There's one essential skill that you must have as a mom running a business, and that is effective time management. With each of my three children, I've had to become better at managing my time and being productive within the limited time windows I have. Building from the bottom up and utilizing the nap-time hustle in my early days of being a mom, I didn’t want to waste a minute of my time so that I could continue fulfilling my business goals, while being a present mom.
The reality is, when you transition from having the entire day to work on projects you love into motherhood while running a business, it’s a shock to the system. Before kids, it's relatively easy to grow your business. However, when you add kids to the mix and have a plate full of other responsibilities, juggling everything becomes a challenge that can make or break you.
If you’re like me, you're aware that you want to spend quality time with your kids, but you also have a strong desire to continue working on your business and making an impact. It becomes difficult to manage a growing business, be there for your family and the continued growth of the business can get left behind. But it doesn’t have to.
Finding the Balance Between Work and Family
Finding the right balance between work and family is a challenge for most moms running a business. Some hide it better than others, and some just accept the constant overwhelm as the norm. Balancing the aspiration to excel in both areas while not letting anyone down can be crippling. The key is to establish time management and a well-structured schedule that allows you to be present for your family, carve out personal time, and effectively manage your business as the CEO.
Having structure and routines that accommodate your work, family, and personal time reduces the mental load that many moms carry. This is my big secret, we are regimented and scheduled in my house! This gives me work-life balance that some may believe is unattainable but is still very real, and my clients are seeing it too.
There is a misconception that achieving balance will hinder business growth, which is not true. In fact, it actually allows you to continue growing because your time spent in the business is that much more productive and efficient. Instead of constantly shifting between work and family, you designate specific times for each aspect of your life. This approach ensures that you can focus on tasks, projects, and your role as a CEO without distractions, as well as fully engage with your family when you're present.
Having space for myself and my family guarantees my personal fulfillment, and when I am fulfilled I show up as a better leader for my team and my clients.
Continued Growth Without the Constant Tug of War
So, now you know my big secret to having time to grow my business with these three little ones is all created from the structure in our schedule. But there are some other key things that I’ve found are important to balance your responsibilities as a mom and continue to grow your business.
This is what you need to do:
1. Reevaluate Your Time Management: As a mom running a business, effective time management is crucial. Prioritize your tasks inside and outside the business and create a calendar with time blocks to reflect those priorities. Outsource or delegate tasks that you no longer have time for. Customize your work schedule to align with your family's needs and set clear boundaries. My work hours are my big kids school hours 3 days a week, then I have a morning with my littlest and a day for building out creative ideas and strategic planning. My in-office hours are about 20 hours a week.
2. Distinguish Between Sustaining and Growing Your Business: Identify tasks for sustaining your current business (e.g., customer operations) and tasks for business growth (e.g., marketing, creating new programs or offers, enhancing current operations). Delegate or outsource operational tasks, especially those not directly related to customer interaction. If you spend all your time on tasks to sustain the current business you are setting yourself up for a rollercoaster of scarcity which you’ll be looking for leads to grow.
3. Outsource as Much as Possible: Moms often experience overwhelming stress. The more help you can get, the better you can manage both your business and family. Get creative with your outsourcing, my 7 year old does his laundry, my husband does all of the dishes (and SO much more!) and I couldn’t do anything without my team.
4. Dedicate Time to Business Growth: Set aside focused work time for growing your business. Many women face stagnation because they spend too much time running the business and not enough time growing it. Free up time by delegating or outsourcing non-essential tasks. Creating a CEO block of time or day in your calendar where there are no interruptions and allow you to fulfill and create those ideas that are sitting on the back burner is imperative to your continued growth.
5. Set Boundaries and Stick to Your Ideal Schedule: While flexibility is necessary, maintaining discipline with your work schedule and tasks will free up both your time and mental space. The schedule and structure you set does nothing if you don’t follow it. There will be fear of letting people down, but you can’t keep letting yourself down.
6. Create Dedicated Spaces in Your Calendar: Your ideal schedule should include dedicated time blocks for everything important to you, including work, family, personal fulfillment, and social connections. If it’s not on my calendar it’s not happening, so while we don’t want to over schedule or commit ourselves we do want to be clear on how and where we are spending our time.
When your plate is full, maximizing your time and being efficient and productive while creating dedicated space for your family and work will put an end to the constant tug of war. I know the mom guilt can weight heavy on us alongside all the open tabs in our heads, and while we can’t close all the tabs we can find stability in creating more structure.
If you're struggling with being buried in day-to-day operations and truly want to take your business to the next level without adding more hours to your calendar, all while building the freedom and flexibility to be a CEO and leader, you can explore my upcoming program, the Female Founders Inner Circle, and join the waitlist here.
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