Is your small business stuck because you are stuck? Work at Home Mom Confessions…

Real Talk – As far as I’ve come in my online business, as many ‘thanks you emails’ that I have received, as many interviews I have done, as many times as I’ve said to myself, “I made that much this month! Wow!” … even with all those things and more sometimes I get stuck. Sometimes I look at other bloggers and network creators who started after me BUT have now surpassed me and go … ARG! Sometimes I look at sistas who I follow and have tried to work with BUT have never accepted my partnership requests or interviewed me or responded to my emails and I think, “Am I not worthy? Am I not on the list of Tech Savvy Sistas? Am I doing something wrong?” Sometimes I look at opportunities that other people get while I’ve spent years doing all that I do on my own and I cry, I get angry, I feel tired, and flat out stuck.

In those moments when I’m tired of trying, tired of feeling invisible, tired of seeing newbies pass me by … In those moments I feel absolutely paralyzed. I come up with ideas and then second guess them … I fill my to do list and barely get through the first thing … I think about making changes BUT them fall back into the old routines feeling like “Why bother? Does it really matter? Will anything change?” Curled up in bed with my notebook and a head full of thoughts I realize that it does matter …. I vent to my hubby about how hard it is to sustain a business targeted towards black women (but I do it anyway) … I vent about being tired of sitting in front of my computer (but I do it anyway) … I literally shake all that ‘stuff’ out of my head and just do all of IT anyway.

I shift my focus from what I THINK other folks are doing back to the things that I have done. I remember to remind myself what it felt like making 43 cents in Adsense revenue and then finally breaking $2000 in one month! I remember how hard it was to step out on faith, leave my job, family and friends, move to another state and generate $500 my first month of working at home. I now can’t imagine how I made it through those months. Now all I can see is me sitting in my kitchen with my hubby going CRAZY the first time I made over $5000 in sales in one month!

I think about having amazing sistas AND brothers around me like Richelle Shaw, Pam Perry, Onica, Lamar, Martin and the list goes on who support me, partner with me, teach me, and inspire me to keep going. I just saw that my network, Black Business Women Online was featured in Black Enterprise, my second time in BE after being featured in Essence and the latest Social Media Marketing for Dummies book! “Come On!” I say to myself. “You have to feel blessed and keep blessing others even when you think things are not going as fast you want them to because God knows what he’s doing through you.”

Real Talk: I may make this stuff look easy, but it isn’t. By my own standards I am a successful work at home mom, but never ever confuse my success or anyone else’s for perfection. I get stuck, I feel rejected, I doubt me more times than I can count. The only difference between me and those who fail is that I don’t give up. I’ve done ALOT online because I love what I do BUT also because I commit myself to trying new things and making my old stuff better. The sum total of failed projects and successful projects is me being able to keep it steady, work at home, and motivate others in my circle to do the same.

In short: As an entrepreneur you are your business, so when you are stuck your business gets stuck too. Be aware of this, don’t run from this reality that we all face. Work through these sticky moments of struggle and self doubt. If you can do that, then you just might find sweet rewards waiting for you in the end.