What I’m Thankful For In My Business (Guest Post by Tishia Lee)

Hi there. My name is Tishia Lee. I’m honored to be a guest blogger for Crissy here at Indie Biz Chicks. With Thanksgiving right around the corner it only seems fitting that I share about what I’m most thankful for in my business. There are lots of different things in my business that I’m thankful for so I’m going to pick my top three and share those with you.

First let me give you a brief background about who I am. As I already mentioned my name is Tishia. I’m a 34 year old single mom with one child – a boy who is 11. I’ve been working from home since January 2006 as a Virtual Assistant. Before coming home full-time I worked as an Optometrist Assistant at Wal-Mart. It was during that job and a particularly brutal parent teacher conference, with a teacher that accused me of not mothering my child because he was being raised by daycare, that I decided I had to do something. A friend had just entered into the world of working at home and took me on as her wingman. With her guidance and help in ‘breaking’ me into the WAHM community I was able to give my two weeks notice the middle of December 2005 and by January I was up and running with my VA business.

So now that I have that out of the way let me get down to the heart of this post and the three things I’m most thankful for in my business.

1. Freedom to be a Mom Again. I have been a single mom for 10 years and although that teacher was way out of line saying what she said to me it stopped me in my tracks and made me realize that my son was being raised by daycare and had been being raised by one daycare or another since he was six weeks old! I missed out on so many important milestones in his life over the years and I didn’t want to have to miss out on anymore. Now that I work at home I don’t miss out on any of his sports, school events, etc. I’m so thankful that I have the opportunity to be a mom to him again.

2. Flexibility. I’m so thankful for the flexibility that being my own boss allows. There are the times that things come up at the last minute that if I were still working a regular J-O-B I wouldn’t be able to do – spontaneous lunches, road trips, a spur of the moment manicure, last minute beach days (of course living in Northern Michigan those are pretty limited). But not only do I have the flexibility to do all the fun things there are also the not so fun things that I am able to take care of – my son when he’s sick, visiting with my grandma in the nursing home (it’s fun being with her but not in that setting!) and staying in bed when I’m sick without worrying about a boss making me feel guilty that I’m sick.

3. My Clients. I’m so thankful for the clients I get to work with. They truly are the best! Several of them have been with me since I opened my virtual doors back in 2006. It’s not just the working relationship I have with them but the friendships that have been built as well! I can honestly say that since I started my VA business almost four years ago I’ve only had one client that was trouble and I had to end our working relationship. But aside from that one bad experience it’s been a blessing to work with the clients I have and I’m so thankful for them and the fact that they rely on me to help with their businesses!

Those are just three things that I’m thankful for in my business. I could go on and on but I don’t want to be any more of a blog hog than I already have been 😉 So in closing I’ll just say that running my own business is really hard work and stressful at times but all the good outweighs the bad. I’m so thankful I took the plunge into working from home. It’s been the best decision I ever made not only for me but my son!

Tishia Lee is a single work at home mom that resides in lovely Northern Michigan. She has been running her Virtual Assistant business, Tishia Saves Time since January 2006. She strives to help small business owners save time while they make money.