Baby and business from home - How?

[Paula30CWR]

My baby is 9 weeks old - very young! I love being a mum, planning what to do everyday, whether we go to the park or play music, tell stories to stimulate him and all sort of things.

However, I have a translation company I run from home. I have been doing this for a year and a half. Sometimes the business is extremely busy, when we have to provide translation of documents to different companies or it can be quiet. There are also times when we need to organise a conference at the last minute and there are weeks when nothing happens.

Now I'm on Maternity Leave and to be honest, I enjoy motherhood! The business is quiet now but tomorrow can be mad. I always have lots of enquiries to deal with and I find it hard when the baby is awake and certainly does not like me when I'm on the phone, if it's a client. Not that he knows who it is, but he gets a bit grumpy. And I know that despite I try not to work, if a client calls, you need to be available; otherwise, the client is gone!

The point is I would like to know how ladies who run their own businesses, can manage them while having a baby. In November, my maternity leave will be over and I will have to think about getting back to work, so before I decide to send my baby to nursery, I would like to know how I can manage with him at home.

Do you do bits of work when husband/partner gets back from work? Or when baby is having a nap during the day? When and how you do it?

Any piece of advice will be great for me!

Congratulations on your baby!!

I started a thread a while ago as am pregnant and wondered how I could combine my business with motherhood.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/freelancers/1140186-Running-own-business-and-having-a-baby-Advice-needed-from-other-business-owners

There might be some advice on there that might be relevant to you?

Since initially posting, I did (a lot!) of thinking on various options and have decided to employ someone PT to help.

With email and Blackberry's the sky's the limit. I've worked for myself, from home, for 10 yrs now, and have had four children in the last 11 yrs - the youngest is 7 wks!

But I have learnt that talking to clients on the phone is not easy unless the baby/toddler is asleep. Does your baby have set times when s/he sleeps in the day? If clients call you can tell them you'll call back at a set time? Or can business be done by email? Don't be afraid to tell them you work from home and have a young baby - my clients always respect that and usually ask how old s/he is, does he sleep well, etc! They're genuinely interested.

Does that help at all?

I'd say its pretty easy to manage both until they are mobile - then the problems start! Being a farmers wife, having a groundworks business and on DS1 we also ran a meat business while living in a caravan.

There was no such thing as maternity leave here for both DS1 & 2. As with any farmers wife, you are expected to do it all - no excuses.

The problems started when they got to 1 years really as I found especially with DS2, he was a real whinger, wanting to be picked up, and generally a difficult toddler. This is when I decided to drop them off (7 months old) at nursery for 2 days a week. These days I work hard and cram in as much as possible. Including as much evening work. I plan my meals and general chores so that the housework gets done.

ANother afternoon my MIL has them until evening. TBH its hard and combining them both is sometimes a disaster - when mistakes are made! I do a lot in the evenings, lunch times and squeeze in as much as possible. Both my boys have learnt to entertain themselves from very young which is only a good thing.

I am afraid that if you actually need to earn a living, you need childcare. Proper, solid childcare for a set number of days a week. I didn't want to do 'bits of work' or work in the evening - I wanted and needed to do a job. So my children went to a childminder, and I worked four days a week.

I on the other hand never paid for childcare except for when I was at the gym!

When the children were very small I worked when they were napping or in the evening (I am a natural night owl) and deliberately restricted both my income and my expenditure. (Thank goodness for tax credits back then)

Once the children started school I was able to allocate my work and share school runs with DH (who is also separately self employed)

We both take August off to be with the kids,
He is VAT registered and we juggle the dividends to make the best use of tax allowances.
There are many ways to do things.

I sometimes worked while the baby was sleeping etc (I had good sleepers), but I didn't enjoy it, I found it massively easier all round when they were in childcare.

It depends a bit on whether your work can be done in bits and bobs, mine tends to need time to concentrate without too much interruption. I found it fairly hard work rushing in between baby and job, and I wasn't comfortable with the way I'd be willing the baby to sleep or to sit still in my arms so I could get on with work. It didn't seem that ideal for the baby, compared to childcare where someone would actually be interacting with them. And then I was very happy to see the baby after I'd finished work and it felt far more positive, having a fixed boundary of work time/baby time.

So my experience would say, if you can afford some childcare, then get it on focus on the work for those periods, and focus properly on the baby the rest of the time.

For the most part I only work when my son is at daycare (2 days a week) or when he's sleeping.

I do have some days though when I have a hard deadline that can't be moved and he's around. If it's holiday time my DH helps out (he's a Teaching Fellow) but during term time he can't. So my son plays while I work and I do the best I can to keep him entertained. He's nearly 2 now so it can be a bit hard but CBeebies helps as does lots of interesting interactive toys.

It is much easier, though, on days he is being looked after by someone else.

I'd defo recommend a strict baby routine too. I did Gina Ford with both and was able to plan my day around this. Once you have a content baby you shouldnt (I hardly didnt anyway) have a grizzly baby so phone calls were easy.

Also a set routine with housework/chores too. Dividing bits that are really necessary throughout the week. Ive never had any help from hubby so no idea on sharing tasks either.

There would be time when I would put baby in another room - not as if they are going to go anywhere anyway - so I could concentrate - say while on a phone query.

Perhaps you could get an ad-hoc babysitter ready or a family member just in case a large workload crops up as you can never turn down the promice of work.

Its hard, its about planning, list writing, and really pushing yourself no matter how tired you are.

If you live anywhere near Wandsworth in London, this place might be useful www.third-door.com - as you can use the office space upstairs and the nursery downstairs on a pay as you go basis, so you don't need to pay for permanent childcare, just when you have work come in.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

joshandjamie have you ever used ThirdFloor? In June I will be living near Wandsworth, so it's good having this place in mind. If you have used it, could you tell me what your experience has been like wit h work and leaving the little one in the nursery?

If you are using both things (office and nursery), how much does it cost you?

Thanks

My son was always a terrible sleeper so I had to use childcare for the most part.

Lots of views on here. I have only tried working with childcare, but my try to combine working with child on any future kids now I freelance...

Just wanted to raise a glass to bacon. Farmers wife, business woman, Gina Ford following mummy - all in a caravan!!! Wow! (Sorry slight highjacking point)