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I went freelance a few years before my son was born and it was hands down the best thing I’ve ever done! I realised I did not thrive in a traditional workplace (I’m currently looking at exploring the diagnostic route, but I suspect I am autistic too) and it turned out everything I thought about myself (didn’t do well with deadlines, lazy, not motivated, unproductive weren’t career orientated) was not true outside of a traditional workplace setting! I’ve grown from a freelance writer to running my own limited company-and I earn more than when I left the workplace as a teacher! So today I wanted to share a bit of a behind-the-scenes on how I juggle this with also being a parent.
Because it isn’t always easy, especially when navigating Jude’s autism diagnosis and beyond. I’ve had periods where I’ve hardly had any time to work when I was temporarily homeschooling and it turns out I’m not alone: a survey of working families found many parents of children with disabilities had to give up work. I honestly think the workplace is not set up for working mothers, let alone those with additional needs, and I rave about running my own business so let’s break down how it works in case it could help you.
How do you start a business?
First up, just to explain that starting a business doesn’t have to be complicated. If you start as a sole trader, you don’t need to register until you earn more than £1000 from self-employment (regardless of what you earn from employment) so nothing is stopping you just starting! If you want to set up a limited company, it will take you about 10 minutes and cost you £12 (but I wouldn’t recommend you do this in the beginning).
There’s a reason why many moms start a business on maternity leave, as it doesn’t usually affect your maternity pay. If you are only freelance and then take maternity leave, you get something called maternity allowance (which is pretty much the same as the government statutory maternity pay).
Here are my top tips for juggling your business with being a parent…
Find connections
A lot of my work has purely come from finding connections online-and facebook groups are great for this! Some of my favourites for networking and chatting to others when you don’t have time to attend (or can’t leave the house to) traditional networking events are:
Sales is Easy, If You Just Know How
Pink Fizz-Mastering Social Media
I have found a LOT of entrepreneurs have children with additional needs, so you really are not alone! Spending time in these groups can really help you build connections with other business owners.
Batch and auto-create
I run an Instagram and Facebook group for my business, but don’t spend much time creating content for it! I try to spend five minutes a few times a week batch-making content for Instagram; which is when I film ‘b-roll’ (this is just any content of you going about your life having a cup of tea, reading a book). I add it to a folder on my phone called ‘b roll’ and then, I will add the video to Instagram and then just add some music and text to it. I usually do that part when Jude is letting me have a cup of tea in peace! I then save these to drafts and post throughout the week.
I also recommend using Get Munch, which allows you to take one video and splice it down into lots of little bits! I love this for saving time.
For automation, I use Facebook’s admin assistant which allows you to schedule posts to go out at the same time each week automatically. I don’t use it anymore but Lumen 5 is great for repurposing photos into videos.
I also have a batch of graphics I purchased from Living Abstracts that I then just add text to, so that literally takes seconds!
Keep on top of admin
I use a few different tools to keep on top of admin. I use Trello to make to-do lists and I also use the app on my phone which means I can quickly add and tick off tasks! I use Dubsado for sending out contracts and invoices quickly and keeping on top of them-including missing payments! I have a trello board where I add each invoice as I send it-so I can cross-reference it with my bank. Finally, I use the Tide app for my business banking-which means I can just snap my receipts and add them to the app, and then just export them into a spreadsheet each month. This has saved me so much time on my accounting!
Create digital products
If you don’t have time to take on more clients, then I strongly recommend creating digital products. Whilst this does take some time to create (I set myself a challenge with my first product to spend 30 minutes a day for 30 days to create it and launch it and it made me £1000, which isn’t a bad rate!), once they’re launched, the only tasks you need to do are promote them. My favourite place to begin is with Payhip, as it’s so simple to set up and is free (you can see my digital store on payhip here). You can also expand to things like live courses and in-person days. I’ve written another blog post on how I did this and how much money I made.
Two years ago I took part in a free challenge with Lisa Johnson called ‘Race to Recurring Revenue.’ which taught me this-it’s a free challenge that helps you figure out how you can swap trading time for money (e.g. 121) and turn your knowledge into something profitable, and it starts next week! So do come along and join in if you haven’t already. , I’ll be doing it again!
Outsource
Of course, the obvious answer to juggling time is to outsource, but it isn’t always straightforward. One thing I will say is outsourcing things that were taking me ages to do (like designing a Canva graphic or collating contacts) has saved me so much time in the long run. What is great is this doesn’t need to be a staff member or a long-term contract. My first VA allowed me to just book 5 hours as a one-off, and I got so many tasks ticked off for assigning everything to them for those 5 hours that it was well worth it!
Acceptance
Finally, the biggest thing is accepting your business is going to look different to some business owners who don’t have the same challenges as you. But working out what works for your business (rather than someone else’s) and accepting you can only go at the pace you can go at, is the best thing you can do. There’s lots of things I probably could have done if I hadn’t have the challenges of the past few years, but it also taught me to build a business that could fit in around me and my family, rather than the other way around!