Guest post by Lisa of www.babynotincluded.co.uk – Funky clothing and accessories from Newborn to Toddler Age

Being a work at home mum is extremely difficult at times, but can fit in very nicely around your family. I started out quite laid back and worked whenever I had time, mostly in the evenings once my son was in bed. This suited us very well and didn?t encroach on family time. However, since the birth of our daughter six months ago it has tipped our whole world upside down and we?ve had to make a lot of adjustments to make things work.

I?m an organised person but often expect far too much from myself and beat myself up if things don?t go to plan. Working from home around the children has many benefits and being self-employed gives me so much satisfaction, and probably the biggest learning curve of my life. These are just a few things that make working from home around my children possible.

Organisation ? This is probably the most important factor when working from home. Make a to-do list in the morning, keeping it as realistic as possible. I have a must-do and to-do list, the must-do list being the jobs that have to be done that day. My to-do list is made up of jobs that need to be done but are of less importance. This way I get satisfaction knowing that things have been done, and a further pat on the back for anything else that has been possible.

Making sure that your workspace is tidy and everything that you need is accessible is also the key to a good working environment. I work from a laptop and have been known to work whilst catching up on the soaps. This is a total disaster and something that I no longer do. I sit up at the table with everything that I need and find this much more productive.

Work in thirty minute blocks. I read a blog post about this some time ago and thought it was really good advice. Working from home means that you are on hand to do household chores, and of course with young children around needing your attention this works really well. Splitting tasks up and doing a chunk of something is far better than trying to cram loads of work in at the same time as keeping a child entertained.

Give yourself a break. At the moment my daughter isn?t that great at sleeping. During the day she needs to be out and about in her pram to sleep, and at night needs to be rocked to sleep. For this reason we go out for a walk after lunch every day. I combine this walk with a trip to the post office to send off any orders that have come through. It also gives me time to think about things.

Visitors ? When I started my business it was seen as a bit of a hobby by some family and friends and wasn?t really taken serious. Whilst it was upsetting it also caused problems for my working pattern. Friends would often pop over unannounced as they knew I?d be home. It took a lot for me to explain that whilst it was lovely to see them I had unfinished work that needed to be completed. It took several chats with some people before it was taken seriously and now they know just to phone or send me a text to find out if it is a convenient time. See it?s not just discipline on your part that?s needed!

Don?t let it take over. It?s easy to work far more hours that full-time employment, and let?s face it most of us do, but you have to remember why you started out in the first place. Mine was because I wanted more children and needed to find a way to make a better work/family balance. Therefore, every now and again I have to discipline myself and put away the laptop.

Enjoying what you do. You?d have to be mad to start a business if it isn?t doing something that you enjoy. This is what keeps me going. I love choosing new stock, I get excited when orders come through, I love it when I get comments about products online. It?s like having another child and each milestone makes me burst with pride.

Online Networking ? This is like having a zillion work colleagues. Best of all, if there?s someone that you don?t particularly like you don?t have to force conversation like in a usual work place. I love chatting to like minded people, batting ideas off each other or just having a groan about the weather. It has also opened up so many opportunities for me that I may not otherwise have known about. Just don?t go overboard. It can be very distracting and time consuming.

These are MY ways of working from home, and may not suit everybody, but that?s the beauty of working from home. As I write this I am sat in my uniform of pyjamas and fluffy slippers

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When you work for a company or any employer they are in charge of the direction of the company and the targets, you’re paid to work for X amount of hours, and, if you’re lucky you may get a few bonuses along the way.? When you work for yourself whether it be freelancing, making money online, passive income or whatever is it important to establish what’s enough?

I think so.

If you don’t have an end game you could work for 24 hours a day and not feel that you’ve achieved enough.? Everyone seems to make targets whether it’s monthly earnings targets, subscriber targets, sales or email list targets.?? I’m thinking that perhaps equally important is to set limits.? To cap our goals, to feel satisfied at what we have and not yearn for more more more, not immediately anyway.? Some may scoff and argue that this will stifle ambition and hinder success but I think it may have the opposite effect.

For example, lets say I don’t set myself a target for earnings this year, a year when I’d like to earn money freelance from home doing this and that.? One of two things may happen, I’ll either be lazy and complacent and not earn a penny (or not enough for my requirements), or I may work myself into the ground and earn plenty but exhaust myself and sicken myself of the lifestyle.

