I started my full-time business Market Me when my twin boys were only 9 months old.
Looking back I’m not sure whether I was sleep deprived, in need of a distraction from nappies, or whether I just knew it was my time to contribute to something greater than myself, and create an income from home, building the lifestyle that I ultimately wanted.
As with anything it’s a process, I would never have dreamt of such success, of the income I am making, of the lifestyle I’m creating, of the valuable knowledge I have gained. It’s not easy running a business from home around kids, so here are some tips for you!
Aim high, from the start
What is it you really want? Don’t just settle for something that will give you $25 per hour, aim for $50 bucks per hour and work half the time (with better quality products and people!). Set your goals, but remember that progress is just as important as achieving your goal. If you keep making progress and actively working on your business, you will ultimately achieve your goals. Believe in yourself, YOU CAN DO IT!
Set Time Boundaries
Timeblock your time. I’m not going to lie, It’s really hard to manage screaming kids and demanding clients. The key is to timeblock your time, so that you know what you need to be focusing on at any given minute in your day. ROUTINE is crucial for kids, and crucial for the success of your business. Timeblocking is where you reserve segments of your time in your calendar for a certain time. You can get as specific or general on this as you want to but its worthwhile planning out your week. You’ll get more done, and be more present. For eg. I set aside Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as my work days. I DO NOT book in catch ups with friends on those days, I don’t even accept visitors on those days, they are for work. I drop kids off, and when I get home I work my butt off until its time to pick them up. Yes I use childcare 3 days a week, but it means that I don’t have to ‘go to work’ a normal job, its life on my terms!
It also means that when you timeblock time with the family (eg.weekends, nights, mornings, afternoons), that you can be FULLY PRESENT with your family at those times, knowing you got your work done. You can download some free templates here.
Work smarter not harder
Create extra streams of income where possible, ebooks, online courses, events. When it comes to Marketing, get creative! Build up your offline relationships aswell as your online ones! Always be thinking how you can do 2 things at once. (after all us chicks are good at that right?). Know when you work your best (for me, I can knock out 3 hours of work in 2 hours between 5am and 7am in the morning, so when I need to get stuff pumped out, that is my ideal work time! Plus I add an extra work day to my week, freeing up other time). Think about how you can partner up with other businesses to all make a gain. Outsource the things you don’t like doing, learn the things you need to, so that you can make more money! Do a course in the area you want to excel in, and become a Leader in your Industry.
It’s a tough gig running a business from home, BUT it’s so worthwhile. I run my business from all kinds of places! I can check emails and write articles while kids are running up and down the beach, I can be in any part of the world on holidays and be keeping my business going. I can even shut down my computer and take the school holidays off, be there for my kids school and childcare events, and work in my pj’s while drinking way too much coffee!
We want to WORK to LIVE the life of our dreams, not LIVE to WORK!
