If only money could buy time...

Following on from the great advice from Antonia Chitty on setting up your own business as a mum, we have some top tips on separating work and family life.

For the mumpreneurs out there, juggling work and home life can be a constant battle, not only with the workload but with your conscience too.

Advice for home working mums on separating home and family time

Advice for home working mums on separating home and family time

I’ve been working for myself for the last six years, and one of my biggest issues, still, is learning to switch off. I love what I do, and it can be easy just keep working into the evening, but I know that you can’t do that every night and still stay on top the next day. Here I share some of my most effective suggestions to ensure that you get family time, work time AND me time.

It is easy to find that, running a business and a family, you feel permanently stretched. Being busy is one thing: most mums feel tired by the end of the day. But it is quite another to find that you have been working in every spare minute and just don’t have the energy to keep going. So, you need to divide up your time.

Take a few minutes now, sit back, and have a little day dream. If you had 5 minutes to yourself, what would you do with it? What about if you had a couple of hours? Would you have a long soak in the bath, or go to the shops unhindered by the kids? And if you had a whole day, where would you go and who would you spend time with? Make a few notes about these dreams of what you’d like to do in your spare time, and then look at your diary. Now book in some time for yourself, just in the same way that you book in the kids dental appointments, parent’s evenings and the school play. Make sure you note down your plan for the time, even if it is simply to have a luxurious bath and do your nails. Then, do all you can to keep that time for yourself. Try to have a few hours every week booked in to look after yourself. It will make it easier to look after the family during the rest of the week.

With regard to time to spend on the business, I find planning ahead works well. Set yourself ‘work hours’. I’m not suggesting you have to do a 9 to 5. Instead, pick the hours that suit you. When I only had one child I used to work for 2-3 hours each morning while she was at playgroup. Now I’ve got three, my work is timed around when the baby naps. But I still have a clear idea of when is work time and when I stop working.

For many mumpreneurs the time between 3 and 7 is the toughest time of the day. Tired grumpy kids need food, attention and baths. Make things easier on yourself by switching off the computer at this time. Try letting the phone go to the answer machine if you’re in the middle of something too. By just concentrating on the kids at this time everything can run much more smoothly.

My final tip is about making the transition between work time and family time. Everyone finds it difficult to change from one to the other. So, if your mind is full of all the uncompleted jobs at 2.45, take 15 minutes before collecting the kids to make a list in a notebook. Give yourself a pat on the back for all the things you have achieved, and then close the notebook until you next plan to work. Go and do the school run with your mind clear to concentrate on family time.

Antonia Chitty is author of the Mumpreneur Guide’s Start Your own Business Book, available from1 September from http://www.themumpreneurguide.co.uk/, http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and to order from any bookstore.

Thanks Antonia!

I want to be the boss!

For many women, having children is a real time of change. Not just for the obvious reasons, by priorities change. Time is more precious and the daily commute to work may no longer fit in with your lifestyle.

There's some great advice and support networks out there, and we're really excited to have some expert advice from Antonia Chitty, author of the Mumpreneur Guide’s Start Your own Business Book.

Advice for mums thinking of setting up their own venture

If you’re on maternity leave, are you thinking of ways to avoid returning to work? Or perhaps your little one is about to start nursery or school this September. With plenty of news about successful mumpreneurs, you might be thinking about setting up your own business. This is a great way to choose your own work hours to suit your family. You also get to work in an area of your choosing: most mums tie in their work with an interest, skill or passion which can help you keep motivated.

Starting your own business can seem daunting, however. So what are the first steps?

1. Come up with a business idea. You might have an idea of your own, or you may prefer to sign up for an existing direct sales business or franchise. Loot at whether there is a niche for your business. You are more likely to succeed if there is little competition in your area. Whatever sort of business you choose don’t forget to…

2. Do your research. You may be excited about your new business, but the important thing to find out is whether people will buy. Don’t just ask friends and family as they are likely to be positive about whatever you do. Set up a survey online using something like survey monkey and print off some copies to hand out to potential customers face to face too. If your business is targeting mums, catch people at toddler group or the school gate and ask for their views.

3. Make a plan. Business planning may seem daunting, but it is a great way to thrash out all the ins and outs of your potential business. Talk to your local enterprise agency: most offer free or low cost courses to help you get started with your plan. Enterprise agencies are also a great place to go for more help and resources.

4. Take your plan and break it down. Again, don’t be daunted by all the things you now need to do to start the business. Work out the hours you have available to work and make a timetable. This will give you a realistic idea of when your business might be able to launch. It will also help you break big ideas down into small, achievable steps. One of the biggest problems for most mumpreneurs is lack of time. If you have a plan laid out they you can see what you need to do next even if you only have a few minutes.

5. Finally, get some support. It can be lonely setting up a business single handed, but there are lots of mums out there doing the same thing. Join a forum or go to a local networking group and you’ll be able to get help and advice from experienced mumpreneurs.

One of the biggest challenges anyone working from home struggles with is separating work and family time. Do I get my expenses in line or put a wash on? Do I review my marketing strategy or clean the car? Some of us are very disciplined, but others are easily distracted. We'll have some more expert advice from Antonia on this subject coming soon.

Antonia Chitty is author of the Mumpreneur Guide’s Start Your own Business Book, available from 1st September from http://www.themumpreneurguide.co.uk/, http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and to order from any bookstore.

The rise of social media in PR and business communication

Ingrid Semanikova recently joined Warrilow PR on a freelance basis having just graduated from Thames Valley University.

Ingrid wrote her dissertation on social media, so it is a pleasure to welcome her as a guest blogger on the subject.

In recent months there has been significant growth in interest in the micro-blogging social media service Twitter among PR professionals. Why? Because it’s about communication, interaction and engaging.

PR, in very simplistic terms, is about the ability to communicate a series of messages to a target audience.

There are many directions that could be taken and many audiences every company needs to communicate with in order to succeed, including potential customers, existing customers, employees and others. Good PR practitioners do not only communicate their messages, they listen to their stakeholders, monitor what is being said and done and respond accordingly.

Where other activities such as marketing and advertising are normally shorter term campaigns with one clear target, to sell, PR enables companies to have ongoing conversations with their target audiences where they can demonstrate their knowledge and expertise of products and target markets.

While advertising and marketing are one way monologues about the benefits of certain product or service, PR being a two-way conversation actually helps to identify what matters to customers. This can be then reflected in an organisation’s overall strategy.

The evolution of technology combined with the natural human desire to converse has brought about a real change into the way businesses and individuals communicate and relate to others.

The work of the PR industry, in building and sustaining reputation while spreading awareness, therefore has to adjust.

For businesses the immediate challenge is to identify processes and procedures that will enable them to interact online as members of specific communities, while simultaneously maintaining their role as guardians of reputation. This is not a challenge that will be overcome lightly, requiring commitment to deploying time and resources. But it is not something which can be achieved without becoming immersed in this post-Web 2.0 environment, and the implications of failing to face these challenges adequately could ultimately prove more time-consuming and costly.

If a growing number of customers now seek information online, then a business needs a successful approach to online PR. Those turning away from online PR and social media, whatever their motivation, risk becoming ignorant of their target audiences, but also turning down the opportunity to create word-of-mouth endorsements.

Social media are communication tools with a truly global reach potential. However, there are rules to be followed in order to succeed. These are not defined by the business community, not even by those who develop and sell the technology itself, but by those who use it.

Of course there is a lot more to say on this topic, and that's what I intend to do here. In future posts I plan to examine Twitter and social media in more detail.