Do you “feel” like you’re running a business yet seeing no results? Finding yourself glued to your phone, “running your business” and wondering what all actually got accomplished? Do you often say, “If only I had more time, then I could get done in my business what I need to get done”, but when the kids go to school you end up just sitting there, staring at the wall and feeling overwhelmed? Or when your husband says he’ll watch the kids so you can work, you stress because you don’t know what you’re going to do to be productive during this sudden work block? If ANY of this sounds familiar than you will most definitely want to keep reading as I am going to share with you my top 3 hacks for running an efficient business as a work from home mom.
Truthfully, we, as work from home moms, need very different skills than most business owners. We have to know how to run our business in small time blocks and very small increments of time in and amongst taking care of our families and homes. We want to be home with our babies and run effective businesses, and being able to have resources that fit what we’re going through in our life is important. I know that there’s very little resources out there to help fix this problem, believe me, I looked! So I created some, and that is what I’m gonna share with you today. So let’s dive in because I know you’re excited to get started as I share with you the top hacks you need to be able to run an efficient business as a work from home mom!
Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast
Top 3 Hacks For Running An Efficient Business As A Work From Home Mom
This episode is part two of a four part series that I am doing based on my four-tier success formula. This part specifically focuses on how I operate my business as a work from home mom. And the reason why I am trying to dive deep into my four-tier success formula is because my whole entire mission is to change the culture of motherhood, how we take care of ourselves, and how we take care of each other as mothers. I am fulfilling that mission with the Systemize Your Life Academy. That’s where I dive deep into this formula and teach you every single system that I have.
I know that using this system completely changed the trajectory of my life as well as the lives of other moms who are inside of the Systemize Your Life Academy! I am so anxious to share with all of you the possibility and potential that you have in yourselves as women, as mothers, as wives, as work from home moms, as caretakers, and as keepers of your house. There are SO many things that you can do to reduce the stress that you feel, to get rid of your anxiety. ALL of this is not happening TO you, it’s happening BECAUSE of you. You make your own decisions and most of the time, you just don’t know what the other decision there is to make!
How To Be More Efficient In Your Business
That is what this episode is for, to tell you how you can become more efficient in your business. If this sounds like something you are after and you want to take an incredibly deep dive into my four-tier success formula completely, 100% free? Then head over and sign up for my Home + Business Workshop. There, you’ll learn how to successfully manage your home and business without feeling pulled in all directions. To have the clarity that you need to know, “What do I do next?” This is it! This is what you do next and I can’t wait to see you there!
What You Gain
You get your systems in place, tackle each tier and walk out on the other side, looking back knowing that you never have to be on the hot mess express again! Now, every now and then, it’s ok to hop on that train again for a short time—like Christmas week when the kids are crazy! That’s fine! But having systems in place lets you know how to get off whenever you want. Seeing women inside the Systemize Your Life Academy post and share how they are having a rough week but that they know how to get back on track, that is what it’s all about!
Reality As A Work From Home Mom
Nothing is ever going to be predictable. Kids get sick, sitters are unavailable, snow days happen, and even flat tires, so we need to be able to know how to run our ship not only in the every day stuff, but also whenever things come up and get us off track. We need to know how to get our family back on track. My free Workshop can get you started in this direction!
Right now though, we’re focusing on tier two of my four-tier formula and the top 3 hacks that I use daily to run an efficient business as a work from home mom. Let’s get started!
MY TOP 3 HACKS FOR RUNNING AN EFFICIENT BUSINESS AS A WORK FROM HOME MOM
When running a business as a work from home mom, it’s incredibly important that you understand what YOU are trying to accomplish rather than what Sally Sue is trying to accomplish. Everyone’s kids have different needs and everyone’s husbands have different work schedules and different needs.
When running a business as a work from home mom, it’s incredibly important that you understand what YOU are trying to accomplish rather than what THEY are trying to accomplish.
For example, my husband’s a firefighter, so there are some days where it’s almost 30 hours straight of me by myself. But then there are times where I get him home completely for four days straight, but he also has to run his business too, and this schedule happens over and over again.
Focus On What You Have Going On In Your Business and Your Life
Everyone has different needs, your business requires different things, your dreams require different goals. Whatever season of life you’re in, if you haven’t prioritized your health—eating well, getting enough sleep, etc.—your ability to bear the load of your entire home, marriage, your kids, and a business is going to be bogged down. So when I talk about running an efficient business, you have to keep in mind that what you need is going to be different from what everyone else needs.
