You may have waited a little while to go ahead and have a family, waiting until you’d got yourself into the right circumstances with the right person and the career right behind you. You’ve pulled the all-nighters to ensure that your job was a job well done. You’ve managed the egos of staff and dealt with management tantrums. Motherhood cannot come quickly enough: you know what you are doing – you’ve inhaled every single book out there on child-raising. You’ve got a plan to continue working while the baby is small from home.
Don’t Over Schedule Yourself
Please be mindful however not to try to do too much. In the first few weeks you’ll be exhausted so rest, don’t do what I did and keep running a business and looking after my daughter. I remember breast feeding Charlie, while sending a fax and answering an email. It got too much for me and I got no only post natal depression but also severe mastitis. Wait until you are recovered from the birth and then think about what you can do part time, while someone takes care of baby. You can be expected to care for a baby and work, as both of these require 100% of your effort.
When that screaming, demanding, beautiful baby pops right into your life, everything changes. The idea that you can balance a job with a new baby when you can’t even fit in a long enough shower becomes insane. Believe it or not, though, finding a balance and pursuing a business idea is not difficult. The biggest issue for mums everywhere is childcare. A baby is awesome and can complete your family, but trying to find the right childcare means a lot of mums either feel pressured to give up the work that they love, or pressure to find a job that is flexible enough to work from home. Short of buying a childcare centre where you can look after your children and others and make some cash, you need to identify what it is that you want. If you want to get out of feeling a little lost or stuck in a rut, we’ve put together some business ideas for the busy mum to do at home and around the kids
Start a Consultancy
Do you have a talent or some excellent skills? It’s time to put them to good use! Identify which skills you have that others could benefit from and start small with an online help page. You could grow a consultancy to include freelancers from around the country, so all you really need is a laptop and a skill.
Sell Products Online
Again, look at your talents. Can you knit? Crochet? Sew? What can you do that is creative that you can sell online? If you don’t have a creative skill, what about marketing yourself as a seller on sites like eBay? You could be the person who sells the items others no longer want. It’s a great way to work from home and make your own hours while you do it.
Create something new
You’re a parent now, and motherhood comes with the need for shortcuts. If you can think of something you could benefit from as a mother, you could patent the idea and create it yourself. Use your experiences to base your ideas on and you can really see something tangible evolve.
Working from home with children under foot may sound like something difficult, but the clue is to remember when you work for yourself you get to make your own hours around the children. You don’t always know right away what to do with your time when you become a parent, but with a little time you can work out your next big idea and capitalise on it!
Final Note
I cannot stress this enough. Don’t feel pressured however to become a high flyer while being new mum. Do what you can, and get all the help you can, so you can have some grown up time working, and still be there for baby. Remember to rest when baby does, especially if you are still breast feeding (you won’t create enough milk of you don’t rest), and don’t stay up all night meeting deadlines. Enjoy your baby, and treasure the time you have with him/her as you can never get it back. Businesses that allow you to work your own hours will be the most effective. My mother-in-law was a god send with my business, so don’t be afraid to ask.
