The two babies in my life were quite poorly the other day. One was too warm with a runny nose, the other was too warm with what I mistook to be a hard-drive failure - whenever I tried to turn the darn thing on, it just wouldn’t fire up. This had me in a state of panic at the time, as it would have meant very bad news on both counts.
I had a business meeting scheduled that day, to be held as usual in my home. This meant that the one with the runny nose would be grizzly and irritable – not conducive to a quiet, dignified meeting at all. And the one with the hard-drive failure would be of no use to me whatsoever for at least a week. Fatal for me in my line of business! I am completely and utterly dependent upon my computer and can’t possibly do without it or be parted from it. Ever!
Thankfully, wonder-woman (aka grandma) came to the rescue and took the one with the runny nose off my hands, while I bundled the other into the car and made my way down to the PC Clinic at PC World. With the desktop hard drive safely parked at PC World, I dashed back home and arrived just in time before my guests.
I managed to conduct my meeting in a reasonably well composed manner, but didn’t quite manage to stick to my carefully allotted hour. So at 3:10pm, I found myself charging up the hill to do the afternoon school run (which is cutting it a bit fine for 3:15pm) past all the smiling mums (or was that smirking mums, “Ooh, she’s late again”), with their smiling little ones, sedately plodding past me in the opposite direction, in well-timed, orderly fashion.
Now, as hectic and chaotic as this all sounds, I am not alone in trying to juggle family life with a home-run business, as a mum (in my case, of three). In a research carried out by Dr. Tim Leunig of the London School of Economics, mumpreneurs, as we are affectionately known, are making what he called “a tangible impact on the British Economy, with a combined turnover of £4.4bn that exceeds some FTSE 100 companies” and according to Prowess, the UK’s leading Women’s Enterprise Network, their “Inspirational Business Mum” category at the 2008 Prowess Awards was by far the most popular category in the contest, attracting more than 130 entries. Plenty of us jumping on the band wagon then!
So, just how do you juggle life as a mumpreneur or freelancer with kids? Cross your fingers and hope for the best? Well, sometimes, yes. But otherwise, here are a few tried and tested tips of my own:
Set a routine for your day: If possible, plan your day ahead of time. A reasonably well structured day will help you to be productive, despite the inevitable distractions. Why not write a short list of things you ‘must achieve today’.
Stay focused: This might seem like a contradiction in terms if you have young children in tow, but if you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve on that particular day, you can simply get back on track if the odd distraction does arise. Staying focussed certainly means staying away from the TV and not being tempted to call friends for a chat – leave this until the evening.
Work with and around the children: For toddlers, have plenty of ‘soft play’ toys easily within their reach, so that they can play near you and be occupied while you work. If you don’t mind having a messy area, then even better, as young children love messy play. If need be, for that all important project that simply must be completed on time or in peace and quiet, harness the help of friends, family or neighbours.
Have a quiet area: Have a quiet area that you can dash to, to either make or receive business calls in peace and quiet. Otherwise, don’t be afraid to let the odd call go to voicemail – once in a while won’t hurt.
Be flexible: Working from home with children will mean the odd distraction. Frankly, this can’t be avoided. I organise my day so that I can work in ‘time-blocks’ throughout the day and quite frequently, at night after the children are in bed, so distractions don’t have too much of an impact. I know of others who prefer to cram their ‘week’ into a few days while their children are in childcare. Whatever system you use, flexibility is key, as you will inevitably need to chop and change as you go along.
And my computer hard drive? Well, those nice young men in their clean white shirts informed me that it was suffering from “sticky-finger-syndrome” (aka dried-up jam on the ‘on button’ - that will be the three-year-old then), a most embarrassing revelation indeed.
Still, at least my PC and I weren’t parted after all – which on that particular day, meant I only had to contend with one poorly baby with a runny nose, one three-year-old with a temper tantrum and one seven-year-old with particularly challenging school home work….Easy-peasy!
If you are a mumpreneur or freelancer with young children, how do you cope on a day to day basis? I’d love to hear your stories!
© Mary Cummings
Antecell Business Services - Design & Copywriting
Feb 12, 2009
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