Balance Your Home Business and Your Family Life?

Written by Dawn Roberts


I've read so many articles lately about balancing your life - family, business, spiritual, health and wellness - all of it. Admittedly, I was determined to dorepparttar same. Why not? There were all these power women out there, doing just that! Why couldn't I do it? I'll tell you why - once I realized what they were truly talking about, I didn't want it any longer.

Look, I love my home business and I wouldn't change it forrepparttar 116545 world. However, if my family, friends and loved ones need me - this business gets put onrepparttar 116546 back burner. I may be wrong in my line of thinking but that's one ofrepparttar 116547 reasons why I started a home business - flexibility. My time is supposed to be flexible. I like it that way. I love knowing that if my nephew calls me to ask me to run and give him a hug, I can do that! I love knowing that if I have a special family gathering coming up, I can go without clearing it with anyone. For me -repparttar 116548 people that matter most in my life, come first in my life - without question!

With that said, I still believe you should have a general guideline for your working hours. Specially if you're a work at home parent with young ones around. Otherwise you'll never be productive enough to get anything accomplished. If you want to spend time with your children duringrepparttar 116549 day, get some exercise, work, attend to daily chores, it's imperative you have an outline of a schedule. Just keep in mind that is just that - an outline. It is not carved in stone and it should allow yourepparttar 116550 flexibility to deal with important issues as they arise.

  • Write out a list of required tasks and break that down to monthly, weekly and daily lists. For example, if you do laundry twice a week - write down what days you'll do that. Write down your minimum required hours for work, grocery shopping, exercise routines, play dates.....everything.
  • Write out your wish list of things you'd like to accomplish. Let's say you've been dying to join a health club, yet it's never been a huge priority - write it down. This is your list of dreams. If you want to take a painting class or you want to join your local Chamber of Commerce - write it down.
  • Write down your household's schedule as it is right now. This may take a week to observe and take notes. You can't outline a new schedule until you are fully aware what your current schedule is.
  • Invest in a nice, large daily planner. This is something you shouldn't be afraid to splurge on. Make sure you get one you like. I don't want you to cringe each time you look at it.

Now, we're going to amalgamate your lists into one schedule.

  • Looking at your current schedule, make notes in your daily planner about all your required tasks: meal times, laundry, grocery shopping, team practices and play times - everything that is a must do that you know has to be done (or is done) on specific days and times. Don't be afraid to overlap things to make yourself more productive. If you know you can a load of laundry done atrepparttar 116551 same time you're making dinner, write it down. Just be careful about spreading yourself too thin!
  • Now that we haverepparttar 116552 bones of your schedule laid out, lets add your work hours. If you know you must work a minimum of 25 hours each week to stay ahead, schedule that into your planner. Some days you may work more hours than others. That's okay. That'srepparttar 116553 beauty of working from home - flexibility! Again, don't be afraid to overlap tasks. If you have numerous postcards to send to your clients/customers, you may be able to do this while you're attending your son's soccer practice! Pack up your postcards, a couple of good pens (in case one runs out), your address list and write them out during practice. I wouldn't advise this during a game as your son would definitely be heartbroken if you missed seeing him kickrepparttar 116554 winning goal because you were busy working.


The Perils of Working From Home

Written by Dawn Roberts


Working from home is absolutely fantastic! I love every second of it. However, before you begin you must be aware of what you're getting yourself into. It's not always sunshine and roses and it's not for everyone.
  • If you are not a self-motivated individual steer clear of home based businesses. You must, and I do mean MUST, be able to motivate yourself to work (or be associated with individuals who can and will motivate you). It's far too easy to become lax about and put things off until tomorrow. Eventually, you have too many "tomorrow tasks" piled up, with little hope of completing them inrepparttar next month.
  • Disorganized or not willing to become organized? Forget it! You really do need to have a designated work area and filing system. Otherwise, that paper tiger may eat you alive!
  • If you are a social individual, be sure to schedule adult social interaction into your day. This can be a designated date night with your spouse, weekly get together with friends or spending time atrepparttar 116544 park with other parents while watching your children play. The possible downside is a feeling of isolation.
  • One ofrepparttar 116545 benefits I love best about working from home isrepparttar 116546 dress code. However,repparttar 116547 ability to wear jeans and a sweater (I'm in Canada) occasionally turns into wearing your pajamas all day. Personally, I'm okay with that and encourage anyone working from home to make themselves as comfortable as possible. Just don't feel surprised if you end up making dinner in your bunny slippers!
  • No alarm clock! This is by far,repparttar 116548 best thing about working from home - for me! I am a night owl and work through quite often. However, you must make sure you don't get into that habit and mess up your internal clock. You runrepparttar 116549 risk of sleeping all day to make up forrepparttar 116550 night before. Doing so will most definitely assure your failure if your business requires you to speak with potential customers and clients during normal waking hours.
  • For those that don't deal well with rejection - run! Luckily, this is something you get over quite quickly, if you are willing to. When I enroll someone onto my team that would like to build a business, one ofrepparttar 116551 first things I ask them to do is to get one hundred "No!" responses. I've yet to find someone who can accomplish that task. What that simple request does is takerepparttar 116552 pressure off fromrepparttar 116553 beginning. There is enough internal pressure while working from home. The last thing you ever need is someone you don't know breathing down your neck to work harder or faster or more productive. To me, that's no different than having to deal with superiors at work outside ofrepparttar 116554 home. You should be able to work at your own pace, whatever that may be. Sorry - got a little off track there!
  • If you think you're going to wake up next month, making $100,000 a month (legitimately), forget. There is no work at home fairy that will wave a magic money wand over your head. Get rich quick schemes are exactly that - schemes! They do not exist except forrepparttar 116555 con artists who start them and convince unwitting individuals that they can be a millionaire overnight if they only fork over $10,000 to start up. I'm not saying there shouldn't be start up costs involved. There are always start up costs. You can't start any business for nothing. Just be sure to check withrepparttar 116556 Better Business Bureau andrepparttar 116557 Chamber of Commerce before handing your money over to anyone!


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