Working from home is so important when it comes to making the right choices to help you work as effectively as you can. There are plenty of factors that you need to consider when it comes to improving your work from home experience, and this is something that is going to improve your ability to work effectively. Try to make sure you come up with some of the best ways of being able to achieve this process, and there are a lot of factors that will help you when working from home. 

Try to think about some of the key ideas that you can make when you are looking to work from home more as a working mother. There are so many things that can help you when it comes to improving your working from home experiences, and you need to try to embrace this and make sure you take it seriously. These are 3 top tips that you need to use when it comes to working from home.

1. Choose the Perfect Home Business

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you are looking to work from home is to make sure you choose the perfect home business for you. There are plenty of choices you can keep in mind here and it is vital to make sure you improve upon this as much as possible. There are so many home business ideas for mums that you should consider, and finding the right one can make a huge difference.

2. You Need a Workstation

Another thing that you need to make sure you get right is a workstation that you can use when working from home. There are so many things that you can use that will help you to benefit from this, and that could mean creating a home office. There are plenty of different options to think about here, such as garden offices, extensions, or even converting the spare room into an office. So, you need to try to make sure you focus on the best ways of being able to achieve this as much as possible right now. 

3. Structure the Day Around You

As a mother it is important to try to make time for yourself and your family, as well as work, and this means you need to make sure you structure and build the day around you. Make sure you do as much as possible to make the most of this, and try to focus on some of the best ways of keeping on top of this right now. Develop a structure that can help you to stay on top of your working day as much as possible. 

Make sure you come up with some of the key ideas that you can use to get better when working from home. There are so many advantages to working from home these days, and this has become more prevalent since the global pandemic hit. You need to come up with tips and ideas that you can use that will allow you to maximise your productivity and efficiency when working from home. 

If you are a mum and you want to start a business, do you know what your options are? You have the traditional way where you can go about setting up your business the same way people have for years and years. Or, you can set it up from home and work remotely. In this article, we’re going to be tlooking at starting your business from home as a mum, so keep reading if you would like to find out more.

Communicate With Your Team Regularly

The first thing that you are going to need to do is communicate with your team regularly once you have got them all set up. Hiring people online isn’t as difficult as it seems. All you need to do is post your job description, and wait for people to come to you. You can conduct interviews via a video calling app so that you get a good idea for the person that you are thinking of bringing on board. This works well with your home life as you don’t have to go out of the home to meet with thes people, ensuring you can be around if your kids need you.

Once you have established your team, this is where you need to be communicating with them frequently. When the business starts to grow, you need to think about how you are going to handle change management and things like this. But, this comes later down the line, so just make sure that you are communicating in the start.

Save Money With Home Working

Home working is ideal when you are a mum because it means you are always around. You might be doing something at any given time but that is okay because you can stop for a minute to make sure everything is okay in your home. Just make sure that the people you are working with know you are a mum and then they will understand if you disappear for a few minutes at a time. 

You will find that home working is cheaper as you are not paying for physical property, expenses, journey to and from work etc. As such, if you want to set up a business as a mum, you should do it from home, at least in the beginning. You have enough to focus on without trying to add all of this in.

Find The Right Industry For You

Have you got an idea as to what you want to do with your business? Do you know what industry you want to be in? Do you have a concept? Think of this first before you go any further, and then you can start planning out what comes next.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you are going to need to do if you want to start a business as a mum. We’re not saying that this is your only option of course, but it is a good one. It means that you have time for your kids, while still doing exactly what you want. We wish you the very best of luck and hope that you see success soon!

It is no secret that working from home and taking care of kids has become every parent’s worst nightmare. 

Picture this: you wake to the sound of one of your children asking for breakfast, knowing that an online meeting starts in less than half an hour, but you haven’t prepared, and to top it all off, you never went grocery shopping after last night’s hectic work schedule. 

Does this sound like you?

• Constant headaches
• Bad attitude in the morning
• Turning forgetful
• Stressed out
• Overwhelmed by work and personal life
• Falling behind deadlines

If that is you, it’s time to gain perspective. No parent has an easy job, that is expected. However, there are ways to ease the workload and draw the line between work and personal. 

Establish A Working Space

You can’t expect to deliver your boss results by working from the kitchen. The kitchen is where you cook, eat, and enjoy meals. When you put yourself in a space that your children frequent, where noises interrupt the flow of thought, and any spill could ruin a day’s worth of work, the kitchen becomes your worst enemy. 

It’s simply a mess. 

