Monday, September 26, 2011

Home Based "Mommy" Businesses

I have been wanting to write about this for a while.

Since becoming a SAHM I have met several moms who started their own home-based business out of a hobby.  I have first hand experience with this because I gave it a shot for about 8 months.

I think this is harder than being a mom that works outside of the home.

I am fans of a lot of these pages on FB and I don't know how some of them do it without going insane.

I know someone who is up until 4 a.m. every single night making her product, getting 3 hours of sleep and trying to raise 3 kids.

I don't know how she does it.  I really don't.

Is the small amount of money you make off your home based business worth the insanity of it all.

When I started my cake pop business, I was so excited, my little hobby was going to make me cold hard cash.

It started out with a few friends placing orders last Christmas and turned into something that was in high demand.  I felt like I couldn't turn away any business and after a few months I was burnt out.

Doing this from home wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  I needed huge blocks of time where Davis wasn't around which required me to find someone to watch him up to 3 times a week.  Sometimes I'd try to do it why he was here but after an hour he was over it and I'd be in tears because cake pops isn't something you can do for a few minutes, leave it, go back in a few hours, it is kind of an all or nothing type thing in a way.

I started dreading orders.

How did something I so dearly loved turn into something I loathed?

I'll tell you how.

My first job is a mom.

My second job is a wife.

My third job, well, I guess that is everything else.

Cake pops turned into my first job and everything in my life suddenly got pushed way down on the list.

Every bit of my "me" time wasn't spent on "me" anymore.  It was spent making cake pops.  Davis and I barely attended playdates anymore because I had to make cake pops.

And if you think these work from home mom's are raking in the dough, they can't be.  I just don't see how they are.  Even if they are pulling in several thousand a year, is missing out on life, sleep, your kids etc... worth it. 

I will give you an example of how much money I would make off an order of 2 dozen cake pops.  I charged $36 for two dozen basic cake pops.  Supplies to make two dozen cake pops cost the following:

2 lbs confectionary coating = $8
Cake Mix, Frosting, etc... = $3
Misc supplies = $2-3

I would have $13-$14 in an order of 2 dozen.  I charged $36 so I would make about $22.

From start to finish including baking of the cakes, rolling the balls, dipping, decorating, set up and clean up I would be in my kitchen 3 hours for that order of 2 dozen which means I made about $7.34 an hour.  Not a lot of money when you think about it.

In the 8 months that I had my little business I made maybe $700 total and I had a lot of business.

In the end it wasn't worth the sacrifices I was making.

2 comments:

Jen K said...

Don't forget the cost of the electric for baking the cake and the water for washing all the stuff, so you made even less. However, your cakeballs were sooo yummie! LOL. I still, till this day, can not make them as perfectly round as you did ;-)

Sassytimes said...

I think a lot of people feed off the attention of their home businesses (the popularity factor of it) and it's hard to give up when you get so deep in it. I agree, when your children are small, it's not worth taking time away from them and your family. When their children are grown, they will regret it. And not getting ample sleep each night can never be made up - the damage to your health and your body is done. Life is about balance...I think a lot of people miss that concept.

My mom babysat in home for YEARS when we were little because she needed the extra money to help pay bills. Looking back, she regrets it because it did take her time away from us and it made her feel like a bad mother because she was always tired or burnt out (like you said). She wishes she would have just given up more 'luxuries' and not spread herself too thin.