Managing a Home Business as a Work at Home Mom

Managing a home business as a work at home mom can be a challenging, yet very rewarding endeavor! Many women who have young child elect to leave the workplace in order to focus on their children, and ensuring that the operations in their home are running smoothly and effectively. In times of ...Managing a home business as a work at home mom can be a challenging, yet very rewarding endeavor! Many women who have young child elect to leave the workplace in order to focus on their children, and ensuring that the operations in their home are running smoothly and effectively. In times of economic woes like the world is currently facing, it is often quite challenging to live off of just one income. This is why more and more women are starting to create and operate their own home based business. If you are working to establish a home office, and create a supplemental income for your family, there are many preparations to be made. Here, I will offer some strategies on managing a home business as a work at home mom.

Creating a Schedule

If you are starting your career as a work at home mom who manages a home business, the first thing that you will want to do is to create a schedule. The idea is to create a schedule that will work in conjunction with your parenting responsibilities to optimize your profits so that you may be successful. Now, with that being said…how do you do that? It is actually quite easy to set the schedule. The hard part is sticking to it. Consider implementing the following tips in order to create a schedule that will work for you:

1. Set a certain amount of time each day to conducting household chores. Naturally, the time that you set must be a personal choice. During this time, take care of the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and other things that must be contended with in order to maintain the home.

2. When it comes to meals, it may be appropriate to dedicate one day a week to preparing meals for the rest of the week. Believe it or not, it is actually much easier and quicker to create five to six meals at a time than to space them out over several days.

Prepare a chicken casserole in one dish, and a meatloaf in another oven safe dish, and throw them both in the oven at the same time. While those are cooking, cook a pot of stew and maybe some chicken and dumplings on the burners. There, you have four to five meals depending on leftovers. You may also want to throw some burgers and hotdogs on the top burners. Then, simply freeze the meals and pull them out to defrost the morning that they are to be eaten. Once you defrost them, reheat, and you are all set!

3. If you have children that are at least toddler age, there are many chores that you can assign to them to help make things run more smoothly. They can pick up their own toys, learn to set out their own clothes and dress themselves, assist in dusting, and even feeding, watering, and walking pets! You should also assign certain tasks to your spouse, such as taking out the trash and lawn maintenance. Putting dishes in the dishwasher, starting the washer and/or dryer and even helping the kids get ready for bed are also great chores that can be assigned to your spouse.

4. When you work at home as a mom, it is important to understand that it is not going to be your typical eight hour work day. You will need to block certain times to dedicate to your work. I say, if you are just starting out, blocking work in two hour intervals is appropriate. As your children get older, and the family becomes more accustomed to your work, you may move that up to three or four hour blocks. However, it is important to know and understand that this may take time.

5. Designate certain activities and projects on each day of the week. For example, break up the house work into certain days. For example, Sunday can be your “cooking” day, and you may designate Monday as your “laundry day”. There is no rule that says everything has to be done, in completion, in one day.

Professional Goals

If you are a work at home mom that is in the process of managing a home based business, it is important to set professional goals. One of the best ways to achieve this is to create a sound business plan. This is a basic documentation of the way that you want your business to operate, the way that you want to handle your finances, a detailed list of your resources, and where you want to go with your home business. Businesses that do not incorporate a business plan into their endeavors typically fail due to lack of direction. It is likely that you really want and need your business to work, so do not fail to leave out this essential detail.

Quality Time

Once you begin your home based business, you will come to face the challenges that so many work at home moms face. Typically, the main challenge is separating the personal life from the professional life. It is essential that you have some quality time scheduled in among all the household chores, professional projects, and deadlines. This should be scheduled in daily. Then, there should be a day set aside, at least one, which you dedicate to your family. Let’s say Saturday your spouse is off, and the kids are home from school – make this your “family day”. Go out and visit the museum, the park, the zoo – or just sit down and play some games together!

Conclusion

Managing a home business as a work at home mom will likely prove to be challenging. However, it is also a very rewarding experience that you will come to cherish. If you follow the techniques contained within this article, you are likely to experience the success that you always dreamed of as being your own boss!