Today I have a guest post from Michelle Sweeney who has created a family and a business (or two!) while she dances across the continents. 

Working from home suits me. With my son turning 2 and my oldest daughter of 7 – I love the fact that I am able to stay home and work around their schedules. While it may not always be this way, I am happy that I don’t have to pay childcare fees and can fit my career around the hours I have available (albeit sometimes very few).

Although my online career started as one thing and morphed into something different altogether, I think that it is important to find the business that suits your lifestyle and skill set; and sometimes the business you end up with is something entirely different from what you set out to do altogether. In my mind, I envisaged running a gift store complete with gorgeous products at affordable prices but my lifestyle complicated my dream. While I started out down that route, constant moves on an international level interrupted the flow.

Setting up a business is not easy and to date I have set up two online gift stores only to find that while that is something I enjoy doing, it is not practical for me on a long term level. However my experience and skills were not wasted throughout this work-at-home journey. I learnt many skills – in particular online marketing, blog writing and social networking, in addition to my experience in administration and recruitment already gained – and over time I discovered that these skills were useful to others.

It took me a number of years but now I have a career in which I can operate from wherever I am located – to date China, Australia and Canada – and all I need is internet access and a laptop.

Michelle is the Blog Manager for Clever Streak, has a varied background in administration, teaching and recruitment and has been involved in writing and blogging on a professional basis since 2005. She loves to see small businesses achieve success and looks forward to assisting as many businesses as she can.