10 Tips for Mothers Who Run Businesses
In this post I want to share 10 tips for how I juggle being a mother of 3 boys and running a 7 figure business (largely on my own). Before we get started I will just give you a bit of context in case you have just landed here randomly and we haven’t met me before!
Mother of 3 and business owner - my quick story
I have been running my business for nearly 10 years now. My business started as an interior design studio helping clients with their home renovation projects but over the past few years it has morphed to an online education platform for other designers and architects who are starting, growing and scaling their businesses. I now run online courses and programs for designers where I help them do what I’ve done, which is to grow their own design business for scratch.
And for the past few years my business has made over 7 figures a year. I work largely on my own, although these days I do have help from my husband who has joined my part-time in my business. I also have two part-time virtual assistants who work about 20 hours a week between them. So I’m running a decent sized business with not that much help and as a result I’ve learned quite a few tricks and strategies for how to get a lot done in a small space of time. This is what I want to share with you below.
If you would like to read more about how my business works this business review I wrote may be of interest.
Although my three boys are older now I started my business when they were all under 5 years old. Our family also has other complications as our middle son is profoundly disabled and spent a significant amount of time in hospital when he was younger. In the early years of my business I also juggled building my business alongside working full time in my corporate job as a change management consultant (I have a PhD in business so this was what I did before I started my design business). So I know what it’s like to have very young children and be trying to build things on the side at the same time. It’s definitely not easy!
Also - although we made use of daycare, my kids have never had nannies or babysitters. There is nothing at all wrong with that and everyone should do what is right for them but I never wanted my children to have a nanny and one of the perks of having my own business is that I can be home with them after school and around for all their school and sport events. This was very important to me as I grew up with a hard-working single mother who wasn’t able to do those things and my sister and I spent a lot of time in after school care programs or by ourselves at home after school. This is what my Mum had to do, which I completely admire and respect, but it’s important to me that I’m around for my kids as much as possible. In fact it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to start my business in the first place.
I get so many DMs and emails from mothers, especially mothers of young children, who tell me they will start their business when their kids get older or will say they wish they could start a business but they don’t have time. But I don’t think you need to wait - you can juggle it all if you have good systems and routines in place.
And what I want to share in this post are some of the tips for how I’ve juggled being a mother while growing my business. I’m not saying it’s an easy thing to do - it’s unbelievably hard - but what I do want to try and show you is that it IS possible to do both. In fact I would argue that if you have a dream of owning your own business then you should go after that dream and make it work around your family. A happy mother is normally at the heart of a happy family and I love that my kids see me working and building something successful that I LOVE to work on. They have learned so much about business and being entrepreneurial and I think those are fantastic life skills for them to have in our changing world.
One other thing I will mention is that I have an extremely supportive husband who has helped me juggle things over the years. Unfortunately I know that many women are not as lucky as I am and don’t have supportive partners and I totally understand that this can make it much harder for you. But I still don’t think it’s impossible and if you do have a partner who isn’t supportive of your dreams of running your business then I would suggest you use that as motivation to push even harder to show him/her that you really CAN make a go of your business while also being a good Mum and partner/wife.
OK - so now you have a bit of context of me and my business journey, let me share my 10 tips for how I juggle being a mother with running a business.
10 Tips for Juggling Motherhood with Running a Business
1: Get rid of the guilt
I’m sure every mother suffers from guilt at some point in their parenting journey. But one of the things I have had to do as the first step in trying to juggle as much as I have on my plate is to let go of guilt as much as possible.
Here’s my tips around this:
⭐️ switch your mindset away from guilt towards thinking about the contribution you are making to your household - e.g. the financial contribution you’re making
⭐️ your kids will be fine. My eldest son used to cry and carry on going to daycare each morning and I would feel really guilty. But as soon as I left he would settle down and by the end of the day he wouldn’t want to come home! I also know (now that he is 13 years old) that none of this has harmed him. The important thing is that your kids know you love them and are there for them. Trust me - they will fine!
