When you find out that a new arrival is on the way, there is little to match that feeling of ecstasy or exuberance that your whole family will share with you. You will be beside yourself with joy as an expectant mother and you can be sure that this will be one of the finest moments of your family’s life.

Friends and acquaintances will also be over the moon and will all look forward to the big day with much anticipation.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the whole World would be happy for you and while this is largely the case, sometimes you may encounter an element of negativity.

Surely, your boss is happy for you, but he or she may not be on quite the same level as everyone else and be particularly concerned with the operation of the business. In fact, in this case the business may come squarely in first place and you may have to be particularly persuasive if you are considering flexible working hours for your busy times ahead.

If your boss is something of a dinosaur when it comes to flexibility in these situations, then you will have to be creative if not very persuasive.

Seek out a co-worker or friend who has been in the position that you are in now and sit down to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her, to see how the two-way communication with her boss was initiated and how the situation panned out. While you are at this research stage, talk to other friends in other industries or professions and see what solutions they were able to come up with.

This is the time to be very creative and forward thinking and consider telecommuting or working from home. As companies around the World realise that they need to save on their overheads, this concept is becoming more and more acceptable. If the kind of work you do supports this, all the better.

Don’t forget, that you must work out what would be the ideal situation for you, first and foremost. In other words, be careful what you wish for!

Look for an ideal scenario and come up with options for less-than-perfect deals. Look at your home commitments first before asking for something you might not be able to accommodate.

Be strategic, yet careful when you discuss ideas and options with colleagues. In a situation where you collectively share the workload in your office, see how you could come up with a more flexible schedule by dividing up the work creatively. You must be willing to pull your weight in other areas and above all else make sure that you are confident it would be a win/win/win situation for the colleagues, the employer and yourself.

Some of us have jobs that expect us to complete certain tasks as part of a “job and finish” approach, regardless of the time that it takes and as part of your new schedule idea, contemplate whether you will be able to achieve this goal during your personal time.

The more you can show your boss that you would be equally as productive, if not more productive by working a flexible schedule, the more the dinosaur is likely to stop chewing the vegetation and listen to you!

Contemplate online life coaching as a valuable source of research. Thankfully, coaching for women can always help by looking at a variety of situations and suggesting options. This is far from being the private domain of executives or sports players and you should turn to professional coaching, as well!

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

The Work and Families Act was lauded as being advantageous to mums-to-be when it was introduced in 2007. After all, nine months of statutory maternity pay was available, with up to a year off work allowable. For the family, much more time and attention could be devoted to the task of getting ready, receiving and raising the child during these critical periods. Within the caring society that we live, maternity leave is seen as a human right, even though certain pressures can arise between the employee and the employer as part of the ongoing working arrangement. Employers must take into account that pregnancy is possible among the female employees and they must be able to work within the law, by taking on temporary staff as needed to cover for any women that might be on maternity leave. This is bound to cause a certain amount of disruption, but in the majority of situations, this is taken in stride.

There is a new clause available for the mum on maternity, allowing her to “keep in touch” through the allocation of 10 legislatively permitted days, during which she can attend work and receive a certain number of payments. This element of the legislation was introduced by Parliament to try and smooth over the disruption and the disconnection that could otherwise occur between employer and employee over this lengthy period of time.

Mum can take advantage of keeping in touch days from several different perspectives. Mum will be able to keep on top of those latest trend changes. It is certainly possible to do a lot of research while remaining at home and to get all kinds of e-mails and other notifications when on leave, but there is nothing to replace that feeling of actually being at your work place, talking and interacting with other staff members and seeing how new policies and procedures are actually working. By “keeping in touch” strategically this way, especially as time approaches to go back to work, the employee is more likely to be able to hit the ground running.

Mum may have been involved with a particularly challenging project when baby called. Those keeping in touch days would be particularly advantageous for her in this case, allowing her to continue to follow through and to impart her valued skills. Otherwise, the business may suffer or in certain circumstances, mum may be at somewhat of a career disadvantage when she returns simply due to the fact that she had not been available to work on a pivotal project. In this case, she may simply be “behind” in terms of time spent progressing.

Mum will be able to interact with her temporary replacement during the time that she is keeping in touch, able to see any issues or problems as they are arising and predicting situations that may have arisen without formal supervision, otherwise.

