Smart marketing for busy parents

This article originally appeared on Inside Small Business www.insidesmallbusiness.com.au

Many businesses face the same pain around their marketing – a lack of time and money. For new mums (or dads) who are also running their own business, the pain of finding time is very real.

New business mums are expected to juggle meeting the demands of their business and their baby equally. For many, who are also suffering post-birth depletion or other health issues, including sleep deprivation, the pressure cooker starts to build. Instead of enjoying this time in your baby’s life you start to feel pulled back into your business to “carry on as usual.”

By understanding basic marketing concepts, you will find that you can effectively market your business within the time and money that you have.

Simply marketing is research, strategy, campaigns and leads.

Research

It is important to understand your customers (actual and ideal), your products and services and also your competitors. For some businesses, it is also relevant to understand other local and global issues that may affect the way that your business operates in. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) plan should be created to show the research you have undertaken.

Strategy

Your marketing strategy should be closely aligned with your business goals, and they should direct all of your marketing-related activities. This includes sales, promotions and digital. A marketing mix will provide the big picture view of your marketing (four to seven P’s or C’s).

Campaigns

The campaigns that you create will deliver your strategy. This is where you can get creative. It is about breaking everything down into bite-size, achievable pieces – understanding that it will deliver on your marketing goals.

This is the bit that you can control and slow down if needed. Moreover, once the content is generated you can often automate many aspects of a campaign. However, note that while campaigns deliver on your strategy, they also fill up your lead funnel. By slowing down the activity in your campaigns, you will also slow down lead generation. This is important, especially if you have limited time to meet your customers’ expectations.

Leads

In general terms, this is about bringing your ideal client closer to doing business with you. Typically speaking, people need to see your brand three to nine times before they will do business with you. By attracting them into your lead funnel and encouraging them to engage with you more, you will increase the chances of them becoming a paying customer.

By spending some time and planning your marketing (research and strategy), you will be able to create campaigns that create leads, and leads that become sales. By automating your campaigns and your lead generation, you will not need to think about it, and you can also control the number of people in the process.

Not only can you be smarter with your time, you can also make smarter decisions with your money.

Finding The New You After Having A Baby

This article originally appeared on My Deal - www.mydeal.com.au

When you have a baby, everything changes. Most significantly your priorities in life shift. You stop thinking about just you and start thinking about this little being. You reorganise your life so you can be there for your baby, provide for them, nurture them, enjoy those little moments. Then life somehow gets in the way and causes conflict with this new-found identity.

While your mind and body have stepped into their new role as mother, you are often finding yourself being dragged into doing the things you did before you were mother. This potentially causes you to feel anxiety and guilt. You are stuck between the expectations others have of the old you and your new life where you have a very different priority.

How do you step into your brand-new identity, while still drawing on the strengths and skills of your pre-mother self?

1) First you need to define your new identity for yourself.

Step into that role and make the changes you need to truly become the person you want to be. Write rules, create a life plan, make a vision board or get a coach. Take all the things you still love about who you were and mash it up with the person you have become. Do whatever you need to find clarity around your new role of mum and whatever you were – business owner, career person – whoever!

2) Surround yourself with people who will support you and keep you both motivated and accountable.

You are not being selfish. You are putting the needs of your baby and family first. You are making sure that you are fulfilled and not being left stressed and full of guilt.

You are making the changes that will lead you to achieving balance.

Is it possible to find balance?

This article was originally published on Funsize Enterprise. www.funsizeenterprise.com

Yes. Yes, it is. And here is the secret. You need to define what balance means to you and your family. We spend our days thinking that we are out of balance. Do you ever stop to think what balance means to you? Picture what a balanced life would look like? Do you ever question society expectations of you? When was the last time you paused and considered what balance means to you and your family?

