Small business tips for work-from-home parents

by Suhaifa Naidoo August 14, 2017 0 Comments

Working from home definitely has its perks especially if you’re a mum or dad. Being able to schedule your day to spend time with your littles one is amazing. However, for every yin there is a yang. Running your small business from home, with kids, can be challenging as well. I’ve put together some basic tips to help you:

1) Organization is key

I loved being organized, it adds function to my everyday life. But, I also know that it’s a pain point for many people, especially work-from-home parents. My favourite tool to use for running my life and business is Trello. Trello is perfect for project management, assigning work to others and managing deadlines. Because I work with so many freelancers, it’s essential to keep track of work that is due and where we are in terms of project completion. Think of it as an online to do list….on steroids. Try it out for free by visiting www.trello.com.

2) Access to information

Let’s face it, work-from-home parents don’t spend their 9-5 actually working on their business. There’s household chores, spending time with the kids and running errands. It’s one of the main reasons we chose this life. It doesn’t mean we work less, but we just work smarter and more flexibly. I often work later nights in order to spend the day with my daughter or to take some time out for myself. But my clients depend on me 24/7 so I need to make sure access to my work is easy as well. My email is cloud based, I use G Suite for Business, and all my work is saved on Google Drive. That means, if I am ever out and about and something is needed of me, using my mobile device, I can get stuff done asap!

3) Don’t try to do it all

I am pretty good at multitasking and often called a jack of all trades but when it came to running certain elements of my business, I knew that I couldn’t just wing it. There are things which has to be done by a professional i.e. marketing, design, tax, legal etc. Just because you have a Facebook profile, doesn’t mean you understand social media strategies. Invest in having professionals take care of certain areas of the business for you.

4) Marketing is important

Starting a new business is scary, especially for those who have invested their savings into getting it of the ground. But spending money on marketing is crucial to reaching your goals. Think of a marketing budget and double it, actually tripple it, that is how much you really need in the first 12 months. Don’t only rely on digital channels, you may need to spend on traditional advertising as well. Make sure you have taken all marketing platforms into consideration before setting a budget in stone.

5) Working on your business

The best advice I received was to work on my business and not in it. One of the most difficult parts in owning and operating a small business is finding the necessary time to grow the business while trying to manage the day-to-day tasks. This is a balance that many business owners struggle with, especially when the company is relatively new. Book some time off to recap what’s happening with your business and if it’s headed in the direction you would like it to go. If that means you’ll have to pass on certain tasks, employ someone or hire people to help you then that’s what you’ve got to do to make your business grow.

If you’re a work-from-home parent and struggling to manage the daily aspects of your business, I hope these tips can assist. Is there something specific you need about? Leave a comment below for some free business tips.

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