The good thing about each “keeping in touch” day is that it is paid by the employer and is not accounted for, from maternity leave pay. This can be a little boost, financially, when it is much needed.

As an extended period away from your work can be challenging indeed, you may well have to seek out professional coaching to give you a good idea how to approach it. These days, online life coaching, specifically online life coaching for women, is a service dedicated to helping us understand how to cope with every distinct phase of our personal lives and business careers.

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

Sometimes you feel that pure adrenaline alone is keeping you going and you wonder how you are able to survive, let alone function well at work and juggle all the other requirements of being a busy mum.

You realise that you would do well if you could work to a schedule and manage things much more effectively, but your new arrival is not aware of your need to schedule things, at all! During these crucial formative years, the baby is entirely dependent on your response and it sometimes feels as if you are working a 9-to-5 shift in reverse at night, as you answer to your newborn baby’s requirements.

You are loving your new life as a devoted mother, but often feel as if you are at your wits’ end as you struggle to find that extra bit of energy to conquer seemingly mundane tasks. How are you going to get through the new work week which is rapidly approaching?

It can be extraordinarily difficult to maintain a schedule and you may have heard the phrase “time management” many times from well-being people, but it is nevertheless essential that you maintain a routine of some kind as closely as possible.

Unless we have a routine, we will just bounce from one problem to another and build up an increasing level of stress, compounding and affecting other areas as we go. Although you might not like to think that you have to do so, it’s important for you to get into a routine as soon as possible.

In the mornings, keep your procedures as simple as possible. Getting up can be a real wrench if your night-time rest has been disrupted by baby’s needs. However, you have things to do and you should do them in the same order every day.

Exercise is vitally important and this must be your first priority. Don’t be tempted to take an extra 15 minutes in bed. Position your treadmill so that you can view the headlines, traffic problems and the weather on the TV ahead of you, even as the coffee is brewing in the kitchen. When you are done, it’s time to get the children up and make sure they have their own chores to do to lighten your load.

After a while, you will get this procedure down to a finite science, every single day. This is probably the most stressful time of the day, as you are trying to focus while still trying to wake up! By insisting on a clockwork routine and making sure that all your family are “on board” with this concept and that they help you, you’ll be ready to get out of the door running, on time.

Even though you may think you have no time for anything other than work and looking after the baby, you have to keep in touch with your social life and with “me” time as well. You will hopefully have a great understanding with a caregiver and understand just how important this person is within your whole picture.

At work, you will, also hopefully, have a very understanding boss. No matter how understanding the boss is, never take advantage of any situation and only call in favours or use delay allowances whenever necessary, including personal days. If you always play fair, whenever emergencies come along, you will be more able to deal with this situation and to meet with your boss’s favour.

At work, try not to schedule anything too technically demanding for first thing in the day and make sure you do not overload your schedule with unrealistic expectations.

During your 9-to-5 routine at work, time management is very important, as you don’t want your work requirements to spill over into your personal time.

Use professional coaching to help you focus on key areas. Dedicated coaching for women is praised by many in your situation, who have turned to online life coaching to really help them get past “the wall.”

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

There is little to match the exuberance or ecstatic feelings that you and your whole family share when a new arrival is on the way. You will be beside yourself with joy as an expectant mother and you can be sure that this will be one of the finest moments of your family’s life.

You will be so ready to tell your acquaintances and friends the good news and they will share with you a great feeling of anticipation as the big day approaches.

As your feelings of happiness know no bounds, you would be forgiven for thinking that all the World would be happy for you as well and while this is largely the case, certain elements of negativity may, however, still arise.

Surely, your boss is happy for you, but he or she may not be on quite the same level as everyone else and be particularly concerned with the operation of the business. You may soon come to realise that the business is classified squarely in first position in the eyes of your boss and if you want to consider flexible working hours as you go forward, you are going to have to be really persuasive.

You may come to find that your boss is really a dinosaur and can be very inflexible, unfortunately, so you will have to call on all your powers of creativity and persuasiveness.

Seek out a co-worker or friend who has been in the position that you are in now and sit down to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her, to see how the two-way communication with her boss was initiated and how the situation panned out. Now is the time to do a lot of research and to find what solutions could be available to you, according to other friends or acquaintances in other professions or industries.

