Juggling motherhood and business

Running a business can be a handful at the best of times, though add babies and toddlers and it can be complete chaos!

Juggling motherhood and business can be as challenging as it is rewarding, so to help you enjoy the best of both worlds, here are five tips for managing business and babes while keeping your sanity intact.

1. Hang up those “great expectations”

When you are balancing business and family there is no room for perfection and high expectations. Managing multiple roles on both the home and business front you need to be realistic with what you can achieve each day.

The key is to become good at prioritising your time and tasks. Instead of working off a long and overwhelming to-do list, allocate yourself three to five core tasks each day and store the rest in a “would be nice to get done today” list. I also recommend keeping a daily “have done list” that shows every task you’ve done (even down to the loads of washing), so on those days where you’re beating yourself up about not ticking much off your to-do list, you’ll soon realise you’ve still accomplished a lot.

2. Know why you’re in business

When you balance family and business it’s important to know why you’re in business. Getting clarity on the ‘why’ will help you to be clear on your values and priorities and ensure your business decisions are in line with them.

For example, if you’re in business because you want the flexibility of being with your family while earning an income, then you may slow your business growth or focus on developing a high-leverage business model with passive income streams to ensure you still have plenty of time with your family.

3. Make your work flexible and portable

Running a business with little ones in tow tends to mean the usual 9-5 work arrangement just doesn’t happen.

Being able to sit at your desk for longer than 40 minutes at a time with little ones around is, well…a miracle, so don’t expect the usual 9-5 work arrangement to work. You will need to be flexible in your working hours, doing high concentration work potentially around naps and at night when you get a moment to yourself.

It’s also important to be able to work on the go. Being able to check and send emails, update social media, brainstorm ideas or take notes while you are out and the kids are happy and distracted can save you a lot of time and stress. So invest in a laptop or tablet PC, smart phone, cloud computing facilities and relevant apps to make your life easier.

4. Leverage

To balance work and family effectively you need to look for ways to leverage your time, knowledge, money, influence, contacts and efforts, and those of others.

Always be on the lookout for leverage opportunities. A good start is to simplify and systemise your tasks to save time, look at what jobs you can outsource, form alliances and do joint marketing with other businesses, and work on passive income streams.

5. Manage your time wisely

As a mum in business time will always be your most limited resource. Finding enough time to meet deadlines, manage clients and run a business all the while fulfilling your roles as a wife, mother and housewife isn’t easy, in fact sometimes it’s downright impossible!

But by building little gaps of time into your schedule, you can give yourself breathing space should anything unforeseeable happen – and believe me it does. Clients run late, meetings run overtime, deadlines get moved up and kids get sick and fussy. When it happens, those time buffers become life savers. So add in extra time for travel in case of traffic, add extra time to the end of your meeting in case it runs late and always, always build in extra time with deadlines in case kids get sick.

When managing your time, it also helps to schedule specific times for each of your roles. A set time for playing and bonding with your kids, spending time with your partner, time for yourself, time for managing the house and of course time for your work. While it won’t always go to plan it will help you achieve more work/life balance.

Do you have any tips for managing business and family?

89 Comments

- - omgjag31 said
  - 13 Sep 2013
    12:50 pm
It’s not that hard to do they key is routine. I couldn’t not work I love my job

- - kali111 said
  - 13 Sep 2013
    1:50 am
Having your cake and eating it too tastes good 🙂

- - yummymum said
  - 12 Aug 2013
    12:03 am
It is crazy hard. You can be home more but you still have to work. And you can’t call in sick. There is no one else to do your job.

Recently I had a cake to make and deliver. A beautiful three tiered hand decorated creation. I was feeling run down and my youngest son had been sick for over a week. He was up all night howling in pain. The doctor gave us medicine but not working. So the cake was due Friday. So Friday morning came and the cake was mostly done just a few more decorations. My little guy was so unwell I took him back to the doctor, who sent is to emergency. We were there all day. There was nothing I could do. Hubby left work early pick up our other son then came to the hospital. I then had to leave go home finish the cake. Box it up and deliver it, a little later than I hoped but with plenty of time to spare before the party. Then get back to the hospital. It was a nightmare.

I was really proud I got it done, it look amazing, it was there on time and the client loved it! I can’t believe I managed to pull it off and be there for my little man.
- lynzstevo replied
  
  16 Aug 2013 , 4:28 pm
  Thanks for sharing yummymum, it can’t be easy to juggle motherhood and a business with strict deadlines. I’m glad you managed to pull it off and everything worked out in the end 🙂
  - earthlydelites replied
    
    17 Aug 2013 , 7:49 am
    
    so glad that you got there in the end! but you’re right its hard when its just you, you cant delegate to anyone else!
  - caramellosdream replied
    
    26 Aug 2013 , 10:56 pm
    
    Wow an amazing achievement – congratulations on being there for your little man and also managing to get your work done on time. Hope your lil man is better now.
- - vicky_guillaumier said
  - 03 Aug 2013
    6:31 pm
All wonderful tips on juggling a family and a career….thank you for sharing.

- - simone_phizacklea said
  - 31 Jul 2013
    9:26 pm
Such a hard thing to do .

- - hopefullyheidi said
  - 18 Jul 2013
    6:32 pm
I’m continually trying to juggle this. Thanks for the tips

- - rachkap said
  - 18 Jul 2013
    4:28 am
Thanks for your useful tips and for sharing!

- - jenny9761 said
  - 14 Jul 2013
    1:58 pm
I think mums that can work from home do a great job balancing job and kids under the one roof

- - jodie80 said
  - 24 Jun 2013
    6:44 pm
Working while looking after little kiddies is so hard.
Just looking after the kids is a full time job 🙂

- - lovi said
  - 23 Jun 2013
    11:54 am
To balance work and family effectively you need to look for ways to leverage your time, knowledge, money, influence, contacts and efforts, and those of others. – I still struggle with this 3 years in…

- - meedee said
  - 20 Jun 2013
    2:45 pm
I have alaways been really pleased that i never had to worry about heading off to work when my children were little.
For 15 years we had our own business but i was able to work it around the children and the only tiem they knew they had to be quiet was when i was on the phone taking bookings….they were always very good because they knew it wouldnt be long and i would be back to them. I was very lucky.
- rachkap replied
  
  04 Aug 2013 , 4:46 am
  Sounds like you were really blessed!
- - ella12 said
  - 20 Jun 2013
    12:38 pm
Very good article.

- - jodie80 said
  - 17 Jun 2013
    8:43 pm
well said thanks for sharing

- - zowieh said
  - 13 Jun 2013
    6:18 pm
great article. Thanks so much

- - kjgarner said
  - 12 Jun 2013
    1:42 pm
I give praise to my mum, she looked after us 4 children, did the office work for the family business and cooked and cleaned the house… She was a super mum and I am very proud of her. She still does it now but instead of looking after her children she looks after her grandchildren.
- sallty replied
  
  09 Aug 2013 , 8:43 am
  Wow, that’s amazing. I do the same with one child and I can’t fathom throwing another three in there!
- - suzette28 said
  - 07 Jun 2013
    11:08 am
Must be so hard juggling motherhood with your own business, not sure I can do it.

- - piggs18 said
  - 06 Jun 2013
    7:20 am
What a great idea to build gaps in the daily schedule! Makes so much sense!

- - ritatoni said
  - 05 Jun 2013
    7:56 am
I am working full time and now juggling work and home.

- - wiggynome said
  - 02 Jun 2013
    9:09 pm
A very helpful article thank you

- - allisonbriggs said
  - 31 May 2013
    9:58 pm
thanks for the great tips love this article 🙂