⭐️ a mother who is happy and doing something she loves but spends less time with her kids is much better than a miserable mother who is home all day with her kids but wishes she was doing something else
⭐️ accept that you won’t be perfect as a mother or as a business owner. Sometimes the kids will miss their nap, sometimes you’ll make a mistake in your business, sometimes your kids will spend too much time on their iPads or watching TV. Just accept that this is all part of being a busy mother who is trying to juggle a lot.
⭐️ try and share the mental load with your partner and ask for help where you need it - delegate duties for them to help you with - e.g. washing, ironing, making lunchboxes. The full mental load of parenting shouldn’t fall to you so sit your partner down and ask them for help when you need it.
⭐️ get your partner/husband to take the kids out for a few hours on the weekend - when my kids were young this was one of the most important few hours of my week. I had zero guilt at all as the kids were with their Dad (rather than at daycare) and I could sit down and focus on my work completely for a few hours completely uninterrupted. If your husband/partner isn’t very creative then give them ideas of what to do - e.g. pack them a picnic and some footballs and send them to the local park if you need to!
⭐️ block time in your calendar (see below for more info on this) that is dedicated family time. During this time put your phone in another room and be completely present with your family.
⭐️ remember that you are doing your best you can and that’s the most important thing of all!
2: Don’t make excuses and choose your priorities
I hear too many mothers make excuses for why they can’t start or grow their business. But I promise you that if you want to make this work then you will. If you’re always making excuses then maybe it’s not the right journey for you or you actually aren’t as passionate about it as you say you are.
But if you really are passionate about this and want to make it work then you need to stop the excuses and choose your priorities.
For example, I rarely watch TV and almost never did when I was starting and growing my business. If you want to juggle motherhood with running a business then you will need to sacrifice things that are a waste of time with time spent working on your business.
And if you are currently saying in your head that you need TV because it’s your only downtime in the day then I would once again ask you whether your business is really something you are passionate about growing. If it is then giving up TV (or other time wasting activities) shouldn’t even be a consideration! So really question whether you are passionate about your business as you’re going to need that passion to be able to put in the work and effort that’s required to make something of it.
3: Make the most of sleep and nap times
Making the most of while your kids are asleep is probably the most important tip I have for you.
Here’s how this has worked for me over the years
⭐️ I have always done the bulk of my difficult/strategic/project/thinking work while my children are asleep. Use this time to work on projects where you don’t want to be distracted and save other easier work (like emails, admin, social media etc.) for when they are awake.
⭐️ when my kids were very young I used to work during their nap times. You’ll be amazed at how much you can get done in a 2 hour nap if you work on the right things and don’t waste time (more on that below).
⭐️ I get up very early in the morning (around 4am these days) and get lots done before my family is even awake. This is definitely one of my biggest secrets of success. If you aren’t a morning person then use the night hours instead.
⭐️ If you complain it’s hard to get up in the morning then again I ask whether you’re really passionate about what you’re doing - I am always excited to jump out of bed each morning and get started with my day because I love what I’m doing so much. You need to find what you’re passionate about in order to make all of this work.
4: Have really good systems and batch as much as you can
After my sleep tip having systems and batching my work is probably my second biggest secret to success when juggling motherhood and running a business.
Here’s a few tips for how I do that:
⭐️ We have a family calendar that is shared between me and my husband. This is hosted on Google Calendar and all relevant family appointments go on the calendar - for example daily school pick up times (as they differ for each of our kids), doctor’s appointments, sport games, meetings - all sorts of things. My husband and I both have access to this and everything that we both need to know about goes on it without fail!
⭐️ Ideal week calendar - I run my life by my ideal week calendar and I have talked about this before but I live by this calendar system. I teach you how to create this in my business short course here. Or you can find out a bit more about an older version of this system on my YouTube channel here.
