A work from home mum starting out on the Internet.

Thirty- forty years ago it was quite normal for the wife to stay at home, be the main childcare support, look after the house and in doing so provide a happy loving environment for the family unit. The man of the house provided the earnings and it was quite possible to live comfortably on this one wage.

This is certainly not the case today.We live in a more materialistic society and certainly want more from life than being a stay at home mum. Woman are encouraged to get qualifications and compete in the business world more than ever before and they are doing this very successfully.

There are two points of view as to whether children are better off being in day care or having nannies rather than having a full time parent being the main child care . Its a very contentious issue and certainly offers some robust debate on what is the best for your children.

We all want the new car ,overseas holidays and the latest gadgets we see advertised but the trick is finding ways to get these without compromising our family values.

The Internet has provided opportunities never imagined so now making it possible to have the best of both worlds if you choose to stay at home with the children.

Being your own boss means you can work flexible hours and make business decisions but it also has a downside where you are accountable for those decisions and may have to suffer consequences if you make a mistake. If, however you are ready for the good and bad then a home business may be a great idea.

No business will succeed without passion and this means you have to be prepared to devote time and effort for probably little reward for a period of time.

Many people tend to think of working from home as something that can utilize domestic skills or online capabilities. There is certainly a lot of home business that subscribe to this but more and more online business is being set up that require highly specialised or technical skills and  creative abilities.

Working from home may require less in terms of capital but that doesn’t necessarily make it a risk - free investment. You may eventually have to make some tough choices which may directly affect your way of living, whether this be a short term or long term choice. These choices can be exciting and scary at the same time, but the challenge can also provide the drive to make a home business a success.

I was already operating my freesia  flower business offline so taking the step to bring information about growing freesias online was an extension of what I was doing. This can be done with any offline business with a bit of lateral thinking.

Brenda Baker

Livinrural Marketing

Early end of flowers

The freesias were very late flowering this year and as we have had a very warm spring many of the flowers all flowered at the same time giving a shorter season.

I must admit the greenhouse did look beautiful with an abundance of flowers but as most of the florists in New Zealand will tell you the economy has had a flow on effect and it means a lot less flowers have been purchased.

Unfornately flowers are at the bottom of the chain for household expenses so I certainly didnt sell as manyu as I should of but I will now nurse the bulbs along and hopefully have a better season with selling the excess bulbs.

Brenda Baker  Livinrural