Avoid the above and find a room or area where work doesn’t interfere with personal activities. If you worked at a desk job before working from home, invest in a small desk, a desk lamp, and a comfortable chair. 

Your Personal Space

Just like you need a designated and consistent area for work, your personal space is also important. 

Reserving your personal space is much easier. It can be the couch right in front of the TV screen, your bedroom, the playroom you arranged for your younglings, working with Industrial embroidery machines as a side hobby, or your backyard. 

No matter the personal space you choose, make it your own. Make it a spot that you meditate, work out, pray, eat, sit around and relax. 

Work & Personal Checklist

It cannot be overstated. Make a checklist. Know what your day should look like in both spheres; the personal and work life. 

Ensure you schedule a self-care day, the day of the week you’ll be the busiest, and the peak hours where you will need quiet time. 

Recording this will give you an idea of when you need to be in your work or personal space so you dedicate a few of your free time to your kids. 

Don’t forget. You are both a parent and a worker. The separate checklists might look something like this:

Personal Life                                Work Life

-Meal prep                                      -Two online meetings       

-Take kids to school                   -Finish proposal

-Laundry day                                   -Practice the presentation

-Help kids with homework        -Give coworker a doc of feedback

Learn What Matters Most

What change do you want to bring to your life? The work and personal environment are tough arenas to separate, but when you do, you are choosing to prioritize a healthier mental state and a more productive way of life.

Every organisation needs practical managerial skills for its success. According to the World Economic Forum, management is among the top skills required for the workforce to thrive today. Heading a department or a particular team in an institution is not an easy task. However, talented managers bring significant levels of productivity, high employee engagement scores, and profitability. Most of the time, executives or managers have problems with their teams; however, more often than not, they are usually the ones to blame. Here are clever ways to improve your performance as a manager.

Build trust

When employees trust you, they have higher productivity, more energy, greater engagement, and less stress that is essential for your organisation’s success. The key to building trust between you and employees is creating deeper connections; try and get to know them beyond the office. You can engage in small talk before meetings, talk about their professional and personal differences, and seek to understand their different viewpoints during discussions.

Additionally, instil trust by being credible; when you say you’ll do something, stand by your word. Also, be respectful and fair in decision-making.

Practice employee recognition

Employees spend most of their day in the workplace, making valuable contributions to the company’s success; recognising their efforts goes a long way in making them feel recognised and valued. Besides training, daily motivation, promotions, and autonomy, employee recognition is the top driver of better employee performance.

As a manager, you can recognise employees by rewarding them publicly when they achieve particular set goals.

Collaborate

Collaborating as a manager goes beyond forming committees or reaching a consensus during organisational activities, such as taking on projects; it involves working directly with your team to concoct ideas and create plans. Improve your collaboration skills by doing the following;

• Involve employees in decision-making, mainly if it affects them.
• Seek feedback from your team about processes and decisions.
• Hold regular informal and one-on-one conversations.
• Ask for your team’s opinion on problem-solving.

Avoid micromanaging

No one likes the micromanaging boss; it becomes challenging to work when someone is always hovering over you to give corrections and directions. Employees perform their best work when they feel trusted to accomplish their roles and duties with minimal supervision. Allow your team to prove their proficiency by giving them space.

Be part of the team

Don’t be the “bridge lizard” kind of manager who spends most of their time seated and watching employees working and peppering them with unfunded and regular criticism. Many employees lose their respect for such characters; lead by example and be part of the team. Instead of dishing out instructions all the time, insert yourself in work; leave the desk and first-hand about the challenges employees face.

Be a good communicator

Organisations run smoothly when there is a good flow of information, especially top to down. The hallmark of a successful manager is the ability to communicate effectively with their teams. Be transparent with employees about tasks, the state, and the vision of the organisation. Give them feedback about completed projects and their performance; you can give briefs during update sessions.

During update sessions and team meetings, create opportunities for employees to ask questions and, if possible, invite various executives to answer the strategic and complex questions.

Take up a management training course

Beyond carrying out your daily activities as a manager, improve your management skills by enrolling in a course. Even though you completed a higher diploma or degree, things in the workforce change with time; training enables you to learn new tools and techniques to shape organisational processes. Take up an online course like Lean six sigma black belt to allow you to steer innovation and change for organisational success.

Be an effective decision-maker

Above all, a great manager can effectively make decisions without faltering. From leading team meetings and seeing to it that everyone performs to the organisation’s expectations, learn how to analyse critical problems and effectively implement plans to solve them and move forward. Practice the three C’s considered management essentials for decision-making which are:

• Constructive conflict- Engage employees in decision-making to invite debates and diverse perspectives for creative problem-solving.
• Consideration- Fairly consider all viewpoints from stakeholders before determining and implementing a solution.
• Closure- Involves alignment of stakeholders before proceeding by defining project initiatives and accomplishments within a particular period and ensuring everyone agrees on successful outcomes.

