Time Management

Balancing Family And A Home Business

Many people assume that Work At Home Moms have it easy, or that they aren't doing "real work". However, if any of those people have ever lived a day as a WAHM they would know it isn�t so simple, right? There are...

children to take care of
a house to clean
clothes to wash
a dog to walk
groceries to buy
dinners to cook
dishes to wash
etc., etc., etc.

Oh... And then there�s that home business to manage!

It may not be easy to take care of the kids and run a home based business, but it isn�t impossible, either. By using some simple time management tricks, a WAHM can find time to "get it all done!" Well... almost ;-)

Scheduling

One tool every WAHM should have is a calendar or planner. Schedule your family time first. Then schedule in the time you are going to work your business. Once you have your "work time" scheduled, make it a priority to stay focused on your business during those hours. It is very easy to get sidetracked when you are a Work At Home Mom.

If your business requires you to do lots of different tasks, try to group similar tasks together. For instance, if you are in a direct sales business and you have a team under you, designate one day to be your "training day". Instead of helping various team members throughout the week, schedule all of your mentoring sessions for one day.

Set aside an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon to respond to e-mail and/or return phone calls. By scheduling that time in, you will find that you are able to get more work done and feel less scattered.

Outsource Or Hire A Virtual Assistant

You might also consider outsourcing some of your activities. If you find that you are spending too much time responding to e-mail, returning phone calls, or updating your website, hire a Virtual Assistant (VA) to do those tasks for you. Even moms on a very tight budget can benefit from hiring a VA. This will free your time up to work on your business, and by spending more time on the parts of your business that actually bring in money, you will be able to increase your profits.

Plan Meals And Errands

You can also save time by setting aside a block of time each week to do your "regular" errands, such as grocery shopping. If you plan your meals for the week and go to the grocery store once, you will save lots of time (not to mention money) during the week by not taking those daily "quick trips to the market".

And while you are planning your meals, try to schedule a few "cook once, eat twice" days. For instance, you can plan on having spaghetti on Monday and tacos on Tuesday. So, on Monday, brown the ground beef you will need for both days. On Tuesday, half of your work will already be done! And if you are making a meatloaf or lasagna, make two and freeze one for later.

Get Help From Family Members

Most importantly, do not feel as if you have to do it all by yourself. You are not super woman. If you have a spouse or older children, ask them to chip in on household chores. Even young children love to help out if they feel a sense of accomplishment when doing so. And depending on their ages, there are multiple things kids can do to help.

When it is all said and done, don�t forget to take out some time for yourself. Everyone needs a break... WAHMs included!

For moms who want a unique, all-in-one site-building, site-hosting and site-marketing product and a step-by-step business building process (includes domain), we highly recommend Site Build It!. Thousands of moms have found SBI! to be the perfect solution to their quest to work at home.

Subscribe To Niche Build It! News

Return From Time Management To Niche Build It!