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“Oh, I'd love to homeschool, but how could I possibly run my home-based business and homeschool, too? I simply won't have the time!”

“Oh, I'd love to have a home-based business, but how could I possibly homeschool and run a home-based business, too? I simply won't have the time!”

Well, you're right. And you're wrong.

In 1995, only six months after jumping into the homeschooling arena, I began my second home-based business, Bright Spark Press. (My first had been an electronic publishing business in Utah called FastLane Technology.) BSP was a mail-order educational business for home educators, marketed through a print catalog and a website (back in the internet dinosaur days).

As the business grew, so did my family and so did the number of children who were actively being “schooled.” When we began homeschooling we had one school-age daughter and two preschoolers. By the time I sold the business in early 1998, I had two school-age daughters and two preschoolers.

When I sold Bright Spark Press (to a Maryland corporation), I was already actively involved as the chief financial officer for our engineering firm, Adept Systems Inc. Currently in that same position, we now have three school-age children, one preschooler, and a three-month-old baby.

Homeschool and Home Business Priorities

Things I do:

• I homeschool my four daughters and one son.
• From my home office, I coordinate all of the financial and personnel aspects of a growing company that currently has five full-time engineers and three part-time employees, none of whom work from my home office.
• I keep a nearly immaculate house and am always caught up on the laundry and ironing.
• I do social studies unit studies with all my children and we do weekly science experiments.
• Every morning, I read the scriptures and our family reads the scriptures together later.
• I volunteer at my church (teaching a class each Sunday for older teenage girls).
• I read aloud to my children every morning after breakfast.
• I make-up my face and fix my hair daily.
• Nearly every week, I write in my journal.
• I finish most of the wood furniture that we purchase.
• Every day, except Sunday, I exercise.
• I read a non-fiction book or two each week.

Now that, hopefully, I have sufficiently impressed you with my super-woman abilities, let me tell you what I do not do:

• I don't prepare a lovely, inexpensive, nutritious, home-cooked meal every night.
• I don't launder/iron any dress shirts (the dry cleaner does).
• I don't do all the housework myself (the kids do a lot and a cleaning service stops by once a week).
• My garden/yard is not a showcase.
• My lawn is maintained by other family members.
• I don't watch TV.
• I don't do crafts.
• I don't repair our appliances.
• I don't read a newspaper.
• Sewing does not happen (unless Halloween is approaching or I'm pregnant and cannot resist nesting).
• My home is not decorated expertly.
• I don't do many experiments or units or elaborate projects with my kids.
• I don't tolerate many messy projects, educational or not.
• I don't go outside and enjoy the beautiful Florida winter weather or the beach very regularly.
• I don't volunteer for the March of Dimes.
• I don't keep up on my scrapbooks. OK, I don't do scrapbooks at all.
• I don't ever get a full night's sleep.

I'm guessing you're feeling a little better now. Do you notice how, when we compare ourselves to others who seem to be doing so very much, we tend only to notice their list of “dos” and ignore their equally long list of “don'ts”?

Back to our question. Let me give it to you straight. You absolutely, certainly, positively can homeschool and run a home-based business. But you absolutely, certainly, positively cannot homeschool and run a home-based business and keep doing everything else you are currently doing.

If you really want to homeschool and have a home business (my personal dream)—and you want to do a good job—you need to look at your life and your lifestyle. “Something's gotta give,” as they say, and you need to see what, if anything, you are willing to give up. In business they call it “opportunity cost.” When you use your time or resources for one thing, you are deciding not to use those resources for anything else.

If any of your time is spent doing low-priority, low-benefit activities, they should be easy to eliminate. Unfortunately, some of these activities are high on our list of “fun things to do.”

Look hard at your schedule and your life. Ask yourself some tough questions: Do I really need to watch E.R. every week? Does Days of Our Lives really improve my quality of life? Is having my acrylic nails filled every two weeks increcibly crucial? Do romance novels make me happier in my marriage? Is chronicling every moment of my children's lives on elaborate, acid-free paper really the best use of my time and resources?

Perhaps there are things in your life that you realize aren't as important as the education of your children and you don't mind giving them up. Perhaps you see a real need to contribute financially to your household. But if giving up some activities, even leisure ones, would leave you resentful and angry, then perhaps you need to keep looking for where homeschooling or a home business will better fit in your life, if at all.

I hate crafts. I can't do them. Those who know my abilities have even called me “president of the craft disabled club.” The idea of “giving up” crafts to do homeschooling wasn't much of a sacrifice for me. I would, however, grow into an angry, bitter old woman if I had to completely give up my computer.

The things that I gave up in order to homeschool and run my various businesses were things that:

1. I didn't value much anyway
2. I valued but weren't a priority
3. I valued a great deal but could postpone or rearrange or even sacrifice for something I found to be more important

The last two are tougher to do, but not impossible if you focus on two things:

1. How much more you value your children and the way they are raised than what you are “missing” by overseeing education
2. How much the financial contribution will mean to your family and will teach your children

As I have said, I gave up one business. I enjoyed running it and found a sense of satisfaction from starting it and turning it into a profitable venture all on my own. But my kids were more important.

I gave up being a staff member on America Online. It was fun, but my days were so full that I needed to get that time back for my family.

I stopped teaching voice lessons because it made my schedule much less flexible.

There are many other things that I stopped doing. Sometimes I miss parts of them, but I don't regret the decisions because I see such a great benefit from homeschooling my children.

The Big Picture

Not long ago the local newspaper ran an article about a woman running a business from home. She loved it because “I get to be with my children.” The story went on to describe her office, which was entirely isolated from the family so she could work in peace. It then detailed how she found a great full-time nanny. She clarified by saying that even though she didn't see her children all day, she was still “there and very present.”

What a relief.

Many LDS women begin a home-based business thinking that they can be Holly Homemaker and run a business on the side without any impact on the home and family life. I thought that myself long ago. But it's not true. Often we can make the impact acceptable or tolerable or, sometimes, even preferable, but it's always there.

You must be aware of the impact so you can manage it and make it positive.

I sold BSP precisely because it had gotten too big and was beginning to take over my life. I could see my kids aging much too quickly while I was busy opening vendor accounts and shipping books and supplies. The couple who bought the business from me found the same thing to be true and actually ended up sending their children back to school in order to continue to run the homeschooling business!

The business I'm currently working in is not nearly so demanding on my time now, but it is requiring more and more work as it grows. Last year I hired a very capable woman to take over the bulk of my day-to-day duties in order to keep the home impact at an acceptable level.

“Quality time” as presented in our culture is a myth. Real quality time with children only exists in the presence of quantity time. And quality homeschooling won't happen if it is squeezed in around the other activities in your life, if it is not a priority.

Making homeschooling a priority does not mean that you can't be flexible. Neither does it mean that you can't form a unique style that fits your family and your circumstances. It simply means that homeschooling is one of the first considerations when organizing you life, rather than one of the last.

Quality homeschooling takes time, no matter what philosophy you espouse to. Children do not raise themselves in the same way a nurturing and attentive parent does.

Running a home business can be an amazing family learning experience and training ground, as well as bring financial benefits that working for someone else cannot.

If you can look critically at your life and your family and make ample room for home education and a business—being realistic about your abilities and your limits—you can make the wonderful dream of bringing it all home a reality.

Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.