* The house is messier than I want to believe it can be

* I can’t get ANY work done without wet knees (12 month old clinging, sobbing, to my legs while I try to work)

* I am lucky if I get a shower before having to meet with a customer – or even before dinner

* There is always too much to do, not enough time to do it, and too many people who think I don’t really work since I am at home

* No matter how carefully I plan my day, it can all go to heck in a handcart when my little dictator decides that she is teething, cranky, clingy, or otherwise refuses to cooperate. Or it can fall apart when some other family member needs me. Or when grandma can’t babysit so I can do something that the dictator doesn’t like (sewing) or is not safe when accompanied by a 30 inch tall octupus (making soap).

Trust me, I sometimes think back longingly on those days when I had my own office with no toys in it (well, at least all the toys were mine). Those days when someone else handled everything that was not “my job.” Bookkeeping? Not MY JOB. Cleaning the bathroom? Not MY JOB. Making lunch? Hey, not only NOT MY JOB – but a group of us could go out to a REAL restaurant without asking for a highchair. Olive Garden and Sweetwater Grill are much better at lunches than I am.

Despite all of the hassles of working from home, there are also things I love so much I don’t think I could give them up.

This morning, as I have worked, I am sharing the bed with my cuddly baby girl. We have both been sick all week, so she is sleeping later than normal. As she tosses and turns, she throws her head on my shoulder or puts an arm around mine. She knows she is safe and loved, even in her sleep. Her cute little wooly pants (made by mom!) are so soft and cozy, she has kicked off the covers and her little bare feet are so cute.

Why I love being a WAHM (work at home mom):

* I was there when my daughter took her first steps – from my arms to Grandma’s

* I can take a whole day off when my cranky, sick baby needs to be rocked and cuddled (ok, so I work while she sleeps, but I can still BE here when she needs me)

* We can take a day off to go with Grandma to the doctor if needed

* Licking Cheerios and sticking them to your forehead is frowned on in fancy restuarants. I don’t know why, it makes Eva laugh out loud!

Working from home is hard. Sometimes harder than having a job ever was. But I’ll gladly trade a (finally) sleeping baby for a conference room full of suits.

The article does a great job of covering why it is challenging and why I also love doing it.

Check out this article about my cloth diaper business.

Thousands of small businesses that create simple, SAFE items like handmade toys, cloth diapers, baby slings, and unique baby clothing are going to be forced to test and retest products already known to be safe. As the law is written, I have to test every single type of product I make – even if the only difference is in sizing.

If I make 3 different size diapers from the same bolt of fabric and the same color snaps, I will be required to test all three sizes – even though the materials are exactly the same in each diaper! Even more bizarre, I have to test these products even though the manufacturer of the fabric and the manufacturer of the snaps have already completed these tests. And the next business has to test those exact same materials again, since my results don’t help them at all. This does not make kids safer, it only makes it impossible for very small businesses to keep their doors open.

How expensive is this testing? While I have seen estimates all over the map, one of my colleagues shared her test estimates. She uses the exact same materials I do for making my pocket diapers. Both the maker of the waterproof fabric and the maker of the snaps have already tested them for lead and found NONE. The testing lab wants 6 of each size and color of diaper from her. Her diapers come in 3 sizes and 14 colors. That is 252 diapers that will be destroyed for testing. Then, they want to test front and back snaps (made from the same plastic), and each of the fabrics and the thread and elastic. End result? $58,800 plus the loss of 252 diapers all to prove that the fabric and snaps we already know to be safe is still safe – and those tests will need to be run by every other diaper maker who uses the same safe materials. There are hundreds of us using these same materials. Stupid is the nicest word that comes to mind. This does not help make kids safer, it only limits choices in the marketplace and it is going to make everything a lot more expensive.

What can you do? In addition to writing to Congress and the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) you can vote at Change.org by January 15. Click here to vote. While the voting mentions the handmade toy manufacturers, the end result will help all of us.  Toy manufacturers will be hit the hardest on February 10, but all of us will feel this by Augut when the final parts of the rule go into place.

