You CAN Have Family Time and Be An Entrepreneur. Here’s How To Do It.

The notion that you have to slave away 50-60+ hours a week in order to have a successful business is total BS. It’s an antiquated way of thinking that really needs to stop.

You CAN have a family life and run a successful business. And here’s how to make it a reality for you.

1. Define what “success” in business means to you.

This is totally relative and can vary greatly from one person to another. For some of my clients, that means 45+ events per year and 7-figures in revenue. To others, it means sustaining their lifestyle financially while also being present for bedtimes, after-school activities and having available time to train for marathons.

(Ok that last one is me, but you get the point.)

Get super clear on what “I am successful” means to you first so you know when you’ve achieved it and how you can sustain it.

2. Let go of the “I should be doing….” statements.

One of the biggest roadblocks I see my clients, most of whom are parents & business owners, attempt to overcome is the many “you should be doing…” statements in business groups and online research.

There is a lot of advice and resources out there for small business owners, which is both a blessing and curse. Blessing because, well, free resources. Woo hoo! Curse because there is SO much – particularly because so many in my field sadly are saying you “should” be doing” right before a very long list of marketing tactics.

Sure, that advice could be relevant in the world where a business owner has a dedicated marketing team of 10+ to support them and unlimited budgets for additional marketing efforts.

However, solopreneurs and parent-entrepreneurs need to be even more careful with their time. That requires letting go of the “you should be doing…” advice and focusing on the one or two marketing channels that yield the highest results for them. (i.e. Where their target client spends time & wants to hear from them.)

This becomes even more important when sales start to flow (for products) or prospects become clients (for services), because your time to work ON the business will now be split with time working IN the business servicing customers/clients.

3. Do ONE marketing-related thing every day.

Ok so you know you can’t, and do not need to try, to do ALL the marketing things. Instead, get your balance by doing ONE thing every day when things are busy.

That could be posting to Instagram Stories, writing a Facebook post, 15 minutes of group engagement on Facebook or LinkedIn, one email to your network/building list, whatever. Just one thing each day. Then move on to the other areas of their business in whatever time you have left.

This will keep you present and visible for your audience, still allow time to work in the business, and allow for that time at home. The consistency over time is like compound interest in finances. It will pay off down the road even more than it does now.

4. Practice grace & patience with yourself.

If you’re reading this article, I am willing to bet you take care of others on a regular basis. You forgive errors, tantrums, and practice patience with vendors because you know how life can get in the way of the best intentions.

However, do you practice that same patience with yourself? Turn that mentality inwards and you’ll find work so much better for you.

So you didn’t get all your calls done before you had to head out the door for school pickup. It’s FINE! Give yourself a little grace and adjust. Take that last call in the car or on the walk to school. Just because you aren’t in your office/store doesn’t mean your productivity should slip.

It just means you have to get a little creative. This guide can help you in that regard. I’ve broken down a list of marketing tasks you can do whether you have 5, 10, 20 or 30 minute chunks of time.

The biggest takeaway from all of this is to remember you are human. You started a business and that is BAD A**! You clearly are creative enough to have come up with the idea and driven enough to bring it to reality.

Now keep that creativity with how you use your time. Create the best schedule you can that will be effective for your life AND your business. Set that as a goal to shoot for. Then if something creeps up remember that if you are creative enough to come up with a business idea, you are creative enough to find a way to rework that schedule to fit whatever threw things off.

The biggest benefit to entrepreneurship is a schedule YOU set. Take advantage and be as productive as possible in whatever time you have to dedicate.

And when in doubt, outsource what is stressing you out and handle what’s in your genius zone. You CAN do this.