Could you let go of all of the ideas that you have around what is expected of you. This could be from your neighbour, parents, partner, your internal chatter, the community you live in or even what you see on social media? The expectations of you as a woman, man, mother, father, daughter, son, business owner, employee – all the roles of your life. What if you could write your own job description? Determine your own objectives. Performance indicators. Outcomes. What would this look like? What would it feel like?

When you think about this, are the excuses creeping in? Saying you can’t change things because there are some things you ‘need’ to do, or what would ‘society’ think if you did things a little differently. Here is the thing – we live in a big world that at this time like no other – we have the opportunity to rethink the rules of our life. We can learn from other cultures and adapt what we think might work for us. The way that we raise children, earn money – the rules are evolving. For those who are willing to write their own ‘job description’ and set their own rules, they are finding balance. More importantly they are defining their own balance.

I understand that there are the day-to-day tasks that need to be completed. You need to feed your child, change them, educate them. You need to support your partner. You may even need to look after elderly parents. You may have a boss you need to answer to, or clients, or staff. If you are not finding fulfillment in these areas, then you need to address that. You do have the power to change your situation.

Here are some tips from When Business Meets Baby that may help you to define and achieve balance in your life:

• Rethink the expectation of being a parent
• Let go of trying to be a perfect parent
• Understand what or who your priorities are to be able achieve balance
• Ensure that you put yourself in a position where you have flexibility and choice. This gives you better control on the outcomes
• Learn to go with the flow be relaxed and present
• Give yourself permission to live in the moment
• Measure, track and review how you use your time
• Change your perspective on life – walk a new path often
• Find or create your support community (village) and give help to others without being asked
• Stay inspired everyday

You can choose, today, to make a change. To walk a new path. To create the rules in your life that will lead you to feeling balanced. Balance isn’t something that will just happen, nor is it something that you will feel always. There will be times where you will not have balance, and that is normal. What is not normal is to be living everyday struggling to tick of the to-do list, not seeing an end in sight. To be neglecting ourselves, our partners and our children in the pursuit of getting ‘stuff done’.

Take a breath and make the changes you need to find your own version of balance in your life.

Getting back into business after a baby

This article originally published on The Business Women Media: http://www.thebusinesswomanmedia.com/

You have a beautiful baby who you love above anything else. You have taken time for your body to heal and you have fully stepped into your new identity as mother. Now your business is calling you back. Needing you, wanting you to invest. You want the intellectual stimulation that your business gives you, your head says it still wants to be with your baby. How do you get back into business after a baby.

You need to find balance between providing for your business and your baby. More importantly you need to be able to disconnect from your ‘mother’ role and focus on your business. You also then need to be able to disconnect from business owner and step back into being mother. Constantly switching roles and being present in both.

Many women have and continue to switch between both roles successfully. Here is one big tip to help you: To be effective in your business you need dedicated space and time.

Dedicated space

This is not your lounge room or dining room table or a corner of the spare room. You need a space that is for your business, that you can set-up your computer and organise your ‘work’. A place that you can invite people into to talk business. A space that you can make uniquely yours. Where you feel motivated to work.

This space could be a ‘study’ inside the house, or a converted shed or garage. You may choose to rent an office or space in a business centre or co-working space. Sometimes having space away from home means your business is taken a little more seriously. Although having a space at home can be useful if your baby is still little.

Importantly you need to make sure that this space is respected by your family. That when you are working, you are not interrupted. That your work is respected, and the space doesn’t become an extension to a playroom.

Dedicated time

Here is the choice – you can spend hours juggling between your laptop and your baby – trying to meet the needs of both at the same time. Not able to get your head into work and starting to get angry at your child for taking you away from your work. Or you can invest in some childcare and get productive time in your business. The options are endless – childcare centres, family day care, in house babysitters or nannies, relatives or even swapping with friends. Some co-working spaces also offer childcare.

If you know that every week you will have so many hours that you can dedicate totally to your business, then you can schedule time to do the work. You can work through daily task lists more efficiently. People start to learn when they can, or can’t contact you. You become efficient with how you use your time and your business grows
.

