Last week my baby (well, my first baby!) had her fifth birthday! So if I could go back to when I decided to not return to work full-time, what would I say to myself? And what’s my advice to you if you’re trying to balance business and baby?
Let me tell you in this video…
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Tell us a little about your business
The London Dinner Club was set up in 2010 to help like-minded single professionals meet at exclusive locations around London for dinner and drinks.
What was your job before starting your business?
I achieved a degree in Business Economics from the University of London and decided to continue my studies to qualify as an ACA Chartered Accountant.
A career in investment banking followed and I worked at several well-known companies including JP Morgan and Credit Suisse. It was the career I’d always dreamed of and I was proud to have achieved this after life-long hard work.
It was while I was working for a City bank that I met my partner and of course naturally I wanted to settle down, get married and start a family.
How did you go from your old career to your new business?
The transition itself was easy, as I’d already made up my mind – it was more the risk that was a concern for me, but I knew that I would work hard at it and make it a success.
What were your reasons for starting a business?
After two children, I returned to banking but found it hard juggling family and work and by this time I found that my focus had changed from pursuing a high flying career – I just wanted to spend more time with my children. Continue reading “I started a business with a baby – Salima Manji of The London Dinner Club”
The tasks that most small business hate the most tend to be the ones around money: keeping the books, staying on top of which taxes you need to be paying (and when) and paying people who work for you. It’s time-consuming work, especially if you hate doing it or aren’t skilled or experienced in this kind of work. It could be a very wise move to get yourself an accountant, bookkeeper or use a payroll company, (such as Moorepay, linked to here) yet many small business owners struggle on alone.
If that sounds familiar, here are three reasons why you’re not outsourcing these tasks and what to do about them:
1. How do I know I can trust them?
Although it may sound wonderful to be able to hand all that bookkeeping to someone else, there’s always the nagging worry that they’ll rip you off, behave in a fraudulent way or just do a bad job and get you into trouble with the people who collect tax in your country.
So what can you do to reassure yourself that you’ve got a professional you can trust? You can meet them or at least talk to them on the phone if they are not near you. Remember to check out any qualifications, credentials and membership of professional bodies. Do they have experience of working with small businesses like yours? Then check out testimonials, or better still ask around the people you know to see if they can recommend a service provider to you.
2. But my books are a mess!
An accountant friend of mine told me how some of her clients came to her once a year with a carrier bag of receipts. That was the full extent of their bookkeeping! These professionals are used to people who don’t understand accounts, that’s their job. It may cost you more if you give them messy records to sort out – after all there’s more work involved that way – but that shouldn’t stop you from getting help if you need it.
3. It’s too expensive
You may be surprised how inexpensive bookkeeping and payroll outsourcing can be, especially when you think about how long it would take you to struggle through it yourself each month. A professional could easily have the job done in the third of the time you could.
Accountants do appear to cost more, but on the other hand a good accountant should actually save you money because she will point out more tax-efficient ways of running your business that could save you thousands. If you’re starting out and seriously strapped for cash, some accountants reduce your fees in the first few months for start-ups, so it’s always asking that question. Most small business accountants allow you to pay monthly which spreads their fee over the year rather than hitting you in one go.
So I hope I’ve exploded most of the reasons why you’re not freeing up more of your valuable time!
Can you think of any other reasons why you’re still handling all the money stuff yourself?
Image courtesy of photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
You can’t go anywhere in January without hearing about how you should be setting goals for the year. But as we enter the second quarter of 2013, your goals may be long forgotten. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. You can set and achieve goals at any time of the year.
One place where I’ve made a big step forward this year is in joining a mastermind group. Once a week I get together with three other online business owners and we work through our challenges, plus what we want to achieve. It’s a lot harder to wriggle out of a goal when you know you have to report back to three other people each week! If you haven’t tried a mastermind group I really recommend setting one up.
