WAHM In the Spotlight

Welcome to the WAHM In The Spotlight Page, where you'll find interviews with fellow work at home moms. Every week a new WAHM is featured. Each mom business owner is asked a series of questions that pertain to working at home. Learn new business ideas from each other and find out how other WAHMs deal with everyday work and home issues

If you would like to be listed here, visit the free WAHM promotion page for more information and to submit your own interview. This is a great way to get your business noticed at no cost to you.

Please note: Due to the popularity of this service, there is an approximately 3 month waiting list for your interview to appear.

Name: Jalila Smith

Name of Business:  Work At Home United

Website: www.findhealthandprosperity.com

Tell us about your business.

I work with a wellness company that manufactures products that we use in our homes already but are safer for the air quality in the home, safer for children to be exposed to, and all together healthier. I simply set up customer accounts and get paid based on commission. I've been doing this for over a year now - the longest I have ever gone being committed to a WAH business. I love the products I promote so much that I will continue using them even if I decide the business is not for me.

How did you get started?

In October of 2006, 2 major events happened that changed the way I thought about parenting forever. My son, who was 11 at the time, had an asthma attack that almost cost him his life. He never had symptoms of asthma before (at least I didn't think he did) so I sent him off to school thinking he was trying to get out of going.

While my son was fighting to breathe during class, my partner and I were in the bathroom preparing to take a pregnancy test. I thought my days of motherhood were going to be over in the next 8 years. But the test turned positive and then the school called for me to pick up my son and rush him to the hospital. We stayed over night at the hospital and I fought morning sickness all night. I was miserable.

My son wasn't showing any improvement, the doctors were shaking their heads and whispering behind curtains, my stomach was turning over at every smell and to top it off my boss, though being understanding, was wondering who was going to fill my spot for the weekend. You see, I was Technical Director for a theater and we had a show for the weekend.

We had a show EVERY weekend and they are a lot of stress to put together on even the best of days. Most of the time I enjoy the adventure but this was taking it too far. I had two children to start thinking about. Long story short, my son did get better and I sent him home with his stepdad while I trekked on over to the theater to put together the show for the weekend.

It was the one of the toughest I had done because of the fact that I was sick with new baby stuff, no sleep and the artist was very demanding. The physical work was hard on me that weekend. I knew I couldn't do long consecutive weekends with an infant at home, plus I needed to find the trigger of my son's attack so he wouldn't have to go through that again. And so I wouldn't have to go through that with my new son.

A few months went by and I was reading the back of a parenting magazine when I saw an ad to work at home. I don't know why I decided to follow that particular one but I'm glad I did. A wonderful woman called me up one morning and we set up a time to hear a call that would give me details on the business. I signed up almost immediately. I had to discuss it first with my partner just because I wanted him to know how important this was to me.

We agreed I would give it a try with the business but the products was convinced would be a solution for the latter. I am so happy I followed my gut. Our family has benefited from this business in so many ways.

What has been your hardest challenge of being a WAHM?

With being at the second half of my pregnancy when starting the business, I found it difficult to push past my discomfort. I was so sick for the first half I could barely do much of anything, then I my stomach grew so big I could hardly move.

My sleep pattern was whacked out and then my delivery was incredibly difficult so my body still is taking some time to re-group. My physical discomforts and then the demands of a newborn caused me to slowly find a rhythm for my business. I was adjusting to such a new life; no job/no income, 8-12 feedings a day so nothing got done, even my relationship was relatively new (2 1/2 years).

I was learning how to balance family and learning how to make money in a way I thought I could never was successful at. Here I was a former single mother of 9 years, an artist taking all sorts of odd artistic jobs to make ends meet to a mother of two, a wife and homemaker. I guess you can say I also found settling into my roles challenging.

What has been your best method of promoting your business?

To compensate for not being the artistic mommy traveling from school to theater all the time, teaching, teching or performing I ended up finding traveling to people's homes to tell them about my business. The traveling is a bit much because of my kids but I've found that I love to talk about my business and people positively respond to my enthusiasm when we are face-to-face.

What are your goals with your business?

I hope to do less of the traveling. I am not too keen on hosting parties just because baby gets my attention when I'm home so I would like to expand my marketing know-how to the internet.

I want to grow my business 3 times more than it is now so I need not be concerned with HAVING to go back to the theater. I love theater work so I want to be able to do it when I have the time, not when I need the money.

What advice you have for moms who want to work at home?

Find something that you believe in, that brings you fulfillment. Be committed and consistent to your business. Give it your energy and attention every day like a newborn child. Then watch it grow!

Read about other WAHMs here.

Social Bookmark this site, tell your friends and visit us regularly!

Home | Privacy | Contact Us | Sitemap