Mom Entrepreneur? Work at Home? How to Manage Your Business Time

Do you Work at Home? Are you a WAHM, Mom Entrepreneur, or Mompreneur?

I try and work on my business at least 4 hours a day. I set a timer and work for 45 minutes and then take 15 minutes to do a household related task like throw in a load of laundry, run up and make all the beds, clean one bathroom, wash the kitchen floor.

I have tried to do just business for hours, but the household stuff is screaming at me. I am mom first before I am a mom entrepreneur. I don't believe my family, laundry, and dinner should suffer because I have a business. It's about priorities and family has to come before business.

So, I have found that setting a timer is important - you can get a digital kitchen timer from all the dollar stores - I have two. One is for the 45 minutes of work time and the other I clip onto myself when I am doing my 15 minute household task.

Try it ! Pick a work task like checking all e-mail boxes and doing a few tweets on Twitter for 45 minutes and then do a household task for 15 minutes, then come back and do Blog posts for 45 minutes and then do a household task for 15 minutes, then come back and work on things to grow your business like press releases, posting articles to ezines, working on a proposal for a potential client for 45 minutes, then do a household task for 15 minutes.

See how good you will feel about coordinating your at home business time with your home and its responsibilities - the dishes, laundry, and dirty floors do not magically disappear because you have a business !

WAHM? Mom Enterepreneur? Why do you have business? Your reason will help with your priorities.

WAHM, Work at Home Mom, Mompreneur, Mom Entrepreneur, Mother Entrepreneur?

Why do you have a business & what does your business money go towards?
1. Fun/Hobby
2. Some of Your Own Spending Money
3. Contribute to your Household Bills

I recently spoke to a group of mom business owners and brought up this topic. We were discussing priorities and how much time to spend on our businesses and family balance.

I suggested that we start with the questions "Why do you have a business?" and "Where does that money go?". I block off from 4pm-10pm as strictly "no business, no computers, no phone calls"on school nights. However, recently I have had some client deadlines that were unavoidable during this time and my family was a wreck. So, I was questioning whether I could have put off that client work.

I met with my family and discussed that while it is my goal not work on school night between 4pm-10pm, there will be times that it is unavoidable. The reason is that this money started as my spending fun money and it moved to providing our family with extras like family vacations and weekend trips and paying for birthday and christmas presents.

My husband is a teacher and I am a stay at home and work at home mom and we have 3 kids. Our budget is tight, but can cover the bills. Our budget does not cover extras like dance lessons, swimming lessons, summer swim pass to pools around town, birthday parties, etc. So, now we have come to rely on this money to enhance our lives and this sometimes means that I have to conduct business after school.

I will do better and letting them know in advance if I can when this happens. I also have been trading babysitting with a like minded work at home mom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We both have active toddlers that are 17 months old and only 1 week apart in age so I can get things done during the daylight hours, instead of late night hours like now (1:53am).

So, knowing the reasons why you are making this money helps decide if you can re-schedule that work or client call and how to make decisions about family balance. If you are dependent on your paycheck then sometimes family will have to come 2nd. I know we always want family to come first and that is a great goal to strive for, however, sometimes reality alters that !

Got Pre-Schoolers? Need to get work done during the day? On a Budget?

WAHM - Work at Home Mom, Mompreneur, Mom Entrepreneur on a Budget but need time during the day to work on your business ?

I am a mom who is at home full-time. I have 3 children, one of which is a very active 16 month old toddler/runner. For months, another work at home mom and I have been talking about trading babysitting. Well, we finally started it 2 weeks ago.

I take my Jonathan to her house on Tuesdays from 10am - 4pm and she brings her Emma to my house on Thursdays from 10am - 4pm. It has been FANTASTIC ! I am all on with toddlerland and chaos and fun for one day. Then I am all off and able to get amazing things accomplished in the 6 hours I am toddler-free.

Guess what? It's an even trade because we are moms on a budget. We feel like total SuperMoms flying around the house getting a million things done from doing laundry, doing dishes, washing floors, making and returning client phone calls without baby's chasing us down to talk in the phone.

Is there a mompreneur, mom entrepreneur, mom in business in your neighborhood that you could set up a toddler swapping trade with ??? Think of six hours of having a wonderful lunch and kicking out a dozen things off your massive To Do List...

Send Your Kids Outside for 1 "Green Hour" a Day !

Send kids outside to get close to nature and appreciate the world around them. Remember when we were kids. We ran in from school, grabbed a snack, and then ran back outside to play until our moms called us for dinnertime.

The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen.

Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts.

Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:
- Play more creatively
- Have lower stress levels
- Have more active imaginations
- Become fitter and leaner
- Develop stronger immune systems
- Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD
- Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment

Turn off that television, computer, video games and kick the kids outside until dinner to run around, get some fresh air, soak up some vitamin d, and have some good old-fashioned outdoor
fun !

SOURCE: http://www.greenhour.org/, http://www.moregreenmorelife.blogspot.com/

The Entrepreneurs - A New T.V. Show hosted by Donny Deutsch

Wednesday Nights at 9pm - Watch "The Entrepreneurs" with Donny Deutsch

I just recorded this show on my PVR. I have yet to watch it, but I was a big fan of the Donny's show "The Big Idea". I know that there are people out there that don't like Donny's big personality, but the fact remains that he had a great show about entrepreneurs like no other out there. I can hardly wait to watch his new show sometime this week.

