Some daddies are geeky, an interview with Daniel M. Clark

When it comes to working at home with kids, dads all over the country are filling the scene more than some might expect. The internet allows an enormous amount of opportunity for self motivated individuals to make a living while enjoying time spent with our children.  Daniel M. Clark is a work-at-home dad of two, currently living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is part owner of a website called  Geek Dads @ Home which features a weekly podcast for geek & tech-minded Dads. He also builds and maintains several affiliate websites, promoting offers and products from multiple merchants around the web.

Thoughts about working from home with kids

Many people my age (mid-30’s) grew up with a parent who stayed home with the kids. What I do isn’t so different from what my Mom did for me and my sister - I clean house, do dishes, cook and all the rest. The opportunity to work online at the same time allows me to contribute to the family financially as well, which is something that the previous generation couldn’t do. It’s tremendously liberating; having the ability to communicate with people all over the world and make some money while being the homemaker is fantastic. I wouldn’t trade our situation for anything - even if the kids do get a little frustrating sometimes ;)

How did you get started? My “what do you do?” answer is very, very different than it was when I started as a work-at-home Dad. I graduated, in 2003, from a school in Florida with a degree that I had little interest in putting to use. After graduation, I gave forming my own company with some other recent graduates a shot; it lasted about 6 months. While in school, I learned some Photoshop, and in 2004, I discovered the online print-on-demand industry. I decided that I’d make that my primary focus, and I was pretty successful with it. My daughter, Winter, was born in late 2005, and me staying home was an easy decision for my wife and I to make. I was already working from home, I just had to learn how to take care of the kid at the same time! It was a couple of years into being a work-at-home-dad that I branched out into podcasting, blogging and affiliate marketing.

The transition from working out of the house to work-at-home Dad was pretty easy for me. The last out-of-the-house job I held was back in 2001, when I worked at the Johnson Space Center (it’s not as glamorous as it sounds). While there, I decided to go back to school to study video game design and development. I did not need to hold a job while in school, and after I graduated, I began a string of projects, hobbies and websites that brought income into the family while allowing me to stay home. The addition of a kid was just one more detail, really.

Right now, my business is based on me - my blogging and podcasting efforts. Nearly everything I do involves affiliate marketing in some way, so I suppose you could say that it’s grounded in retail. I tend to eschew traditional advertising on my sites in favor of the tight control that affiliate marketing has to offer. Very rarely do I run any offers or products that I haven’t personally investigated and approved.

Pros and Cons

What do you find to be the most challenging about working from home with kids? Being able to stop what I’m doing at any given moment to tend to the kids is by far the biggest challenge. My stock answer of “just a minute” got old pretty quick! Running a very close second is the constant struggle to find time in the day to do everything I want to do, both with the family and with my various projects. If you can’t manage your time effectively, you’re not going to enjoy working at home with kids.

What are some of the benefits you've experienced being a work-at-home parent? On a personal level, the greatest benefit is being able to see and experience every milestone and every accomplishment. By staying at home with the kids, I never have to miss anything.

On the financial side, not having to pay for day care for the little ones is a tremendous benefit. I’ll never understand those parents that go out and get a job just to pay for day care. If you’re not making much more than you’re spending on day care, why bother? Why not stay home with your kids and supplement your income online?

A Funny Little Story

My daughter, at age 3 (almost 4) made an observation one day. To her, Mommy has a job because Mommy makes it clear that she’s going to her [home] office with the door closed. Winter asked why Mommy goes to work, and Angela told her that she needs to earn money so we can pay for things. Winter doesn’t think that I work because I don’t go into an office and close the door, so she comes up with, “So, you make the money and Daddy spends it?”

Getting the Work Done

How do you manage/juggle your work with family time? It’s tricky, but it helps that I’m not holed up in a home office when I want to get something done. I’ve been very creative in having my equipment all over the living room and kitchen while not making it very obvious. I’m a master at hide-and-seek, particularly the hiding!

How do you stay in touch with the outside world? I make a point of getting out of the house on a weekly basis, one night a week, when possible. There are local groups of like-minded people that have events almost every week: ABQ Web Geeks, Webuquerque and SynerQue. Between the three of them, there’s usually something going on that gets me out of the house.

My wife and I like to get out together, too! The local Little Gym has a Parents Survival Night every other Friday, and we can drop Winter off there for a few hours of supervised fun. Ian is too young to do that, so we take him with us. It’s a little more expensive than hiring a babysitter, and we don’t do it each time it’s available, but Winter loves it and it’s good for her. 

I also try my best to make it to Affiliate Summit twice a year and to hit other related events as time and finances allow.

Do you have a specific office space set up for your work? I’m pretty spread out right now, though that may change when we move out of our current home. I doubt that I’ll ever have a proper home office that I go to work in; I much prefer to work on the living room couch where I can interact with my kids. Once they’re both going to school, I may decide to change that up.

How do you market/promote your business? Twitter plays a big part in how I market and promote myself. I’m a firm believer in word-of-mouth, and Twitter is an extension of that kind of personal interaction. I also use other social networking and social media tools. I don’t spend any time in forums anymore - they were too great of a time sink (and far too political for my liking). I optimize my sites for search engines as well.

What advice would you give to someone considering working from home with kids? It is not as easy for most people as it is for others. I take to this lifestyle very well, but I know a lot of people that would just go out of their minds without an out-of-the-house job to go to. There’s no easy way to test whether or not you’d like it, but until you’re financially stable enough to try, don’t quit your day job. Even more important than that though, is to make sure you and your spouse or partner are on the same page. Making the transition can be tough for both of you.

About

Daniel M. Clark is a blogger, podcaster and father of two. He and his wife & kids live in New Mexico.

Additional Contact information: Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/danielmclark Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/danielmclark