I’m now at the pointy end of getting my website ready for launch. The scaffolding is there and I am filling my website with content. It’s a lot of work. Actually no, it’s a mammoth task and requires massive amounts of emotional energy, mental focus and time. In Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk, I was told that I should stay up late (as late as it takes), not give up my day job, not be a perfectionist, ‘just do it’, get my blog or vlog out there, put the hours in and basically, just Crush It. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved Gary’s book and I highly recommend it. I just want to make sure I don’t crush myself, or my family, in the process. I am hanging on to the message that I should not be a perfectionist! Unsure if I even want to be called a Mumpreneur, there’s no escaping from the fact that I’m a Mum, a partner and an entrepreneur. I think I’d rather be called one of those other names like “Kitchen Table Tycoon” (in waiting). So can a Mumpreneur really ‘crush it’, and what can I do to make sure I (and my family) survive the crushing? I’ve compiled some pearls of wisdom for me (and hopefully for you) from various books, blogs and even tweets that I absorb regularly. I hope that one of these keeps your entrepreneurial spirits alive, your family nurtured and your health in good shape.
1. Get Some Sleep
Most healthy adults require about eight hours of sleep a night; a small number can get by more or less on six hours. But the bottom line is that an accumulated sleep deprivation results in impaired decision-making, poorer judgment, reduced concentration and reduced efficiency. None of those things are good for an entrepreneur or even a Mumpreneur. So, please join with me in a promise to yourself to try to get at least seven hours of sleep every night. It’s my goal this month. (Those of you with young babies, be nice to yourself…)
2. Quality with some Quantity
Your kids require some quantity, as well as quality time with you. The phrase ‘quality time’ is a popular one for busy parents. Most of us are doing our best and of course, that’s all we can do. But it’s ideal if you can sometimes add quantity to that quality; childhood is over before us Mums know it and we don’t want to later regret the time we sacrificed by adjusting the font on our WordPress blogs. Examples of how to do this include: read to your child every night (not just when you have time available); attend as many weekend sporting fixtures as is practical; drive your teenager often, and take the longer route because you might just get some incidental conversation; create one special time per month for you and your child to do something together (without the siblings); take a day off from your working week (you are your own boss after all), and hang out with your sick child at home watching DVDs.
3. Crush It on a Date
Book a date (out or at home) with yourself and your partner once a month or every 6 weeks. You’d do it for your bookkeeper, so do it for you and your partner. This is advice I am giving myself.
4. Delegate, Make Plans, Batch Tasks, Have a Plan
I struggle with these things – I don’t want to delegate because no one can do it better than me; I don’t want to make too many plans and then not follow them through, but I do know that planning my day the night before makes a huge difference to my efficiency. Check out a neat post by Cat Matson on putting your plan into action .
5. And Learn from Elephants!
I loved this post about business lessons we can learn from elephants (work/life balance, standing together and a thick skin, just to name a few ) – drawn from a speech by Antonia Kidman. You’ll enjoy this one.
