Balancing being a mum with being a business owner (second thoughts about scaling up)

[CoffeeeLove]

I left my job and launched my business 12 years ago (online retail). Then, when I had a baby, I left behind the long hours and have been juggling parenthood and work since. It's been v stressful at times, especially as my DH doesn't do the school run or cover school hols due to his work, so I feel my attention is always split and time/energy is forever a limiting factor. That said, the family have massively benefitted from the flexible nature of my work and you could say it's been a v good lifestyle business, so I've been v grateful for that. However, my DC is now in year 5 and I've been looking at renting office space so that I can look at scaling up. I don't want employees / deliveries coming to my home anymore. However, the only suitable office space is expensive, so there will be pressure to cover those additional overheads.

After being really excited about moving the business out of the home, I'm having second thoughts about giving up what I have... and just increasing my stress levels. But then, it could be really good?

What would you do?

If you really love your business, I’d go for it - but be wary of inflexible leases!

you’d have to google - but I read this week of a study coming out of Boston by two female researchers that said it wasn’t “how late” mum got home, but instead her mood when she walked through the door that made the children most happy.

so if you’re going to burst through the door every night with a big grin - what do you have to lose?

Hmm, I love aspects of my business but don’t love every part of it! (Accounts, compliance, insurance…. 🥱).

Just feel wary of buying myself a job and losing the flexibility….

What would you call an inflexible lease? The one I’m looking at is 12/24 months.

What sort of lease is it, is it an office lease/licence if it’s 12 months you could request a break clause at the midway point if it doesn’t work out, I lease an office, although I end up still being home most of the time, however it’s great for having somewhere to escape to and my meetings are at the office which works much better, it’s quite nice to actually be able to separate the two. I find my home now feels less of a office and more of a home. Plus my insurance, bank accounts, companies house, ico etc is all registered at the office address, all public information.

I have a business and am a lone parent, so always had the juggle struggle. I have expanded twice over 7 years (adding new physical
spaces so building and interior costs plus increased staff and rent). Obviously with covid, it was really tricky but I’m just thinking about expanding again as another space has come up and I think it makes sense. I would say make sure you have done your sums and think about the worst possible scenario. Factor in rates, energy costs, staffing etc. Honestly my business has always been stressful even pre covid but it’s enabled me to work around my son and raise him alone, even if he’s been there in his pyjamas more times than I can count.
7 years in, the business is stronger for having expanded hence this next expansion feeling like a no brainer. The bigger it is, the more you can hire people to do some of the day to day and decide how you want to work. Having said that, running your own business is always 7 days a week in my experience, not sure how you ever get away from that.
if the numbers look good, I’d go for it. You will have better boundaries between home and work from the sound of it and that can only be a good thing in my experience!

Oh and yes lease wise, for you I’d ask for a break clause as protection. It is different for me as my spaces are my business… so
i have long leases with good protections. Still, it’d be better to own the building but no chance in london…

@FAQs It’s an office lease for an office suite in a business park, which includes utilities, building insurance, etc. I’ve never heard of a break clause at 6 months in a 12 month lease. Is this commonplace? Definitely, I personally will still work from home for half the time, and it’ll be good to have more physical separation between home and work.

@PollyIndia That’s fantastic that you’ve expanded twice over 7 years - that’s inspiring. Worst case scenario, I guess it’s mainly ‘just’ spending that money and I can’t make it profitable. Having always been profitable, come hell or high water, I think I’d find that mentally stressful. But, I guess it's about stepping outside my comfort zone a bit into the possibility of that to drive future growth and stability. I can always revert back to how it was (unless I’ve got past the stage of recruiting more staff).

I think being lean has been great in so many ways, but I’m so over having to do everything when my employee (only have one FTer) is off.

For me it would depend on what my overall aim and plan is. If it is to get into a position of hiring people to do tasks that free me up to separate home and work or to expand to earn more to do lovely things when I am at home ,great. Is it to make a name for yourself you will be proud of and that will give you something you want? Fine as well. But I know people who expand and then are working harder to keep others in employment and to pay overheads. Maybe that's not for you at this point. As an aside, why are mens jobs always less flexible and they can't do the parenting bits, pretty sure if he ran a business you'd still be doing the running around.

Or look at moving home to somewhere with business space? That way it remains an asset that you own.

