Balancing work and home life can be a challenge that you may face every day. Running a business 24/7 doesn’t leave you with much time to bond and interact with your child. If you need some advice on finding the right balance and to find out the changes you can make to ensure quality time well spent with the family, Emma Walker is the founder of The Mumpreneur’s Mentor, and has provided some top tips to finding the perfect balance of business and motherhood.
"Clearly, the number of hours you can work each day is not unlimited. You have to sleep, eat, perform routine daily tasks, and that doesn’t even include your full time job of mum or building your business empire!
But it is possible to strike a balance, follow these 3 simple steps to be on your way to your own happy work and family life.
Take control of your time and become a productivity queen
When you’re running a business as well as being mum, you have to become a master at time management if everything is to run smoothly – just remember happy mum = happy family.
This is where it is vital that you take control of different parts of your business
Take control of your email
Email is a wonderful resource, which allows us to communicate quickly and easily and makes a real difference to our daily lives. But, beware; emails can soon take over if you let them.
Emails are not urgent. If something was genuinely ‘urgent’, the sender would telephone you, so do not think that you have to answer an email as soon as it arrives, even if it has a ‘high priority’ tag or ‘urgent’ in the subject line.
Set times to check emails. Set times to check and respond to emails. This will focus your time more effectively. Checking your incoming emails twice a day is enough – try 11am and 4pm.
Disable email notification. Make sure that you disable the notification sign and sound, so that you will not be tempted to check each time an email arrives. This allows you to focus on tasks you need to complete without distractions.
Take control and manage your day-to-day activities
Unless you have a daily plan, you will soon be asking yourself what you have achieved at the end of each day – it is all about working effectively and efficiently.
Create a schedule. Include all personal and business appointments in your schedule, so that you do not miss any important appointments.
Include deadlines on your schedule. Include all your important deadlines in your schedule, both clients’ and your own, so that you can plan the work accordingly.
Treat yourself like an important client. Set aside time in your schedule to complete your own work; in that respect, treat it the same as you would an appointment with an important client.
Make systems your new best friend so your business can run on autopilot
Systems are essential if you want your business to thrive and it is something that you need to take the time to get the foundations right because it saves a whole lot of time and money later on down the road.
This is where creating standard operating procedures is going to help – and become your new best friend!
Your standard operating procedures are a collection of processes for every part of your business. You create a process for each task and you document every single step you take to get the job done, regardless of how small it may be.
Make sure that you make the processes simple to understand so that a 10 year old could follow the instructions and get the job done. This is important if you want your business to carry on as normal even if you’re not around.
One other very simple thing you can do to systemise your business is to create templates for everything as this will save you lots of time not having to repeat the same things over and over.
Be smart with where you spend your time so you get the best results.
A support team is a group of people you can delegate certain aspects of your business and personal life. They might include: a virtual assistant, a cleaner, a gardener or a childcare assistant.
But make sure that you take control when delegating to make sure that it works for everyone involved.
Set deadlines and prioritise
When delegating tasks, set deadlines and prioritise tasks for the person doing the work.
Clear instructions and information
You need to be clear with your instructions and information to avoid any misunderstandings.
Give advanced notice
You need to give advanced notice of required tasks, so that people have enough time to complete the work.
Communication is key
Communication is the key to an effective relationship with those to whom you delegate work to, but it is a two-way process. And, remember to treat people how you would like to be treated!
These simple steps show you that you can balance business with being a fabulous mum, you just need to take some time to make it happen."
Emma Walker is the founder of The Mumpreneur’s Mentor (www.themumpreneursmentor.com) and a busy mum of 2. As a mums in business coach, she works with mums who want to start and market their own successful family friendly business as well as mums already in business who want to take their business to the next level without sacrificing time with their family.
For more information visit www.theMumpreneursMentor.com