Please note: This is the continuation of a response to a comment left on the blog asking for some suggestions.  You can read the original post, as well as Part 1 of my answer, below.   

 

Dear Julie,

 I totally understand the challenges of growing a home business around your family!  First of all, I am doing the same thing. Second, as you may know, I am a Life & Home Business Coach.  I have coached many women to create successful home businesses and balance it with the rest of their busy lives.   It's a tough thing to do, especially all on your own. You need someone else to offer you an unbiased perspective and solutions -- so I'm really happy had the courage to reach out and ask for some support and solutions.  

Here's my first suggestion: You must have sacred office hours. That is, you must have regularly scheduled, uninterrupted,   time to work on your business. Even if you don't have any clients, you can use this time to work on your marketing efforts.  You may feel guilty if you create set office hours, because after all,  you probably created a home business so that you CAN be home with your kids and I am sure that you want to be available to them, however, if you are available to them ALL the time -- your business won't be able to grow. If you only spend a little time on your business here and there, you'll only have a little business here and there.  So...as you noticed...there has to be a balance.

The way to avoid the guilt that may come with setting sacred office hours it to commit to focusing on your business during those hours and then being TOTALLY present with your children outside of those hours -- not sneaking in work during that time. If you must sneak in an email or two, set a timer and explain to your kids (well, your 3 year old, at least)  that when it goes "ding" you will give them your complete attention - and then DO IT! It helps to keep a stash of dollar store toys handy for distraction during this kind of work time  as well.

So...assuming that you are convinced that you do NEED sacred office hours, the question become HOW do you get those uninterrupted  hours without sacrificing your precious sleep time? I have some ideas, but  I'll tell you right now, the common thread here is that you must arrange for someone else to entertain the children  at home or take them out of the house.  There are techniques for getting older children to "respect" your office hours, but  I think your children are too young to be expected to understand the idea & entertain themselves for any significant length of time. You MUST have some outside help on this one! Depending on your financial resources -- you may need to get creative.  

Here are some ideas:

1) First of all, if you can afford it, consider hiring an adult to play with the children for a few hours during the day so you can get some work done.  Then find a room with a closed door and lock yourself in.  Focus on your business and do not al Even one or two days a week is better than nothing. If you're nursing, you may need to be interrupted to nurse your 7 month old, but that only takes 15-20 minutes and then you can get back to work.

2) Consider asking family members, like Grandma and Grandpa, to have a regular weekly daytime playdate with your children so can work for at least a couple of hours at a time.

3) Consider hiring a young teenager, like age 12 or 13 to be a "mother's helper" so you can get some work done.  You can generally pay them less than you would an adult.   You may want to supervise them more at first (than an adult or older teen), but as time goes on, you'll enjoy the benefits of more time to work.

4) Consider swapping babysitting time with another mom.

5) Hey busy moms out there -- got any other ideas for Julie to create  her sacred work hours?  Post them in the comments below!

***

Finally, I'd like to approach this issue of work-at-home/life balance from a different angle -- that is -- your expectations how quickly your business could & should grow.

One of the great things about starting an internet business is that you CAN start it on a shoestring budget.  However, if you are just starting to grow your business, and you don't have a lot of money to invest in outsourcing and automating some tasks, then  you MUST invest your time because you must do EVERYTHING the business needs.   If you don't have a lot of time to invest on a regular basis, then you absolutely CAN still grow a successful, profitable business -- however, it will be a much longer process. As I'm sure you know, sometimes the simplest project can take much longer than expected  (especially when you have to master new technology to implement a simple idea) and at times, it will seem as if the business is growing at a snail's pace.

This can be VERY frustrating for a creative entrepreneur. Especially when you constantly have ideas for ways to improve and grow your business and  you don't have the time to implement them.

If you find yourself in a situation where you don't have money to invest in outsourcing and automating business projects, and you don't have a lot of time to devote to your business,  DO NOT GIVE UP!  Instead, I find that it helps to look at your business as an investment in the not-so-distant future, rather than an immediate money-maker. There's a saying that goes "It takes years to become an overnight success!"   It takes even longer to become an "overnight success"  if you have to squeeze in your office hours during nap time - But you CAN DO IT!

I am reminded of a story I heard of woman who was 57 when she applied to medical school.  At the interview, someone asked her "Do you realize that by the time you graduate from medical school -- you'll be 65 years old?!? You'll be a SENIOR CITIZEN!"  She just looked at them and calmly replied, "Yes, but it's always been my dream to become a doctor. I figure, as long as I'm alive, I'm going to be 65 years old anyway -- I might as well be living my dream."

Likewise, devote whatever time you can to your business, and know that you are planting seeds for your future. As your children grow and go to school, you will have more time to devote to your business and the trickle of income that may be coming in now will develop into a healthy stream.  And just like your kids grow up one-day-at-a-time, but when you look back on it,  it all goes by so fast; so too will your business seem to grow very, very slowly, but one day you will "turn around" to see that you did create  a successful   business, and while it seemed slow and exhausting while you in the process, it really didn't take that long at all!

Julie -- is that helpful?  Did I touch upon the issues that you are facing or did I miss an important aspect of your situation? Feel free to let me know by leaving a comment or contacting me privately.  And of course, if you "busy moms" have any thing else to add, or a follow up question -- feel free to leave a comment here.

Click Here to Read Part 1: HouseKeeping Help!

Click Here to Read Part 2a: Getting Your Kids To Respect Your Home Office Hours.

Click Here to Read Part 3: Ya Gotta Have Girfriends