Ask around in your online or offline community and chances are you know someone who started their business to be at home with their kids. Some of them may have even started their business while on maternity leave only to be told that they were ‘stark raving mad’. We all know how hard it is to start a new business, to write that business plan, to pay for our licences and to find that first client. But how many of us truly understand how having children and working from home will affect our businesses to the extent that it does?

I started my business 34 weeks pregnant with my third child while building our new home and studying at university for a degree in education full time. My boys were 6 and 3 and I’d been having a difficult pregnancy.  And yes, I was told that I was stark raving mad to even think about a business. My husband was extremely supportive but most of my extended family was very negative and frowned upon working when raising a family. All I knew was that my studies were less and less fulfilling as time went by. All I knew was that to be a great mum, I needed something besides child rearing. All I knew was that I wanted something more.

I applied for a job 33 weeks pregnant, started the following week working from home as a subcontractor and that’s when my entrepreneurial spirit showed itself. I stumbled upon the term Virtual Assistant and my head just about exploded with the information that was so readily available. But nothing really prepared me for working from home with small children.

Yes there were the articles about how to manage one’s time, how to work alongside your child and how to set up a play office so they could play and be with you. But nothing prepared me for what ultimately happened. I gave birth to a beautiful girl who was very sick. Instead of taking a few days off (pfft, what do people know, I can ‘pop’ out this baby and be back at the computer in no time) we had a short stay in the NICU and didn’t leave hospital for two weeks. I had systems in place, my mum became my assistant and looked after my one and only client but even then, I wasn’t prepared.

No one tells you about breastfeeding while typing one handed and talking with a client on Skype. No one tells you about how segmented your day will become. No one tells you that you’re supposed to sleep at night. And there’s no one to keep a close eye on you for post-natal depression (post partum).

The first thing you’ll need to discover is what type of schedule works best for you and then to not feel guilty about it. If you’re a morning person that’s great and if you’re a night person, that’s great too. Figure out what part of the day you are the most productive, map it against your family’s needs and try to stick to it.

The next thing is to understand that it’s ok to have nanna naps, even if there are no kids at home. If you need 10 minutes or 30 minutes to recharge, do it! It’s part and parcel of taking care of yourself so you don’t fall apart. I personally am a night person but my husband is a morning person so he gets up to the kids in the morning, feeds them, dresses them all before leaving to go to work. But I’m the one who gets up to the kids in the middle of the night and puts miss M back to bed 4 times between 1am and 4am.

Set up a default schedule where you block in everyone’s commitments including your own. Colour-code the schedule for each person in the family. One thing I have noticed with two children in school now is how busy we are. They don’t do a lot of after school activities but remembering which child has library day and which child has ICT (information communication technology – fancy pants term for information technology) is a lot easier now with the family schedule on the wall.

Create a support circle of business mums. They don’t necessarily have to be in the same industry as you or even have children the same age as yours, you just need to surround yourself with people who understand what it is like to be a mum in business for herself. Family members won’t understand and your partner may not understand. You’ll receive all sorts of advice from all corners and I promise it will all conflict with what you are trying to do. Having your circle of cheerleaders’ means you have people to share your highs and lows with.

Try to understand that running a business with a newborn is vastly different to running a business with a 9 year old or even a 19 year old. Your child has needs, wants and desires that changes, as they get older. My billing record is at an all time high that dates back to when miss M was less than 6 months old. Why? She slept a lot so I was able to put in the extra time. I was also post-natal at the time. Recognise what your family needs from you and be prepared as best you can for when it changes.

Each child is different. What works for me won’t work for you. I don’t have a play area in my office because I can’t handle the mess. I need a clear and tidy workspace to be able to work and kids are made to be messy. So we have a separate playroom for them to be messy to their heart’s content. All three of my kids are pretty independent and so I can snatch 10 or 20 minutes to make a phone call. But there are days when I can’t do that, so I don’t. We go outside instead. Listen to your kids and you’ll soon figure out what you need to do.

Trust in yourself. We all do a great job with our kids AND our businesses. While owning a thriving business and raising children is no easy thing to do, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Don’t think that one size fits all. Find the solutions that suit you and your family and you’ll notice the difference it makes to your business immediately. Your children are only young once so make the most of it.

About Kylie Short:
Kylie Short, owner of Tilda Virtual Services specialises in providing Internet Marketing Support, Administrative Support, Hosting and Website Design to coaches, consultants and small business owners working from home. Visit her website at http://www.tildavirtual.com.au

I find it interesting the number of people who seem to think that just because I’ve had a baby (three in fact) I don’t have a brain anymore, that I obviously left it in the delivery room. I don’t understand why anyone would think that entrepreneurs who happen to work from home work any less harder then those working in a cubicle.

