How to Have A Home Based Business With Children

A home based business can take time away from your children if you aren’t careful.  Of course you have the responsibilities of running a business on your own.  There are deadlines and invoices to worry about.  You can find yourself spending extra hours in the home office trying to get things done. 

 

A good number of home based business owners run into this problem. Taking care of children and keeping the home based business in tact can be very difficult.  You can find yourself feeling like you are in a no win situation.  However there are ways to keep your business up and running and still have enough time for your children. 

 

Keep your time for family and your business separate.  There has to be a routine in place.  Just because you work from home you cannot let the home office hold you hostage.  Do not spend your day working and then pick up a few more hours in the evening.  Part of the reason for working from home is to have some personal freedom but you should still have some sort of schedule.  This will help stop the overlapping of time between children and work.

 

With that said, take into account that sometimes you kids are going to need you.  Even though you have set up a schedule and are trying to stick to it, if you children need you, then on that day, you need to revise the schedule.  The freedom does work both ways.  You really can finish whatever you are working on later, after you give your children the attention that they need.

 

There has to be some form of child care.  If you are a mom or dad that is working from home with children that are infants or toddlers, you will probably need some child care.  If you don’t have child care, then you will find yourself not able to work for a decent amount of time. 

 

Your spouse may be the friendly recruit but if you are working opposite shifts, this may infringe on family time.  If your spouse is working all day they want to see you and your children when they come home.  You may need to seek other babysitting options when you are working. As your children get older you will need to set some ground rules with your children.  As you evolve in your business there will be times that you are working.  Let your children know that this is not a time that you can be disturbed.  Just as you set ground rules in other situations about what is appropriate and what is not, you need to do that with your home based business.

 

As children age, you could include them in your home based business.  Think about all of the children that helped their parents on farms.  Well, you don’t want to get into that type of child labor but if there is something that you children can do, let them help.  A home based business often includes the family because of its location.  Find something that the kids can do.