If you’re a mom, you know how hard it can be to find a balance between your work life and your home life. Society does a dang good job of always making us feel like we aren’t doing enough.
Susie’s mom baked homemade cookies for the class party. John’s mom threw the best birthday party the neighborhood has ever seen… complete with beautifully designed invitations of course. And don’t even get me started on Bobby’s mom who showed up to soccer practice with a basket of healthy snacks for the entire team.
And no, these scenarios aren’t true for me personally, but they are 100% relatable.
As if this whole work / mom life balance isn’t hard enough as it is, throw being your own boss into the mix and WOW!
As a trademark lawyer and serial entrepreneur running multiple businesses AND a mom of 4, it’s truly something that I have to work on every single day.
Because of course, I want to be present for my kids and use the flexibility that being a business owner can provide, but at the same time, I want my businesses to thrive.
After all, these businesses were my first babies and I’m really proud of how they’ve grown and I want to continue that hard work. But I also never want to confuse the MOST important things in life.
Over the years, I’ve learned how to create a TRUE work / life balance as a mom and business owner, so in case you’re in this boat too of struggling to make both work in a way that feels good for you, I thought it would be valuable to share a few of the things that helped me personally.
And let me just preface this by saying – it’s not always perfect. There are days where I feel discouraged and times when I lay my head down on the pillow at night and wish I would’ve been more present.
But I have to remind myself that everything in life is a work in progress, so if no one has told you today, let me be the one to say: you are doing a GREAT job!
4 Ways I Balance Work and Mom Life as a Business Owner
1. I have help!
As a mom, I know you’ve probably been given this advice 345678 times, but YES, I’m going to say it again – don’t neglect getting help where help is needed.
For me, as a mom AND a business owner, I don’t pretend to do it all, neither at home or at work. I have LOTS of help in both areas and I’m not afraid to admit that.
In motherhood specifically, I feel like we have all of this pressure to attempt to do it all – the laundry, the house cleaning, the dishes, the organizing, and all of the other crazy kid stuff in between.
But SPOILER: none of us are superheroes with super powers, so why are we trying to be?! 🦸🏻♀️
When it comes to hiring help – either in your home or for your business – the most important thing to consider is what’s taking up the majority of your time that could truly be delegated?
Sure, there will be some things that need your attention and that you may not be willing to hand off, but I’m willing to bet there are LOTS of other areas where if someone else is doing it, it really won’t affect the ultimate outcome.
For example, at home if someone else cleaning my house is going to save my sanity, by all means SIGN. ME. UP. 🙌🏼
In the business, I know that my time is not best spent editing reels or coming up with Instagram content ideas from scratch – hence why I’m obsessed with Your Social Team and The Reels Report Membership!
And trust me, I get it – hiring help can be super overwhelming at first. If you’re a business owner looking to expand your team through independent contractors, but have no clue where to start, CLICK HERE for some of my top tips!
2. I have a home office and an “office office.”
As nice as it sounds to be able to leave work at work, I’ll be honest… as a business owner, that’s REALLY hard to do! And if you’re a business owner of any kind yourself, you know what I mean.
Our minds are constantly being flooded with new ideas and various things to do. Even when we check off our to-do list for the day, we’re thinking about what needs to be done next. For most of us, it really is SO HARD to completely check out.
Not to mention, sometimes even during your “off hours,” things come up and they can’t be ignored. That’s typically the price you pay for being your own boss. Sure, you have lots of other benefits that typical 9-5 corporate girlies don’t have, but there’s pros and cons to both.
With this, I learned early on that I needed both – a home office AND an “office office.”
I’ve never been one to be able to work solely from the house. With a husband, 4 kids, and fur babies, there are LOTS of distractions and it can make it hard to fully focus when I need to.
Did I wash that load of laundry? Do we have clean dishes for dinner tonight? Crap, did I even buy groceries for dinner tonight?
Having an “office office” aka a place I can go and feel like I’m truly going into work has made such a difference in my productivity and allows me to switch up my environments when I need to!
On the flip side, however, having a home office makes it super easy to open my computer on the weekends when I need to, in a place aside from the couch that’s filled with toddlers watching cartoons.
3. I rely on systems.
Next up, I rely on systems – again, at home AND in the business.
As a business owner, I’m sure you’re no stranger to the idea of systems. You hear people preach having them all the time and I’m right there with them. Implementing systems can be one of the best things you do for yourself and can truly save your sanity in times of chaos.
Let’s start with the business side of things. In the business, I heavily rely on systems that can automate things for me.
When you’re first starting out as a business owner, you’re most likely going to be doing a LOT of things manually – sending client contracts, scheduling discovery calls, posting content, etc.
But as time goes on, you’ll learn that doing everything manually isn’t sustainable and quite honestly just isn’t efficient! There are tons of tools out there to help you automate various parts of your business to reduce the mental load that you carry.
For me, I’m a big fan of Kajabi for my courses, Shopify for my contract shop, and ActiveCampaign for my emails!
Some other business tools to consider to implement automatons include:
- A customer relationship manager (CRM), such as Dubsado or Honeybook
- Project management system, such as Notion, Asana, or ClickUp
- Calendar scheduler, such as Calendly or Acuity
Now, let’s think about your home. When it comes to implementing systems in your home, this is going to vary based on YOUR specific needs and how your household runs.
The best way to determine what types of systems your home needs is to consider where a lot of your time is being spent and what ongoing tasks or chores stress you out the most.
For example, let’s say grocery shopping and meal planning always feels like a huge to-do – knowing this, you could create some sort of monthly meal planning system that allows you to plan all of your family meals for the entire month in one sitting and go ahead and pre-make your grocery lists for each week while you do it.
From there, you might decide that ordering your groceries online or even opting for delivery is a better fit and saves you time.
Other home systems could include:
- A monthly or weekly cleaning schedule for each member of your household with designated chores
- Budget meeting with your spouse each month to discuss financials
- Shared family calendar so that everyone is always aware of what’s happening when
Overall, the systems that you choose to implement – both in your home and in your business – should be specific to YOU! While it’s nice to watch other people on the internet and possibly mimic what they do, remember that what works for one person may not work for you and that’s okay.
4. I remain flexible and adaptable.
Lastly, and probably most importantly, I make it a point – both in motherhood and entrepreneurship – to remain flexible and adaptable.
And yes… it’s easier said than done. But it really is key!
I’ll be the first to say that this part of things takes a lot of patience. As someone that really loves routine and wants to follow a set schedule, most of the time that’s just not reality.
I never know when a sick kid will need to be picked up from school… or when multiple kids wake up feeling under the weather…
Or when I need to handle a client situation that I didn’t expect… or when I’ll be hit with a chargeback request that is completely invalid…
The point here is that LIFE in general is unpredictable and learning how to be flexible and adapt when needed is so key. 🔑
At the end of the day, there’s no way to sugarcoat the fact that balancing mom life and business owner life is freaking hard.
But when you come home to notes like this ⬇️it puts everything back into perspective real quick and makes you realize that even though it’s hard, it’s SO worth it!
So, here’s to you mama. I see you, I am you, and I am cheering for you. 🎉
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If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hey I’m Amber – not a regular lawyer, but a cool lawyer that helps online business owners sell without getting sued.
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