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Running A Successful Home-Based Business With Kids
Part 1: Tips For A Healthy Home-Based Business And Happy Kids
Do you feel guilty because your home-based business takes too much time away
from your kids? Or frazzled because caring for your kids interferes with the
time you think you should be spending on your home- based business?
You're not alone. Many home-based business owners with kids share these same conflicting feelings. Running a successful home-based business with kids can make you feel like a hamster trapped on an exercise wheel; you just run round and round and don't feel as if you're accomplishing anything.
But you can have both a successful home-based business and happy kids, if you set some ground rules and stick to them. Here are seven ways to help you make sure your home-based business is still a happy home.
1) Establish a routine and stick with it.
Kids like routine, and you'll find that having a routine makes you more productive when you're working at your home-based business.
If your kids know, for instance, that mommy works from 1 to 3 p.m. and should
not be interrupted except for emergencies, you'll find you're interrupted much
less often.
2) Make time with your kids part of your routine.
Whether it's the story before bedtime, having breakfast with the kids, or an hour spent helping your child with homework, kids appreciate predictability, and scheduling regular time with your kids will help you avoid getting too obsessed with the demands of your home-based business.
It's too easy to get wrapped up the new project or the new client and put off spending time with the kids. You know the cliché about tomorrow and how disappointing it can be for a child when tomorrow never arrives. Scheduling daily time with the kids will help you remember that your kids are just as important as your home-based business activities.
3) Organize child care.
You have to accept that you can't run a home-based business and be a full-time mother. You have to accept that you can't work full-time hours at your home-based business and do justice to your kids. Figure out how much time you can actually work and arrange child care for your kids while you're working. Some home-based business owners work only when their kids are in school and/or in bed. If you can only work three hours a day, so be it. You can get a lot accomplished in 15 hours a week if you have that time to work at your home-based business free of interruptions.
If you have a spouse, you may be able to spell each other off and arrange your schedules so that one of you minds the kids at certain times. You may be able to trade child care with other parents in your neighbourhood. Or you may have to pay for child care, either in or out of your home. But if you can possibly afford it, the increase in productivity when you work at your home-based business will be well worth it.
On the next page are more tips for successfully combining your responsibilities
to your kids and your need to work on your home-based business. Click to continue
reading
Part 2: Combining Kids With A Home-Based Business
Having a successful home-based business and kids is possible. The trick is to
create a balance between your work life and your personal life that you're comfortable
with, so you feel that neither your home- based business nor your kids are neglected.
4) Set business ground rules and share them with your kids.
Your kids need to be aware that you operate a home-based business and know how to act accordingly. Set out basic rules that will allow you to operate your home-based business as professionally as possible, such as how to answer the telephone, how to answer the door, and how to act when clients are around. Include rules that will help make the time you spend working on your home-based business more productive, such as not touching Mommy's desk or not interrupting Mommy while she's in her office.
5) Include your kids in your home-based business.
No matter what kind of home-based business you run, there's something your kids can do, and making your kids a part of your home-based business can be a great opportunity for you to spend more time with them and teach them things such as handling money.
For instance, one home-based business owner I know takes her age 7 and 9-year-old kids with her when she goes around replacing the products in dispensing machines, and has them count and organize change.
If your kids are working in your home-based business, I believe you should pay them. This is not only a great way to teach your kids the value of labour, but can be a business tax deduction for you as well.(See "Income Tax Deductions Related To Employing Your Child Or Spouse" for more information about deducting the salary of a child on your taxes.)
6) Find creative ways to combine your home-based business and your kids.
If the client is agreeable, for example, you could hold a business meeting at MacDonald's, for instance, or some other restaurant that has a play area for kids. If a client is coming to meet with you in your home, perhaps she could bring her children so your kids could play together while you meet. Take your kids with you when you go to buy more office supplies or run other business-related errands.
7) Stop beating yourself up and count your blessings.
Think of all the working people with full-time jobs and often long commutes. One of the great things about running a home-based business is that you have so many more opportunities to be with your kids, and be there for your kids, than they do. Running a home-based business means that you not only get to work at home, but live there, too.
From Susan Ward,
Your Guide to Small Business: Canada.
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/