I kinda learned that the hard way when I came into business thinking I had enough cracks in my day and thought I could multitask and get everything done. What I didn’t realize was that as a work from home mom, I needed these three things. I had to have them in order to be able to bear the weight of everything one my plate plus this business, and now I want to share them with you!
We run our businesses online. Even if you have a brick and mortar, have physical goods, or are in direct sales, you’re still running your business online. You still have to send emails. You’re still on social media (more often than we should be, am I right?!). So you need a framework for how you’re going to manage your time online so you don’t waste so much of your valuable time on social media.
HACK #1 For Running An Efficient Business- HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA FRAMEWORK
If you’re addicted to social media and give your phone more attention than you give to your kids and your house. then you need this framework! (You can also head over to the Facebook group and watch this video where I dive deeper into this framework!)
Your Social Media Framework
But what is in my social media framework? I have very tight restrictions on when I use social media and what I use it for and I strategically have in place what I am doing with the platform itself. Is it making me money? I monitor this, and if it’s not making me money, I don’t put my time and energy into it. Is it growing relationships and community? If not, I don’t put my time and energy into it.
A really good example of this is I spent the first year of this business beating the pavement with Instagram. I did everything that I needed to do. I was doing the hashtags, searching for similar accounts, and my growth was so unbelievably slow. As time went on, I kept with it thinking consistency was the key, refusing to go the route of a Facebook group.
The Systemize Your Life Facebook Community
Well then I got to the point where I created my courses and the Academy and I really wanted to have a community. That was what I truly wanted to build. So I created the group and it’s on fire! So now, guess what my social media framework consists of? Now, I pour into my Facebook community and show up for fun on Instagram. Every now and then I post on my feed. Most importantly, I don’t exhaust myself by those things. That is my framework.
I know what I need to be doing on social platforms and what I don’t need to be doing on them. That is how I’m super efficient. That is how it doesn’t suck away all my time. It’s a known thing amongst me and my friends when I’m deleting apps, I’ll tell them and they know to text me instead. It’s a regular conversation for accountability that I have with them. Additionally, I delete my apps every single weekend. Now, I delete the apps during the week in order to get the things done that I want to do. This is to avoid wasting time on them.
You need to find out what your framework needs to be and set it up so you can start to run your business more efficiently instead of just being “busy” on social media.
HACK #2 For Running An Efficient Business-GOAL SETTING AND ACTION PLANNING
What do I mean by this? Personally, I spend 4-6 hours (once a year) setting my goals and breaking down my action plan. Then I reassess for about two hours every quarter. That’s it.
And that’s how I know what to do next in my business! I don’t ever have to stop and think, “How do I…? I don’t know if…? But I wanted to do…?” which can feel impossible and huge and leave you wondering what to do next. I don’t have to do any of that because it’s all broken down. I literally put myself in a space where no one can interrupt me and let my brain think through it. As a result, I get it all out, put it down on paper, and create an action plan for myself. I literally just went through this entire thing in this previous podcast episode that you can go listen to and there’s a whole 30 minute training video inside of the Facebook group on this too! I have SO many resources for you guys on this, so dive in!
Once A Year Goal Setting
I typically do this every year in January. I’ve done this with friends, to the point now where I don’t have to force them to do it, they just do it on their own in their businesses because they know how much relief it brings and you absolutely need to do it too!
I don’t waste time on random things that are giving me shiny object syndrome, I just don’t, because I know that it’s gonna derail me from accomplishing my goals. What a horrible way to ruin trust with your children and your spouse when you say, “Hey, I need time for my business.”, you’re constantly grumpy and frustrated about your business, and yet you’re just squashing all of your time because you don’t have a plan of your own in place. That’s just irresponsible to me.
There’s some tough love for you there, because I do genuinely think that it’s irresponsible. We are in such a privileged place in where we are in human existence of women. I do not take it lightly that I have the ability to be able to run a business from my home while I’m taking care of kids and I’m not scorned for it. (Well, most of the time anyway 😉) So, to take that for granted and just say, “Oh yeah, it’s just gonna be my hobby.”, but yet you’re frustrated with your kids, your house is a mess, and you’re feeding your kids fast food more often than not…
The Importance Of Setting A Plan
That’s not gonna be ok with me and it’s not gonna be something I teach. Every now and then, of course, I do that too. but if that is your go-to, if you’re operating in that space and it’s because you are really fierce and set out to accomplish your goals in your business but yet you’ve not yet sat down and created a plan for yourself so that you can be efficient, so that you can pour into everything else on your plate, it’s a big no-no and I’m shaking my finger at you right now and saying, “Don’t do it anymore!”