For information about how to contact Congress and the CPSC, along with suggestions for what to say, go to WAHM Solutions (my business blog).

I am on a mission to get rid of every scrap of fabric in the house before I am allowed to buy more (ok, kinda). I had 8 pail liners to serge in that stack (with another stack of 20 cut out pail liners I had planned to sew today). I wanted to get to an even 40 serged for the day before I moved onto a more creative project). Suddenly tail of the gusset got caught in the serger and broke both needles. I have at least 100 sewing machine needles and NOT ONE serger needle in the house. The other serger uses regular sewing machine needles, only this one machine has to be different. I tried to buy needles last month when I got the machine fixed, but the repair shop wasn’t sure which needles I ought to buy so I planned to look it up and pick them up later. But, these days I don’t leave the house much. Trust me to break the last two needles on one of the few days when all the fabric stores are closed.

Sure, it is Christmas, but the baby is sleeping again and James is doing his own thing, my family is not coming over until Sunday. Why not give myself the gift of some completed work?

Sure, I COULD use the sewing machine or the other serger to do something else, but I WANT to use the serger that is threaded with white thread, not the colored thread one. (Heaven knows I am NOT gonna rethread a serger on Christmas Eve!) So, like a junkie, I was sorting through my massively cluttered sewing room last night desperate for the last two used needles that I am pretty sure I did not toss. My husband muttered something about me going through trash looking for used needles. Is it so wrong to want my fix?

On the surface, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) is a good thing. Who doesn’t want to protect kids? I’m a mom and I will do anything I can to protect my little girl. Hidden in the details though is a rule that can kill any business that makes items for kids. Especially if those items are handmade, one of a kind or specialty items. Even selling something as simple as a hair bow will become a felony on February 10, 2009, unless that item has been tested for lead. Have hair bows in 6 colors? That is 6 tests at $180 each, thank you!

The rule requires ALL manufacturers to test ALL finished products for lead if they are going to continue selling them after February 10, 2009. Lead testing is good, right? Yes, if it is applied correctly.

This rule requires every single product to be tested, even items that are really unlikely to contain any lead at all such as homeschooling books or handknit sweaters. Worse, if the same item comes in three different sizes, the law requires three different tests, even if they are made from the exact same fabric.

If you or someone you know makes ANYTHING intended for use by children under the age of 12, they are affected by this law. There is no provision in the law for craft boutiques, Etsy sellers, artists or anyone else.

If being able to buy or sell handmade toys, books from small publishers, unique baby clothes, funny-t-shirts, or anything else that is not mass-produced, it is very important that you contact your Representative. The committee is meeting on this issue WEDNESDAY, December 10. You can find more details on my blog www.wahmsolutions.com.

Working from home is not easy. Getting work done between diaper changes, nursing on demand and keeping our household running takes a lot of effort. While being a mom is new for me, working from home around my family’s needs has been vital for me for many years. I started working from home several years ago, though I had full-time jobs from time to time to pay the bills while I learned to grow my businesses to become real money makers. I started Little for Now while I still had a full-time job. I fully understand the pressure of providing for a family’s day-to-day needs and running a small business. I have worked from home full time through a family member’s serious illness, a divorce, remarriage, a difficult pregnancy and now caring for a new baby.

I just read “Full Time Work at Home Moms.” This report is full of great advice and success tips for work at home moms. Nicole Dean, a successful work at home mom, has put together interviews with 16 successful work at home moms. There is a ton of great advice in this report and it is a quick read at just 55 pages. If you want to succeed as a full time work at home mom, you need the advice in this report. I know my businesses would have been profitable much sooner if I had this report when I started out. Even now, after years in business, I found many great ideas and tips.

Click here to learn more about “Full Time Work at Home Moms.”