⭐️ In the calendar above you’ll see I batch a lot of my work. I have times dedicated to project work, writing, filming videos, batching social media content etc. Work out the types of work you do and then batch similar work in one session and knock out as much of it as you possibly can in that session. More on how to do all of this in my short course.
5: Make use of all the in between moments
While sleep and nap times were dedicated to my project/dificult/strategic work I have also always made the most of what I call ‘in between moments’ to get other easier work done.
What I mean by easier work is the type of work that doesn’t require lots of concentration but still has to get done (e.g. emails, social media, phone calls, other admin). This is work that you can stop and start easily and work where it doesn’t really matter if you get distracted or interrupted in the middle.
Here’s some examples of what I’ve done over the years
⭐️ taken my laptop to swimming lessons, sports matches, music lessons etc. and done emails, social media batching, phone calls, answering DMs and comments while my kids do their activities. I see lots of mothers either chatting with other people or sitting doing nothing at all. But this is prime time to get a good half hour or hour of work done while your kids are busy so make the most of it!
⭐️listen to podcasts and audiobooks that teach you new business skills while you cook dinner, drive the kids around, wait in the car line, clean the house, do the ironing - any time where you can be doing two things at once. An important rule of juggling motherhood and owning a business is to never be wasting any time!
⭐️ stay on top of housework by doing it as you go. Carry a load of washing every time you go up stairs, run the stick vacuum around every night after dinner, pack toys away with the kids after they have finished playing with them (this teaches the kids good life skills as well!), stay on top of your washing/drying/folding by doing a bit each day. Lots of people ask me how I keep my house tidy as a Mum of 3 boys and this “packing up as you go” technique is one of the main ways we do this. If you leave everything messy and do a major clean up every week it will take you much longer and will seem like a much more daunting task than if you just clean up as you go.
⭐️ check emails or do other quick admin tasks while the kids have breakfast and get ready for school. This also helps with morning stress and forces your kids to take some responsibility for getting ready on time - a work in progress in our house but we try haha!
⭐️ also make the most of when your kids are doing homework, eating afternoon tea, playing outside, watching TV or otherwise happily distracted. Use this time to do a quick clean up around the house or do some of those easy admin/email/social media tasks you need to get one.
You also need to just accept that interruptions are part of being a working mother. You need to get really good at becoming laser focused on a task as soon as you sit down to work. You never know how long you will have and you need to get as much done as you can when those moments come up.
6: Pay for services that give you back time
Although I’m very reluctant to have staff in my business I am very good at outsourcing other tasks around my house that will free up my time.
Remember - time is time and if you can get the ironing off your list you will save yourself an hour or two per week that can be used in your business instead.
Here’s some examples of what we do:
⭐️ outsource all ironing to the local dry cleaner
⭐️ hire a house cleaner (this one will save your HOURS!)
⭐️ get meal prep delivery services that save you on cooking, shopping and meal prep times
⭐️ use the dryer instead of hanging clothes on the washing line (we have a condenser dryer that isn’t quite as bad of the environment but it’s still a greater expense than if we hung the clothes out on the line)
⭐️get a gardener (I didn’t used to do the gardening but my husband did and he would spend half of Saturday out in the garden getting it done - if I can free up his time on the weekend he can then take the kids somewhere so I can get some work done - so that’s why this one is so helpful!)
⭐️shop online for as many things as possible - but most notably for your weekly bulk grocery shopping. This saves a lot of time at the store but also lots of time driving there and back as well.
7: Make your kids part of your business
Another thing that’s worked well for me is to make my kids a part of my business and include them in as much of it as possible. We have always talked about business over the dinner table and shared challenges or wins that we are having. Discussing this with the kids helps them understand what I’m working on and why. They also learn a lot about running a business, marketing ideas, building something from scratch, how to be entrepreneurial - lots of life skills I think will be important for them in this fast changing world.
