Deciding that you are going to be a work at home mom is not always easy and you need to take a few things into account.

Clearly, there are many benefits to working from home. You can set your own hours (to some extent); you don't have to commute to work; you don't have to dress up and you are there for your kids when they need you.

But there are some negatives as well, with the loneliness of working at home being a problem for some women who are used to having company in the workplace. There are also the challenges of trying to juggle work time and family time and some women feel that when they are at home they are looking after the needs of other members of the family first and foremost.

You'll also have to consider the impact that working from home may have on your financial situation. If you are moving from a high-paying full time job to working part time from home while you care for your child, there are likely to be some financial adjustments.

On the plus side though, any cut in pay is likely to be significantly offset against the costs of full time daycare. So, if you can make an equal amount of money or maybe even more by working part time from home and taking care of your child yourself, it is well worth it financially to stay at home.

However, some women see that raising their child without the use of daycare, whether or not they make a significant income, is the real benefit of being a Wahm. The perks of raising your own child, while still bringing in money for the family, are many. Children are only young once, and being able to stay at home with them is one of the top reasons that more and more women are choosing a Work at Home Moms career.

There are several qualities that make a Wahm successful. Before you start working at home, evaluate whether you have these qualities or can develop them.

The type of work you can choose to do from home tends to fall into two broad categories:

1) working on a sub-contractor basis for a company or a number of different companies; and

2) setting up a small business and being your own boss.

Either way, you are going to be in charge of your own schedule so you'll need to be self-motivated and work well without supervision.

Another essential skill to have is good time management. When you're a work at home mom, you are confronted by two main challenges each day. Firstly, you'll be faced with the office work you need to get done, and secondly, because you are at home, you will always be finding things that need to be done. This creates a tightrope scenario - if you focus too much on your work, your house will get out of control, and vice versa. Having good time management skills will be crucial in helping you tackle the diverse challenges of being a Wahm.

Finding the right income opportunity is a major challenge for any potential Wahm and a fear of being unable to generate an income quickly is a major disincentive to choosing to stay at home. A solution to this is to opt for an opportunity that is guaranteed to make an income from day 1. But caution is required. More than nine out of ten "guaranteed" online job opportunities that you see advertised on the Internet are nothing more than scams.

A foolproof way to get around this major problem is to join a reputable membership site which effectively screens out all of the bogus operators and provides you with masses of legitimate online jobs to choose from. For a small one time fee you will have lifetime access to a great selection of jobs and you are guaranteed to find ones that suit your particular skills and requirements perfectly.

I know because that is precisely what I did about a year ago and I haven't looked back since.

So do your research and have a look at my website and I hope that you too will soon be able to write your own Work at Home Mom success story.