Balancing Roles – Being a Self-employed MOM

As a self-employed mom, you don’t have to choose between pursuing your career or taking care of your family. With a little creativity and a lot of hard work, your dreams of making money from the comfort of home are within reach.

Women-owned businesses are 10 million+ strong, according to the National Women’s Business Council. Whether a freelancer, small business owner or “mompreneur,” there are 1,200 women starting up new businesses every day — many of them moms who want to grow a business while raising their family.

Being a self-employed mom can be challenging. What many find hard is how to BALANCE the ROLES!

This blog is not a PRO or CON blog. It is just my view point as are all of the blogs I write and I am not a paid blogger I blog because I like to write.

I’m grateful to be able to run a business and still play an active role in my children’s lives. My parents were self-employed and I am so blessed they were around for me and active in my life as well. I think that having them around and loving what they did and the freedom they had is one of the motivators I had when I joined the family business. No matter your reasons for venturing into entrepreneurship, there are many positives to choosing this path. Here are few of things that I see a benefits of being a self-employed mom and how I find balance.

FLEXIBILITY AND FREEDOM

Flexibility and Freedom are the biggest reasons I love my life and being a “mompreneur”. Flexibility and Freedom are the reasons why I have never had a 9 – to – 5 job that lasts very long. In fact I have had 3 jobs in my entire life that I was working for someone else. So you can see the importance of flexibility is really important to me. Now as a Single Mother with my own health limitations it is even more of a perk.

The other amazing thing is that as a CREATIVE being, I need to be able to have time to be outside the box. I have to ability to get up from my desk and walk around to re-inspire myself. Being a children’s book author and illustrator, a graphic artist and running a marketing agency creativity is essential. The “mompuner” life has dramatically increased my productivity and multitasking skills.

For young mothers out there or young women looking to start a family this “mompreneur” lifestyle will be a great reward for you! You will see that as your children grow it will allow for more me time as well.

I am way past the pregnancy, nursing, toddler phase of motherhood. However, back when I was in that phase of motherhood, the flexibility and freedom was great. I loved being able to adjust my work load with my life’s needs. I was able to work my entire pregnancy, I was able to go back to work quicker and I was able to be there for all the “firsts”.

My last child at home is 7 and I have to say that with all 3 of my children the freedom to be there for my children has been amazing. The ability to attend school functions without feeling bad for missing work or having a boss to worry about is quite nice. Added bonus with kids and being self-employed is that if a child gets sick or heck if I get sick I can take the day off, move things around and / or do what I love the most is I can work from bed with my laptop. This allows me to cuddle and be there for my children as well as still accomplish my projects.

MULTITASKING

Working for yourself adds to your skill levels that is for sure. You grow as a person once all things land on your shoulders. But, remember you will love it once you get the hang of it. Many of us can tell you that YOU WILL BECOME THE QUEEN OF MULTITASKING. It’s amazing all that you can do. You never realize how great it is to take a conference call, breast feed and fold clothing all at once is. You can get the kids off to sports and set up calls while they are on the field. I like to set play dates and then get my creative time in. The multitasking allows for home cooked meals as well.

You have the added multitasking bonus of vacations with business travels. As a young woman I remember my father having to speak in Florida each year (we lived in CA) and we would get to go to Disney World while he and my mother were working. We then knew at the end of the day that we would all get to hang out. It doesn’t matter what your taking on the key is that you are in control of all that you take on or deiced to not take on.

YOU HAVE TO FIND BALANCE!

I set up an office for myself so that there is a clear line of “mommy working” and when I am not working. I have the freedom to see a child enter my work zone and tell them that I cannot be with them at that moment or I can stop and be right there. The office setup also keeps me focused and accountable. I have my area for work and that is the only thing that takes place in my “work zone” or “office”.

I set up an office for myself so that there is a clear line of “mommy working” and when I am not working. I have the freedom to see a child enter my work zone and tell them that I cannot be with them at that moment or I can stop and be right there. The office setup also keeps me focused and accountable. I have my area for work and that is the only thing that takes place in my “work zone” or “office”.

Time management is vital.

Try putting yourself on a schedule—for at least a block of time. Get to know your own peak productivity hours. Are you a morning person or an evening person? For me, if I am not at it within that first waking hour, I am in big trouble. Turn on Hulu—it’s over. Here is my day: I set 6:00am – 6:20am each day to check my social apps, send text messages and respond to all thing virtual and personal. Then I get into mommy mode, I spend time before school with my son and give him 100% of me to start his day off in the right mind set. He needs to be important and never feel like work keeps me from him as it could easily take over all of my time. I like to be at my desk by 8:30am at the latest. I work until 2pm, I get my son and come back home to do homework. When he takes his 1 hour of screen time I check back in on my emails and I finish off projects that I left from earlier. From 4:30 to 8:30pm is mommy time! Then I go back to personal time or back to work if needed. I tend to stay away from of having any work on the weekend. On the other hand, if you can assign yourself a time-slot of a few weekend hours, it could help balance out your week to allow for time needed to take care of other things. Play Dates are great for ladies like me who happen to have an active 7 year old at home. It’s also a great time for the 2 older kiddos that I have to spend time with their brother. But I do not do that to my son often as I never want him to think that I choose work and being self-employed over being his mom!

YOU SET AN EXAMPLE

Harvard Business School finds that a working mother tends to have children higher salaries and their sons and daughters hold more egalitarian views of gender roles. While the facts pertain to moms who work outside the home, I’d have to guess that this is also true for children of work-at-home moms, who get to see their mom handling conference calls, diapers, deadlines and putting dinner on the table every day. It is so great for your children to see that you can be “super mom” and get things done!

Last but not least- CLOTHING

First impressions really matter when it comes to building a successful business.  Always remember to Dress to impress. Even if you are just getting dressed to work at home it does make a difference. You feel better and more motivated if you make sure to get dressed every day! So, whether you work from home or you have an office outside home, make sure you dress to impress.  People take your appearance as important when it comes to how professional your business seems.

Put in the effort to present yourself in a smart and stylish manner, not too overdressed even if you work from home, if you’re going to be dealing with your customers physically or through video chat, it’s still important still look presentable and professional as possible.hat matters is that your way of doing things lets your kids know you love them, keeps your business running and makes you happy.

All in All what matters does matter is that you understand being a working mom is like having two full-time jobs. But like all would agree, “mompreneur” is a very rewarding title to have and it’s totally doable when you have a plan to be successful in mom and business life.

Business ownership, like motherhood, is worth all the extra effort and can provide the balance and fulfillment we’re all searching for.