Since I refuse to put nasty disposables on my kid, she may be reduced to wearing her dad’s t-shirts as diapers.

Sewing cloth diapers for sale must have great appeal since my diaper fabrics coop gets at least three new wanna-be-WAHMs each week and I get a fair number of emails that basically read, “Tell me everything you have spent the last 2 1/2 years killing yourself to learn so I can steal your business.” Actually, a few people have even had the nerve to come to my house as customers, then explain that they are basically casing the place so they can steal my business. One was supposed to be my midwife, but that is another story for another time.

Ok, no one has actually used the word steal, but they do tell me that they want to know everything I know and that they then intend to use that information to create a business that will target my same customer base. Or as the midwife put it so eloquently, “My diapers will be better than yours, and you have been too sick to sew much lately, so how could that take business away from you?” (Mind you, she had not yet actually SEWN a single diaper – nor did she have a pattern developed, but she was SURE hers were going to be better than mine, better than the Bum Genius 3.0  and Wahmies One Size she had gotten from me, etc.)

“Hello, Coca Cola? I am starting my own beverage company and I was wondering if you would let me know your recipes, your supplier list, how much profit you make per bottle, and any other trade secrets that have allowed you to maintain a market edge over all these years. In fact, if you don’t mind, can you sell me a few supplies at your cost in order to get me started?…Hello?”

So, I tell them all the same thing I wish someone had made clear to me in the beginning. Most of them get huffy and think I am trying to prevent competition. That is not true, I believe that every cloth diaper seller is part of the grassroots marketing effort we need to save the planet, save families from the recession, and improve the health of babies everywhere. If every person who wants to sell cloth diapers converted just 2 new cloth diaper users a week, we would all have enough business to keep all of our sewing machines smoking.

The truth is, sewing or selling cloth diapers as a business has to be a labor of love. It is NOT a pathway to riches. Plan on at LEAST two years to start seeing a paycheck (seriously, ask around, this is what I have been told by some of the biggest names in the business as well as some of the popular niche diaper makers, this goes for retail and for sewing your own diapers.) This is a very, very competitive industry. Getting your name out there takes hard, hard work and then even more hard work. I have worked 18 hours a day for the last 2 1/2 years to start seeing even modest success. Every penny I earn goes back into supplies, more inventory, or marketing.

There are perks to this business, sure, but first, let me tell you the downsides:

• The profits are LOW. Honest. For most retail you can count on a 100% markup. That is unheard of with cloth diapers. Why? Well, most popular brands are made in the US – which means higher labor costs than those made overseas. Even those made overseas usually are trying for fair wages and fair trade. So, you start with relatively expensive materials, then add a fair wage, then add shipping, profit for the manufacturer, profit for the retailer, and the fact that customers want a great fitting diaper that will stand up to hundreds of washes and won’t make their baby’s butt look big- for less than $20 (try finding a pair of jeans that fits that description!). Wait, don’t stop there, you also need to pay for marketing, web site/technology, packaging materials, taxes, credit card processing fees, and….
• Customers have been conditioned to believe that shipping should be free. I keep telling USPS and UPS that shipping should be free, but they have the nerve to keep charging me hundreds of dollars a month to ship stuff. Yes, hundreds.
• Some customers say they love to support WAHMs – but they want Walmart pricing. They ask for discounts for ordering more than one, ordering for the first time, ordering for the second time, or because it is Wednesday, they claim to have twins, or they expect you to price match because they found someone else who will give it to them cheaper (then why are you asking ME for a discount, go buy from the THEM). If you eat away all of the WAHM’s profits with discounts, returns, free shipping, free samples, etc., what is “supporting” the WAHM in question?
• Anyone who can get their hands on a yard of PUL (polyurethane laminate, a popular waterproof fabric) and a sewing machine will seriously consider setting up shop because they think they can make better diapers for less. Maybe they can, but if you are smart you will charge enough for your handmade products to provide yourself with at least minumum wage for the time you take away from your family. Be sure to count ALL your time, including the 2 hours you spent yesterday explaining how great cloth diapers are to a potential customer–who then went online and found them elsewhere for 50 cents cheaper.
• People WILL copy your great ideas. I see it every single day. In my oh-so-humble opinion, there is very little new under the sun, and diapers are pretty much kinda the same and they are made to, well, catch pee and stuff. But there is a lot of crankiness surrounding this with some sellers spending $15,000-20,000 or more to patent their ideas. Then they have to defend their patents at great expense. Some ideas are not patentable – and some people miss the patent window. If you have an idea, start selling the product, then wait 12 months before trying to patent it you are out of luck. You can not patent it if you have sold it for longer than 1 year before filing for a patent. You can’t patent some things anyway, but that does not stop people from getting really cranky when someone else takes a small idea and creates a different looking product using that small idea. I am honestly not sure that any of the crankiness and such is worth it, but it happens a lot. Now, if you want to make a diaper that falls under someone else’s patent, you will need a license (such as for making pocket diapers) or you will need to figure out a way to make a similar diaper that does not violate the patent. This is why there are at least 10 ways I have seen people make a pocket diaper since pocket diapers are a great idea and licenses are hard to come by (yes, I do have a pocket diaper license so my pocket diapers are legitimate!).