Donny Deutsch is the host of The Entrepreneurs, a primetime special profiling the success stories of America's entrepreneurs. He was also the host of The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Donny has interviewed everyone from budding entrepreneurs to Billionaires, discovering their secrets to success and showing YOU how to turn your idea into a BIG IDEA." Next for me is to buy his book that just came out December 2008, The Big Idea: How to Make Your Entrepreneurial Dreams Come True, from the Aha Moment to Your First Million

"It's the moment when you say, "There's gotta be a better way." It's the moment when you ask, "How can I solve this problem?"Donny Deutsch's hit CNBC show The Big Idea has put the spotlight on that ordinary moment and the people who have the courage and stamina to make their dreams come true.Some people think a big idea is like a lightning bolt striking out of the blue that slams you in the head. But it's hardly ever like that. The Big Idea isn't an act of God. It's an act of daily life. Simply put, the idea that will make millions starts with an observation.

In The Big Idea, Deutsch draws not only on his own tremendous focus and expertise, but on that of dozens of the successful entrepreneurs whom he has interviewed, to help you create your own enterprise. From the "Gut Check Moment" to "Mom Power," The Big Idea takes aspiring entrepreneurs along every step of the way. The Big Idea is your road map to the American dream."

SOURCE: http://www.cnbc.com/, http://www.donnydeutsch.com/, http://www.deutschinc.com/

Turn off your business on Fridays - Institute a Friday Family Fun Night !

Friday Family Fun Nights !

Turn off your business on Fridays ! I don't even log into my e-mails or work on any business Friday nights - even after the kids go to bed. We stay up late for Family Fun and I go to bed when they go to bed this one night of the week.

Here's some of what we do for Lierman Family Friday Fun Nights:
- Play boardgames like: Checkers, Chess, and Pokemon Sorry
- Play games like: Jenga, BattleShip, and Yahtzee
- Play wii games like: Wii Sports, Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, and Mario Kart
- Food and Snacks include: Pizza, Pop, Popcorn, Chocolate Bars, and Gummy Bears
- PJs and MovieTime round out the night ! We all get our pjs on and hunker down on the couches and sleeping bags and watch a fun family movie like: Over the Hedge, The Incredibles, or Spy Kids.

Some of the benefits of a Family Fun Night:

Laughter

"Games offer a fresh experience every time you play, providing new ways to have fun and laugh together. Some games, such as CRANIUM and OPERATION, are developed with giggles in mind and would be a great choice on nights when everyone needs a good laugh."

Family Bonding

"Game play allows your kids to learn from you and from each other. It encourages a sense of connectedness and respect among family members."

Learning

"Games can be a subtle learning tool. For instance, CLUE is good for learning deductive reasoning. MONOPOLY is ideal for teaching beginning budget skills and YAHTZEE provides a fun way to teach simple addition and multiplication."

Life Skills

"Games teach kids important life skills such as patience, concentration, teamwork and perseverance. By taking turns, following rules and even losing a game, kids learn skills that they can apply at school and in the home."

Once a month we invite another family over that has kids and we ask them to bring their pjs and sleeping bags and get ready for lots of family fun. Our kids come home thrilled and excited on Friday nights. Institute a Friday Family Fun Night in your house this week ! Make it one of your family traditions.

SOURCE: http://www.hasbro.com/familygamenight/en_US/, ideas, suggestions, and coupons for your family game night.

How many e-mails are in your inbox ? How to keep it to 50 or less !

Organize your E-Mails.

I have 2 personal e-mail accounts and 3 business e-mail accounts by necessity. How can you keep what's in your inbox to under 50 e-mails when you might get 100 e-mails in one box in one day ?

TURN ON THE SPAM FILTER
So, many people I know are afraid to turn on their spam filter to the highest level which is delete anything that looks like spam. Everyone is all afraid that they are going to lose that all important e-mail. Then what happens? You keep saying you review the "possible spam" and you never do and you have 687 e-mails in the "possible spam" folder. Look, it just doesn't happen.... people do not have time to review their spam folders. Just set it up to delete them... that one e-mail a year or even a month that gets deleted will be resent to you or that person may just pick up the phone to call you !

LEAVE ANY UNRESOLVED ISSUES IN YOUR INBOX
Do not move any of your unresolved issues to a folder even if it is a "to do" folder. Again, you think you will look in that folder and you won't. If you leave any unresolved issues in your inbox, you will see it staring at you everytime you log in.... this way it will not be forgotten in a folder.

FIRST, READ YOUR MAIL BY "UNREAD" MESSAGES
Go through your unread messages fast. Is it a file it now, act on it later, act on it now ? Only deal with what you have to deal with now. Set aside time every couple days to clear out the act on it laters.

SECOND ROUND, READ YOUR MAIL GROUPED BY SENDER
If items are grouped by sender, it is easier to sort through them and file them in a folder or group delete them. I receive many offers a day from book sellers, coffee companies, my vendors with specials. I keep only the current offer and delete the rest. Sometimes, if it is an extended offer or coupon I will file it in a folder marked with the company name like "Barnes and Noble" and then when I am heading to the bookstore, I can pull up the latest coupon fast.

SET A GOAL TO START OF ONLY 100 EMAILS IN YOUR INBOX OR LESS
This doesn't seem like a serious goal, but it is. Given the amount of e-mails we receive a day, this will give you a little time to play catch up every couple days if you get busy and can't manage your e-mail for a day or two.