Women are familiar with doing it all — there’s no question about it. Despite the fact that 31 percent of U.S. small businesses are female-owned, women are still responsible for the bulk of household chores and childcare, including tasks such as laundry, cleaning, cooking, and grocery shopping. But if you’re with the majority, a few simple tips and stress management techniques can help to make your life as a lady boss much easier.
These tips presented by FromGirlToGirl will help you to do it!
Apply Time-Saving Tricks
When it comes to managing the day-to-day, embrace tools that free up time and help reduce stress. For example, look for ways to automate tasks, including the use of accounting and payroll platform or a social media management site. Having invoices automatically sent or timed posts for FaceBook or Instagram will add precious minutes to your day. There are other great tools out there too, such as Trello or Asana for project management, or Adobe Spark’s free design studio when you’re tackling your own marketing materials. Features like their online banner template offer quick and easy creation through a template library, and once your design is complete, you can resize it for your website, your Instagram or anywhere else you need it.
Hire a Virtual Assistant
Outsourcing work isn’t always easy when you’re used to juggling everything yourself — especially if you’re a perfectionist — and sometimes it simply isn’t in the budget. However, some business functions are best outsourced if you’re overworked, overstressed, and struggling to keep up with it all. And one of these business functions includes your administrative tasks. This is where a virtual assistant (VA) comes in.
By recruiting an experienced virtual assistant (VA) to help with some or all of your administrative tasks, you’ll take the following types of responsibilities off your plate.
- Performing data entry
- Scheduling meetings and social media posts
- Receiving / returning phone calls and emails
- Proofreading documents
Many administrative VAs charge an hourly rate, ranging from $10- $20, to offer affordable,helpful support. However, hourly rates vary based on experience and the types of tasks you assign. Executive virtual assistants or VAs with marketing experience can help with business tasks. Use a freelance job board website to find the most qualified candidates.
Schedule Weekly Meetings at Home
To make sure your family is on the same page each week, it’s important to hold regular meetings with your spouse, kids, and any other household members. These weekly meetings will give everyone a chance to connect with one another, organize the upcoming week, discuss their wants and needs, and delegate household chores and responsibilities.
If you don’t have kids, you and your spouse (or partner) should still plan to meet each week. This time together can be used to make plans, divide chores, discuss problems or challenges, and express gratitude for one another.
Life is unpredictable, but making a plan to meet weekly will help to take some of the stress and uncertainty out of balancing work and family life. Plus, these meetings will bring everyone together for some much-needed family time.
Get Some Help Around the House
Even if you’re working remotely or running a home-based business, you likely could use some help in your personal life — especially if you’re a mother to one or more children. Here are a few ideas for getting some help around the house when you’re busy running a business.
- Hire a nanny or another type of childcare professional.
- Pay for a cleaning service to get help with vacuuming, dusting, and laundry.
- Delegate age-appropriate chores to your children.
- Sign up for a meal or grocery delivery service to save time on shopping and food prep.
Regardless of whether you hire a VA to handle your administrative tasks as a business owner, a personal assistant (PA) could be another great investment. Unlike VAs, personal assistants can help with everything from running errands and paying bills to prepping meals for your family and managing your personal calendar.
As a woman, you’re used to juggling it all — and you’re great at it. But being great at something does not mean you do not deserve a helping hand. There’s no need to do it all, and knowing when to ask for help will only make you more successful as a business owner — especially in the male-dominated world we’re living in.