Heather Criswell is the founder of WiseInside, speaker, and author of the award-winning How to Raise a Happy Child (and be happy too) and Wise Talk from the Other Side. She’s the host of WiseTalk Radio, a podcast sharing a revolutionary approach to heart-centred communication.
She’s worked with over 30,000 children and their families, helping them see their power, own their greatness, and communicate from love. At 21, she founded a unique preschool and later opened a holistic wellness centre. She’s dedicated her life to helping people step into their greatness and shine bright.
Being a parentpreneur seems like the perfect way to combine family life with doing something you love and earning a living. But managing the responsibilities of parenthood and entrepreneurship is often a balancing act then is very rarely balanced for a period of time. This episode covers the truth about running a business as a parentpreneur.
The life of a parentpreneur can be extremely hectic. From scheduling meetings, making appointments, emails, deadlines, to taking care of children, cleaning and cooking, the list goes on. It sometimes feels impossible to mentally digest everything.
If you’re anything like me you may have loads of apps on your phone. From social media apps to organisers and to do lists, everyone has their favourites. So I thought I would share with you 3 of the best apps for small businesses that I use on a daily basis, to help keep me organised and on-track throughout the day.
Tech applications and their ease of functionality can make our day to day lives so much easier with just the simple click of a button.
In no particular order, we have:
TRELLO
Trello is a collaboration tool that organises your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what’s being worked on, who’s working on what, and where something is in any given process.
Sometimes we are not always sat at our computer working; we often have to work on the go. Trello makes it easy to keep a grip on all the different projects and collaborations you are working on. Trello syncs with the work on your computer and notifies you when one of your team members updates.
There is so much more to Trello, and Skillshare has a range of mini videos you can watch to see its full capabilities. There are other options out there such as Asana and more
Click on links below to get Trello, Skillshare and Asana
The awesome reminder + timer app that is alarmingly great! It includes pop-up reminder alerts with robust repeat scheduling, flexible snooze and full customization. As well as pop-up timers with custom messages, countdown/countup options, and timer queues.
What I love about this app is that it’s focused on empowering you to get things done. A couple of ways I use this app are to remind me of Twitter hours on twitter that I may want to take part in. I also use this app to remind me when one of my children is due totheir medication. Life can get so busy that you can easily forget things you are meant to do.
Alarmed also has a “Relentless Nag-Me” feature that’ll keep repeating a reminder until you mark it as completed. You can set the app to nag you about your task once every minute or once every hour. This nag-me feature is very handy for critical tasks that occur during busy times of your day, its incessant reminder ensures you will complete the task, even when you are juggling ten other things.
There are many benefits and disadvantages to receiving email on your mobile phone, let’s face it mobile phones have become a vital piece of business and even home equipment for many business owners.
Some of the benefits are:
Good customer service, this is particular useful if you have a business where you have a set timeframe of when you respond to your customers
Increased productivity
Working remotely (e.g. working from home or away from the office)
Disadvantages:
They can become a distraction, especially if you are spending quality time with your family
If clients and customers get used to you responding to their emails on a regular basis within a quick time scale, it can get them into a routine. What happens if you can’t respond within that timeframe?
There are so many great apps for your phone that you can download today to help your small business get more organised. It was hard to narrow it down, but below are a couple that I have recently started using.
PICNIIC – FAMILY ORGANISER
Picniic is the family assistant that helps families become more organised, productive, and more connected than ever before.
If you want to manifest more money in your life, you have to track every single penny AND keep a gratitude journal of all your good fortune. The Lucky Bitch Money Tracker does exactly that. I downloaded this app via a recommendation, and just so you know it’s not an accounting app. So far I am loving this app; it’s great for setting money-related goals.
Click the on link below to get Lucky Bitch Money Tracker:
It’s National Book Lovers Day and as a lover of reading, I thought I would share with you 3 of my current favourite books. My favourites change all the time and often, as a parentpreneur finding time to read can be a challenge. With the demands of family and business, I don’t always get to read as much as I would like.
Here are 3 books I have enjoyed reading.
Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea So You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money
Pat Flynn
I am an avid listener of Pay Flynn’s SPI and Ask Pat podcasts, so when he said he was writing this book I had to get my hands on it. Will It Fly is about testing out and validating your business ideas before going down the road of spending too much of your valuable time and money on something that may not reap rewards later. This book is suitable for all types of businesses, it’s all about hard work, persistence, honesty and research.
Get Rich, Lucky Bitch! Release Your Money Blocks and Live a First Class Life
Denise Duffield-Thomas
I was a late reader of this book, I have been a follower of Denise for some time and her teachings on money mindsets are priceless. This book is easy to read, and once I picked it up I could not put it down. It breaks manifesting down into easy to follow steps and helps you think about what might be holding you back. I could feel Denise’s passion and enthusiasm on the subject as I read.
You can look inside and grab a copy of Get Rich, Lucky Bitch here.
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
Simon Sinek
When I read this book I had already started my business, but this is a valuable book for anyone who is starting a business and for those who are already running one. Yes, sometimes when you run a business you may go through a period where you lack motivation and passion. Reading this book will help you to refocus and gain clarity as to why you do what you do.
This episode covers how to turn your passion into a business. Maybe It’s time to monetise that hobby of yours. It starts with starting today, not tomorrow. Looking for opportunities and making the most of them. To make your business more productive and progressive, it is essential to have a good and clear mindset that emphasises on opportunities.
