has a master's degree in public relations from the University of Stirling in Scotland and she also has some additional credentials as well. She has a bachelor's degree, bachelor's of arts actually in journalism and public relations from Texas State University. As I was looking through your credentials, isn't it fun that we have the opportunity to be able to use our journalism and public relations backgrounds to be able to share something we're super passionate about?

Lesley: Yeah. You know, I was so thankful that I did have that background because it comes in handy no matter what business you have, to have a PR and marketing background. So, I credit that with helping me get my business off the ground because-

Rhonda: Yeah, absolutely.

Lesley: ... so many of us start on a shoestring budget, so being able to do some marketing and PR, in the beginning, was really helpful.

Rhonda: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

Lesley: Yeah. Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Rhonda: So, share with us ... I know you've had several articles written, Huffington Post. What are some of the other places that you have written articles for or been -

Lesley: I wrote ... Yeah, I wrote for Women Entrepreneur for quite a while and then I've written for some ... one-time posts on various parenting and work from home blogs. So, yeah. 24 years of doing this, so it's been ... A lot's changed over the years.

Rhonda: Right? Well, when you and I chatted prior to doing the recording, that was one of the things that we were talking about is how things have shifted so much over the years. You know, I'd love for you to share, from your perspective, some of the things that you've seen as far as some of the shifts.

Lesley: Yeah, most definitely. So, when I first started out 24 years ago, working from home was not so widely accepted. So, I basically .. When I started freelancing, I didn't tell my clients that I work from home because I knew it was going to be not as well received. Today, everybody thinks it's great and they're jealous if you work from home, but back then it was like, "Oh, you must not be very good at what you do if you work from home." So, that's been the biggest change.

Lesley: With the advent of all the technology we have today with the Internet and with cell phones and email, none of that existed back ... Well, I think we had ... I did have a website, but I don't even know if I had email originally. But so much has changed and it just makes working from anywhere so possible now. With moms wanting that flexibility to work from home, not just moms that are searching for work, but moms who are business owners, a lot of them want to work from home, too, because that flexibility is just so helpful and beneficial for moms. So, I don't know about you, but I had ... When my babies were young, I had somebody come in and watch them while I work. That worked out beautifully. Then as they got older, they could go to a mother's day out or a preschool for a few hours a day and that sort of thing. Then, transition. Now, they're all in school.

Rhonda: I know, right? It's like, "Oh, my gosh." Well, I think a lot of times, people start, they want the flexibility, and yet I think it takes the right person and right personality to be able to be disciplined and navigate through all of those pieces because ... I don't know that balance is really the right word because I don't know if you can ever have balance, but it's prioritizing those things and then also knowing like, "Hey, we might have to work a little bit longer this day so that we can do this on this day," you know?

Lesley: Exactly. I find myself doing that. So, I may get up early one day and get a lot done because I want to do something that afternoon with my only one that's still at home or vice versa. I may work in the evening if I need to catch up on something if I've taken off a few hours during the day to go have fun or run errands or whatever it might be. So, yeah, it's such a huge benefit to be able to work that flexibility.

Rhonda: Well, like you said, it is more widely accepted for people to stay at home. So, let's talk a little bit about some of the successes and lessons that you've learned from 24 years of working. Not only working from home yourself, but really helping other women work from home as well. So,-

Lesley: Yeah.

Rhonda: So, what are five things that women need to know before starting to work from home?

Lesley: I think one of the biggest mistakes I see moms make is they jump right into something because they just want to work at home. So, the first thing that comes along, they're like, "I'm going to do it. I can make money." Well, that doesn't always work. It may work for some people, but I really think the best thing to do is to really spend time thinking about your true strengths, your passion, your experience, your education, and how those all fit together, and what could you do with that combination of skills and passions. I think you'll be so much more successful.

Lesley: It may not be something that you can start and be up and running and making money the next day, but I think the old saying "Find what you love and the money will follow," is so true because I love what I do, so working is never like, "Oh, I've got to work today." Working is like, "Yay! I'm going to work today. What fun am I going to have?" because every day's a little bit different and I interact with different moms and business owners. So, that's my first recommendation is find something that you're passionate about.

Lesley: Then, also consider the viability of your business. So, if you want to do something and there's no market for it or the market is saturated, maybe you need to go to plan B because if there's too much competition, it may be hard for you to make an income. But there's always room, you know. On the other hand, if what you do is really good and you can find your unique selling point, then you can always give it a go.

Lesley: I also think it's really important to be a motivated self-starter because you don't have a boss looking over your shoulder and telling you to get in there and get to work. So, if that's not your personality, either you got to figure out how to make yourself become more motivated and self-start or maybe find something else where you are working for someone else.

Lesley: Then, I think it's important to develop a plan, even if it's informal, where you write down your business idea, who your market is, how you think you can target them through whatever advertising, marketing, direct mail, whatever works for you, or direct email more these days.

Lesley: Then, my final piece of advice is to commit yourself to at least six months. Don't give up too quickly because it does take time to get a business up and running, and sometimes it takes up to 12 months. So, if you're not making money the first month, don't give up. I know when I first started 24 years ago, I had such passion to make it work because I did not ... I took my baby girl to daycare for two weeks and I cried every day. This was me thinking ... I never thought I would be a stay-at-home mom. I used to think that was such a boring life, like, "Who wants to do that?" So, I had always envisioned myself as being this big, corporate career lady with my briefcase and my stilettos and I was going for it. Then, I had a baby and all of that just changed for me.

Lesley: I was like, "I cannot bear to leave her in somebody else's care." So, when I quit after two weeks, my motivation was, "I better get some clients fast because we couldn't afford for me not to work." So, that was my motivation, and it pushed me out of my comfort zone becau