For many entrepreneurs, the decision to start a home-based business has to do with family. Sticking close to home, they reason, will keep them connected to children while providing extra income for the household.
The problem? Simultaneously keeping up with the demands of children and a small business can be taxing, often making the entrepreneur feel exhausted, stressed and even resentful. For Michelle Knoll, who’s raising three young sons while running a public-relations business out of her Minneapolis home, “naptime and bedtime are probably my most productive times of the day,” she says. In a few years, when her kids are in school, working on the business will probably “seem like the easiest thing I’ve ever done, because I’ve done it with screaming kids and ‘Mom, Mom, Mom’ in my ear,” she says.
Indeed, “a lot of home-office parents at the end of the day are wrung out,” says Jennifer Kalita, a Washington, D.C., small-business consultant and author of “The Home Office Parent.” “And they feel like they haven’t accomplished anything 100% — they feel like half a parent, and half a business owner.” Eventually, something’s got to give and too often that ends up being the needs of the children, she says. That’s especially common when the home-based business becomes a critical revenue stream for the family.
The key to being a successful home-based entrepreneur — and a successful parent — is to carve out times during the day to devote to business and family. “It’s just a lifestyle that requires a lot of planning and boundary-setting,” Kalita says.
Photo from Stock.xchng.
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