Balancing Parenthood and Self Employment

When you become a parent for the first time, it can be difficult to balance your time around bonding with your newborn bundle of joy and a business you have dedicated all your time to since it was launched however many years ago. Guilt for feeling like your not spending enough time with your new family or on your business can set in early on and make you feel overwhelmed, and like you are not coping. Here are a few tips and tricks that will help you to keep on top of everything and in control.

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Outsource

If you have the means, outsourcing is a great way of ensuring your business processes continue to run unhindered even when you’re dedicating less of your time to running your business. This will take a weight off of your shoulders that you don’t need, especially when trying to care for a newborn baby. Outsourcing attracts many businesses as it significantly cuts down on outgoing costs – a major positive with a new addition to the family – and ensures the process you have outsourced for will be carried out by industry professionals on top of the range equipment and software. This leaves very little room for human error, so you are unlikely to be liable for a fine or pay too much for a service, and it means you will have more spare time to spend with your family.  

Schedule Your Time

Once you’ve sat down at your desk, you can lose track of time and spend hours more than you meant to working on your marketing strategy or researching how to improve SEO rankings. Although important, you need to make sure you have a schedule worked out that divides your time appropriately between family time and your business. Having a schedule in place for working days – like scheduling eight hours, five days a week, to dedicate to your business – depending on where your flexibility lies in the week can ensure your time is evenly spread out. Though this may seem extreme after having been your own boss for many years, this can help to constantly reassure you that you are putting enough time into your business whilst also having days dedicated to family time and outings. Unscheduled time can blur into a mess of emails and feeds – especially when the sleepless nights start to get to you. Having a clear timetable can help to keep you focused on the task at hand when in your office, and your mind off of your business when with your family.

Technology Free Evenings And Family Times

Like previously mentioned, it can be difficult to pull away from your phone and computer to have some downtime – especially if it feels like your not spending as much time as you used to working on your business. However, after scheduling a main eight hour a day structure you may feel like your time is all taken up with work, and start to resent your business – something you want to avoid. Leaving your computer and work phone in your office, and setting out of office emails and voicemails for evenings and weekends will ensure you maintain integrity with your customers by letting them know that their messages have been received and will be dealt with a soon as possible. This gives you the freedom to enjoy family time without worrying about customers not being able to get through to you.

Hopefully, this has given you a few ideas on how you can best balance your time between your business and your growing family, and if you have recently welcomed a new addition to the family, congratulations and many happy returns.