How do you juggle life AND grow a home business?

A typical day for me is to hang out the washing while my children eat breakfast before shouting at them to get their shoes on and get in the car to get to school.  Get my morning run in (as long as it is not raining!) and then be ready for work at 10am.  Work like crazy either speaking to one of my 1-2-1 clients, bash away at the keyboard writing copy for a website or an article or dash out to a networking event before skidding in to the car park for 3.15pm to do the pick-up.

On goes mum hat and its time to do homework, cook tea, put plasters on cut knees and play diplomat for any arguments.  Time for bath, chuck another load of washing in and sit down with a cup of coffee with husband before heading back up to the PC to "tinker" on my web-gadgets and social networking profiles.

Phew!  But would I ever change this routine? 

Absolutely not.  Like many of you reading this, I started my business to create a new, flexible career.  My reasons were my family but I know others of you have decided to become your own boss to fit around ski seasons, partner's careers and, let's be honest, to get out of the rat race.

But a question that I asked a lot is "How on earth can you grow a business and still have a life?"  Is it possible to juggle it all and still move a business forward?

Well, yes it is and this week I thought I would share some practical advice and tips that have helped me and other home business owners have a life AND a successful business.

1.  Remind yourself regularly of your reasons for starting up in business.  When times get hard and more and more projects tumble around you, it is easy to scream and ask yourself why it seemed such a good idea to set up in business.  I remember my first Easter holiday, trying to keep my work momentum going whilst my 2 children where home from school.  After 2 weeks of unsuccessful TV watching and several shouting matches later, I had to remind myself that it was my children that motivated me to become self-employed.  I needed to take my foot of the pedal during the holidays and fire it up during term-time.  OK, it did take me a couple of years of hard juggling to really enjoy the ebb and flow of a term-time business and still have a 12 month income - but it is possible! 

2.  Just say NO!  In the early months, it is tempting to take on as much work as is offered to you.  But just because it pays, it doesn't mean it is always the right work to do.  Accept the projects that you do "just for the money" or take on clients because they have a cheque book, and you will not allow you or your diary to be open to the opportunities you really want.

3.  Create opportunities to fit around you.  If you are designing a business to fit in to your rules (which is always a good idea!) then having the ability to create the right opportunities to fit around your diary and your priorities is a great skill to have.  Networking events is good example of this. I hear many women say that they can't find networking events to fit around school hours but to be honest, if you start digging around it is amazing how many networking groups operate at all times of the day.  Lunches, mid-morning, evenings.  It's a case of asking around your network and if you can't find one that suits - start one yourself at a time that suits you!

4.  Take on one project at a time.  I saw Nicola Cairncross of the www.themoneygym.com present again the other week and she demonstrated this point exceptionally well.  If one project takes one month to complete and you take on a new project each week that month, each project is going to take four times longer and results from your first project will take at least four months.  Focus on the first project and by the end of your first month, the results and income will start to happen to help spur you on for the next new one. Make sense?

5.  Do less and achieve more.  This principle is particularly useful when it comes to marketing.  It is easy to feel that you have to have lots of irons in lots of fires to attract as many clients as possible.  But advertising one week, posting furiously on social networking sites the next, followed by a leaflet drop in your local neighbourhood and finishing off with random visits to various networking events is just going to make you dizzy!  Do one thing well, measure your results and then work out whether you carry on or adjust your marketing strategy.

6.  Know that you can't achieve success by yourself.  "No man is an island" is a famous quote by John Donne (I googled that - didn't think I knew that, did you?) and when you start up in business, the sooner you realise this, the stronger and more successful you will be.  This doesn't mean that you need to recruit business partners and start offering a percentage of your company, but it does mean that you can seek out business buddies to share ideas with, virtual assistants to delegate work out to, associates to share the work load and networking contacts to help and support you. 

7.  Make time for you in your diary.  You put clients meetings and telephone appointments in your diary.  But when was the last time you actually dedicated a few hours to yourself in your diary.  Make a commitment to join an exercise class, meet a friend for a dog walk or book a table for one at the local coffee shop.  It's amazing how more effective you can become by having some time away from your business. 

I am sure there are some other great suggestions and practical advice out there and I know there are others who would love to read them.  So add your comments, along with your web link if you have one, below and share your thoughts.

Comments

[Melissa]

My life sounds identical to yours - except for the bit about fitting in a morning run (I try to fit in some trampoline bouncing after the kids have gone to bed!)

After reading the E-myth book, I realised I was working in my business and not on my business and was burning out trying to fit it all in.

I spent a Sunday evening drawing up a capacity planning sheet that showed how many available hours I had to do work and how many actual hours I needed to do it all. It was a shock! I was trying to do the work of three people.

By plotting out exactly what needed to be done, I could see which bits I could outsource while still remaining profitable.

It's a big step to mentally adjust to not doing it all myself but for my business to grow, it's something I have to do.

[Karen Skidmore]

Thanks for your comments Melissa and also for reminding us about the E-Myth - the bible for businesses everywhere! In fact I need to go back to it again. Having just read through my typical day again in my article it has made me realise I need to re-address my own productivity. Need to listen to my own advice!! :)

And love your business offerings. There must be dozens of CanDoCanBers who would need your service.

Karen

[Alice Elliott]

Try writing down all the things you need to do, and after you've picked yourself off the floor, start prioritising them into what is urgent, semi-urgent, necessary, not-so-vital, etc, etc. As long as the urgent things get done as soon as possible, you may feel you've achieved something! But it does mean that the semi-urgent things then move up to the urgent slot, and you start all over again...

[Catherine Lee]

I would like to add that I have recently read the E-Myth and found it inspiring and thought provoking. Every small business owner should buy one and plan the time into their diary to read it - it will be worth it!

As for managing my time I can do with all the good advice you have got. I don't have children and I still find it hard to juggle everything I have got to do. I recently decided to stop attending lunch time networking events as they use up such a huge chunk of the day, whereas breakfast and evening events are out of normal working hours. I can only admire those of you with families to look after as well!

[Sharon]

Karen, thanks so much for this - just like everything else I've read of yours, I found it most inspiring. I'm so glad I found your website and this blog :)