There are a growing number of new parents who are also new entrepreneurs; both tasks are incredibly demanding, both will change you fundamentally as a person, and at times both will seem impossible whilst taking up all your free time; but both will be worth it, if all goes to plan.
- Be Passionate
These projects are going to give you more sleepless nights than you accounted for, and are going to demand motivation that you didn’t know existed within you. Embrace it – there’s no other way. Acknowledge that it is going to be difficult, then carry on.
When you have a child, the motivation comes from the importance of keeping the child healthy, but also the joy. It needs to be the same with your business – you need to love it, to have a passion for it that surprises even you. This will necessitate and produce motivation at the same time. Make your product something close to your heart, something you know about and always have, because if your business isn’t a part of you, like your child is, then it’ll fall by the wayside.
- Accept Help
You’re going to be busy, which means you’re going to need more help than you’re going to get. Therefore, when you’re offered help, take it. It could be that your child wants to help licking and sticking envelopes or a grandparent is offering free childcare, or even that you and another local business is able to offer mutual support.
Childcare is particularly important if you don’t want to miss out on networking opportunities. Between six and eight pm, when your child needs to be fed and put to bed, you’re likely to miss out on important events. Rely on your family when you can and, when you can’t, try to find a way around it.
You could talk to other parentpreneurs who would benefit from organizing child-friendly networking events. It’s also worth bearing in mind that there is a wealth of helpful companies you can access online to help a start-up with funding, materials or ideas. For example, you can turn to betterfunds.com to increase your funding options. Don’t forget to take advantage of the fact that there’re many other parentpreneurs out there, and you can access forums and support groups run by people in a similar situation to yourself.
- Have Your Cake and Eat It
You’re going to be split in two. You’ll be lucky to find a single moment where there isn’t something else you could be doing, perhaps even something more urgent than the fire you’re currently putting out. As your commitments and obligations stack up, you’ll come across more and more that simply can’t be missed out on. It may be that you have the youngest one on your lap as you talk your strategy through with your newest client, or that you have a phone to your ear throughout the whole of parents evening.
For the first few years you’re going to face conflicting responsibilities, and sometimes there’re no easy answers, but it can help to know that it isn’t always a case of making a difficult decision – sometimes you’ll find you can perform miracles when it comes to fitting things in.
Nobody likes having pests in their home, but the need to keep them out becomes even greater when you have children. Along with being annoying and irritable, many pests are also very unhygienic, creating a dirty home setting that simply isn’t ideal for any family. In addition, pests such as termites, which eat through wood, can be very damaging to the structure of your home and can even make it dangerous to live in over time. Whether you’re moving into a new family home or want to ensure that your current house is as well protected from pest infestations as possible, here are our top tips on keeping them away.