No-one is an instant expert in business. Chances are, no matter how great you think you are doing, you might be making some mistakes along the way.
Of course, everyone makes mistakes, that is how we learn and grow, but if you can minimise the mistakes that you make, then you can try and make sure that your business has the success that it deserves. All without too many bumps along the way.
But what are these mistakes? Let us take you through some of the most common ones that people often make.
Not delegating
Delegation has to be one of the hardest things to learn how to do. But it is also one of the best things that you can learn how to do. Delegation means that you are confident in those around you completing tasks. This could be within your business, or, if you are a parentpreneur, this could be in your family life.
Time is limited, and you are simply not going to be able to spread yourself around in all the corners that you need to. So, by delegating things out to others, you can make things that little bit easier on yourself.
Not sticking to your boundaries
It can be hard to impose boundaries when it comes to your business. Especially in those early stages when all you want to do is grow, improve and succeed. Recognising your own boundaries is the first step, and then sticking to them is the next.
Not only is this key with your customers, particularly if you are the type of person that wants to please but also with your family too. Having boundaries helps you to recognise when you need to concentrate on your business, and when you can have some family time.
Not asking for support
No-one can succeed alone. Which means you need to be able to ask for help and advice at times. This can come in a number of places. You may find someone who wants to help with the business sides of things, allowing you more time with your family. Equally, you may have someone who is happy to take on some of your childcare commitments, allowing you to focus on your business.
There is no shame in asking for help. You may be surprised that someone around you will have simply been waiting for you to ask.
The important thing to remember is that everyone makes mistakes. Even the most experienced business people. The best thing to do is not to dwell on these mistakes. Instead, you should learn and grow with them. This will make a huge difference to how much of a success your business is.
Join our thriving community of parents with a passion for business click here
We all love the idea of making our lives easier. This is why plenty of us will try out life hacks, all to make sure that things take less time such as cleaning, as well as less effort.
What if there were ways that you could make business that little bit easier? Great if you are a parentpreneur and already short on time.
Well, we present to you, 3 areas of business that you can automate. That’s right, you can set them up to do things on your behalf, saving you plenty of time!
Social media and blogs
Social media and blogging have become vital parts of effective marketing campaigns. They are both known to have a real impact on how successful your business is. The trouble with social media is that it can take some time to log in, create posts and then share them.
This is where automated social media and blogging is a huge help. Whilst it can’t write the posts for you, it can post them onto your profiles or pages. All you need to do is create a whole load of posts and blogs, tell the platform when to post them (date, time etc) and then, just like magic, your posts will appear.
Customer service
Customer service, especially great customer service is very important for your business. However, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t something that can be given an automated touch. The hard thing about this is making sure that you don’t lose the personal touch.
Automated customer service, in particular apps or live chats, are great for those businesses that have tech-savvy, younger customers. But those that target to an older crowd might find that they need to still take an old-fashioned approach. This is why it might be a good idea to try and offer both an “actual person” and an automated option to your customers.
That way, they can try out an automated approach, but still, have the chance to speak to someone if that isn’t giving them the answers that they need.
Scheduling
Some business owners only have themselves to think about and organise. But others have staff that they need to keep track of too. Scheduling is important, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t without headache.
Thankfully, it seems that some companies have seen this issue, and designed automated scheduling tools that make this side of business all the easier. You can find out where your staff are, and when they are available, as well as organise shifts and rotas. All using a few clicks of the button.
Better than spending hours trying to figure things out on a pad.
Business will always be hard work, but it doesn’t have to be “hard work”. By looking at ways that you can make things simpler for yourself, you can free up some more time to spend with your family or making moves to make your business even more of a success.
Mindset is more important that you may think. This is particularly true for those people who are running their own business as well as raising a family.
The life of a parentpreneur isn’t an easy one, and there is a need to share your time between these two important parts of your life. This can be tricky, however, you can make life that little bit easier for yourself by adopting some positive mindset changes, rather than negative ones.
To help you to change the way you think, we have put together the 3 mindset changes that every parentpreneur need to make.
Make time for your partner and your children
One thing that every parentpreneur discovers is that time isn’t always something that you have plenty of. This means that you really need to make sure that you spend it wisely. Your business is important, of course, it is, but your family are just as important. This means that you should always plan to make time for your partner and for your children.
Even if you are busy, and have lots of things that you need to do, you still need to factor in this valuable family time. This means turning off the phone or laptop and focusing on those important people instead.
Make your income passively
It isn’t only your business that can make you money. There are also some passive ways that you can make money too. Some of the best ways to make your income passively include:
Try out property
Blog
Make YouTube Videos
Banish guilt
Guilt is a natural feeling for those that are not focusing all their time on their children. However, it is definitely a mindset that needs to be changed. There is no reason to feel guilty, you need to remember that you are doing your very best for your family by setting up your own business.
You may be spending less time focused on your family, however, in the long run, you will be able to spend much more time with them.
Thinking about the long-term goal is key when it comes to banishing guilt, as this will give you something to look forward to.
So, now you know, the 3 mindsets that every parentpreneur needs to adopt when it comes to making a success of their business. Why not try them out for yourself and see if you can change the way you think, and the way that you behave when it comes to business.
Join our thriving community of parents with a passion for business click here
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
