5 Steps to Set AND Achieve Your Income Goals As A Work At Home Mom
Hey momma! I see you working from home balancing the house and kids and your business!
I know we often don’t give ourselves the credit we deserve, so before moving any further, give yourself a pat on the back for all the amazing work you are doing for yourself and for your family.
I have been a work at home mom for 9 years, all the way from when my boys were babies to now having a teenager in the house.
We all make the choice to work at home for various reasons, but the most important thing is, we want our businesses to last right?
So let’s talk about money!
How do you set and ACTUALLY achieve your income goals for your business?
I’m not going to lie and say that it’s just a simple “set your goals, take the action” solution, though that does have a lot to do with it.
For one, money is a concept that so many of us have deep, usually limiting beliefs around. We could coach together for months, but we wouldn’t get anywhere if we didn’t address those opinions you might not even realize hold you back.
The thing is, money is not black and white. It’s true that at a single moment you can count exactly how much you have, but just like every other aspect of your life, you can find ways to influence whether or not you have the amount you desire. Especially when you are in control of your business as a work at home mom.
So much of our lives are dictated by our thoughts that are running on autopilot and we aren’t even aware of them. Becoming aware of our thoughts, especially around money, is the first step to changing your relationship with money, and reaching those income goals you desire.
5 Steps to Set AND Achieve Your Income Goals As a Work at Home Mom:
1. What Are Your Thoughts About Money?
Take out that pen and paper or open up the notes app on your phone and write out all the thoughts you have surrounding money.
If you need a little help getting started, here are a few that I’ve often seen come up for myself and my clients who are also work at home moms:
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Money makes you greedy.
You can’t be a good mom and make ‘that’ kind of money.
Must be nice to be rich.
I’ll never get ahead.
If I make X amount it means my business will take over my life.
Etc…
After you take some time to write these down I want you to actually ask yourself if they are true. If so, how do you know? What would you want to believe instead? Do this for each thought.
This might feel a little overwhelming at first, and that’s ok. You might be looking at these thoughts more in-depth than you have before. Take your time if you need to, but don’t skip over this step.
Writing down, and directly addressing your negative beliefs about money, might be the one thing holding you back from actually achieving your income goals.
So much of our lives are controlled by the thoughts and ideas that we aren’t even aware we are having. It might help to take a self-coaching approach to this step.
2. Set Your Income Goals
Now that you have worked through your relationship with money at a foundational level, it is time to crunch the numbers. And the best way to do this is to work backward.
Assuming you could make any amount of money you set your mind to, how much would you make in your business and by when? Write this number down. You could write an annual income goal, or a 3-5 year income goal. Either or both is fine. This goal should stretch you but not feel completely impossible. Find the number that resonates with you in your gut, one that feels big but you also KNOW that you could do it.
Now that you know where you want to get to, you need to know how you are going to get there in the more immediate future: Setting Your Rates.
How Much Should I Charge?
This is a very common question I get from work at home moms, but I have an answer that you might not like if you are looking for a specific number. The good news is, I can help you figure out what that number should be, for you and your specific income goals.
How many hours do you WANT to work?
The great thing about being a work at home mom is that you get to set your work schedule around your life, not the other way around.
For me, at this point in my life, I do not want a 40 hour work week. I also make sure to include time for the parts of my life that are most important to me. These things in life matter! It’s important to schedule them, or you might find you never end up prioritizing them.
For example, my non-negotiables in life look like this:
Date with my husband 2x a month during the day while the kids are in school
Massage twice a month
Volunteer two times per week in my son’s classroom
Workout during the day while my kids are in school
Have one date with a friend during the boys school hours
Take the time you need to out of your available working hours, and then determine where and when in the week you want to work, and there, you’ve set your schedule.
How much do you need to charge per hour to reach your goal?
Now that you have your priorities set and that elusive work-life balance is really coming together, you can actually start to calculate how much you need to charge in order to work the amount of hours you want, and still reach your income goals.
Looking at the 40/20 hour example, let’s say you want to make $5000 a month. If you work 40 hours a week, you would charge around $31.25/hr. But if you wanted to work 20 hours a week, you would charge around $62.50/hr.
You might look at one or both of those numbers and think I’m out of my mind for suggesting that, but if you believe your work is worth a certain amount, others will, too.
In the end, the best way to find out is directly from the source. Make offers and see what happens, and then grow from there. There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but you need to choose what feels right to you.
I started out at a number that I felt confident in charging when I was a new coach, and the more experience I get, the more I feel comfortable charging more for my packages, because I KNOW that my offerings and my coaching is WORTH that amount.
