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10 Ten Time Management Tips to Keep Your Children and Business Happy

10 Ten Time Management Tips to Keep Your Children and Business Happy

You decide to join the growing ranks of women starting a business. You soon discover running a successful home-based business with your children can make you feel like a hamster trapped on an exercise wheel.

This can leave you feeling frazzled and frustrated when caring for your children interferes with the time you think you should spend on your home- based business. Time management books seem to neglect this issue totally.

These 10 tips can help you meet the needs of both your business and children and get you off the hamster wheel.

1. Reality Check

There’s a big difference between being with your children during the evenings and on the weekends and being with them ALL day EVERY day.

When you worked, somebody else took care of your children’s needs and demands during the day. Reality is you traded your full time job for another full time job, stay at home mom, plus added the extra demands of a home business.

2. Organize Your Home Business Hours

Arrange your business hours to accommodate your children’s needs. The younger your children, the more time they require.

Drop the 9-5 working mentality. You are the boss now. Take advantage of the ability to set your own hours to your advantage .You may only work on your business two or three hours a day. At the end of the week, those hours add up.

Set up a business rules… for example: You work from 2 to 4 p.m. and nobody interrupts you except for emergencies.

3. Ask the Spouse for Help

Get your spouse to spend an hour or two with the children in the evening. If he works outside the home during the day, this is his opportunity to invest in some quality time with them. He can read stories, play games, help with homework and get them ready for bed.

Set a timer to work on business activities during this time slot. Once the time goes off, stop and enjoy the rest of the evening with your spouse.

4. Baby sitting Swap

Connect with another women business owner and form a “kid swap.” One day a week or month watch each others children. This give you dedicated, uninterrupted time for your business

5. Hire a Babysitter

Hire a teenager or pre-teen to watch you children a couple hours in the afternoon. Use this time to return phone calls and meet with clients.

6. Children Transportation Services

Larger metro areas usually offer some type of “children transportation” service.

These services specialize in providing car transportation that fit your children’s needs. They can pick your children up and take them to day care or school, community and recreation centers, tennis, baseball, football, and soccer practice, or to music lessons.

This service was a big time saver for me. They picked my daughter up from figure skating and took her to school in the morning.

7. Establish Clock Boundaries

In addition to establishing business hours, set boundaries for family and personal time.

Scheduling regular time with your family will help you avoid getting too obsessed with the demands of your business.

Your children like routine and will respect your business boundary if they know you’ll spend time with them at “quitting” time.

8. Involve Your Children

Your children can do small jobs for you in your business. It makes them feel important and boost their self confidence while learning responsibility. Check into the possibility of deducting their salary on your taxes

9. Children Live in the House Too

Yes, you children can do household chores too. Give them assigned tasks to do. Even 3 year olds can put their toys away. Expecting them to do their share provides valuable lessons that they can carry into their adulthood.

10. Prepare for the Unexpected

What do you do when your child becomes sick at school and you got a client meeting? Put some contingency plans in place for those last minute notices. Prearrange with friends, family member or neighbors who can come to your rescue on short notice.

Read the Story behind the sunglass

"The Time Diva"

Ann Rusnak, "The Time Diva" developed a system to show busy self employed solo business owners how to gain more time and increase sales working less hours. Receive the FREE eBook "Thinking Outside the Clock" when you sign up for Time Myth Busting Minutes ezine at: SimpleTimeManagement.com

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