Work From Home…Can You Juggle?

When I started my first business I literally set up my home office at the kitchen table. I laughed about it, how cliché, but the kitchen table was rarely used to eat dinner at, and more commonly just held the mail we never looked at, so the space was available. I quickly found out how hard it was to run a profitable business at home. My typical day looked something like this:

6am – Wake up and quickly get coffee and start checking email before the rest of the house begins to wake up.

6:10am – Party’s over, the house is awake and now it’s breakfast time, hair dryers going at mach 3, Barney that purple cartoon thing blaring in the background, and constant tugging at my knee accompanied by “daddy look at this, daddy do that, daddy, daddy, hey daddy”.

7:30am – House is quiet again as everyone is in there proper places, work, school, preschool, etc. Now where was I?

9:00am – Unemployed friend stops by because he knows I’m home. Doesn’t seem to mind that I’m trying to make some calls while he is jabbering on about, well I’m not sure because I am trying not to listen.

12:00p – Friend wants to go to lunch, I accept because I’m not getting much done anyway, although this means I’ll be paying for the two of us.

1:00p – Back home, alone and it’s quiet. I make some calls, answer emails, and make it out for a necessary meeting

1:30p – Cell phone message from significant other stating that I need to go pick up one of my offspring. At least I got through the meeting.

2:00p – Back home with said offspring.

3-5:00p – Intermittent work between the purple dinosaur and whiffle ball in the back yard.

5:30p – Significant other arrives home, she’s had a long day, and wonders what I planned for dinner. Nothing?, she asks…”Well you’ve been home all day I thought you would have thought of something”

6:00 – 9:00p – Family time.

10:00p – Everyone’s asleep, time to get some work done and get ready for the next day and start all over.

If you are a small business owner who works from home, that routine has to sound familiar. So, is there a better way to manage both home life and business life when they both share the same space? I think so, below are some tips to help manage the tetter totter of a home based business:

• Have a Detailed Plan

It's tempting to treat working from home informally, since nobody's watching over your shoulder. Write a detailed business plan that includes not just projections for the business itself, but also specifics on how you'll manage working from home. This includes laying out a regular work schedule and describing in advance how you'll handle specific scenarios, such as if a friend or relative calls during working hours or your child interrupts during an important phone call. You might even designate a time during the day or evening for household tasks, errands or recreational activities you'd otherwise be tempted to do during work hours.

• Let EVERYONE Know Your Plan

As much as you adhere to your own grand plan, it's not always easy getting other family members or friends on board. They might see you as accessible and available to run errands, chat or do chores since you're conveniently based at home. It's often just a matter of letting family know your regular work hours and that you expect to be working during those times. It’s okay to let the kids know “Daddy is working, and unavailable”.

• Find Your Own Space

Where your office is located in the home can play a big role in how distracted you become. Ideally, office space should be removed from the hustle and bustle of the home and in a separate room, with a door that shuts. This usually makes the kitchen table a non viable option. Perhaps a spare room, or some other space you can close off from the rest of the world is an option…the key is being able to shut out the outside!

• Outsource Duties

One way to stifle the urge to do non work tasks is hiring someone else to do them. Particularly for home-based entrepreneurs with young kids, getting in-home childcare for at least part of the workweek or taking kids to day care occasionally can keep you from being torn between work and home responsibilities. You may want to consider outsourcing some of the home chores such as cleaning, this can free you up to work on your business and alleviate that feeling that you should be doing something else (vacuuming) instead of working on your business.

I think by doing the above you’ll reduce many of the stresses and strains faced by the small business owner who works at home. If I had to pick only one, getting your own space that is secluded from the rest of the house provides the most bang for the buck. Once you are free to concentrate, you’ll be amazed by how efficiently you work and how much more time you have during the day to answer the “Hey Daddy”.

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