Here are some more tips to help you set goals and stick to them:
1. Be realistic
Do you set large and totally unrealistic goals? Or maybe you don’t set goals at all? Perhaps the goals are so small that they don’t help you accomplish anything? When creating your goals, take the time to make sure they’re realistic.
For example, if you have a goal to write an e-book to promote your business, make sure you give yourself enough time to get the job done. Trying to complete the report in a single day may be biting off more than you can chew. Instead, a two-week goal writing two or three pages a day may be more realistic.
2. Leave time for things to go wrong
One common mistake is to push your schedule to the deadline. Inevitably something will happen to get in you’re way, especially when you’re working around a family. So don’t save that e-book until the last minute. Your internet will drop out, your four-year-old will wake up with a stomach ache or your car will break down and you’ll have to wait for the AA. Make sure you schedule your days so that your project is completed on or before you need it.
3. Learn your triggers
Everyone has a few triggers that prevent them from being as productive as they’d like to be. Maybe you are easily distracted by Facebook or do you get caught up in email or daytime talk shows?
Learn your triggers and then create systems to manage them. For example, if you get caught up in Facebook, block the site on your computer during your productive working hours. If you enjoy watching daytime television, structure your work hours around your favourite shows and don’t turn on the TV until you’ve accomplished your set tasks for the day.
Finally, make time to relax and celebrate your successes. Taking time off from being productive is just as important as setting and achieving your goals. In fact, it may be more important. When you allow yourself to step away from your goals and your business, you’re able to return to them renewed and refreshed. It helps you maintain focus and a positive attitude.
Once you learn how to identify triggers and set realistic goals, you’ll find that you’re able to accomplish much more in less time. There’s satisfaction in that. There are profits and business growth too.
Don’t miss a thing here at Business Plus Baby  Click here to get my newsletter and I’ll also send you a copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.
As mums we are usually nothing short of obsessed with the safety of our kids, but I don’t often see safety discussed in the business mums’ community. Perhaps we assume we’ve already taken care of safety because we’re working from home? Anyway, I thought it might be good to share some tips here…
– I’m going to start with a really obvious one…make sure you have an up-to-date and complete first aid kit. It’s surprisingly easy to forget this and find you’ve got nothing but Peppa Pig plasters in the cupboard. Er, yes I’m off to update my own now!
– Make sure children don’t get hold of any materials or equipment they shouldn’t have access to. For example, if f you’re running a craft business, take care with small objects such as beads or tools such as sewing machines. In fact, I know of some mums running jewellery businesses who have a strict ‘toddlers and beads don’t mix’ policy, so the crafting only begins when the kids are asleep. There are plenty of other tasks that can be done while the kids are playing, like answering emails.
– If possible, have your own work space. Many of us don’t have the luxury of having our own office or studio, so your work space might be the kitchen table that has to be cleared away at the end of your ‘working day’. Which might be just before the school run or midnight!
– If you’re working on a laptop while supervising kids playing, be careful of trailing cables and tripping over piles of books or files. Of course, there can be hazards about even if you’re not a crafter. Although the kids can have trip hazards too, which you’ll already know about if your kids are into lego. Ouch.
– Make sure the kids can’t get up to too much mischief If you’re distracted by a phone call. My three-year-old managed to get our front door open and accept a parcel from the postman while I wasn’t looking. By the time I got to the front door I found a rather surprised postie looking at me and a small boy with a parcel in his hands! I’m just glad I found that my little one showed me he knew how to open the door at a time when he wasn’t in any danger. I now hang the keys on a high hook.
– Of course it’s not just cuts and bumps we need to worry about these days. There’s more to safety than just making sure you have all the first aid supplies you need, you now need to think about online safety too. Be careful about how much information you share about your children online, as once it’s out there on the internet you no longer have control over how that information used and by whom. If you’re uncomfortable about putting the address of your family home on your website, then think about getting a virtual office instead. It’s now cheap and easy to get a dedicated business phone line – see do I need a business phone line? for more info.
So there you go, some tips for keeping your budding entrepreneurs safe while you’re working! Do you have any tips to add?
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