Managing Family and Business

December 23, 2007 | No Comments

Most of us decide to start working from home because of a certain specific reason. Some of us prefer more independence, are tired of the rat race and the politics that comes with it, want to spend more time with family or want to be our own bosses. But most of us realize, unfortunately after we have taken the plunge, things are not always as rosy as we thought they would be.

One of the biggest challenges of working from home is the need to be able to manage personal and business requirements simultaneously from home. Even though you may schedule your work, plan and have a certain process in mind, things always do not fall into place due to the fact that your family has different expectations. Managing these expectations and aligning the rest of the family to your new style of working is essential to ensure the success of what you started out to achieve.

As many women realize, even when they are working for corporations, managing business and home require the skill, patience, dedication, and resilience that is unmatched by any other. But there are certain rules that you can follow to ensure success in what you have started out to do.

The first of these rules is to communicate. Don’t expect anyone to understand what is in your mind and align themselves to it. It is important that everyone involved in your life, especially your support system, understand the fact that the business is important to you and that you are not doing it merely to pass time. Sharing your daily plans verbally or in written format will help to a large extent and those around you will know what responsibilities and commitments you have on specific days. If everyone knows your schedule, they will also take pains to work around it to ensure that the functioning of the household is smooth.

Make sure that you delineate your personal time from your business affairs so that you have adequate time for your family. The schedule will need to take into account the various familial commitments that you already have. If you have kids who are young, you may have to decide to work while they are asleep since explaining to them that you need to work is not going to be an easy task. Older kids are more independent and require less intervention when they are busy with something allowing you more time at work.

If you have personal commitments along with official ones, take the first few minutes at the beginning of the day or a few minutes at the end of each day to plan prepare a priority list. Ensure that you accomplish at least a couple of tasks from each list so that you do not ignore one aspect of your life. Take time off to be able to attend your son’s football match if you have to. That’s one of the reasons you wanted to work on your own anyways.

Don’t feel that if you are not doing things around the house, they will not get done. Learn to share your responsibilities and have older kids pitch in help with younger ones or with the cooking and cleaning. Make your expectations clear so that you don’t feel let down if everyone does not contribute on the day of your big presentation.

Make your family a part of your business life and share your dejections and achievements with them. When they know what you are doing, they are likely o appreciate it better. Celebrate your successes with family treats and on bad days be transparent about why you are feeling low because you lost a project just as you would share bagging an important one.

Just saying to your friends and family that you are serious about your business may not help. Friends may call at your designated office timings or drop in for a quick chat. Make sure that you make them realize that you mean business. Install an answering machine on your telephone and take only official calls during work hours.

If you can afford house help or a babysitter, don’t hesitate from hiring them. The hours that they work can enable you to spend the extra hours that you may require at your work and that may land you with much more money than the amount that you pay them.

When the going gets tough and you feel that you need to spend much more time at work than you had envisaged for some time, explain the situation to your family and involve them in your work. Children can be a great help with some of the mundane tasks that you may hate to do yourself. But they will enjoy labeling envelopes or running some errands for you especially if they are appreciated and rewarded for it. It will actually enhance their confidence levels if they believe that they are helping you in your business.

Another mantra that will help you stay in control is to plan for the worst. You may never need to implement alternate plans but it never hurts to be prepared to handle a worst case scenario. Have a list of babysitters that you have interviewed in advance and discuss a contingency plan with your spouse. And so if you have an emergency situation, you know exactly what needs to be done.

Irrespective of how seriously you take your business, ensure that you have fun on the way. If you are not enjoying your life, as you have planned it, then there is no joy and meaning to it. Take some spontaneous, on-the-spot decisions and choose to indulge yourself once in a while. The time spent away from work and the spontaneity of the whole thing will refresh, rejuvenate and recharge you for more challenges.

Written by Radhika V. Rao.

Posted in Work from Home Business