Freelancers who work part-time, client telephone calls?? Help please!!

[flower2009]

To any freelancers who work part-time around their family (I work nap time for 1 hour and then after 7.30pm when little one is in bed). How do you deal with telephone calls from clients outside these hours? Do you take them? I have been trying to take them but my little one shouted hello bye bye down the phone to one of my clients this morning as she tried to wrestle my phone of me!!!!! Talk about disaster!! I'm scared if I don't answer, the client will get frustrated. Also I am constantly answering emails but want to get away from this as it means my little one is being told 'mummy is busy' all the time and is watching too much tv. Do you think it is acceptable to let my phone go to answer phone and then check my voice mail and then phone people back just once a day? I am a virtual assistant so most people email me but I still get quite a lot of calls. Also do you think it is acceptable to just reply to emails after lunch (at nap time) and then again in the evening? I set this business up so I could work flexible hours part-time, but I feel llike my clients want to be able to contact me much more than I expected and I am starting to feel like giving up! Please help!!

I came to the conclusion that it just wasn't going to work without paid childcare and my little one starts in nursery for 2 half days shortly. I only have one client who is a friend of a friend but the plan is to market the business gradually until my youngest is in school. I plan on being honest and explain that I am working from home with a small child. I would remove myself from the room to take calls as there is no way I could concentrate if he was crawling all over me.

When on the phone
"Could you do me a huge favour and pop a summary of your thoughts into an email and then I'll call you back when my small helpful person is not trying to grab the phone
and you save on the phone bill"

And explain to your child from as early an age as possible (I started with DS when he was breastfeeding) that phone calls are important and not to be interrupted as far as possible

With the emails, I think you should send a short acknowledgment email so they don't think they are being ignored.

Do you have an iPhone or something similar?

I guess I was lucky - mine were that age in the days before broadband and smartphones !
Now they are just lippy teens

Yes, yes, yes! Do not always be immediately contactable by email - for your own sanity, planning & time management you shouldn't be a slave to your inbox! Check it twice a day.

If your clients start expecting a response within 5 minutes then you'll possibly end up doing them a disservice when you're unable to do that because e.g., you need thinking time.

You can schedule your email to be sent at a "sensible" time so that you're not looking like a weirdo rattling off mails at 3am!

Set up an auto-responder on your emails so anyone who contacts you that way will have an acknowledgement of their message and a timeframe in which you?ll respond (24 hours, perhaps).

As for phone calls, get yourself a call answering service! I find mine invaluable. For a small monthly payment, you can have a receptionist answer in the name of your company, take messages and pass them onto you so you can respond at a time that works for you.

And second/third/fourth anyone who recommends childcare as you progress, it?s almost impossible not to use some if you really want to make a go of your business.

I cover this in an eBook I?ve written recently about running a business from home around small children, PM me if you want further details!

Thank you for all your replies. I feel better after reading them, especially AlpinePonys, I think I will start scheduling my emails like you mentioned. At the moment I respond as soon as one comes in, and it is turning me into a stressed women who is constantly checking her laptop or phone! From Monday I will force myself to only check them at 9am, 1am and 7.30pm, and good idea about not looking like a weirdo sending emails at 3am lol.

I am finding being freelance more stressful than my old job!!! Is it always like this or does it become easier with more experience of working at home? I would like another baby at some point but I am thinking I may have to wait until my first starts school as I will never get any work done with two of them at home!! I initially thought I could just do all the work at night but it is not turning out that way.....

I hear you... I want to be able to work at 5am but I swear the minute I stop snoring my boys wake up and think "what the hell is that noise?".

The whole scheduling email thing is supposed to be because it really isn't that important, if it is that important people will call you. Checking 3x a day sounds absolutely perfect.

Btw - can you point me in the direction of your website because I may well need to employ a virtual assistant in the future and I'd love a handle on what you do.

I've just finished a project. And yes it can be stressful especially when a toddler is climbing on things at the same time.

But now I've finished I'm sort of missing that extra dimension. The client calls in the park, running something when not actually at work. I really like the pace.

Although I wouldn't advise on spending the first 2 years of your child's life teaching them to say hello to gps over the phone. They will want to do the same with your client

The "Scotty" approach is ALWAYS good to bear in mind
tell the captain that it cannot be done in a short time, tell him it will take a long time and then succeed by bringing it in in a middling time

email is the same
if you are in the habit of replying quickly you are either NOT giving the message enough thought
or it was a relatively unimportant message
and if you were on the cc list, chances are it is best filed without response

Alpinepony I will pm you my details, thank you. My little girl is the same, if I get up early she hears me and gets up to!!

TalkinPeace2, your book sounds very good, you will have to pm the details.

MarshaBrady, I did spend the 1st year of my daughers life trying to get her to talk on the phone to family members and friends, no wonder she wants to talk to my clients!!

I am glad I found this forum, it is so nice to talk to other people in the same boat, all my friends are either employed and use nursery or are stay at home mums. No one seems to understand when I complain, they just think I am lucky! If only they knew how hard it is to balance everything!

This is a good article on responding to email Forbes - however, whilst it says "you're not there to tick off items from your colleagues' "To Do" lists, obviously in your line of work you kind of are - but there has to be a happy medium!

Put her in nursery for the mornings. She'll get much more going there and having full time attention.