I could have written this myself! I keep talking about and planning scaling up then my husband reminds me that we have a great rhythm at the moment. I'm making enough money and have the flexibility to be with my family in the holidays, etc and that's what I've always dreamed of, and that's true. So for now at least I am keeping it as manageable/flexible

Watching with interest as I have my own business, which I set up 8 years ago and totally understand that worry about expansion. I’ve more than doubled my team in the last year so we now have 4 plus me, and have improved my processes a lot in the last 6 months. We have several big jobs at the stage when we are about to invoice £££ so I think it is about to pay off big time but the last few months have been worrying. So I empathise.

my take on it is that I love my work but I want to be able to eg go on holiday. And I was always fielding calls and emails till I had staff. I need processes to make sure they do things to my standard. If there is anything I would change it would be to sort out processes as soon as I hired (there was a bit of a delay) and also do a lot of marketing as you seek to expand to fund the extra costs and to maintain profitability.

good luck!

@CoffeeeLove I have got a 12 month lease with a rolling break at 6 months, so after 6 months I can hand in one calendar months notice up until renewal. It’s an office in an office park, everything included, including parking. I did neg this in though, I had to provide a deposit and PG as well, although if you’ve got strong trading accounts you might not have to provide a PG, it depends on their requirements.

@Doingmybest12

I definitely need more storage space for stock, as it’s very inefficient at the moment as I have a variety of storage units as well as storage at home. Very inefficient and difficult to keep track of everything. I would like to hire another person too, as I should definitely be delegating more…

But, yes I’m nervous about working harder to have to cover the additional overheads.

As for men’s jobs…. oh my God, yes… I have so much that I can say about that but won’t as I’ll prob derail my own thread!

@maddening

In some ways, I think this would make more sense as commercial property is very expensive and I’d retain more flexibility. However, I would need quite a bit of space, at least 500 sq ft, so not sure if there’s anything like that around here.

Exactly! Would I totally regret the loss of freedom and flexibility? Or would it be short term pain for longer term gain...???!

Surprised an office space allows goods storage. Many don’t

That’s excellent that you’ve grown the business, pleased to hear it. Do you have premises or does your team work remotely?

Regarding marketing, yes, will need to do a big push on this! Being online, lots of £££ goes into marketing but I’m going to have to be much more ambitious (which has been difficult to be, due to so many constraints).

Honestly don't know how feasible it is to significantly increase sales (as it's not like I've not been trying all these years!). But with more resource available, perhaps it is possible. I'll never know unless I try.

I know, it's been difficult to find someone close to home, ground floor, good storage and just nice... prob that's why it's not cheap.

I had an office nearby but gave it up on lockdown and converted my garage. There space for 4 of the 5 of us and one works remotely. We hold v little stock though as mainly a services business so not the same issue.
TBH I’d love to have more space to hire more staff but having paid for the office conversion recently, that’s not feasible so I’m going to make my business as efficient as possible.

@Apparentlystillchilled Ah I have a converted garage too. Ours has paid for itself in spades, but I'd love to reclaim the space.

I was lucky- I converted the lower level of our garage (it is built into a hill) so we kept our garbage (which I use for deliveries if need be but generally can house the car and kids’ bikes etc).

I’d love to convert the whole building tbh. Maybe that should be part of my 5 year plan!

Will the added space just be for storage/fulfilment/despatch, or could it house part-time staff? Do you have the person-resources to cope with creating added demand and added orders, or will it still be just you, but with potentially more work for you and greater overheads? Your expansion has to be matched with investing in the support you need. This may be in-house or outsourced but you can’t expand one part without figuring in what scale of sales you need to cover costs. Are you looking to take out a loan? This might focus your mind on a business case. It may be calculating x hours marketing (outsourced), y hours book-keeping (out-sourced), etc. using contractors for a fixed term will help you assess and project sales for 6-12 months and should give you a clearer picture. HTH.

@SarahDippity Yes, would be space for future staff too. Just one PTer to begin with to cover additional orders, but also allow me to delegate some stock ordering (which is a big part of my work) and offer a much more responsive customer service to customers.
In terms of funding it, I took out a bounce back loan during the pandemic as contingency, which I’ve not had to dip into.
I’ve paid some back but have thought for quite a while now that the rest could be used to invest for growth. My cashflow is generally good as I need the buffer to sleep well at night!

This past few weeks, I've worked every day and it's taking a bit of a toll. Maybe taking the office space would mean working even more, but with it being less convenient. That would be my worry!