The kids have also helped me out in the business at different times - e.g. they’ve been paid pocket money to help me pack parcels, add stamps or labels to things and just do other jobs within the business that are age appropriate. So that’s another way to get them involved.
Here’s some other tips around making your kids part of your business:
⭐️set working hours that work for you, not your clients - you don’t have to be open 9am-5pm every day if that doesn’t work for you. If you want to pick your kids up from school each day at 3pm then make that the end of your work day and don’t accept appointments after that time (I’ve always done this)
⭐️ school holidays and kids being off sick can be a big challenge - if my kids weren’t too sick but I still had meetings or appointments I needed to attend then I would often take them with me. Most people understand and this was never an issue.
⭐️ When my kids were little I made them t-shirts with my logo on it and on the back the word ‘CREW’. If they ever had to come to a client meeting with me they would wear this and it was always a fun talking point and a great ice-breaker.
⭐️ Don’t be afraid to cancel things if you just can’t juggle it - people understand if you are honest and explain why. Often mothers feel the need to hide the fact they are juggling a lot as they fear they won’t look professional. I have always openly explained what the problem is if I’ve had to cancel on a client at the last minute and they have always understood.
Overall the more you can make your kids and family part of your business the more they will understand about it and accept it. Plus you will be teaching your kids really important life skills at the same time!
8: Be ruthless with what you work on and don’t waste time
When you’re juggling a lot you can’t afford to waste time on work that doesn’t matter. There’s no time for overthinking, procrastination or ‘busy work’. You have to be ruthless about what you spend your time on and make sure you prioritise the work that’s most important.
In my opinion the best lens for working out your priorities if you’re trying to choose between tasks on a long to-do list is to ask yourself “what task will lead me to revenue the fastest?”. Don’t waste time on tasks that are getting you nowhere - remember you are trying to grow a business and one of the most important things with having a business is making money! If you have no money coming in you have a hobby, not a business (and that’s not going to be sustainable).
So be ruthless on what you choose to spend your time working on and put all the other busy work to the side. You’ll be surprised at how quickly a business can move forward if you spend time on the right tasks and stop wasting time on tasks that aren’t going anywhere.
9: Make health and self-care a priority
When you’re extremely busy it can be easy to put your health on the back burner as a secondary priority. But one of my secrets to staying on top of a lot of things and getting lots done is to make my health and self-care a number 1 priority.
Here are some examples of what that looks like for me:
⭐️ I exercise every day (and most days I exercise multiple times a day with one strength training session and one 5km walk)
⭐️ I eat pretty well most of the time - your body needs healthy fuel to keep your energy levels up
⭐️ I gave up alcohol 2 years ago so I had better sleep, more energy and could get up early each morning
⭐️ I meditate every day
⭐️ I sleep 7-8 hours a night and sometime take afternoon naps if I feel exhausted
⭐️ I drink lots of water (about 3 litres/1 gallon per day)
I would strongly suggest a big part of your ideal week calendar is allocated to exercise, health and self-care. Without taking care of yourself you won’t have the energy to take care of your family or your business and eventually this will lead to exhaustion and burnout (trust me, I’ve been there!).
10: Accept it will be hard and will take time
So that bring us to my final tip, which is that juggling motherhood and running a company is really, really hard and very tiring.
You will need to work harder than others around you and you will need a drive and ambition to put in the work that’s required. It’s definitely not the easy path but it’s exceptionally rewarding as you see your business grow and your children thrive.
It will also take time. I have been building my business for nearly 10 years now. There is no quick path to success. It takes consistent, sustained effort over many, many years to see results.
But for me the joy and fun of building my business is the journey itself. I just love learning more and more about how to run my business and I am always trying new things and seeing what happens.
Growing a business is just like raising another child. It will be tiring, challenging, fun, busy and rewarding. And over time you’ll be so proud of what you’ve created :) Good luck!
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Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy
