3 Essential Tips to Running Your Business from Home (Without Losing Your Mind)

Here are the facts: 10.1 million firms in the United States are owned by women, and 13.8 million are based out of someone’s home. Those who find themselves in both categories are part of a growing breed of mom entrepreneurs who enjoy the flexibility of being their own boss.

Flexibility? Try insanity. Being the CEO of a startup, a growing business, a home-based business—any business—is a challenge for moms who are also CEO of their household. Their to-do list includes cooking dinner, picking up the kids from school, and calling clients during naptime.

To say it’s a challenge is an understatement. That’s why we sought solutions to the most common problems facing entrepreneurs, from successful mom entrepreneurs themselves.

Problem: Life is getting in the way of your business plan. Solution: Write a Mom Business Plan.

Jennifer Albin founded Baby Bloak when her son was 6 months old, and instead of creating the typical stuffy business plan for investors, she created a Mom Business Plan: a weekly map—not a calendar or to-do list—that sets aside time for everything from public relations to story time at the library. “It is a thoughtfully constructed way to grow my business around my family’s needs,” she says.

Problem: The menial tasks are weighing you down. Solution: Invest in some outside help.

Cleaning the house, doing laundry, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, updating spreadsheets, processing orders—the mundane tasks pile up as your business grows. At some point you won’t be able to do it all and will need to hand over some of the tedious (yet important) duties to someone else. Susan Fall, CEO of a San Diego marketing firm, says her life changed when she hired a personal assistant to pay bills, do the laundry, and walk the dog. Consider the cost an investment in your business.

Problem: You’re always interrupted during work time. Solution: Create boundaries.

Ever had your pants tugged while on the phone with a client? Heard a knock on the door and a plaintive plea to look at someone’s pretty drawing? Interruptions are bad for productivity—a concept that’s hard for little ones to grasp. Take the advice of Dawn Butera, cofounder of Intentional Moments, who keeps a “phone box” with special toys and activities her kids can only play with while she’s on the phone. “They actually look forward to me being on the phone,” she says. Also: Create a signal—a stop sign taped to the door, a bandanna around the doorknob, anything that lets your kids know Mom is working, and that you can only be interrupted for an emergency.

One important thing to remember for 2010: All these entrepreneurs admit they can’t “do it all.” Many are even annoyed at the assumption that it is possible.

 “Contrary to what I’ve heard many people say,” says Natalie Bradley, founder of BrideAttraction.com, “we can have it all, we just can’t do it all ourselves.”  

Christina Galoozis is a Chicago-based freelance writer and editor who specializes in entrepreneurship, small business, and parenting issues.
 

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