This is the biggest step for a reason, because there is so much that goes into setting your income goals. It could be an entire post in itself, but I just want to leave you with one last piece of advice:
Move From Hourly to Value Pricing
What? Didn’t I just tell you exactly how to calculate your hourly rate? Yes! And it is the best place to start. It helps get you a starting point, but there is always room to grow!
Think about the value you bring to your clients, and charge for that. The more experience you gain at what you do may mean it takes you less time to get the same results for new clients.
But that doesn’t mean your income goals should suffer if you are working faster.
Start thinking in terms of your level of expertise, and the value you add to your clients’ lives. If the rate you charge now doesn’t feel like it matches the level of work you do, then raise it.
If charging per hour doesn’t make sense because of your efficiency, or the added value you bring cannot be calculated hourly, add that into your rate.
As a work at home mom, you set the rules here. Charge what you are comfortable with, and grow when it makes sense to.
Remember to not lose sight of the big income goals you started with. You might get sidetracked or want to quit in your work at home journey. In the moment, a position that pays $50/hr might look great, but don’t forget how you can keep working for yourself, and make double that amount.
Keep focused on the larger goal, even if it feels hard in the moment.
3. Affirm Your Goals
Say your income goal is to make $100k in your business this year. Believe it. Step into it. Wake up every morning thinking, “I am a work at home mom who makes $100k in my business.”
From that place of believing and thinking as a work at home mom who makes $100k, what does your business look like and what actions do you take?
Write them down. Write down everything you see yourself stepping to as a mom and woman who has reached that point in their business. This part might feel a little scary, like setting the big income goals in step 2, but it’s good to push yourself a little bit.
Some questions you could ask yourself:
What am I doing day to day?
How has my business changed to reach this level of income?
How do I feel?
What priorities have shifted in my personal life or business?
If it’s easier, you can break this down into quarters. So going with the $100k example, you need to make about $25k each quarter. Based on your business model, what actions need to happen in order to get that? What thoughts do you need to believe that you don’t currently believe?
4. Take Focused Action
It is so important to believe you are capable of reaching the income goals you set, but you also need to take action.
Based on your goals and the actions that need to happen for your work at home business, you need to set two specific lists:
List 1: When To-Do
This is a to-do list with a little extra added accountability. Put the items down that need to get done, but make sure you have a plan about when that will actually be.
List 2: Not-Do or Stop-Doing
This one might be the most important that we often forget about. Are there things in your business that are working to help you make $20k a year, but you know won’t get you to $100k?
Give yourself permission to stop doing certain things, hire someone to help you, or find a more efficient way. Even some things that you think are great might have to go to help you get to the next level.
Examples of this could be:
Going from 1:1 coaching to group coaching
Raising prices if you don’t want to work more hours but do what to make more money
Hiring someone to do tasks that aren’t the best use of your time. (You don’t have to do everything yourself!)
5. Invest In Yourself
Your first thought might be, “I’m trying to MAKE money, why would I SPEND it?”
But let’s look at our lives up until this moment. Weren’t we all told at some point we had to go to college, and pay for it somehow? Didn’t you have to pay for a course on something you wanted to specialize in? Maybe you paid for your enneagram test to learn a little more about yourself?
Money spent is involved in growth as much as money earned. And honestly, I don’t know where I would be today if I never reached out and hired my first coach.
There is so much mindset work that comes up in life and work and I think everyone needs a coach. Whether you want to work with me or someone else, a coach can help you grow exponentially faster than going it alone.
Not only do you get accountability, but you have someone who is there just for you. A coach’s success is directly related to your own. As a work at home mom myself, it is my mission to see my clients reach their income goals, because I’ve been in that exact place they are standing in.
It’s time to believe you can do it. Your income goals are attainable.
Whether you just want to cover your grocery budget (which was where my goals started at), pay for family vacations, or radically change your income, you can do it.
From being a missionary for 15+ years living on support to then being in ministry, believe me I’ve had to work through SO many beliefs and thoughts when it comes to making money and charging for my work.
And I will continue to as my income goals grow. But I am so thankful I faced those thoughts and worked through them. With each new goal there are new beliefs that come up, and my coach is there to help me.
I love being a work at home mom, and being my own boss, because at the end of the day I am in control of my schedule while my kids are still young and living at home. And I know that’s a goal for many of you too. It is possible!
What is your financial goal, and why? What beliefs about money do you think are holding you back? Tell me in the comments below, and let’s start growing today!