How to start a business as a parent

This is a collaborative post

Starting your own business is always a challenge, but it becomes even harder when you have a family to look after. Not having a fixed income can also cause a lot of stress when your kids are relying on you to provide for them. However, even though you have more responsibilities and stresses than someone who doesn’t have kids, this doesn’t mean that you can’t follow your dreams and turn your passion into a successful business. Here’s how you can juggle parenthood and being a business owner.

Use a VAT calculator

Parents are always short on time, so to make your life easier and reduce the time you spend on your business finances, you should use a UK VAT Calculator to calculate VAT for your invoices. All you need to do is click the ‘add VAT’ or ‘remove VAT’ tab, enter the number, and select the VAT rate (20% or 5%). This means you won’t have to do any calculations to work out VAT, saving you lots of time and effort.

Start an online business

If you’re worried about balancing your business and childcare responsibilities, then a great solution is to work from home by running an online business. This means that you can work from a home office and not spend time and money on commuting, allowing you to have greater flexibility. If you don’t have a spare room in your home for an office, you could always set up a desk in the corner of another room to create a mini office space.

Photo credit Grovemade via Unsplash

Create a website

If you’re running an online business, you’ll need a simple and eye-catching website to be the face of your company. Using a website builder like Wix, you can create your website using helpful templates and customise the site with your own branding and logos. When creating a website, remember to include interesting images and not too much text to keep people engaged. You should also make sure your website is easy to navigate with menus and sidebars.

Set a schedule 

Setting up a business can be incredibly time-consuming, leading to you working long hours, but you don’t want to end up neglecting your kids or your own mental health. It’s so important for you to set a work schedule and stick to it - this means that you have to set aside family time and time for self-care and hobbies. It’s easy to fall into the trap of working all the time to try and make your business a success, but you’ll only end up feeling burnt out and missing precious time with your family and friends.

Ask for help

Finally, you shouldn’t feel ashamed if things get too much for you and you need some help. Both starting a business and starting a family requires a lot of time and effort, so doing both is going to be very difficult if you don’t get some help from family and friends. For example, you might need someone to babysit your kids if you’re extremely busy, or you may just need some advice and support.

Starting a business as a parent is challenging but entirely possible. Follow this helpful advice to figure out how you can turn your passion into a successful business while looking after your family.