Building a Community for Support

Support that thing you think you have until you need. People think you don’t need support because they see that you are getting on and getting the job done! Such a vicious cycle.

One thing my partner said when we found out we were pregnant was that it was going to be super hard as we did not have much family close by. There was my brother who was fabulous in the early days but that was all. At the time my stubborn self went ‘we can do it. It is just a baby’. In reality I should have taken his words and looked for my support community.

I did find some support in a women business network I was part of in Ballarat, but it was short lived. I have also found good support in a national networking group for mums. These have accepted I am a mum and allowed me to bring my daughter if needed. But they didn’t help when the pressure cooker was on and I needed hands on help with baby or home. That I have had to either work through or pay someone.

Recently I was ill and we couldn’t find a babysitter and we missed out on a business opportunity. I let people down and it didn’t sit well with me – in fact I was angry. What I realised was that I had to create a ‘community’ that I could call on to help me out when needed, and that I could help them also. I put a call out on social media and yes I got an amazing response…I had my community. People I was not afraid to ask for help from.

It is interesting that in Western society’s we believe we have to do it all alone, to be super parent, super business person, domestic god – no support, no asking for help. Yet in Eastern societies children are brought up by a village. Interesting thought…..

I am not a person to ask for help. And I usually wait until I crash and burn prior to seeking help. Each time I have crashed and burned since the business met the baby, I have reached out and asked for help or more specifically I have paid someone. At first it was staff to try and pick up my workload, then it was a babysitter to enable me to have dedicated time to work, then childcare, then a cleaner, then it was reducing my workload altogether and defining and focusing on core business.

Focusing on core business – and defining what it was that I wanted to achieve for me was the key to gaining clarity for both myself and the business. To start thinking in the way that if I was giving my time away to someone, especially if they did not appreciate that time, and it was not core business, that I would rather give that time to my family. To be clear about what I wanted to achieve in the business. When it came to meeting commitments in the business that were about achieving the goals then I needed to call on my support community.

While my support community 4 years ago would have been very different to the one that I have created today, I still would have reached out and asked for help or at least accepted the help when people offered it. I read in the books that if you were to visit a new mother/family then the best thing you could do was help with the housework, washing, cooking or not stay for too long. And it is so true. The best visitors I had after Sophie was born was one who brought 4 meals worth of soup, packed individually and ready to freeze and one who put her family on a time limit of 20 minutes.

I also realised that just because I to 4 months to catch up with someone – was probably the next best thing I could do other than cooking a meal or 2 for them!

If you don’t have a reliable support network around you then you need to create one. If you are to continue to run a business and meet the needs of that, then there will be times that circumstances fall out of your control and you need the extra little bit of support.

How do you get support? Or do you not reach out and ask for it?

Getting a break

When I used to tell people that my business partner was also my life partner I was met with ‘wow I could never work with my partner’ I didn’t really think that much about it – we have a set of skills that are very complimentary to each other and we are also both able to switch off after work. Pre-baby we both also had ‘interests’ outside of our business and relationship.

We have never really been ‘child-free’ either. With Craig I acquired a 10 year old step-son who was week on and off rotation between his mum and dad prior to living with us full-time for 3 years. Circumstances saw him leave us when I was about 3 months pregnant. From this I knew what sort of father Craig was and also to some degree the type of ‘parent’ I could be. I had certainly learn’t that when I opened my mouth to discipline that it was most likely my mother’s voice coming out – so I have already dealt with that shock!

So when baby comes along I am in a very fortunate position that my ‘life and business’ partner understands the pressure on both a domestic and a business level – he is also living in that pressure. Our biggest ‘arguments’ we have ever had have come from within that pressure.

‘They’ tell you to take time for yourself and also your partner. Our time together was spent juggling a baby so that work commitments could be met, ensuring the domestic world happened and then catching up on sleep – as interrupted as it always has been.

