If you are anything like me when I had my son, it was a rock in a hard place situation. I wanted to be with him, but I needed to work too. The long-term lecturing position I had held wasn’t suitable as the hours would have taken me away from my son for 16 hours per day, so I was made to rethink my career. I made a choice to start my own training business and schedule my hours around my little one’s routines. Here are some of the bits of tips and advice I picked up along the way, which helped me establish work, baby, and life balance.
Know How To Work Out Of Hours
Figure out the amount of time you can devote to your business and devise a schedule. Consider if you can work during nap times and evenings after bed time. Who can help out watch your little one’s whilst you work? Look at Tax Credit Options and Other government support. Can you Trade childcare with other moms?
Differentiate Your Work Tasks
My work involved laptop time, online chat, driving to meet customers, and telephone calls. Separate tasks which fit with your little one’s activities. Can you get your laptop work done while they play safely or interact with a sibling? I admit it’s not always stress-free and peaceful, so I would often assign simple tasks like research or basic admin chores at this time. I would set customer visits when my son was in nursery and telephone calls while he had naps. As many of us are working from home, I find professionals are more understanding of background noise. I also feel many respect the challenges of a working mom, so a bit of background noise isn’t detrimental.
Get Your Oxygen Mask On First
Being a mom is about parenting a leadership. Showing your children what a robust independent role model is of great benefit to your children. We live in a society that ambitious women are shamed and perceived as neglectful if they pursue a career. However, you are responsible for your child’s financial stability too, so forget about those stereotypes. Your child needs your love and attention, but I am a better mom when life is balanced. I can take care of everyone else around me when I am financially stable and secure, and my mind expands beyond baby talk. It is about what works best for you. Ask yourself how you can be the best for your little ones and follow what is right for you. Of course, children’s needs don’t fit in with schedules, and we need to flex, but it doesn’t have to be all one way or all of the other. Consider the middle ground.
Know Your Worth
As a new mom, you sacrifice things all the time. But you shouldn’t sacrifice your time in the business by downplaying what you’re worth in monetary terms. You should know, by way of research, what your products or services are worth. You should never charge less than that.
Trade with other parents
For instance, your friend might be a great web designer so she designs your business website, and in return, you use your fantastic cooking skills to cater to her daughter’s first birthday party. Ask around and see what you can trade.
Identify What Support Can You Get Everywhere
If you’re a new mom, you probably know many other moms. Some of them may have businesses of their own too. However, some may not. So, various types of support, other than fellow moms, will be needed.
Mentors are good sources of support. A mentor hands down her experience and wisdom so they can share the potential highs and pitfalls of the industry.
If your local area has a business club, you should join. Entrepreneurs are great networks and often more than happy to help. Its a great way to get the word out about your products and services too.
Sponsorship can also help by trading brands for business presence. Some business expenses can be paid by sponsors for advertising their products and services on your own website.
Outsource and Delegate
I know what I am good at and what I am not good at. If I’d faced up to the fact that I am terrible with admin and best at stikcing to getting the job done I would have saved a small fortune, significant amount of hours and a lot of stress. Identify where you need backup and go find it. If you can locate a bookkeeper or get someone to help with PR, marketing, packing, and post office runs, or admin. Get in touch with other start-up mums via networking meetings or online and ask if you can trade services. You help with the SEO; they help with the bookkeeping.
Marketing and promotion
Creating your own business as a new mom is only half the work; making sure your potential customers know about you is essential.
- Join workshops that walk you through step-by-step strategies on marketing and promotion
- Read articles on marketing strategies and take notes
- Ask other entrepreneur moms who are further along in their businesses for help
Also, make sure you spend a certain amount of time every day running promotion or marketing. This could be simply posting on social media or sending out promotional emails.
Understand how ads work before you run them. Some can be effective while others can prove useless. When advertising costs money, always make sure it’s going to reach the right target.
Ask Yourself The Right Questions and Do Your Research
Make sure what you want from life for yourself and your children is standard for the industry. Look at the businesses and industries which support the lifestyle of your choosing. I chose leadership training as I already had the background and knowledge, but it also meant I could work from home. If I traveled abroad, it paid enough to cover nanny costs.
It’s not always about having the answers, but make sure you ask yourself the right questions and do your research. Do you have all licenses and registrations to start your business? Different businesses require different registrations.
Will the people you want to target buy your product or service? Is it unique enough to be appealing? Look at your competition and work out how your business could be different or better.
- How saturated is your market of choice? Is there really a need for what you have to offer?
- Analyze your competition. Can you offer something better, slightly different, or at a better price?
- Why will your customers value your product or service more than the competition?
- How does this competitive market use advertising, which mediums are most successful? How will you be better?
- Monitor your website views and interactions. Where is your audience coming from?
- Is your attention coming from areas that will likely buy your product?
- Keep on Top of Admin and Keep A Record of Expenses – Stay on top of your business expenses. You’ll need these when it comes time to file tax returns. Learn what has a tax allowance and what doesn’t. Such as dry cleaning for professional attire and meals with potential customers are tax-deductible.
- Keep a spreadsheet of business lunch and travel expenses. Keep all receipts from purchases made on office materials.
- Keep your business and personal account separate as well!
Self-Employment Registration
You do not have to register your self-employment, but you can. If you are a sole proprietor or partner, by default, as you usually fill out little paperwork, then you do not have to separate business from personal accounts. But there are other business models that should have registrations. Here are a few reasons why you should register your business and how.
If what you do requires a license, it will also require registration.
Also, if what you do requires an educational aspect, you need to be
registered by the local, state, or federal government.
The location also matters if you do any of your business offline. This pertains to state taxes and security. You can find detailed information at the SBA Business Resource site.
If you list your business as an LLC, you will need two documents depending on the state in which you operate: It will either be called the certificate of formation or the articles of organization. You will also need an LLC agreement or operating agreement
You can also register for an FEIN, or Federal Employer Identification Number, or you can use your social security number instead. You can apply for this number online.
Create A Business Plan
A business plan will set out aims and objectives and the steps you need to take to achieve your goals and detail how the parts of the business will work together as a finely tuned machine.
Even though you may have already scheduled your business hours, do you have an overall plan for your end goal? Where do you see yourself in five years, ten years?
Do you want to have a small business, or do you wish to make a big impression in your chosen industry? Touch on each milestone you wish to reach. Business plans encourage to write down in detail all the moving parts of the business and take an analytical look are how all elements of the business work together. Business plans help challenge your assumptions and spot pitfalls. If you are seeking funding or loans, you will need a business plan for this