The answer is yes, but I’m not saying it’s easy. It depends on the age of your children, of course, but still, no matter how old they are, you will have to find ways to balance your time between both your family and your business to make things work for you. As a busy mom of six, I’ve realized there is really only so much I can plan for my day but what gets planned does get done!
Remember to draw on your parenting skills. Think about the skills you may already possess. If you are still unsure about the practicality of running a business while raising your family, know that you may already have some of the parenting traits to make things work. Time-keeping, multitasking, and patience are just some of the skills you may already have to help you balance your time.
Practice the art of saying ‘no.’ When you’re trying to schedule your day, there are some things you will need to say ‘no’ to. This applies to both your family and business life, so when something isn’t urgent, skip it, for the benefit of the other.
Find the right time to work. When you have school-age children, you should be able to fit in your business during school hours. If you have younger children, you may need to fit in work while they’re asleep, or otherwise safely engaged. You might consider getting up an hour earlier in the day to fit in some work. Or you might work longer into the night on occasion. It depends on the needs of your family, but there should be some time in the day that can be set aside for your business.
Find childcare. To help you juggle your business and family demands, look for those people who will help you take care of your children when you need to focus more time on your business. Your partner is the obvious choice, but consider trusted friends and family members too. Of course, there are other options. You may be able to book younger children into nursery care during the day, and there may be after-school activities that your school-age kids can attend, giving you extra time to focus on your business. You are effectively outsourcing your kids to others, but provided they are in good care, you shouldn’t feel bad about it.
Outsource where possible. Not only should you outsource some of your parenting duties to others, but the same applies to some of your business tasks. To cut down your to-do list and to give you more time to spend with your family outside of business hours, outsource to firms such as this digital marketing company. Not only will this help you manage your time, but your business will benefit when you hand over certain tasks to people who may be more expert than you.
Be kind to yourself. You only have so much time in the day, so don’t set yourself false expectations. If you know you can’t run a business full-time, don’t take on more work than you can manage. If you know your house is never going to be super-clean because of your busy schedule, don’t sweat it. Running a business while raising a family is never going to be easy, but provided you take steps to commit to both, don’t let guilt eat you up when you occasionally fall short in either area.
What do you think? Are you already running a business at home while raising a family? If you have any tips and tricks to share with us, please let us know, for the benefit of anybody thinking about taking on this tricky (but not impossible) challenge.