Your creativity may well unveil to you the idea of working from home or telecommuting, especially if you are forward thinking. As companies around the World realise that they need to save on their overheads, this concept is becoming more and more acceptable. If the type of work that you do can be handled in this way, this may well be an option for you.

Don’t forget, that you must work out what would be the ideal situation for you, first and foremost. In other words, be careful what you wish for!

Look for an ideal scenario and come up with options for less-than-perfect deals. Above all else, look at your home situation and understand what you will be able to accommodate before asking.

You should always be careful when you are discussing options with colleagues and you might have to exercise some strategy. If you all collectively share a workload, see how you could come up with ideas to divide the work accordingly, giving you a more flexible schedule. You must be more than willing to pull your weight, of course, and before you consider approaching others or your boss with the idea, be fully confident that it will be a win/win/win position for everybody.

Some of us have jobs that expect us to complete certain tasks as part of a “job and finish” approach, regardless of the time that it takes and as part of your new schedule idea, contemplate whether you will be able to achieve this goal during your personal time.

The more you can show your boss that you would be equally as productive, if not more productive by working a flexible schedule, the more the dinosaur is likely to stop chewing the vegetation and listen to you!

In most situations, online life coaching can be another excellent source of research for you. Luckily, coaching for women can generally help by suggesting various options for a variety of situations. In this day and age, professional coaching is not just for sports players or executives any more!

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

For the busy mum who needs additional sources of income, self-employment may seem very palatable. If it were possible to set your own hours, keep up with all the household chores and family commitments and still get a meaningful income, this would be an ideal scenario! Mums in this position have been known to turn to direct selling and it is said that 70% of the more than 50 million people occupied in this style of business are women.

So many things can stand in the way of the mum when it comes to getting back to work after a pregnancy or achieving some additional income as a family grows, but professional coaching – particularly coaching for women, can help quickly make these things an achievable possibility. It’s difficult to set a fixed schedule with a family involved, as some of us who have been down that road can testify that any number of crises and last-minute panics can push us off track quite easily. Kids in school are so vulnerable to what seems to be the smallest virus and certainly the school hour-days you had set aside can be suddenly compromised. If the thought of a flexible-hour, part-time, direct selling business is very attractive to you, it’s definitely worth your while to look into online life coaching to help get you on the right track.

Before you rush off to start your direct selling business, consider some important aspects.

- To start off with, are you an outgoing person, socially active, who loves to meet people? No one is suggesting you are a hermit, but this kind of business requires you to be very forward and to revel in social environments. This may require a bit of soul-searching; make sure that you are really cut out for this kind of approach before you start.

- Are you good at research? As we know, the Internet can uncover a wealth of information about any subject. Research the very concept of direct selling and then make sure that you know all there is to know about the companies you are considering. Direct selling can be a minefield at times and you might come across some so-called opportunities that are very similar to pyramid schemes. Be careful if you come across a program that requires you to sign other people up for financial remuneration. It may be a good idea to call in some of the references and check out the testimonials as well.

- Direct sales opportunities abound in various industries. You might be able to build a business around an existing hobby? Direct selling opportunities exist in childcare, book sales, clothing, beverages, cosmetics, supplements, party supplies, scrap booking, toys, weight management and a host of others. Get involved in something that you really like, that’s a key.

- Be wary of any significant start up fees. Start up fees should only be relatively low, for example an initial kit of supplies to start you off. Are you happy with the quality of the product concerned? Would you buy it yourself – if not don’t think that you’ll be able to sell it to acquaintances, friends or friends of your friends without some repercussions!

- Maybe you know somebody who is already into direct selling? While you might not expect them to give away any trade secrets, why don’t you brainstorm with them and you will undoubtedly pick up some great tales from the sharp end to help you decide what to do.

Through a thorough investigation of the direct selling opportunity, you may be ready to invest and the next thing to do is to come up with a clear vision of what you expect from the business. Set your income, lifestyle and contribution goals as a next step. When you have compiled your vision, take action by setting out the first 10 steps to help you launch your direct selling business in style.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

The seven habits of effective business people were outlined by Stephen Covey some years back, but specific coaching for women can reinterpret the seven habits for single mums – those who can overcome the obstacles, but yet be highly effective in their daily lives.