I had and still have separation issues with my daughter – she has been caught wailing at the back door because I have gone to the office (30sec walk away); screamed when I left the house for the first time to get a massage (45mins); she will only be sorted overnight by me. It has only been this year when she was 4 that I have been allowed out at night for work or to socialise. We are yet to spend a full night apart.

For me I got a break from Sophie when she was with a babysitter or at childcare so I could work. I soon updated this to allow myself time to get my hair or nails done or to have a massage – which are all treats to myself. I am also known to use ‘work-time’ to catch up on cleaning, washing or cooking. Because I am self-employed and I am able to do that.

Craig and I have also been known to have a ‘working lunch’ together or sneak to the movies while she is at childcare to get some ‘us’ time. When you lack free babysitting this is what you do.

When you live together – work together – business and home are the same place – and you are parenting together – time is so precious that it is hard to spend time with each other and also yourself to nurture those loves.

In the last month Craig has gone back to full time work – this has meant big changes for both of us – and less time we actually see each other. He rings every lunchtime for an update.

The important thing to do is to try and pre-empt any issues and make changes to the routines so that you can spend time together.

How have you managed to get a break? Your tips from escaping domestic duty, 'wife/husband, mum/dad, business duties?

Plugging Back Into The Real World

There will come a time after you have introduced a baby into your life where you will HAVE to plug back into the ‘real world’ beyond other parents. Impossible as this thought is when you are in the state of feeding, changing nappies, surviving and giving the best start your precious bundle. You will be bombarded with appointments with maternal health nurses, joined up to a ‘mothers group’ and supported/compared/charted like you have never been in this new judgmental world of being a mother.

There will be a time when you will welcome the change of focus to business, where the centre of every conversation is not your baby, its feeding and pooing habits or your post birth recovery!

But it won’t be easy – it will be hard to stay focused on conversations, your foggy-sleep deprived head won’t be able to take too much, you will be constantly thinking of your cherub and if you are still feeding then your boobs are going to be crying out for release!

There may be times when you can take your bundle with you – and you will find that you will start being attracted to the networking and people who are accepting of you having a ‘baby attachment’ and those who are not supportive won’t be in your life for very long (unless they are paying you $$).

While this sounds easy to have your bundle with you – it has its own challenges……

The biggest is that you can not control the mood they will be in and therefore how easy they will be. Other people will either hate that you have a baby/child with you, tolerate it or totally steal them (I had it happen in a board meeting, it was awesome!)

As they move through age brackets it gets both easier and harder. You learn to take paper and pencils, colouring in books and off course tablets!

As your bundle of joy gets older you will start to look for caregivers – grandparents (if you are lucky), baby sitters, family day care or child care centres. Yet there is always the things that you just can’t plan for like last minute changes of plans in your business, illness and public holidays to name a few.

As your child/ren get older you also need to work around school holidays, pupil free days, 3.30(ish) pick-ups plus being involved in their school – attending assemblies, sports days and so on. The juggle doesn’t stop. Yet at some point it has to get easier.

At this time, like no other in history, women are encouraged to plug back into work and their community. Infact the pressure to do so is probably also the greatest that it has ever been. Women are leaving the traditional workforce in droves after they have children and creating micro and small business – some that are growing into International exporters – right from their lounge room! They are creating social business that aim to make a difference in their area of expertise. Women are driving the boom of small business.

The flipside of this is that we are seeing less women taking on board positions or senior management roles but more women are starting small home based businesses.

It is an incredible time for women at the moment, they are seeking empowerment to make decisions and to put their families first – and if the traditional workplace is not allowing for that they are creating an environment that is supportive of that.

My wants and desires for both myself and my business totally changed after the birth of my daughter – shame it has taken me almost 4 years to totally understand and recreate that phenomenon.

What about you - what is your story about returning to the real world? Any tips?