How to balance running a business from home & parenting

Introduction

My name is Brooke, I am the owner of BraveJusticeKidsCo. - a parent and business owner. When you're a parent, there's a lot of pressure to be the perfect parent. You want to provide for your children and set them up for success in life, but when it comes down to it, you also have to work. And if you're like me, that means having to balance being a mom with running an actual business. How do we juggle all of these competing demands? It's not easy! But it is possible. If I can do it (and build my business at home), then so can you!

Establish your business hours

You'll want to figure out your own schedule, and the best way to do that is by recording the times when you are most productive. If you've never done this before, it's easy enough to go through your calendar and see when you tend to be at your peak of energy and productivity.

Then set a schedule that lets you take care of business during those hours, whether it's early in the morning or late at night—just make sure it's not during naptime (for either parent or child).

The next step is determining how long each task should take. For instance: It might take an hour for me to run errands or write an article; but if my mind isn't in gear yet, I might need two hours instead of one just because my brain needs time to warm up first. Once again, this depends on each individual person; so once again write down some notes about what works best for you specifically!

Set boundaries with your family

Now that you’re working from home, it’s important to set boundaries with your family.

• Don’t let kids interrupt you: If you were a teacher and had a student who kept interrupting class, it would be disruptive and disrespectful. The same is true for being interrupted at work by a child who wants attention or help with homework. Until the job is finished, don't let them take over your space or time!

• Don't let kids distract you: If an employee was constantly poking his head into meetings with other employees and asking questions without being asked, he would not only be distracting but also annoying (and probably fired). As the boss of this business venture, don’t let any outside distractions distract or annoy in any way! Your business needs all of your attention; give it what's due!

Build relationships outside the home

A home-based business can be isolating, especially when you're busy caring for young children. But there are ways to build relationships with people outside the home. This will help you feel less isolated and make it easier to separate your work from your family life.

• Build relationships with other moms, or even just with other adults who live in your neighbourhood:

Go meet up for coffee once a week or every couple weeks at a local cafe or restaurant (or bring them over if they have children).

Ask them if they want to do an activity like going on an outing together with the kids, or having a TGIF get together (which stands for Thank God It's Friday).

• Meet new people online:

Join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn where you share common interests (such as parenting) and hobbies that don't involve chatting about work—you'll find people who think like you do!

Use the time you have to focus on one thing

To be successful, you have to focus on one thing at a time.

You can't do everything in one day and then go scatter-brained the next day. You must work steadily every single day until your goal is achieved.

One of the best ways to ensure that this happens is by using your time wisely—and that means not trying to do too much at once. If you're working from home with kids around, it's especially important not to multitask or get distracted by other things that come up throughout the day.

Find a way to stay organized

Now that your business is running smoothly, it's time to get organized! You'll want to keep track of all the things you need to do for yourself and for your kids. A calendar can help with this by providing a visual overview of the week at a glance (that may or may not include some cute drawings). This approach lets you see how much time is left in certain tasks, so you can move them around as necessary.

Planning ahead means that when someone asks for something from another room, chances are you won't be stuck wondering what day it is or what happened yesterday. Keeping track of everything on paper also makes it easier if there's an emergency—you don't have to scramble through endless stacks of papers trying to find something important. Digital calendars make this even easier by automatically syncing with any device connected online, so no matter where you're working on something; its calendar entry shows up right away without having to remember which platform has which information stored there (or why).

Be flexible - and be okay with not being perfect all the time.

• Be flexible. You might have a very specific schedule, but if your kid's behavior changes, or if they're sick or have an appointment, you need to be able to adjust. As much as possible, try to keep a routine in place so that your kids know what is expected of them when it comes time for school and bedtime.

• Don't be afraid to ask for help and don't feel guilty about it either! The more we all work together as parents, the easier it will be on everyone involved with children (yes even yourself). When you have company over at the house they can help entertain and watch over the kids while you do something else related to running your business from home; maybe taking care of administrative tasks like paying bills or answering e-mails from clients?

• Be okay with not being perfect all the time: This one is really hard because no matter how much we wish otherwise there are going to be days when nothing goes according our plans. The key thing here isn't how many times something goes wrong during our day but how quickly we recover from those setbacks so that we can move forward without letting them get us down too much - especially when working at home with children around us every day like me!

Running a business from home successfully is all about building a routine and sticking to it.

Running a business from home is all about building a routine and sticking to it. Routines are an important part of staying organized and keeping your head above water, so make sure you set aside time every day for things like emailing clients, answering customer service inquiries, or attending meetings with other business owners. But don't forget to set aside some time for yourself too! It's easy to get caught up in work life and lose track of the fact that you were doing all this stuff because you love what you do—and what makes it worth doing is being able to spend quality time with those around you who love and support you as well.

Staying organized will help combat stress at home too; if there's always enough food in the fridge for dinner or laundry detergent in the cupboard when needed (or even just knowing where everything goes in general), then stress levels tend to go down significantly! This can be accomplished by using lists on paper or online apps such as Trello.

Conclusion

So, what did we learn from all of this? Well, first of all, it’s important to set some boundaries and stick to them. But more importantly, you should use your time as effectively as possible. It can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day chaos that comes with running a business at home - but by staying organized and focusing on one thing at a time, you’ll find yourself much better off with less stress overall!