If you have been an entrepreneur, then you are already familiar with overcoming obstacles and getting through tough times. Being an entrepreneur means you have taken your life in your hands. You have followed your dreams, your passions, and achieved greatness. We all know that being an entrepreneur is not easy. While there are many opportunities, exciting times, and wonder that comes out of this job, there are also many things that can push your limits.
With this being said, as long as you remember why you are committed to being an entrepreneur and remember why you are so passionate about what you do, you can get through it all and enjoy the work you are doing.
Becoming a Mother
You may look back to the day you became an entrepreneur and all the hard work you have put in since then and just be in awe at all you have accomplished. Through the good times and the bad, you have gotten yourself this far. Then, you find out that you are pregnant. You are going to be a mother. This is so exciting, a bit scary, and such a miracle.
You might be wondering how you are going to keep doing it all. You might wonder how you are going to continue being an entrepreneur while being a mother. How are you going to be a mompreneur? Mom entrepreneurs are out there and many of them have everything they dreamed of. This could be possible for you, as well.
Becoming a mother is a life-changing experience. You get to raise a baby into a tiny human all the way through to adulthood. All babies are different. However, one thing is for certain. If you are going to be one of the many mom entrepreneurs, you must have a plan. You need to know how you are going to make it all work. While there are going to be some challenges that new moms will face, the good news is that there are ways you can adjust your strategies. This way you can be the best mom and best entrepreneur, both at the same time.
Challenges New Moms Face
If you are going to make a plan to do it all, you are going to need to know what challenges you might face as a new mother.
Some of the challenges that many entrepreneurs face when they become a mother include the following:
● Not having enough time in their day
● Feeling stressed from taking on too much at once
● Not getting enough sleep
● Not feeling like they can take time to themselves
● Not wanting to ask for help
● Feeling like they have to do everything on their own
These are just a few of the challenges that many new moms face. If you are going to become a new mother, but you also want to continue the work that you do, it is important to come up with strategies that are going to help you do both of these things to the best of your ability.
Strategies for Being an Entrepreneur and a Mother
Remind yourself often that it is possible for you to be an entrepreneur and a mother. Mom entrepreneurs can be very successful in their life and all that they do. They can do amazing things with their work and still be a wonderful mother at the same time. Learning more about some of the strategies that you can implement to be one of the best mom entrepreneurs you can be is a great first start.
Getting and Staying Organized
It is important to remember that your time is important. Making the most of your time is going to be essential if you are an entrepreneur and a mother. The good news is that you are in control of your time. Being an entrepreneur helps to make that possible. If you don’t have the time to look through files or to send out invoices, you can hire someone to do it. You can make a plan to get and stay organized. This will help you to have everything available and ready for when you need it. You can do this in your work and with your parenting. For instance, if you know that you have long work days on Mondays, you can be sure that you find someone you can trust to watch your baby longer on those days.
Having a Great Plan
To become a successful mom entrepreneur, you must make sure that you have a great plan in place.
What hours are you going to work? Don’t let yourself get distracted and work way longer than you had planned on doing.
When it comes to parenting, be sure that you know what times you are going to completely devote to your baby. For instance, if you say that your workday is going to end at 3 p.m., the rest of the day (minus a bit of time for yourself) can be devoted to your baby. If phone calls or emails come in after that time, either check those the next morning or have someone else handle them for you.
Making a great plan and sticking to it is essential if you are going to be successful at being a mom entrepreneur.
Working with Others
In your job and in your household, you might have to work with other people. It is important to let those people in your life know what you expect of them. It is also important to show kindness and appreciation for those who help you out.
For instance, if you hire someone to handle phone calls and emails for you, be sure to let them know how much it helps you out. Let them know that it means a lot to you that they are able to take care of those tasks. If you have a partner, family members, or babysitters who are helping you out with your baby, so that you can continue doing the work that you love, be sure to let them know often how much their help means to you.
Working with others is one way to make the most efficient use of your time.
Prioritizing Your Time
Being an entrepreneur and a mother means that your day might be much longer than 9 to 5. In fact, you might need to get up before your baby wakes up to complete tasks and you might still have things to do after they go to bed at night.
It is important to prioritize your time. Be sure that you make notes of the things that definitely need to get done on any given day. From there, if you still have available time (minus the time that you give yourself for breaks), you can complete less urgent tasks.
Planning and Getting Ready Ahead of Time
One of the ways that mom entrepreneurs are so successful is that they plan and get ready ahead of time.
If you know that you are going to have to drop your baby off to the babysitter or childcare center before you head off to work in the morning, make sure their bag and necessities are packed the night before. Yes, you are going to be tired by the time the end of the day hits. However, getting things ready ahead of time is going to help make the start of the next day much easier and less stressful.
Take those extra minutes to prepare yourself for the next day. You will be thankful that you did when you wake up the following morning.
Keeping Yourself Focused
Becoming a new mom, on top of trying to keep up on your work, can be a tough challenge. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
Keeping yourself focused is going to be one of the things you need to do if you are going to keep working while being a new parent. It is important that you focus and don’t get distracted. For instance, if you are supposed to be working, you can’t be thinking about all the household chores you need to do when you get home. If you are supposed to be spending quality time with your baby, you can’t be thinking about work.
Focus your mind on one thing at a time and that will help you to be more successful in everything that you do.
Take Time for Yourself
As previously mentioned, you need to make sure that you get breaks. You can’t do everything all day long and still expect more from yourself. If you are going to be successful with work and parenting, you need to take time for yourself. This should be scheduled so that you don’t forget to do it. For instance, every Wednesday after work, you could have a sitter stay longer so you can take yourself out to eat or take a hot bath. You need this downtime with self-care, so you don’t get mom burnout.
Conclusion
You have been an entrepreneur and you have succeeded. Now, you are going to be a new mother and you can be great at that, as well. You don’t have to give up working just because you are going to be a new mom. If you follow the strategies mentioned above, you can be the best mom entrepreneur possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelly Hater has over 15 years of coaching experience along with a B.S. in Health Promotion specialized in Exercise Science. She specializes in helping clients overcome mom burnout, providing a clear, decisive plan that leads her clients on a path of success. Her clients no longer let mom guilt steal their identity and goals. Moms deserve to be happy and live a fulfilling life. She personally has overcome overwhelming struggles herself. Get the accountability needed to take action. As a mom of two she gets it!