Be an effective leader today by increasing your managerial skills through training, effective communication and decision-making, and collaboration. Build trust between you and employees, be part of them, avoid micromanaging, and recognise their efforts for overall organisational success.

It’s the oldest cliche in the book, but teamwork truly makes the dream work. So, when starting out your new business, finding the best candidates should be a priority.

Having the right workers behind you will spearhead greater productivity. And aid client experiences. It’ll also make your life a lot easier when trying to juggle parenting with your company. Crucially, your increased confidence will reduce your stress levels. 

So, where are the best places to find the best workers? Here’s all you need to know.

Option #1. Your Past Colleagues

If you are starting a business in the same field that you previously worked in, it may be possible to recruit some of your past colleagues. You already know what they do not like about their current company, which may help create a job role that they’ll love.

The existing knowledge isn’t only great for enticing them to your business. You will also have a deeper understanding of which candidates have the right personality traits. Their work ethic will make a huge impact during the establishment phase.

However, you should note that some will resist your advances because the old business feels more stable.

Option #2. Use An Agent

There are plenty of job boards on the internet while local recruitment offices are available too. The problem with these, however, is that you will attract hundreds of applications. The cast majority will be unsuitable, but it’ll still take you hours to get through them all.

Partnering with an agency that specialises in a field will make the process a lot easier. Sales recruitment agents, for example, will attract the best candidates. Not least because only suitable applicants can sign up and apply for vacancies.

Whether picking candidates yourself or getting the recruiter to do it on your behalf, using the platform will serve you well.

Option #3. Use LinkedIn Et Al

Using recruitment experts is usually the smartest way to find candidates via online channels. However, you can also complete a little headhunting on LinkedIn by looking for people with the right skill endorsements. You can reach out to them with a private message.

Another option is to read the trending topics on Linkedin. If this approach isn’t for you, finding workers on freelance directories can work wonders. Perhaps the best thing about this approach is that you can hire them on an ad-hoc basis. 

It is great for cash flow management and ensuring that you only pay for the services required. It’s better than taking on permanent workers that aren’t needed.

Option #4. Post Jobs Yourself

When you have a strong social media following on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, you can use this to good advantage. A quick post to tell people about a job alert within your company will reach people that know your brand. So, applicants will have a good knowledge of it.

Meanwhile, your website can be used to post the opening. The major downsides of this approach are that it can detract from the brand message, which could alienate some consumers. Likewise, it becomes very public that you are taking more people on.

Those issues aren’t always a problem, but it is worth considering them. It’s one of the reasons that using a recruitment agency may be better.

If you are being a mumpreneur and flipping a house, ideally, you want to find a property below market value, spend money doing it up, and increase the value so that you sell at a profit when you sell it. It’s a good way to earn a living! But like with everything, there is a learning curve to business, and you may not get to those sky-high profits right away. For one, this isn’t a get-rich-quick business. If you want to flip houses, it takes time, effort, and some pretty hefty resources, so be prepared for that on day one.

So, here are some things you need to remember when you flip a house. At the outset, you will spend most of your time finding the right property. Depending on the market, this could take weeks or even months, and then you are going to need to apply for financing! 

You are going to need great credit! You cannot get into house flipping on bad credit. Unless you have enough cash to pay for a home and all the necessary renovations, you are going to need some kind of loan, and lending standards are tighter than they used to be. Your first step is to check your credit report to find out your score. If you don’t have great credit, it’s time to start building a great credit score now. Then, pay your bills on time, pay down your debt, and keep your credit card balances low. 

Great locations are imperative in house flipping; it’s a good idea to find a home in a desirable neighborhood or one that is on its way up. You can improve a house as much as you want, but it’s a long battle to improve the personality and safety of a neighborhood on your own. So look for areas with rising real estate sales, employment growth, and other indications. Avoid neighborhoods with a high number of homes for sale; this could be a sign of a depressed local economy or a sign that neighbors are leaving due to crime or development.

You are going to need a conveyance solicitor to help you through the process. A property solicitor will go through the legal process of buying a house, effectively transferring legal ownership of the house from one person to another. In the UK, this is known as legal conveyancing.

