The first thing that a stay at home mom realizes when she sets her mind to starting her own business is that “they” really do know what they are talking about when “they” say… it takes money to make money. So what is a stay at home mom supposed to do to get the money it takes to make money?

Thought I was going to have an answer? Wrong. I am currently going through this situation as we speak. I was fortunate enough to be interested in a business idea that doesn’t take all that much money to start up. But when you are dealing with little to no extra money… it’s a challenge.

Although I don’t have any specific answers to how someone could start up their business on a budget, I can tell you what I have done so far.

Logo

Everyone needs a logo. You need it for your website, your business cards, fliers, and signs. Because your logo is usually the way that your company is remembered… it can cost a lot of money to have someone design your logo for you.

I was fortunate enough to have a husband that is excellent at graphic design. I worked with him and he was able to create a perfectly simple logo for my business. The best part? It didn’t cost me a thing. Well… it didn’t cost me any money anyway.

My suggestion to you is to find someone that you know (you must know someone) that is into graphic arts or web design that would be able to design your logo for you at little to no cost. As you go along in your business and you are a little better off cash wise, you can always have your logo enhanced and perfected.

Web Design

For the time being my website will be used to provide information about my company as well as provide ways for potential clients to contact me. Because of this I was able to, once again, ask for help from my husband in creating my site.

To make this process easier, I had everything ready to go for when he was able to sit down with me to do the actual creation of the site. Prior to this time I had come up with my color scheme, come up with every word of content that would be put on the site and I had my logo (thanks to my husband).

If you are fortunate enough to know someone that can create a website for you (this is very common these days) it would be a good idea if you were COMPLETELY prepared when the time comes for you to actually sit down with this person.

Start simple and add features as you get along in your business. Check out my site Body Art by Erin to see a very simple, yet very stylish body art site.

Advertising

As of right now I cannot afford any money for advertising. What? How then, do you expect people to know that you are out there? Well, for now I am trying to book a spot for myself at local festivals, craft fairs and things of that nature.

Does this cost money? Most of the time, yes. But to me, these festivals and fairs are not only just a way to make money, they are also a way of getting my name out there and showing people what I can do.

So for now, this is how I will do most of my advertising. As I begin to gain popularity and hopefully bring in more money, I can look at other more effective ways of advertising my business.

Materials

Here is the part that there really is no cutting corners on. For me, I have to use quality materials that are FDA approved for use on the skin. There is no way around that, I want to be as safe as possible.

What I have been doing is buying the bare minimum that I can get by on. Some people in my industry have every shade of every color paint there is. Me? I have primary colors that I have learned to mix into various shades.

Some people in my industry have brushes of all sizes that are used for large areas or used for intricate outlining. Me? I’ve had to learn how to use my small number of brushes to create every size line possible.

So for me, starting out with the bare minimum in supplies has actually helped me improve my fundamental skills. As my business begins to take in more and more money I will be able to invest in some supplies that will make my art easier (I can’t wait!).

So you see, a stay at home mom is able to start her own business using a small budget. Sure it may take longer and require a little more begging, but it can be done.

This has been a very interesting couple of weeks for my kid since I have used him to practice many of my face painting designs.

This weekend was a big hit and I have really learned something important about myself throughout all of this… I love face painting.

I have always loved art and think of myself as being pretty talented at drawing. People would ask me why I didn’t get a career in the field. My answer was always that I was afraid that if I made art my job that it would feel like just that, a job. I was concerned that if I was forced to do it… I wouldn’t want to.

Then came the day when someone mentioned they needed a volunteer for face painting at their function. My eyes lit right up. I had only ever painted my own face for Halloween but right away I knew that I would be great at it. It just seemed right.

I put in a lot of practice time and did a lot of online research to learn the best practices that most professional face painters use. This included not only technique but also hygiene and things of that nature. My family thought I was crazy because all I talked about was face painting. But you know what? All of that really paid off when the function arrived.

I felt confident in my skills and my knowledge and it really showed. I was a huge success and the kids really loved their face paintings.

So now this has me itching for more. I’ve decided to start a body art business which will include face painting as well as henna tattoos. Sure, I don’t know how to do henna tattoos as of this very second but I know how to create some pretty great designs so that just leaves me with the task of learning how to use henna to apply those designs on someone’s body.

I’m super excited about this new interest in my life and I feel that it fits in perfectly with my stay at home mom lifestyle. I will be able to schedule my time around my main goals of raising my child and taking care of my household.

I have secured my new domain name for my face painting business but the site has nothing on it as of right now so I’m going to hold off on posting the actual url. I’ll update this post with it when it’s up and running.

It’s great having a new passion in my life and it will be interesting to see if I can make some money doing something that I really enjoy. I’ll keep you posted.

Last year at this time I was scrambling to come up with money for my SES pass. It’s pretty expensive when you are paying for it yourself. My husband is fortunate enough to work for a company that is willing to pay his fair. Me…not so much.

What I found last year is that I enjoyed the SES extracurricular activities more than the actual conference. Don’t get me wrong, there were some pretty fabulous speakers and I was really glad to be able to hear what they had to say. With that said…I’m not going to the actual conference again this year.

I will, however, be hitting some of the SES events such as the SES/St. Patty’s Day Pub Crawl and the IMNY Charity Event at the Black Finn. Let me just say, last year at the charity event I HAD A BLAST. It’s fun and you are giving to some really great causes. I would like to thank Best Of The Web for sponsoring it again this year.

If you will be attending SES New York this year or are just like me and you’re only attending the SES extracurricular activities…maybe I’ll see you there. Come on up and say hi…I’m a very friendly girl. Wink, wink. Just Kidding…or am I? I am…or am I? Just Kidding…about just kidding.