Mom's start home based businesses for a number of different reasons, with the most popular being to make some extra money, stay home with their children, or to make a career change.  The benefits are obvious.  Well...most of them!  What about the other residual effects that a home based business provides that often go unrecognized?  Although these residual effects were definatly not the motivators for me to start my business, I strive for success so that I can continue to build these residual effects.

 

The residual effects that I refer to are those positive things that my children have picked up without me evening realizing it.  I am the mother of four children, ages 17, 14, 9, and 7.  The oldest three are all girls, and then we have our youngest son.  Over the years, I have often picked up on things that my children do or say that have definately come from my business.  It's wonderful.

 

The most glaring example that sticks out in my mind happened a few weeks ago at a volleyball tournament.  My son was playing with some new friends that he had just met.  When my husband went to check on him, he had a couple of dollars in his hand.  When asked how he got the money, my son responded, "I rented my volleyball to a boy."  Now, keep in mind that he didn't bring a volleyball with him. Somehow he had "acquired" a volleyball and was having a great time playing around.  Another boy approached him and asked if he could use the ball.  My son was reluctant because he was still playing with it.  The little boy offered to "rent" the ball from him for a dollar.  The price wasn't right, and my son declined the offer.  A bit later, the boy approached with a better offer, and my son accepted.  It's the law of supply and demand, right?  Capitalism at it's finest.  When my husband told me this story I just laughed.  Keep in mind that we do teach our children to share, but we thought it quite 'entreprenurial' that he would think to "rent" out something that didn't even belong to him.

 

This is a cute example, but the other lessons that my children have learned go far deeper.  While much of our society believes in instant gratification, my home based business has taught my children the value of diligence and hard work.  They have seen me set goals, create action plans, and work those plans.  In turn, I have seen my oldest daughter shift her thinking from "I'm too short to play college volleyball." to "I am going to play college volleyball regardless of the hard work that I must put in to develop my vertical jump."  She will play college volleyball next year on a scholarship.

 

Another one of my habits is to make a list of the six most important things that I need to do for the day.  My youngest daughter has acquired that habit as well.  One weekend she had her cousin spend the night.  I later found a paper that had her "Six Most Important Things To Do" list for her sleepover.  Her list of things to do was about 15-20 items long, with times, and after the last item she had scheduled lunch!  She had checked each item off that they had completed, just as I do when I finish a task.  I was amazed. 

 

So, although my goal is to build a business with a residual income that will provide a better lifestyle for my family, I believe the residual effects are just as valuable.  Our children truly do learn by what we do, not always what we say.  In our businesses, our children see how we treat other people.  They observe the management skills needed to run a business which are valuable in their school work, extra curricular activities, and eventually their own business lives.  They become resourceful in learning how to earn money.  Children also pick up on the way that we handle failure.  They learn to deal with "no"s and not be discouraged. 

 

There are so many lessons that are learned even when we aren't "teaching".  It is imperative that we realize that having a business in our homes means that our families will be exposed to much more than they would be otherwise.  It is an opportunity to transfer very valuable skills.  However, we must realize that "someone" is watching us, and learning from what we do every day.  If the things we do in our business are positive, then not only can we develop a great business, but also great kids.