As a career mum, there are times when you may wonder if you are not doing enough to perform both the roles of a mother and a full-time worker. Do you find yourself not fitting in with other mums who have rather incredible careers or the stay at home mums that appear happy to stay with their kids?
It is very okay for you to want to grow your career but still be home for your children whenever they need you. But how do you balance out your professional life and your personal life?
While you may get different opinions, the answer is straightforward. You do not have to try very hard to balance the two. What you need is to integrate them both and bring yourself to work on both of them together.
As a working mother, there are some essential skills you possess that could be of tremendous help in the business world. These include your creativity, time management, and the ability to work under pressure. By applying these skills at work, you can also grow as a business owner.
While in the past women were choosing between working away from home and becoming stay at home mums, today you can take care of your kid and still run a successful business. So how do you manage?
Strategies You Can Employ to Become a Successful Mum
Create a schedule that works
The main reason many mums start their business is to create more time to spend with their families. However, most of them don’t realize that both rearing a child and running a business requires an almost equal effort and time. When running both tasks, your schedule can become too tight posing adverse effects. It would help if you created a good program that incorporates all the tasks together.
You have the ability to select how you want to divide your time. Still, always be aware of the priorities. A good example is you can choose to get home for dinner with your children early and reserve some few minutes before you sleep to read some of the unopened mails.
When you schedule your time, remember to keep your employees on the loop on how your schedule may affect them too. When employees cannot access your calendar, there will be a lot of time wastage when an employee has to go back and forth, trying to inquire when they should complete their tasks.
Fortunately, you can choose to use a Sling employee scheduling app that will help you to easily build your employees’ schedules.
Keep everything organized
As a mother, wife, and business owner, you need to create order in your daily business executions. You can do so by planning yourself every morning in the order of how you want to execute tasks. Before your children head out to school, you may choose to prepare their dressing the night before and so that it becomes an easy job in the morning when they wake up.
If you want to do things in an orderly manner, you should have with you an everyday to-do list. If you have a spouse, you may also choose to involve them in your daily plans by creating days when they can look after your child for you.
Another thing you will want to keep extremely organized is your documents, invoices and contracts. In the scenario of running your business, you want these to have their separate repositories that you can easily access at a moment’s notice while working in your office. One effective way is by mostly going digital, having everything stored in the cloud, or any contract management software, act as a contract repository for your invoices and other essential documents. You can bypass the limitations of logistics and avoid a situation where the documents are physically damaged by merely going digital.
Get rid of any guilt
It is common for you to become guilty as a mother when your work takes the place of your child. However, even though your children may be precious to you, they should not make you feel any guilt as you try to achieve your dreams.
It would be best if you only focused on the positive results that will arise from running a successful business. When you start your own business, it may be the only source of income that will help you pay for your children’s school tuition. As your business grows, you will be able to provide for your family and even buy that dream home you have always wanted.
Get rid of all distractions
Digital devices can provide you with tremendous help in your business and parenting as well. However, if you are not careful, they can become a source of distraction. Always remember that you have a full schedule that cannot allow distraction.
If you want to avoid digital distractions, you need to self-discipline yourself by coming up with some rules you are bound to follow. One important rule is that you should avoid doing multiple things at the same time. Additionally, if you have a movie to watch, do it during the holiday or on your off days.
Do not shy away from asking for help
When you hit a dead-end or feel as if you may give up, you should not be afraid to get some help or guidance from the right people. You are human and are not capable of doing everything on your own. If you want money to boost your business capital, borrow from the right people. And, if you are going to find someone to help you in raising your child, you can get the help of a close family member such as your parents.
Look after yourself
Once you follow your schedule properly and manage your time wisely, you can build up enough time to take care of yourself. It is rather important to refresh and recharge as you take care of your business and personal matters.
As a career lady, a mother, and wife, you can easily burn out if you are not careful. It would be best if you were responsible enough and take better care of yourself so that both your employees and children at home can look up to you.
Strike a Balance
In order to maintain a work and life balance, you continuously need to make sacrifices, adjustments, and compromises. You should prepare yourself properly and use your energy and time in the best way possible. Remember, when juggling between work and family, you should be aware of what your priorities are and maintain them. After every few years, you can re-evaluate your strategy to tell if you’re balancing between both worlds or not.
Collaborative Post