• Even with a small idea, you will be copied. Case in point, I sell hand-dyed prefolds. That is not an original idea. I got it from someone else, but when they stopped selling them I started dying them myself to meet my customer’s needs. I experimented, chose colors and named them myself. Someone else in my area is now selling dyed prefolds with the EXACT same color names. Hmmm….
• People will copy your entire product line. There are at least two new web sites in my area selling the EXACT same brand names I sell. At least, the ones you can get into without a 2 year waiting list. Hmmm….
• Yes, there really is a 2 year waiting list for some brands. It took me almost that long to get a BumGenius account. I am still on the waiting list for some other popular brands.
• Heaven help you if someone takes a personal dislike to you and starts badmouthing your brand all over the popular diaper boards. This has not happened to me personally, but I have seen it happen over and over to others. The internet is a blessing and a curse. If they love you, you will be a star and your diapers will sell faster than you can make them – even faster than you can pay someone else to make them. If they hate you….

So why do I do it?

The perks of cloth diaper selling….

• I get to play fashion designer. I can choose really cute fabrics and make diapers out of them. When a diaper is super cute, I like to think it makes the parent hug their baby a few extra times that day.
• I love helping to keep diapers out of our landfills. Every baby in cloth keeps 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine out of the environment EACH YEAR. (See the RDA for more diaper facts.)
• I truly believe that disposable diapers are horrible for babies and horrible for the environment and that cloth diapers are healthier.
• I love helping parents feel good about what they are doing for their babies. Cloth diapers encourage more parent-baby interaction. When you need to change your baby every 2 hours you spend more time talking to and entertaining baby to keep them still. This is called bonding, teaching and other good stuff. When you can leave your baby in a diaper for 6 hours (or 12 HOURS like the new diaper Pampers is testing — eew!) you can forget to talk to them and make eye contact.
• I like meeting cool people and helping them to do the best thing for their babies. There are so many wonderful people who cloth diaper that I feel priviliged to know them.
• Daytime TV bores me so I need to keep up with the drama in the WAHM diaper world.
• Cloth diapers save money. No matter what propaganda the sposie makers/users want you to believe, an average family will save thousands of dollars using cloth diapers. Even if you use a high-end diaper like the Thirsties All in One, you will save an average of $15 per hour that you spend washing diapers. Seriously. Three loads of laundry a week could save you thousands of dollars per kid.

I love what I do most days. There are days when the sewing machine is dying and customers are cranky and suppliers are out of stock and I wonder why I don’t go back to the professional world where I got paid several times what I make now and someone else kept the bills paid. I could, but I’d miss the latest diaper drama….