When I first decided to start my own business from home, it was mainly to supplement our monthly income and reduce our money woes. Also, I wanted to do something other than play peek-a-boo a thousand times with my 16-month-old toddler, Makenna. Not that I don't love playing with and raising my darling daughter, but sometimes a woman needs stimulation from a person whose dialogue consists of more than "No, mommy" and "Ba-ba!"

So I began brainstorming what I could do from home, something I was good at and could easily do from the comfort of my small home office, located in a corner of my bedroom. We actually have a computer room, but my husband claimed that room as his long ago, and I frankly needed a space of my own.

In August I had an epiphany. I suddenly knew what I could do from home, that I was good at, had experience with and that could easily be done at home from my little office: patient appointment call reminders for medical practices (solo practitioners were my main clientele). I had spent years calling patients to remind them of their appointments while working in medical offices. I started brainstorming names for my business and consulted with my sister, an accountant and law school student, who helped with the legal end of the business. I'm lucky that I have a sibling in both the accounting and legal fields, since she promised to assist me with both my bookkeeping and all legal aspects of my new business. I also set up a website for my burgeoning business, Above the Call Appointment Reminder Service, hoping it would generate more leads than cold calling alone.

After I came up with the name--which took me longer than thinking up the idea in the first place--I set up a new e-mail account and used vistaprint.com to design business cards. Vistaprint always has sales on its products, and I got 250 business cards for free, plus the shipping fee. I also ordered business return labels that matched the business cards. Then I went about marketing my business, which was the hardest thing for me since I have a very active toddler at home. The only time I could work on my business was when Makenna took her afternoon nap. Nap time only gave me about 90 minutes to market my business via e-mail and telephone calls, but I really got a lot done in that time.

The Yellow Pages were a great resource for me, since I looked up the hundreds of medical practices (both solo and multiple doctors) in the surrounding towns and cities. For practices that had no website or e-mail, I entered their phone and address information into a spreadsheet I created for my marketing data. In addition to e-mailing potential clients, I printed out marketing letters that my sister whipped up for me (thank God for siblings who are educated in business and legalities), inserted my business cards and mailed them off. My marketing plan consisted of cold calls, e-mails, letters and word of mouth, and I was giddy with the hope of landing a large client account if I just kept at it.

But guilt is another factor in juggling a new home business with a child at home. Was I neglecting her? Was I spending too much time on my business and not on my daughter? What if I got too many clients and could not manage the volume of appointment reminders with my active and loud toddler? My solution was to set up a schedule that balances my work and my role as mommy.

For example, since Makenna usually sleeps in until around 10:30, I rise early, make coffee and work in my office doing marketing and checking e-mails until I hear her wake on my baby monitor. Then we play and watch her Baby Can Read DVD and have lunch together. When I put her down for a nap, I move my laptop into the living room so I can juggle housework (dishes, laundry) and business on the laptop. Usually by the time she wakes, I have gotten a lot of my chores done as well as a lot of my marketing and e-mail responses and can concentrate on playtime with my daughter.

Though I am still in the startup end of my new business, keeping a daily schedule makes it easier for me to juggle work and motherhood. I am, after all, creating this business for the good of my family and my sanity as a stay-at-home mom. Juggling a new business and a toddler doesn't have to be as hard as it sounds!

Kristina Wyatt is a stay-at-home mom, a freelance writer and sole proprietor of a new home business venture, Above the Call Appointment Reminder Service.