Some of these habits overlap or could be reinterpreted in a different fashion, but these principles should be adopted as soon as possible if you are new to being a single mum, or beginning to feel harried beyond belief.

Habit one – Master the clock.

There are only a certain number of hours in a given day, but how we use them dictates how we really feel when all is said and done. Will we feel that we have been productive and are thereby refreshed, or will we feel that we have been bouncing from pillar to post and still seem to have little achieved?

Those who are very effective and fall into the first category are time masters and have set out everything they need to achieve in a given day. By taking baby steps and not looking too far ahead of yourself if you have a busy schedule, you can avoid the feeling that everything is so daunting and not compromise your chances.

Just dump everything out onto paper, all the tasks that you need to achieve on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis and marshal all this information together. Now may be the time to consider professional coaching to help you master this.

Habit number two – Be habitual.

You really must get into the habit if your highly effective timetable is going to work. When you start out you will probably have to initiate some triggers and have to set a goalpost to aim for as you progress, but through repetition you will achieve these mundane but necessary tasks and get them out of the way.

You’ll also find that as you stick to your timetable you become more used to these tasks; you will achieve them in less time and free up a bit more personal space at the end of each day.

Habit number three – Set up voicemail.

It is easy enough to set everything down to enjoy the latest gossip with the neighbour, but distractions are definitely your enemy.

The most effective businessmen or women do not allow themselves to be distracted by random phone calls and while you may not be able to employ the services of a personal secretary, you should ensure that you maintain your focus and don’t let your guard down to the temptations!

Habit number four – Plan for your rainy day.

You know that rainy days will come and that family issues will sometimes trump what is going on at work. Above all else, ensure that your personal days at work are reserved only for emergencies. If at all possible, see if your schedule will allow you to catch up from time to time by working an evening per week or even on Saturday mornings, so when the inevitable issue with the kids at school comes up it will not be a major concern for everyone.

Rainy days may certainly make it more difficult for you to master the clock, but the highly effective single mum has planned as much in advance as possible.

Habit number five – All about me.

No amount of efficiency and dedication to what you have to do for your family and your work will count if you do not allow time for personal re-invigoration.

From time to time you will need to delegate so that you can get away from it all and recharge, able to get back to work refreshed and ready for action.

Habit six – Be fit.

Health is everything, for you and your family. Never be tempted to sleep in for an extra 15 minutes at the expense of your daily walk on the treadmill. This absolutely must be at the top of the list of priorities and if you don’t do this, over a period of time efficiency will suffer and you will not be able to be as effective as you might otherwise have been.

Habit number seven – Scratch a back.

You might well be able to manage as a single mum for the majority of the time, but if you are forward thinking you know that there will be times when you need help. Hopefully you will have a good network of acquaintances, friends and other family members and should nurture this support group by putting time into your schedule to help them out in advance. Stephen Covey talked about how each party must “win” and this is what you’re investing in here. By donating your time or other resources to help one of your contacts, you will have kept your side of the win-win bargain.

Yes, there’s a lot to it, but don’t despair. These days, online life coaching can help you drill even further into those seven habits and come up with your action plan for the future.

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

Staying fit is an absolutely essential part of your long-term health plan, no matter who you are or what your “story” is.

None of us can do without a regular exercise regime and it’s important to plan this as part of your schedule.

If you have been putting it off, start right now! By exercising on a regular basis, you will be much more able to deal with the ups and downs of life, your stress level will be reduced and you can accomplish more without feeling wasted. You could be so much more productive and truth be told you don’t have to devote a great deal of time to doing this, either.

Rise early each morning. Most fitness experts and those who like to tell us how to lead our lives agree that eight hours is an optimum amount of time for sleep. Count up how many hours you are sleeping. The chances are that you can cut back a little bit on your sleep and set the alarm clock to go 15 to 30 minutes earlier. Many swear that they get more achieved if they exercise during the morning, as distractions are at a minimum and unless you are an expert at time management, your evening can quickly be gobbled up.

