Guest Post: Entrepreneur Mom on balancing family and a home business

I asked Claire Winson from http://entrepreneurmom.net/ to give Moms with new businesses or new families some tips on balancing family life and a home business and she came up with these great insights. My favorite tip is something I like to do…

Always plan out the following day the night before. Always.

She suggests to keep an A4 notebook and write headings on each page for various daily activities. Thats exactly what I do so I like her already!  Claire is… “a mom to the cutest (although I maybe biased) little boy, and a dog with issues. I’m a seasoned PR professional and writer, Nescafe fanatic, runner, wanna-be surfer, and the founder of EntrepreneurMom.”

She is also building quite an empire on her Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/EntrepreneurMomZA?fref=ts… please like and share her page and subscribe to her blog, there’s a wealth of information waiting to encourage new business owners so please support her!

Balancing family and a home business

One of the toughest things for a mama to do is to stretch herself between work and family. As the founder of EntrepreneurMom, an informative platform to helps moms start, grow and create awareness of their home business, the question I’m most often asked is how do I find the balance between earning money and taking care of my family. Can a true balance ever really be found?

Whether you have to work out of necessity, or because you desire the freedom, or just have a brilliant business idea that cannot be kept under wraps the answer, of course, is yes, you can have and do it all.

There may be moments in time that your schedule is not as you wish it to be, but remember, they are only snippets in time. Everything you do now paves a path of success for you and your family. So give your kiddies an extra squeeze and follow these few tips to help you create the best balance.

1) Scheduling

One of the greatest things about working for yourself is being able to schedule your work around your activities. Rather than being chained to a desk for eight hours, schedule work time in the early morning hours while your family is asleep, or get some admin done after your babies are tucked in bed. Just because it is ‘work’ and ‘business’ does not’ mean it has to happen between 9am and 5pm.

2) Ask for help

No one said that owning your business would be easy but no one said that you must do it alone either. Enlist help to keep your house in order; even just once a week or every other week, this can go a long way to keeping your sanity. Within your business, consider hiring a virtual assistant who can help (remotely, of course) keep track of your admin, bookkeeping, social media and more, which leaves your precious time to take care of your core business.

3) Let some things go

Your house does not need to be perfect, so choose what is most important to you (not someone else). Maybe the beds aren’t made until it’s time to crawl in them, maybe you work in pyjamas, maybe your child watches a move or plays by themselves for a little bit when you have a meeting. Choose your battles; you don’t need to get everything right all of the time, and let go of any guilt that goes along with it!

4) Plan

If I have one tip it is this: always plan out the following day the night before. Always. I have an A4 notebook and write headings on each page for various daily activities, for work, personal, and family life. That way, as soon as I get up in the morning I know what needs to be done rather than try to remember what is happening.

5) Prioritise

In my long list of things to do, I prioritise those activities which absolutely must be done that day, for example, events, meetings, and those items with a deadline. Then I mark off say, 3-5 other tasks that need to be completed. That way I know that as long as those specific tasks are done, the rest of my day can be juggled and planned accordingly, releasing any guilt for not having put in a 9-5 effort.

What is most important when trying to juggle family and your own business is not to follow anyone else: set your purpose and create your own rules.