Baby now 1 year old.... time to take a gamble and invest more into the business?

[Saffra]

Since the birth of my 1 yr old DD, I have only worked about 20-30 hours PW in my business. Compared with the long hours I was putting in before (as you would expect from a start-up business), I now have a really great work/life balance and pay myself a reasonable 'wage' - the same amount as when I was employed, in fact. I'm happy as there haven't been any major emotional highs and lows with the business, in sharp contrast to the theme of bootstrapping and loan-taking in the first year of trading.

I'm now forward-planning and feel very undecided on what I want to achieve with the business going forward. With hard work (i.e. more hours) and financial investment, it may be possible to take the business to the next level. But, it will take risk and very possibly some personal discomfort.

Has anyone been in this situation? How did it work out?

We are looking to TTC in 18 months.

Just to add to this, I currently don't use any formal childcare as my mum is able to mind DD for a set number of hours per week, so feel very lucky that I'm able to juggle things in this way. But, obviously if I were to try and further invest in the business, I will probably need to go down the childminder or nursery route. My heart says 'no' as I feel like I do have options such as working more in the evenings, but my head is thinking 'yes' as we need to think about our future financial wellbeing too.

Hi there

Haven't been in your situ, which what you are really looking for...

But firstly I wanted to say well done. I have followed your "story", I cannot believe your DD is 1!

I think you should give it ago. You have a limited time before you need to (hopefully) go on maternity leave again, so why not try to ramp it up? Are you likely to need to cover 2 sets of childcare once you have 2? More money will help with that etc.

Hopefully somebody who has been through it, will be along.

MML

Thanks MML. Oh, I know, time has truly flown. I can't quite believe it myself!

That's true, I suppose that I am in countdown mode really. So, I should probably factor this into my business plans.

I HATE the idea of going back to scrimping though (as would need to draw less from the business to invest more) and worrying about potential cash-flow issues with going down the riskier route.

Do you need to experience the pain to become much more successful?

I think you're focusing on the next couple of years, which is understandable in your situation but would it help to think longer term? Do a 5 and 10 year plan for your business and think about what you need to do to achieve that. Is it a case of 'well, I could keep things are for 2 years and then achieve my 5 and 10 yr goals in 7 and 2 years' or is it a case of 'if I don't move now I'll miss my window'

To answer your final question, yes, at some point you're going to have to go through the pain to reach the success. But the thing you have to work out is if you even want the success - you sound quite happy as you are tbh. But will you feel that way 10 years down the line?

Good advice from WilsonFrickett. I am still in the right now/next few months mindset as have only been going 1.5 years. And also my business is me whereas I know your is products which I guess might be easier to scale up.

Guess it depends on what you think you can manage, but as WF says, what is it you want now and longer term?

As it's an Ecommerce business, things are very fast paced and constantly evolving (I.e. Products, technology, media, etc.) so I think anything up to a 5 yr plan is probably as long term as it can be.

Where do I want to be in 5 yrs? Good question. I could have answered this easily pre-DD.

I guess I could carry on as I am for now (as I am happy... Well, other than that niggling thought that I / the business should be achieving more or that competitors are breathing down my neck...). But, there probably is a limited window to get things up to the next level because we do want at least one more baby. If I manage to drive things forward successfully, I suppose that it'll see me through a second 'maternity leave' (of sorts) as I have more cash for further outsourcing.

Now or long-term? Well, 10 years down the line, I'd want our family to be financially comfortable. Right now though, 10 yrs feels like a very long time away. But, throwing preschool dc into the mix, I could quite easily 'throw away' the opportunity to build something really good.

Sorry, bit garbled. Meant that I could q easily continue to take it easy while dc are pre-school age... Then before I knew it, 5 years had passed.

Exactly. Q is would you be happy with that and value that time spent with them as being the right move, or not?