While technically, you can carry out the residential conveyancing process yourself, it is a high-risk thing to do, especially as a house is likely to be your largest investment. The conveyancing process is complex, multi-faceted, and all too often, problems arise. Juggling it all is going to be a nightmare! A skilled conveyancing lawyer will be able to make sure all due diligence is carried out on the property you intend to buy. This includes troubleshooting any issues that may arise, advising on the necessary searches required, sending inquiries out, approving the contract from the seller, and managing exchange and completion. In addition, they will ensure that all legal requirements are met and that your rights are protected.

The best thing about owning your own business is that you can work when and how you want. However, the worst part of owning a small business is that there are so many things to manage to keep it running smoothly. 

With all the new tasks coming at you daily, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and lose sight of what matters. 

But if you follow these four practical ways outlined below, then starting or running a small business will be easier than ever before!

Plan for Everything

Make a list of what you need to do each day. This way, there are no surprises that come up and interrupt your progress. Anticipate potential problems before they happen so that when the time comes, you’re prepared for them. 

For example, if your office is located in an area prone to flooding or earthquakes, you need to be ready for any potential disasters. Research different strategies each day online if there are new ways of doing things that could make your business more profitable.

Have Contingent Solutions

Keep stashes of cash in various places to prepare for an emergency. For example, if your car breaks down and you need to pay the tow truck driver, having $200 in your glovebox will come in handy.

Find someone who can help out with some tasks when necessary or take on a side job for extra income. For instance, in case your employees are not adhering to sickness absence rules, you can outsource absence management services. This way, you’ll always have someone to turn to when you need them most.

Delegate Tasks

Divide tasks up amongst your employees so that everyone has a responsibility when working on projects. This will ensure more people are involved in the process and make it less daunting to finish these jobs.

Share responsibilities with others, such as having your spouse help out with childcare or delegating social media management to an intern if you don’t have the time to do it yourself.

Have a list of tasks you need and pick one person for each job so that no single person is overwhelmed by everything at once.

Invest in Technology

Keep your technology up-to-date and use new software tools that will make life easier and protect your business. For example, if you have a high number of emails to process each day, using an automated email system or hiring someone who can do it for you may be the best option.

Consider outsourcing some tasks so that there’s less work for you to do. For example, an accountant may be worth the time and investment if your business is in a high tax bracket because they can save you money on taxes each year.

Utilize all forms of technology available so that customers can buy from you no matter what their preferences are. And lastly, consider hiring someone to manage your social media accounts so that you can be more hands-on with other aspects of the business. This way, you’ll make sure all customer concerns get addressed and any issues or feedback is taken care of promptly.

After being able to rest, bond with your baby and get a grasp on your new journey of motherhood, it seems your maternity leave is sadly coming to an end. Playing the role of a working mum can be challenging. And although you may be excited about going back to work, you still want to be at home with your new baby. This confusion of managing work and home can be exhausting. Fortunately, several mums have been in your position and have been able to strike a healthy balance – and so can you! Here are some methods you can employ to balance work and being a new mum effectively.

Let go of the guilt

For many working mums, the guilt of going to work each morning brings about an enormous wave of guilt. This, in part, can be blamed on a society that makes women believe that they are “abandoning” their children by going to work. However, it is essential to let go of the guilt you are forced to feel for not being by your children all the time. Whenever you feel guilt, be sure to focus on the positive ways your job affects your family. Remind yourself that you are making the right decision for your family and the baby’s future. 

Find good child care

While you are away, your baby needs constant attention. Hiring reliable child care services such as a nanny, a big daycare centre, or home care services would ensure that your baby is well cared for while you are at work. Regardless of the form of child care services you want, be sure to conduct ample research on various organisations. Read through their policies, organise interviews, and read reviews from existing and past clients. It would help if you also considered asking people you trust for recommendations. Once you have a child care service provider, be sure to communicate often and extensively with them to ensure your baby’s safety whenever you are away. You can purchase safe nursery furniture at Cuckooland to ensure extra safety for your baby while you are away.

Create an effective morning and evening routine

Routines are a great way of ensuring you keep a healthy balance between work and home. Each night, prepare for the following day by preparing and packing lunches, preparing bottles, or organising your baby’s diaper bag. It is also essential that you put your child to bed at the same time every night to create a bedtime and give yourself enough time to unwind and rest for the next day. Have a calm and relaxing morning routine to avoid stress and chaos before you go to work. Also, be sure to spend some time bonding with your baby each morning before you go out. Where needed, delegate some responsibilities to your partner to ensure you get an extra pair of hands and avoid stress.

With these tips, balancing your home and work life has never been easier!