Kathie Thomas has written an excellent book called “Worth more than Rubies” which I feel more then sums up why I choose to own my own home based business.

She recently asked me my opinion and experiences of working when pregnant. My response to her was:

I started my Virtual Assistant (VA) business 34 weeks pregnant with my third child. Yes some people would see this as crazy and illogical but for me it was the best decision for me and my family.

Having been in the position of starting a new job and then finding out I was pregnant with my second child, I found it very difficult to hide my pregnancy due to severe morning sickness. Ultimately after 4 short months I was ‘let go’ and even though I felt it was due to my pregnancy I could never prove it. The changes your body go through are something to be celebrated, we are creating life and yet some women still feel the need to hide their pregnancies from their employer. All just to save their jobs. Working from home ensured that I wouldn’t have to disclose my pregnancy to anyone unless I wanted to.

With my third pregnancy I was diagnosed with Polyhydraminos which basically means there was too much amniotic fluid around my daughter Matilda. So instead of having the usual litre of fluid, I had THREE. I was so large and the stress on my body was unbearable with the stress beginning at 24 weeks. I looked full term at 24 weeks and I was unable to drive my Magna (with the seat all the way back). I had to beg my darling mother in law to come and help me just get through the day and to help me get my boys to school each morning. The one place I didn’t experience difficulties was my home office. Why? Because I set it up ergonomically correct and with my pregnancy in mind when we built the house a few months beforehand.

Being a home based business meant that on my ‘off’ days I controlled when I worked and for how long. I can also tell you it came as a surprise to my clients when I announced my maternity leave. “What!! You’re pregnant??? How did this happen??” Erm, in the usual way the last time I checked, thanks!

Being able to select who I announced my pregnancy to was a definite bonus as not all clients appreciated that I could still complete the work to the same high level of quality. I didn’t leave my brain in the labour ward with my first baby and so I choose to work and own my VA business. Being invisible meant I could share my pregnancy with those who mattered – my family, friends and valued clients.

So share with me how you deal with people judging you for having a home based business. Have you found it more difficult to obtain funding for your business or perhaps suppliers were less eager to come on board? How do you choose to deal with this type of situation? Do you proudly wear your work at home status or do you hide it?

Erin over at BSETC got me thinking about what other home offices look like. Are they tidy or messy like mine? Do they have kids toys scattered underneath the desk or is it a baby free zone. Although I didn’t have my business when we decided to build our home, somehow we designed it with a home office in mind. We actually have over 300 metres of network cable in our walls. But in hindsight, yes code monkey you were right. We did need all that cable.

Here is a picture of my office and yes I tidied up before taking the photo. I couldn’t help it, not when I knew people would actually be looking at it.

As you can see we have his and her matching desks. Please note how tidy my side is and the lovely view of the fence we have between us and the neighbours.

Ooh and you can see my lovely new MacBook Pro Laptop and the monitor code monkey gave me. All 24 inches of it!

So what does your home office look like? Do you work from the kitchen table like I do from time to time? Or perhaps you have a hidey spot tucked away somewhere in the house.

Are you guilty like I am of hiding in the closet to make phone calls? (Closets muffle the sounds a LOT by the way!)

Last weekend I attended the inaugural Business Mums Network Convention held in Melbourne. And let me tell you, it was a blast!!

I met some amazing women who were more than happy to share their pearls of wisdom, other women who had also traveled a great distance to be there and women who were great fun to be around.

This convention came a great time for me and has renewed my focus and enthusiasm for my own business. Too often I seem to get caught up in the fun and excitement of my client’s businesses and I forget all about my own. Its not very often I get to network in person and so to meet these women.. well I just about wet myself with excitement and nervousness all at once. (Well I didn’t wet myself for those of you who need to know LOL)

I hope to share with you all some of the topics that really resonated with me. Topics I feel we could all benefit from.

Have you attended a seminar for your own personal development lately? If so, what was it and how did it effect the way you do business?

It’s Friday night, the kids are in bed including code monkey and so I decided to read and catch up on reading my favourite blogs (I’m Australian hence the Australian spelling). I have to confess that I haven’t been keeping up with my own blog never mind anyone else’s. Long story short – I’ve discovered that I’ve been tagged by Fiona at Moment by Moment and Melissa Khalinsky of Business Mums to share 8 things about myself. It comes at an interesting time for me. One of my listservs has been discussing the pros and cons of sharing too much information about ourselves and our personal lives and the impact that has on our professional branding/image. Yes there comes a time when that is possible but how can we build a collaborative relationship with our collegues, clients and suppliers without some kind of social discourse?

So the rules of this tagging game is:

1. Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
2. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people, posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

So here goes…..

