“As both a Mum and a business owner, it’s an exciting and rewarding combination. You have the freedom to be flexible with your hours and ‘be there’ for your kids, but your business becomes your ‘baby’ too – but will consume a lot of your time”.
Nicki, Pedddle Founder
The work/life balance is a phrase we hear a lot. As both a parent and a business owner, I’m in the same position as many small business owners. If you’re self employed as a business owner, it can be even harder to separate your creative work from your home life. Juggling home life and a small business is both exhausting and rewarding – sometimes in equal measures!
My top tips for staying present without always having to be present
We all know how important home life is – therefore sometimes you need your business to keep ticking along whilst you’re focusing on your home life instead. This is what the work/life balance is really all about – helping your business to work without you, so you can ultimately spend less time working, and more time on the ’life’ part.
My key tips for achieving this are:
- Raising your visibility online – to do this, you’ll need good SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Check out this blog for some SEO-boosting tips. SEO is all about building up a digital footprint and being discovered online, so that even when you’re not working, people can discover and buy from you. You want your business to be discovered when somebody Googles your business name, or searches for a product that you offer, or keywords that you use within your business. The aim is to show up whenever somebody searches for any term relating to your business, so that your business takes care of itself! This takes time, but Pedddle can help – click here to see how.
- Google Business – Set this up ASAP! It’s free, you can share images and even write articles on there. You can list products and link to your product listing (wherever that may be) for people to shop easily. Google is great – and again builds TRUST with your audience, as it’s such a famous search engine. If somebody Googles you and you’re one of the first hits on the search, they are far more likely to think your business is credible and trustworthy. Also by creating this listing, it is working when you are not. I regularly get notifications to tell me how many people have seen my Pedddle images, even when I’m not working! Click here to see how it works.
- Get your images online – People search via Google Images all the time! If you are sure to label images that you upload ANYWHERE on the internet, people can find you! Make sure you label each image in the title, with your business name as well as the product title and information. In the ALT text, write some detail about what is in the picture and this will all help you when Google searches.
- Add multiple links to your Instagram bio. Direct your customers to shop from you, even when you’re not actively posting. Link to your selling platforms or website, a recent blog or event, or get customers to sign up to your newsletter – wherever you want to take them, give them one link to get there! Make it easy for them. TOP TIP: Although linkt.ree or an equivalent is fab for social media, if you can add a specific page to your website with all of your links in, then link THIS website page in your Insta bio, your website will get more hits! This boosts your SEO too.
- Write blogs – Get involved in blogs wherever you can. Write and publish them on your website, write some and publish them on your friends’ websites (whether or not you have your own website yet). You could even ask other makers to do guest blogs for their website that mention you. This again will boost your SEO. Click here for tips on writing a brilliant blog to boost your SEO.
That is just some of the free stuff you can do for your business, and when you are not physically working your business will still be noticed, and customers can still engage with you.
Other options such as paid advertising (including Facebook Ads, directories and influencers) can offer you further brand awareness building and increased digital presence, but there is plenty you can do for free, that will run along all by itself.
Pedddle Membership can further raise your online visibility with our market ’check-in’ feature – you can be seen on our market organiser’s pages, which further boosts your SEO. On top of this, our stallholder membership offers you community, tips, advice, discounts on services and much more – click here to see what you get as a Pedddle Stallholder Member.
Juggling home life and a small business
Another way to give you more financial freedom is by creating various income streams. This blog about the work/life balance may interest you, which discusses creating different types of revenue, so that you can spend more time at home.
Holly & Co recently published this blog on emotional labour, which is also worth a read. It talks about potentially delegating or outsourcing aspects of your home life, such as repeat ordering things, which may help free up your time.
Want some more business tips? Check out our other blogs…