Use your lunch hour for something more productive. Most people enjoy an hour for their lunch. Trade in the traditional use of this time for time spent exercising. You might not be lucky enough to live near to a gym, but could take a brisk walk under most circumstances. Maybe this means you have to go out in inclement weather from time to time, but you will feel far more invigorated when it comes to tackling the afternoon’s work schedule. This approach is probably the simplest way to make sure that you get good exercise, by walking briskly and making sure that you have elevated your heart rate appropriately.

Optimise TV time. I am not suggesting that you ban your favourite shows on television, but while you are spending an hour or two, compose an area in front of the set so that you can do squats, crunches or some other kind of physical activity at the same time as you are watching the tube.

Always make sure that you concentrate on what you’re doing, as we are all capable of multitasking, after all. Do three sets of some simple exercises in this way. See how accomplished you feel?

Take advantage of those chores. As much as we don’t like to do household chores, we still have to do them. This is the time to work out as well. Try putting some additional effort into cleaning methods, even if it means you have to get down on all fours to scrub away! A physical approach to cleaning and work in the garden will all work for your health.

Plan some time with the family. Working out with the family is sure to be a fun activity. Maybe it’s time for you to invest in a bike for each member and to start exploring those local bike trails that you hear all about. This can be a great family bonding activity and you can schedule something like this instead of a visit to the cinema, for example.

These days, professional coaching experts reveal, via the web, a number of other areas for you to consider as part of online life coaching.

It is so important that you maintain first-class health and specific coaching for women sites can help you utilise your time to best effect.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

If you have to return to work after being off for maternity leave for some time, the prospects can appear to be quite worrying. It can be so strange that you can feel almost as if you are removed, as if you have been on an extremely long holiday, for example.

It goes without saying of course that the time you have spent away has been anything but a relaxing time and you feel as if you have been working all the hours available, as it is! Even so, it’s time to devote yourself to your career again and to look at the reconstruction of your résumé or CV.

1. Be positive about the situation. During your time off you have amassed several new skills. You are really good at multitasking, time management, project management and your coping skills have improved considerably! When you have to manage a typical home and be responsible for bringing up a new arrival, you should not underestimate the skills that you are able to master and they should be added to your résumé.

2. Some specific coaching for women advocates that you should compose a “functional” résumé in this situation. This type of approach lists your skills and qualifications rather than focusing on a chronological list of employers. This type of construction puts the focus on experience and you should point this out in your document. Simply list your employers and don’t mention the dates, but focus on your qualifications, experience and skill set.

3. Don’t be defensive when it comes to your time off for maternity leave. Employers do not look badly upon somebody who has taken time off to be with their family as they have a lot more to worry about, such as staff without any motivation, or who are forced to stay home. You should never apologise about your contribution to society!

4. While you have been away from work, you may well have taken on some voluntary tasks, attended evening classes or some other extracurricular activity. Put all this experience into a positive light and include it on your résumé. This will show that you are well capable of being a home keeper and a mother at the same time and can dovetail your interests and duties through multitasking, which your employer will appreciate.

5. Show that you are in control of every situation by outlining your plan to manage that time off. For instance, it is far better to say that you had a plan to be with your new baby until a set date, a certain age, for example. This is far more preferable than saying that you are just going to be with your baby “until the little one is ready,” as this does not show much spirit. Once again, it shows that you are in control.

6. Do some research before you prepare to send out those résumés. How long have you been away for? Your research should reveal what has changed in a particular line of business. This might be the time to catch up on your specific education, even learn a new system operating procedure. Make sure that you include this on your résumé, as it will strengthen your position.

7. You may think that you need to rely on contacts that you made prior to your career break and that any references you include should be “business only,” but this is not the case. By networking and moving in your regular circles during your time away from work, you will have built up a good list of contacts who will be able to attest to your character, composition and reliability.

In our modern society, professional coaching advice from online life coaching experts can help you to focus on all that is positive in your life, so that you come up with a perfectly presentable résumé.

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

It is said that there are now tens of thousands of iPhone applications for us to choose from. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that the iPhone has completely revolutionised the way that we communicate.

Indeed, the iPhone is so popular that other competitive manufacturers just cannot keep up and so much of this dominance is undoubtedly to do with the proliferation of applications.

These applications run the gamut and allow us to do virtually anything with our iPhones! As a working mum, here are some awesome iPhone apps that you should not be without.

