DO YOU HAVE THE TIME?
by Donna Schwartz Mills

So you've made the decision to work at home.
Congratulations -- You're about to join a modern movement
of over 14 million that grows by about 500,000 every year.

If you've done your homework, you probably have a good idea
of how much money you'll need to invest to get your business
off the ground. But business success does not come about
through money alone. There is another resource you need to
consider: Your time.

You may presently work an eight-hour day and commute a
couple of additional hours each way. If you applied this
time to your own home business, you would have 50 hours
each week to devote to your business. That should be enough -- right?

That depends... If your decision to work at home was spurred
by a desire to have a more balanced family life, you need to
take a long hard look at how those hours will really be
spent. Just as your create a budget for your finances, you
need to budget your time.

Here's a hypothetical look at the schedule of a "typical"
work at home parent:

 

7:00 - 9:00	Get up, get kids up, make breakfasts and lunches, get kids ready for school	2 hours
9:00 -10:00	Drive kids to school, return home	1 hour
10:00 -2:30	Kids in school; time to work	4 hours
2:30 - 3:30	Pick kids up, run errands, return	1.5 hours
3:30 - 6:00	Family time; may include running kids to lessons and other activities	2.5 hours
6:00 - 8:00	Prepare dinner, sit down to eat, clean up, put youngest kids to bed	2 hours
8:00 -11:00	Time with older kids/spouse	3 hours
11:00 -7:00	Sleep	8 hours
TOTAL:		24 hours

Of course, your own needs may be different. You may only
have one child with few after-school activities, or older
kids who get to school on their own. Your child may not yet
go to school, which would change this schedule
significantly. The point is that you do have to plan for
when you will work.

Using the hypothetical schedule above, we've allotted four
hours per day -- or 20 hours from Monday to Friday -- to
work. Depending on the type of business you launch, that may
be enough. Then again, take another look at this schedule:
There's no time allotted for lunch. Even if you tend to eat
at your desk, you need to make time for breaks, let's say
1/2 hour per day. Do you exercise? We'll add another 30
minutes daily for that. What about housework? Even with kids
who are old enough to help, you'll probably want to spend
some time keeping your home in order. Let's give that
another hour per day and we promise not to look under your
bed for dust bunnies. And don't forget to take some time
for yourself; one hour a week for a manicure or lunch with
a friend. You need to figure in these items too.

Your 20-hour work week is now down to 10 hours a week. Is
that enough?

Most home businesses are one-person shops. That means that
you alone will probably be responsible for performing the
following weekly tasks:

 

1. Correspondence: Email and letters	5 hours
2. Telephone: Sales calls, inquiries, customer service	5 hours
3. Filing and other organizational tasks	1 hour
4. Fulfillment: Shipping and delivering product	2 hours
5. Inventory Management: Tracking and ordering product	2 hours
6. Bookkeeping	1 hour
7. Promotion and Marketing	5 hours
8. Website maintentance	1 hour
TOTAL:	22 hours

Again, this is just a general estimate of how much time a
"typical" home business person may need to spend on various
tasks each week. Depending upon the type of business you
choose and your work habits, your actual time spent will be
very different... and it is likely to change depending upon
sales, season, marketing effectiveness, etc.

Still, our hypothetical, "typical" work at home parent now
needs to get creative with his or her time. Many
ParentPreneurs make up their time deficit by getting less
than eight hours of sleep per night. They might take work
along to do while a son is in karate class, or return phone
calls from a parked car while a daughter is at soccer
practice.

Others hire help -- a housecleaner to get those dust
bunnies, a teenager to watch the preschooler a couple of
afternoons a week, a menu plan that includes ordering in
every Wednesday. You might want to employ a virtual
assistant to help with your correspondence, or a specialist
to handle your marketing. Of course, these things cost
money, which brings us back to your other budget (the
financial one).

The decision to work at home may be the best one you've
ever made for you and your family. Allocate your time
realistically and you can achieve both your goals: Success
as a businessperson *and* as a parent.

This article may be reprinted with permission by including
the following resource box:
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Donna Schwartz Mills is the Editor/Webmaster of the
ParentPreneur Club <http://www.parentpreneurclub.com>,
"where those who are doing the most important job of all
hang their hats." She can be reached at
mailto:donna@parentpreneurclub.com.