Just finished my Homework!

Wisdom, encouragement, warnings, and common sense about the real world of starting a home business, when home is the main business--how I wish I'd read Homework (from the TOS online store) five years ago as my first ventures into working from home floundered and flopped. These are the stories of real moms who stepped out in faith to make use of their gifts, interests, and the opportunities that came their way to help support their families and ease the financial burden on their husbands. In their own words, they share the struggles of getting started and actually making a profit, without sugarcoating reality and difficult times. There is no fast track to wealth described, but rather the practical lessons each has learned about how to balance and protect and integrate what matters most, the wellbeing of our families, with the opportunity and responsibility that goes into a home business. These moms demonstrate that there is no cookie cutter formula to working from home, as the pages of Homework transport the reader from a countryside bed and breakfast to the home office of a tax accountant, to the life of a minister's wife with a pet care business. I was struck by the candor with which they write of neglected housework and the frustration of over-multi-tasking at times, and I was blessed by the repeated admonishment to keep priorities as they should be at each point of the home business journey. I was inspired by their accounts of working as a family, as children learned important life skills and character traits through helping in the family business. This isn't just a motivational, feel-good compilation of success stories. I found a wealth of practical advice and resources for each phase of setting up a home business, particularly in the last few chapters. That being said, Homework is one resource, and the contributing authors do not claim to have all the answers. In fact, these ladies stress the importance of seeking knowledge and wisdom in their specific business fields each step of the way. And while the practical goal of the home business is to bring additional income into the household budget, the common thread in each of their stories is faith and obedience to a calling that goes way beyond quarterly earnings and profit potential. This is one I'll want to share.