Okay, so I think I’ve established that targets are important, hey, if they weren’t then no company would have them.? So I set my target for this year at ?500, and to be honest depending on how things go this could be a relatively low target (or it could be quite a difficult target), but I was starting from a standing position whereby I had the idea but very little real plan of how it would come together.? I’m glad to say I’ve taken a couple strides forward, and I’ll talk about that in a later post, but ?500 in December last year seemed like a realistic target.? Now, given my progress I could get greedy or just ambitious and move the goalpost to ?1000 per month, but I’m not going to.

I’m going to limit myself to earning ?500 per month for 2009.? In 2010 a new target will be set, but for 2009 it’s ?500.

Why?

At this point in time I don’t need more than that.? I’m not looking to be a millionaire (not immediately anyway!), as nice as that would be, initially the real aim is the lifestyle, the money is just a means to release more time to work on other interesting projects and ideas.

I want to feel a sense of achievement when I reach my target and maintain that ?500 per month.? Making ?500 for yourself from nothing is a big challenge (for me).? I don’t want to de-value it by feeling that I could have made more if only I’d worked harder (there’ll be other years and bigger targets).

I want to feel that I can ease back a little once I’ve reached this point – I’ll be working really hard to get there.? Money isn’t the only thing that I want to achieve from creating multiple income streams working from home (or my favourite office space – McDonalds), I also want to do it because of the flexibility.? I can’t be flexible if I set my targets too high or try to exceed my targets too much.

I want to spend less time working for money, if my targets are all money related then I’ll be under pressure to work more and more hours, a bit like the 9-5, we all know it’s not really ’9-5′ more like 7.30 – 6.30 with a few weekends thrown in, once you’ve commuted and done your overtime ‘bit’.? If I wanted to work 40 hours a week then I could easily get a job, that’s not the point of this exercise.

Then there’s perhaps the biggest reason of all for wanting to pursue this lifestyle, being able to be here for Erin, at the moment that’s a pretty hefty commitment, full-time care (hence the 14 hour limit, see below) When she’s at school it’ll be being able to do the ‘school run’, a nice walk for us, taking her to her hobbies and being able to spend as much time with her as we both want (!)

For these reasons it seems prudent to set another target, or mabe it’s a limit.? Spend the equivalent of approximately two hours a day on Project 500, that’s 14 hours a week.? That target is also for 2009 only.

How?

If I reach my target of ?500 will I stop working (given that I’m not paid by the hour this money will be relatively automatic, other than a couple hours of upkeep)? Certainly not, my two hour target remains, it just means my focus will be allowed to shift from the direct pursuit of money to other projects.? For example I may choose to do some learning which may eventually help me earn more money but I’ll be under no pressure for an immediate return on investment (like I am now).? Not having the limitations that the pursuit of money brings allows your creative self to run wild, I’ve proved that over the three years I have been ‘off’ with Erin and under no pressure to earn.? I’ve read, blogged and learned which has ultimately opened doors that were firmly closed before.

Finally, feeling that you don’t have to ‘work’ actually increases your desire to work, another lesson learned while I was on the outside of the working world looking in.? Allowing yourself to focus on ‘the work’ (and I put that in inverted commas because I don’t really consider what I’m embarking on as work, more an extension of a hobby really) rather than the money you need to earn it improves your morale, your self-esteem and your desire to work.

So to re-cap, for 2009, my targets and limitations are ?500 per month and two hours per day.? I expect that if certain projects go well then this target/limit may be exceeded and if that happens then I’ll probably put the excess elsewhere, so I don’t get used to it too much ? That actually only works out at about ?8.30 an hour, but if you were in your first year of an employed job, that would be a salary of ?15k, roughly what my salary would be if I went back to my old career.

Of course 2010 will be a different story, I will (hopefully) have the basis of something and will be looking to push myself quite hard, I’ll still set targets and limits though.? This year’s a learning year, and my earnings targets reflect that.

Do you have targets for 2009?

Do you set yourself limits too?

Is there a point where you think ‘enough is enough’?

If you don’t set limits how do you acheive balance?