1. I LOVE technology. I have gadgets galore and I can’t imagine going without them. Being a Virtual Assistant AND a WAHM (Work at home mum) it’s important to me that I can take my business with me and be mobile. This includes having a fax to email service (yay to Ozefax – I love you guys!!), a VoIP office phone number and my Palm Treo 750.
2. We used over 300 metres of networking cabling in our house when we built it just under two years ago.
3. My business was named after my daughter. I chose Tilda Virtual Services because my business and my daughter were born at the same time. I also wanted a unique name that ‘hinted’ at my Aussie-ness and one that was special to me.
4. I started my business 34 weeks pregnant with my third child Matilda and after she was sent to a NICU 3 hours from home at birth with complications it became my mission to stay at home with my children while still retaining a little something for me. That something is my business.
5. My appendix nearly burst when I was 15 and I had to have an emergency operation. I now have a scar 10cm long.
6. Each of my children are 3 years apart in age and no we didn’t plan it that way!
7. My husband aka code monkey and I have been together since I was 15 and we will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary this December and 13 years together this year. Yes that makes me 28 this year for those of you who are wondering.
8. We recently bought a brand new car for the first time. It’s a Mitsubishi Outlander. After it’s first service, the dealership broke my bluetooth. I cried because I couldn’t use it to talk on my Treo while driving anymore. Consolation prize I suppose is the DVD player for the kids in the roof. Talk about a sanity saver!!

I now tag Carrie, Crystal, Kathie, Pam, Laurie, Lisa, Erin and Candy!

Time management and multitasking are buzz words that have been around in the business world for years. My question to my fellow business mums is, are they real? Everyday we deal with children, spouses, friends and our family and their needs. But how does this impact on the management of our businesses and in particular our time?

Working from home still has the image of women ‘playing at business’ and unless we manage our time effectively, this is exactly what we are. So how do we manage our time effectively to ensure our families are happy, that our customers are happy, but most important that we are happy too?

I’m going to be radical and tell everyone to throw out their ability to multitask. And no, I’m not talking about how we cook tea with a baby on one hip, phone on one ear talking to a ‘needy friend’ having issues while refereeing older children and staving off blood noses. That’s just called being a mum. I’m talking about how we try to do too many business tasks at the same time. Personally, I just can’t do it anymore. Being a Virtual Assistant I pride myself on only charging my client’s for time spent on task. In fact I promote that’s what I do. But what happens when I receive an urgent email request or a friend pops up on instant messaging for a chat? I lose focus and I feel that I’m doing that particular client a disservice. I’m not living up to my personal standards that my business is hinged upon.

To manage our time effectively and efficiently it’s important to create a schedule of sorts and stick to it. Record your family commitments such as sport and other after school commitments, preschool attendance and date night. You also need to record times for doing housework, groceries and other blah tasks that need to be done to keep the household running smoothly. This will then help you to identify time slots that you have available for working in and on your business.

Your schedule doesn’t have to be strict and unattainable. It needs to be the opposite and allow for flexibility and for change. Personally, I know that after I drop my son’s to school and preschool, I allow an hour for tidying up, cleaning the breakfast dishes, to have my shower and to put my baby girl to sleep. As for the actual tidying up it might be sweeping the floors today, it might be cleaning the handprints off the fridge tomorrow. The key is to have some idea of when you are going to do certain tasks and then concentrate solely on that task to ensure it gets done.

When it’s time to work on your business, shut out all distractions including children. If need be, arrange play dates with other WAHM or SAHM so your children still get the play time they need and you get the business time you need. Work on one task at a time until it is done.

And finally, keep track of your tasks in a master to do list. Every night, transfer only what needs to be done the next day into your planner be it paper or electronic. Reasoning behind this is so it becomes easier to focus on what needs to be done immediately instead of becoming overwhelmed with EVERYTHING that needs doing.

Twelve months ago, Kylie Short thought she was answering a job advertisement for a part time bookkeeper/secretary. Instead, she embarked on an adventure starting her own business 34 weeks pregnant with her third child while attracting clients from as far as Sydney and Melbourne.

“I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I answered the advertisement,” says Short.  “I just knew I needed a challenge. I never expected to go into business when I replied to the ad. The employer took one look at my large pregnant belly at the time and offered it to me on a sub-contract basis so I could work from home and still be with my children. It was the perfect solution for me.”

Ms Short knew she wasn’t the only one working from home doing administrative tasks for other business owners, so she began her quest for knowledge and found the Virtual Assistant industry.

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners wear ALL the hats in their business and have ALL the responsibility. Not only are they the bookkeeper, they are also the sales person, administrative manager and business owner. Wearing all these hats can limit a business in its growth and ability to service customers. Some businesses are unable to afford a full time assistant or provide the necessary technology and training for an assistant, never mind setting aside the office space.