Then I’m gonna tell you to come over inside the Facebook group and start creating some goals and plans. If this speaks to you, let this be the one thing that you know that you need to take action on. Right now. Especially at the beginning of the year, just take the time and do it.
HACK #3 For Running An Efficient Business- A WORKFLOW
This is where I can get pretty excited you guys! Once you are not getting sucked into the social media vortex every day and you have a plan for how you’re going to show up there and you have a long-term, annual goal and you’ve broken that down into quarters that then gets broken down into months, then weeks, and days—the hard part then becomes how do you actually manage that work? Where are you keeping all of this information? How does it show up in front of your face every single day?
Because let’s be real, you’re more concerned about all the chocolate chips that just got spilled all over the kitchen. (I know I am! Baylie did this exact thing once! 😆) Those are the kinds of things that we keep on our minds. Who needs to be where, what bag needs to be packed, what meal needs to be cooked, what part of the house needs to be cleaned, what part of the garden needs to be tended to, what lesson are we on in homeschool, who doesn’t have homework, who’s underwear needs to be washed? Those are the things we think about, right?!
So the last thing that we’re gonna do is think about how to manage all of our time in our tasks when we get to our business. We want to, but it’s the last thing on the totem pole because it doesn’t bark at us like all of these other things and people that we live with us do. That is why I’ve created a workflow and workflows for work from home moms. It’s simple, it’s straight forward, it’s super simple, and you need one!
Your New BFF – A Workflow
So what does this look like? I keep my workflow inside of a task management software called MeisterTask. This is a task management software similar to Asana or Trello. You could also just use a spreadsheet. However, I strongly encourage you to use MeisterTask because it is epic! I can share it with my VA, which is super helpful, and it has the capacity to grow and shift with me and my business.(And if you decide that you want to take the next step and join the Academy, I have workflow templates there that all of my students have access to!)
Within my workflow I include a column of things that have to get done each day. I also have an “in progress” section, and a “completed” section. From there, I batch all of my work. Part of the workflow process that I take you through inside of the Academy in Tier 2 is having you go though and line out every single task that you have to get done in your business and associate a time frame to it of how long you think it should take you or how long it does take you to complete.
Then we batch all of your work. Everything that is absolutely moving you towards your goal, we batch, and then we get rid of the things that won’t move you towards that goal. Next, you assign yourself the tasks that you need to complete on the days they need to be completed. This is where allotting a time frame comes in handy for you so that you know where to put these tasks in your time blocks.
Your Workflow And Your Schedule
Some people are able to assign the same batch of work every single week to the same times and days. I don’t always get to do that because of Blaine’s work schedule with the fire department. Which gives me varying work blocks week to week. So it’s not always consistent for me, and I have to go and look at my time blocks and have to establish when my workflow is for each week and what batches can I put in each time block. Then I literally don’t think about it at all again. I sit down on Monday and look at what I need to do that day and do it. (Making sure to start my timer so I stay on track.)
You want to talk about efficient? This is SUPER efficient! I’m running my entire business with this system on about 20-25 hours a week now. And it’s very easy to carve out 10-20 hours a week to do this.
If you have little kids and zero help, I can get you 10 hours a week like the back of my hand. With just a few changes to the routines that you have going on in your house. You can have 10 hours of dedicated, devoted time in your life every single week, without kids, for your business. For real.
Your Future Reality
So, this is what I do. These are the top 3 hacks that I use every single day. The hacks I use every single week, month, quarter, and year in my business. I completely get it, the feeling like there is so much that has to get done! So much to do before you can be in this place where everything is operating as smoothly and efficiently as I make it sound. However, I promise you that it does not have to take that long. It doesn’t. Within a few moths, and even weeks honestly, this can be your reality. You don’t have to wake up and feel like you’re just making it through the chaos of the day. Every. Single. Day. It does NOT have to be like that.
So get yourself signed up for the free Workshop. Come over inside of the Facebook group. I hope that you being able to dive in to my success framework is eye-opening for you. As well as, give you hope to know that you can have this success in your work from home mom life too!
Have you implemented my systems into your business? Leave a comment below and let’s chat!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I run an efficient business as a work from home mom?
In order to run an efficient business as a work from home mom, you must have systems in place to support you. The very first thing is utilizing my 5-time blocking method to be able to structure your week in increments so that you have specific time devoted to the work that you need to do for your business to run smoothly and successfully!