The Baby Brain is an app for everyone with newcomers. This is an iPhone app that is designed to help you track sleeping patterns, breast-feeding time and diaper changes. This application is very intuitive and all you need to do is tap the screen whenever you are ready and it will record, accordingly. It even allows you to see which place the baby fed from previously, when you are breast-feeding. The app even has a timer which will alert you when you are breast-feeding; if for example you are working on a project at the same time.

If you are working on a budget, this one could be great – ShoppingPal prompts you to take a picture of an item that you might have your eye on, type in a few details – maybe the price, the size or other important details, and save for future use. Next time you are in the mood or may be looking at alternatives, you can simply refer to the memory and don’t have to rely on what you can remember, or worse have to make a trip between stores. You know how stressful this can all be if you have kids in tow or have little time to spend anyway as you balance family issues with your work.

The people who design iPhone applications are certainly creative. Set your iPhone down next to your sleeping baby with the app activated and if the sound goes above a predetermined, adjustable level, your iPhone will call a set number to alert you. This baby alert machine is known as the Baby Phone Deluxe.

If you are planning a lengthy journey, why not bring along Scribble Lite? This iPhone application allows the kids to paint, sketch or draw in different colours and, just like the Etch-a-Sketch games of the 60s, all you do is shake the phone to erase the masterful creation and start again.

When you have time to devote to reading, Kindle for iPhone can present you with full-length books for your consideration. You don’t have to worry about lugging around textbooks, or those books that you have to “absorb” yourself in for a work project. These apps allow you to pick the work up and put it down whenever you need to, inserting a virtual place-holder wherever you pause.

Isn’t it great how technology can help to make the life of a working mum easier? You should also think about specific coaching for women, as these days many people engage in professional coaching to their benefit. If you have never considered online life coaching before, you will be amazed how it can make you even more productive.

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

We live in really exciting times. As a mumpreneur/mompreneur you have so many opportunities available to you, some of which were totally unheard of only five years or so ago.

There was a time when people who worked from home were looked at in a very poor light, if you remember. This was due to the fact that other people simply couldn’t conceive how it was possible to make money in this manner. Times are so different now and it’s certainly possible to turn a hobby or passion into a worthwhile and rewarding business when you are working from home.

Rather than worrying about attending networking meetings, getting out and about and spending long periods of time at Chambers of Commerce meetings or otherwise engaging in “push” marketing, you can be creative and make sure that your business is seen online.

1. Rule number one is to set up your profile at one of the professional networking sites such as Linkedin. This is where professionals go to meet other professionals and you can set up a profile so that others in your specific line of business become aware of you.

2. Social media has exploded over the last few years. Not only is it a way to interact socially with friends, acquaintances and “soon-to-be” friends, but it can be a very powerful business marketing tool as well. Think about Facebook for example. Your Facebook account can be expanded to include a business page and if you let all your contacts and friends know about this, you can build up an army of “fans” for your business.

3. Use Twitter as a social media “mini-blog” to send highly targeted messages to your followers. It’s very simple to set up an account in your business name and to look for and start engaging with people who are interested in your niche. Whenever you send a message on Twitter, it is restricted to 140 characters or less, but this is nevertheless a very potent way of communicating and establishing yourself as an expert in your niche for good effect.

4. WordPress is a great platform that allows you to create highly professional looking blogs. Blogs are very powerful but do take a lot of work, and you should be prepared to work on your creation each and every day. You have a lot of knowledge in your business and the blog can be a vehicle for you to transmit the fact that you know all of this, to those who may be interested and when you write one new post per day and publish, you’re on your way. It’s rather easy to do.

5. A lot of options are available to you if you want to use social media to push your business. Once you have your blog set up and have your Facebook and Twitter accounts established, you can start visiting other “authority” blogs and begin interacting.

The area reserved for comments beneath each blog post is highly important and when two-way interaction is created like this, you benefit. As comments appear, others will realize that there is activity going on and this will start a stream of traffic and further comments. Your aim is to use social media in its most viral form to help you.

As a mumpreneur, you can use social media and professional coaching advice will always recommend this approach. While you are online, seek out these online life coaching experts and you will find that many of them are focused on providing coaching for women, just like you.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.