How to Get Your Family and Friends to Take Your Home Business Seriously

I have been successfully working from home for the past 22 years. During those years, I have faced many challenges being a work at home mom.

One of the biggest challenges has been getting my family and friends to take my home business seriously. People often have the misconception that since you work from home, you can drop what you are doing on a moments notice and do something for them. These people can include your spouse, children, other family members, friends, schools and the neighbors.

During the early years, it was a struggle for me to get others to realize that I have certain business hours that I work. People would get upset that I wouldn’t take their personal chit chat phone calls, run errands for them, watch their children and other personal requests.

To solve this problem, I drafted up a personal letter that I printed out and gave to all of my family and friends. In this letter I stated what my home business was and what my working hours would be. I also clearly pointed out…that I would not be accepting personal chit chat phone calls, answering personal emails or doing any personal errands or activities, during my business working hours.

I was really nervous how this letter would be received by my family and friends, but after a week…the feedback I got in return was supportive. This letter opened up a serious discussion with them which in turn has benefited me.

Since publishing my letter to my family and friends, they now respect my work at home business hours. I no longer get requests to walk their dogs, baby sit their kids and other personal errand type of requests.

If you are having a hard time keeping and sticking to a home business working schedule, I highly recommend that you sit down and write a letter to all of your family and friends. It has really helped to cut down all of the personal interruptions that I used to receive. I can now stay on track and accomplish all of my business tasks.

Shelly Hill has been working from home in Direct Sales since 1989 and is a manager with Tupperware. You can visit Shelly online at http://www.workathomebusinessoptions.com for additional Direct Sales articles and home business tips.