Becoming a New Parent and Starting a Business: Tips for Managing Two Major Milestones at Once
Starting a family and owning your own business are just two of life’s biggest milestones. Both require significant amounts of time and energy, sometimes leaving you feeling drained. Doing both simultaneously could quickly become overwhelming. Use these tips to help you navigate this exciting and taxing time efficiently.
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Take Advantage of Time-Saving Technology
When you’re balancing a busy work and personal life schedule, you have to find ways to save time if you want to keep up the momentum. Take advantage of business and personal technology to help streamline your life. For example, you can use project management software to keep all the documents, billable hours, and information for each project you work on in a single space. At home, keep an integrated calendar on your phone to help you manage bills and appointments, such as doctor visits and meetings.
Digitize Your Records
If you want to be more productive, start by getting organized, especially with business-related documents. Digitize your paper records and important documents and keep them all together and neatly filed on your computer. You can scan documents to turn them into PDFs and store them using cloud-based software. Organize documents by merging them into pages of a single PDF. Then you can access everything at once from anywhere you want without being concerned about Wi-Fi access.
Define Your Business Structure
Part of your business plan includes defining your company structure. For example, new small businesses typically register as limited liability companies for tax and flexibility advantages. It requires less paperwork and costs significantly less if you register your company yourself using a formation service online. Before you choose the website to register your LLC, make sure you read reviews for the best LLC services online to find one that simplifies the process for a reasonable fee.
Create a Space for the Baby in Your Office
Having a home office is a great way to save time and get work done while you manage being a parent. Research shows that you can even make use of your office in a way that allows you to write it off as a tax deduction. To help you manage being a parent and working, create a space for the baby in your office. Put down a play mat to keep them entertained while awake and a bassinet or swing to give them a comfortable place to nap while you work. Keep them within your field of vision as a safety precaution as well.
Get Help When You Need It
Asking for help is difficult for some people. However, there are many sleepless nights in the early months of parenting, and you can’t always use their naptime as a chance to get rest. When you’re feeling overwhelmed and need to get through your work quickly, reach out to your support system for help with the baby while you work or recharge. Keep that system on alert and try to plan your time off so you can use it more efficiently.
Digitizing documents, forming your LLC, caring for your newborn, and launching your business can sound overwhelming when you think about the amount of time and energy you need to do it all correctly. However, you only need the time it takes to do it little by little. When you start to feel overwhelmed, turn your focus to the baby and get help wherever you can find it.
