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iQuestions Faculty, Randy and Elizabeth Draper 
 
 
Question: 
 
Having kids at home makes it difficult at times to run my home-based 
business, any suggestions? 
 
Answer: 
 
ELIZABETH: Running a business out of your home when your children 
are small and young, and they are not even to the age yet where you 
can sit them down and have a block of time for yourself? You can be 
creative, and being creative teaches them a lot of principles that they 
don’t even realize are happening. 
 
When I started in direct-sales, my boys were one and three. The first 
thing I did was get a toy box and I gathered things from the dollar 
store and all around to put in that box. When I needed a little bit of 
phone time or a little bit of paperwork, I would bring that toy box 
down, sit the boys in front of it and let them play. While they were 
playing, they were so caught up in all of the cool stuff and the new 
things that were in there that they would give me a little block of time. 
As soon as I was finished with the phone, or whatever I needed to do, 
I would take the box and put it back in the closet. I would not bring it 
down again until I needed to get on the phone. 
 
It was amazing how they would say, “Mommy, please, can we get 
down the toy box? Please, get on the phone. Please!” So that gave me 
some great time with them. 
 
Another thing I did was make tents all over the house. I put sheets 
onto the tables, and we would get under there and act like we were on 
a campout. As I needed to talk to hostesses or prospects on the 
 
phone, I would tell the guys, “Guys, we’re going to have another 
assignment. I have got to make this phone call, and as soon as I make 
it, it will tell us where to go.” I would call up a hostess or I would call 
up a prospect and talk to them for a few minutes, then I would hang 
the phone up and say, “Boys, the person said that we’ve got to go to 
the kitchen now!” And then we would run and move all of our stuff into 
the kitchen. 
 
So I kind of made working my business out of my home an adventure 
for the kids.  
 
I also would set the timer on the oven and I would tell them, “I need 
to do this, and I’m going to set the timer, and when the timer goes off, 
I’m going to come back, and we’re going to play a game,” and they 
knew that I was going to keep my word. That was really the most 
important thing, making sure I kept my word, and when the timer 
went off, I was back and playing with them. 
 
One last thing I remember I did that really helped, when I needed to 
go and talk to a prospect about the business, I would take the boys 
with me, and we would find a fast food place that had a playground, 
and they would bring their kids, I would bring mine—the kids would be 
playing—and I would tell them about my business.  
 
Many times when I was doing that, I would have to stop right in the 
middle of showing my marketing plan and say, “Guys, get off the 
ladder. Quit throwing the balls!” I would have to just stop, correct my 
kids, make sure my kids were not beating up my prospect’s kids, and 
that would let my prospect realize, “You can work this business with 
little kids, because, look, the lady I’m talking to is doing it.” 
 
So you just have to learn to be creative. You have to learn to celebrate 
the fact that you’re a mom, and being a mom means taking care of 
your children and being creative with them—but you can still have a 
Draper -2- 
 
great business, build a great business, be a great mom, and do it all at 
the same time.  
 
Draper -3- 
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