Having your own business can be as stressful and time-consuming as having a baby. It needs constant nurture and attention if you want it to grow properly. This has to be a dedication or else your business has the potential to fail. Now, think of building a business while raising children at the same. Is it possible? Of course, it is! Being in the position of parenthood and a business owner is not easy at all. However, it can be possible to balance your entrepreneurial ventures with the love and care of your children at the same time. While it can be very demanding to balance out both at the same time, it’s most certainly possible. These tips will help you maintain your sanity while balancing both the roles of an entrepreneur and a parent.
Create a Routine
Spending time with the family is essential. It’s best to create some structure in your day by having a routine that you can go by day today. This routine should be something that works for, your partner, and your children. This routine will help you stay organized and productive while also helping you save on time and stress. It’s so important to have a specific amount of time for each task that needs to be done whether it be personal or business-related. You should also allow for flexibility as well because not everything can be expected to go according to plan. Some small things you can do to help you keep at your routine would be:
Meal prep one to two times a week, this could be for yourself or your whole family
Have a daily and a weekly to-do list where you can set up a certain block of time that will be for your business, your personal life, chores, and quality time with your loved ones
Understand that You Can’t do Everything
You’re not a superhuman, trying to balance out everything will only lead to more stress and burnout. You need to know that you can’t do everything yourself. When building your business, you can always hire a talented team to work with you to build up your business. Other options could include automation, outsourcing, or even just hiring a freelancer. You’ll fall through the cracks if you think the weight has to be all on your shoulders. The same can be said when you’re at home. Talk with your partner about helping more at home, they are a partner after all so they need to share the work as well. Know that you don’t always have time to do the cooking, do the shopping for children’s boutique clothing online, or always buy the groceries. If your children are old enough, it may be time to discuss chores with them. It will be valuable for them to learn about responsibility.
Have a Strong Foundation
Whenever you have free time, try to use this to spend some time with your family. Have a lunch break? See if your partner is available to eat lunch with you. Have 5 minutes of free time? Send a text to your loved one. It’s important to keep nourishing and nurturing the relationship that you have with your kids, your partner, and this can go as far as your extended family too. Quality time and communication are so important because they can eventually reflect your work and business if things begin to go sour.
This strong foundation can also include having family time each day through having dinner together or maybe doing activities together on weekends.
Work-Life and Family Life Doesn’t Need to be Separate
The second that you step into your home, or step out of the home office shouldn’t mean that work or business is a hands-off topic. Your work is just as much of your life just like it is for your partner’s work is a part of their life. Your biggest cheerleader should be your partner, and it should be vise versa as well. You both should be able to give advice and offer a different perspective on your struggle.
Live a Healthy Lifestyle
Balancing a growing business and a family can be a major mental and physical challenge. This is something that will need a lot of strength. It’s important to include a healthy diet and regular exercise into your routine when you can as well as getting enough sleep throughout the night. This ensures that you’ll have a healthy lifestyle, mental clarity, and the physical strength to keep carrying on. You need to have energy for your business but you also need the same energy for your kids. So be sure to live a healthy life or else it could cause some major issues.
Roll with the Punches
Unfortunately, not everything can easily go as planned. If only life could be that simple. While it’s important to set up a routine and set goals to achieve, understand that you cant always meet them. There may be things that could potentially get in the way of you doing work for a day or two such as an emergency, feeling sick, or maybe the computer crashed. Anything could happen, but not everything can be prepared for. So it’s best to just understand that not every day can go smoothly and sometimes you risk running behind. Accept that it, and just continue moving on. Try not to dwell on the setbacks just because they messed with your routine.
Embrace Self Care
It’s important to live a healthy lifestyle by getting enough sleep, doing daily activity, and avoiding junk food. That’s all a given, of course. However, self-care goes beyond just living a healthy lifestyle. You’ll want to find other ways to tend to both your physical and mental wellbeing. This includes unplugging from your business over the weekends as this helps rejuvenate your mind. This can include stepping back from stressful situations at home such as cleaning up a giant mess, ask your partner to do that. While it’s important to have determinations and discipline, it’s so important to not get burnout. This is why you should know when to stop, take a breather, and temporarily step away from the situation.