This is where a Virtual Assistant is a perfect match. Not only are Virtual Assistants business owners themselves, but they are able to take on the tasks you don’t have the skills, time or inclination to do. They can do it efficiently and proficiently, adding to your business’s professional image. You only pay for time spent on task and you can even contract a Virtual Assistant to work on a project basis, as you need them.

“Since finding the Virtual Assistant industry and discovering it has been around since 1996 in Australia, I knew it was important to learn as much as I could about this exciting way to work and do business,” says Ms Short. “I joined a number of online forums including Virtual Assistant forums and business forums. As a result, I now have access to other Virtual Assistants who have skill sets in various areas that complement my own and I am able to stay up to date with current trends in technology. I am thoroughly enjoying myself and the bonus is I get to stay at home with my children. I have learnt so much about having an online business.”
 
About Kylie Short
Kylie Short, Owner of Tilda Virtual Services has 10 years experience in Office Management and Bookkeeping with considerable time spent in Small Business Management, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Child Care and the Human Resource industries. To find out more about Ms Short, visit her blog at www.tildavirtual.com.au/blog
 

About Tilda Virtual Services
Tilda Virtual Services partners with small business owners to provide a personalised, cost-effective and reliable service that supports the needs of any business. Providing bookkeeping, administrative support, contact management, newsletter, website design and hosting, Tilda Virtual Services is here to assist small business owners in freeing up their time and reducing their to-do lists. Contact Tilda Virtual Services today for more information. http://www.tildavirtual.com.au/

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This time last year I was heavily pregnant with my third child and what a hard pregnancy that was. Oh and I started my business.

Yes that’s right. I started this business 34 weeks pregnant with my third child. But why I can hear you asking?

Because I love my work and I love what I do.

Being a Virtual Assistant is the perfect ‘job’ for me. I work with clients all over Australia with each project different to the next. Some require ongoing bookkeeping support, others need assistance with their marketing campaign. Each client’s needs are individual and I am pleased to say that I tailor my services to their needs.

There will always be room for improvement, afterall without change we stagnant and stop growing, but as it stands, I look forward to the future and to where my business will take me.

This is something that has really bugged me these Easter Holidays. What to do with the kids? During the school term I have my eldest in school, my middle child in preschool two days a week and my youngest… well she still sleeps a lot and we are very happy about that. I have my schedule and most of the time, it works and I get things done for both home and my business.

But these school holidays would have to be the worst yet since starting my business. My boys (aged 6.5 and 3.5 years) are constantly fighting and punching the stuffing out of each other. I have to leave what I am doing and break the fights up, all the time. It’s driving me INSANE!!

I have modified my schedule and tried making it mummy and kid time in the mornings and then work time in the afternoon but as soon as my back is turned… ‘mum, he punched me’, ‘mum, he’s got my toy and won’t give it back and it’s my absolute favourite’ ARGHHH!!

To make it worse, I have taken on three new clients in the last 3 weeks and normally, the relationship would start slowly as we got to know each other, I could wait before introducing the hazard that is my home life at times. But it’s been hard to protect them (my clients) from the fighting and screaming in the background. **Sigh** At least they are an understanding bunch and have had a great laugh at my expense.

So what do you do with your older children when they are home from school during working hours? Do you just plan to work late into the wee hours like I have been or do you just make do?

C’mon, fess up and help me out here, because I am going CRAZY here!

Fellow Business Mums Network member Amanda Cox, Director of Real Mums, the parenting forum with a focus on REAL parenting, received fantabulos media coverage yesterday with talkback radio and morning talk shows across Australia all discussing how RealMums.com.au and BadMothersClub.com.au encourage women to take time out from their families to think about their own needs for a change.

Most radio hosts were more interested in hearing the horror stories and to be truthful, who doesn’t have them, but what I felt was great publicity, were the women who were on the television programs talking about how they are taking time out for themselves to be better mothers to their children.

As Amanda states, in today’s society, mothers are damned if they stay at home with the kids and they are damned if they go back to work. The community structure or style of parenting and raising children has gone, with families today consisting of one or two parents/guardians instead of the extended family we all grew up with. There is just no support for parents and mothers in particular to give us the strategies we need.

Raising kids is hard work! Yes, I admit it. AND I am proud to say that (although I need to pay my subscription) that yes I am a bad mother too because I dare to take time out for myself so I can recharge my batteries and be a better mother. Ultimately, regardless of the name and/or connotations it may hold for you, you have to agree that anything that gets women together swapping strategies, war stories and tips on removing nail polish from the brand new carpet can only be a great thing.

I predict big things for Amanda and the team at RealMums.com.au so don’t forget to visit today, vote for Real Mum of the year and book your ticket to their first ever Mum’s Night Out! event being held Saturday 12th May at the Melbourne Zoo. Visit www.realmums.com.au for more details!