5-Tips For Mom Entrepreneurs To Get Down To Business

If you've ever attempted to get anything done with a toddler around, you know it's no cakewalk. It's a challenge to do the dishes or the laundry (shower, anyone?) let alone actual, potentially lucrative work. Here are 5 ways that you can get down to business, even if it means doing these things between phone calls, diaper changes and mealtimes:

1-Find a need and fill it

Stop staring at the competition. Don’t take someone else’s idea or existing business, tweak it, and try to call it your own. Take a look at your life, your needs, wants and desires. Ask yourself, what would make your life easier? Find out how to help your friends do X if you have created Y? Filling a void in the market is, in theory, a cinch. Fill a need stop procrastinating. And not by thinking about it, talking about it or dreaming about it—do it

.

2-Create A Plan Of Action

Do not write up a business plan. Don’t even Google the words "business plan." Mom entrepreneurs don’t have time to put together a lengthy, heady write-up of profits, losses and EBITDA (wha? Take a pen and write out your plan. Get the gist? Then dive in. Try things out. The more you work on your business idea, the more thrilled you will be to see it in action—and it will keep you building.

3-Work With Your Kids, Not Around Them

Stress being the killer that it is, skip it altogether. Don’t fret the childcare or sweat the pick-ups/drop-offs. Incorporate your child’s schedule into your work day. Teach them to play the Silent Game while you’re on the phone. Have them create something you can hang in your office. And when that noisemaker screams during your conference call? Skip the embarrassment—a whole lot of people also have kids.

They’ll understand

Promise.

4-Embrace the web

The interwebs are your friends. You don't have to get hooked into social media like facebook and twitter, but don't stay away either. Make sure you’re connecting with folks who can help you along in your business. Find local groups like The Founding Moms where you can meet up with fellow mom entrepreneurs face-to-face. Grow your network who will, in turn, help you and your business grow.

5-Meet up with fellow mom entrepreneurs

There’s nothing like meeting someone in-person. You should embrace the web and all that it has to offer. But, get out of the house. Not only will it bring you great joy to smile at other human beings, but your kids will appreciate staring at new walls, too. Tell us your trials and tribulations of being a mom entrepreneur, then shake hands with like minded people and know your not alone.

You’ll thank yourself.