| A Guide for Home-based Business Moms |
| By Helen Gates |
Published
02/5/2007
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Business & Finance
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Unrated
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Helen Gates
Helen Gates has lived in Brampton since 1998. She is employed at a local courier/trucking company. In 2005, Helen started her own retail business. She lives in Brampton with her husband and 3 ½ year old son. Helen writes about her personal experiences as a mother, wife and entrepreneur.
View all articles by Helen Gates
A mom's guide to delegating in your business and saving your sanity
Brampton - Most of us remember the song "My Way" by Frank Sinatra with the famous lyric "I did it my way". This song serves as an anthem for many home-based business owners who started their business and being their own boss. But is it helpful advice when you want continued growth in your business?
At some point, the administrative tasks start weighing down on our business building time. Our main role should be pursuing more customers, following up on leads and current customers, attending networking events, starting new promotion and making programs, writing articles, and sending out our press releases to the community newspaper.
Instead, we get bogged down by answering calls from telemarketers and playing phone tag, replying to routine emails, bookkeeping, filing paperwork, and preparing promotion packages for current customers and future prospects. Although these tasks are important, they don't contribute directly to your business profits nor do they put food on your family's table.
With more moms starting their own business than ever before, they experience greater challenges of balancing their multiple priorities than their male counterparts. Some moms are still employees at their job so they can pay their current bills and finance their business activities.
Add the stress of caring for their children and completing household chores, many mom business owners end up neglecting their health due to sleep deprivation, no exercise, eating the wrong foods on the run, and no downtime for relaxation. This vicious cycle can lead to apathy and burn out, which will ultimately result in no business.
You're probably thinking "That sounds like me" to yourself as you're drinking your fourth cup of coffee, trying to stay awake as you attempt to finish your work. Then this thought may appear. See if these apply to you:
1) I can't afford to pay for extra help. My business isn't profitable yet.
2) Even if I do hire someone, they won't do as good of a job as I would.
3) It's too much of a hassle and takes up too much time to train someone.
4) I don't want to ask for help from my family and friends. I feel like I'm burdening them with my problems.
5) My family needs me and I'll end up neglecting them if I build my business.
No question, these are valid concerns for every mom who has a home-based business. These are some of the harsh realities that some moms face, including myself:
Finances are tight, especially if you aren't able to obtain a business loan from a bank.
Your family/friends may belittle your business with comments such as, "Do you think you're going to make any money selling (fill in the blank)?"
Your child decides to have a temper tantrum while you're on the phone with an important client.
One of your suppliers or vendors calls to demand payment on your overdue account.
Your boss may question your loyalty to the company that you work for and may ask you to work overtime because of a staff shortage. Your co-workers suggest that you get some more sleep.
So let's take a deep breath and instead, ask yourself these questions:
1) Am I serious about having a successful business? Do I want to continue to work for someone else at a job that I don't particularly like?
By asking this question, you'll be inspired and motivated to build your business so you will no longer rely on your job for your income. Your business will generate a steady income so you'll have more options. You decide to quit your present full-time job, switch to part-time hours at your current job, or do some temporary work assignments/projects in case your business slows down or hits a plateau.
2) Is my health and emotional well-being important enough to start delegating some tasks? Self-care isn't being selfish because if you aren't able to take care of yourself, how are you able to take care of your family and your customers?
Here are some helpful tips that are working for me and other home-based business moms:
1) Ask friends and family members if they know someone who's interested in helping you with some work. In my case, I forward my phone calls to my friend's phone. She take messages and answers simple questions from my customers or prospects.She also prints labels that I need and puts my catalogues/books into bags for my customers.
This way, they don't feel obligated and they may be willing to help you themselves.
2) Place free classified ads in one of your community websites such as www.brampton.com.Many people are looking for some part-time work and you can still maintain your budget. These tasks could include website upgrading, delivering books, and creating newsletters.
3) Outsource your routine tasks by contacting other home-based businesses that offer virtual assistant services, delivery, or bookkeeping. Many of them provide affordable services as opposed to large corporations. They can help you with specific projects or on a permanent basis. You don't have to calculate payroll deductions because they will send you an invoice for their services.
4) Enlist your child's help. Depending on your child's age, they can help you with simple tasks such as stamping and placing books into bags, updating any customer information in the computer database, or take phone messages in a professional manner.
Even if they can help with some of the household chores such as washing dishes, cleaning their room, and doing their own laundry, this will help free up some of your time so you can concentrate on your business.
5) If you know another mom who is also a home-based business owner, you can help babysit each other's children. For example, if you need some uninterrupted time, she can help look after your child(ren) for a couple of hours. Likewise you can offer to babysit her child(ren) while she needs to get some work done. This way you've eliminated any child care costs.
If you live close to one another and both of you have the required equipment such as a computer, fax machine, and supplies, you can work together at the same time by taking turns working at each others homes. The children can play together and form lasting friendships. Both of you get your work done and enjoy the added camaraderie.
In addition, if both of you offer complementary businesses, you can promote each others businesses to your customers and prospects by forming joint marketing programs and sharing advertising costs. For example, your business offers skin care products and cosmetics. The other mom may offer cookware and home decor accessories.
6) If your spouse is available or works a different shift than yourself, he can help look after your child(ren) while you working. This can be in your business or if you're still working at your job. In my case, my husband works the afternoon shift so he looks after my son overnight and some of the morning hours while I'm working at my night shift job.
During the weekends, I'm able to complete some routine business tasks that don't require a level of high concentration such as filing paperwork and answer any emails. At the same time, I'm available for my family.
7) Ask some of the other moms in your neighbourhood if their older child would be interested in babysitting your child(ren) at your home for a few hours a week. The older child should be at least 12 years or older and if they have completed a babysitting or St. John's ambulance course, that will be an added assurance. This small investment is worth it for your business.
8) Most importantly, don't neglect your child(ren), your spouse, your friendships, and yourself.
Schedule some quality time with your child(ren) by playing with him/her, watching a favorite family show on TV, or taking your child(ren) to the park, if the weather isn't too cold.
If you have a trusted family member nearby such as your parents, they can look after your child(ren) while you and your spouse can spend time together by going out on a "date". You can go out for dinner and coffee, or take that peaceful and romantic drive along the city's outskirts.
Try to get together with your friends at least once a month, depending on your schedules. You can pretend that you're in high school again before you had children and have fun. Even you can get together for coffee or arrange a pot-luck dinner where each person brings something, it will cut down on entertaining costs.
Also schedule some downtime for yourself by reading a great book, exercising to your favorite workout video, listening to your favorite music, taking a brisk walk around the neighbourhood, catching up on much needed sleep, going to the mall to window shop, or watching your favorite show on TV. One of my favorites is surfing the internet.
Whatever your hobbies and interests are, it's important to schedule them or take a break after you've completed a complex task or project. This will help prevent burnout and many times, great business ideas crop up during our down-time. You can even jot them down in a notebook or use a hand-held voice recorder, in case you tend to forget about the idea afterwards.
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