Girl Boss Tips: 8 Essential Tips for Balancing Business and Family

Girl Boss Tips: 8 Essential Tips for Balancing Business and Family featured by top US influencer Glamorous Versatility

I often get asked how I balance corporate, owning a business, and family. I will be the first to say it isn’t easy! I have always been in Corporate America. It’s only been recently that my blog has turned from hobby to business. It is now a full-time business that requires a lot of attention and time. I am grateful but it can be tough for 1 person to manage.

Some have asked if my business is doing so well why not walk away from corporate? There are a few reasons that I will share. First, I enjoy what I do in the corporate world. We are in this society now that I feel sometimes praises being an entrepreneur more than corporate queen. Some people have no desire to run a business and want to kill it in the corporate world! I talk a lot more about my blog business, because most of you have questions on blogging. However, I don’t want to discredit the success I’ve had in corporate and the joy that being in corporate has brought me.

I started off this journey in a completely different career path than HR. I felt compelled to get in the field as I felt it had more opportunities, I started in entry-level HR work. Then just continuously worked my way up. I have tripled my corporate income, which is crazy to think that I had a Biology/Chemistry major with ZERO experience is a heck of a come up. So I say follow the whatever passion you have. If that means thriving in corporate then do that!

Don’t feel forced to run a business if it isn’t your passion. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, and also think about where I could be in HR if I keep this pace. I won’t make any decisions quickly and without prayer and fully thinking long term for our family.

The second reason is Rick and I have some hefty financial goals that we want to hit. We have never been in this position to have this level of income from my corporate and business. So we would be foolish to not capitalize on it while it is here. We want a certain level of savings in the bank, we want to be debt-free, invest, and so much more. We are working hard to make a huge dent with our financial goals before taking away any income.

Girl Boss Tips: 8 Essential Tips for Balancing Business and Family featured by top US influencer Glamorous Versatility

Sharing a few steps I am taking to set myself and my business up for success:

1. Learn the business trends

I can’t say I know the trends of the business yet fully. Before I am relying solely on that income I want to know the business in/out.

2. SAVE

Y’all this is so important on many levels. If you are running a business and this is your sole income you need money in the bank for rainy days. Case and point I’ve had vendors recently be delayed on payments. What if I didn’t have money in the bank? You must have savings. If you get any extra money just put it into savings.

3. Improve Business Efficiencies

I know for me I want to make sure that my business is running at 100% before I rely on the business’s success for my income. Example. Let’s say you know a large part of your money could come from your blog. Yet, you didn’t have one. I would correct that before walking away. Or let’s say you needed a better shirt press for your business to push out more orders. I would do that before walking way. I have areas in my business I would like to improve before considering walking away.

4. Get your Business Finances in Line

I would strongly recommend having an accountant and meeting with them regularly. To help you stay in check with all your tax filings and running your business financials efficiently.

For the time being that means I am balancing family, corporate, and business. It’s always important for me to remember that I can do anything but not everything. I remind myself of this before I consider adding anything else to my plate. I will not be the person that sits here and acts like I got it all together, because I don’t. I am learning as I go and getting better with managing it all.

Girl Boss Tips: 8 Essential Tips for Balancing Business and Family featured by top US influencer Glamorous Versatility

Here are some things that help me thrive with balancing business and family as well as being a Corporate Queen, Mama, and Mom CEO

1. Have a village

I can’t do this without having a village to help me manage it all. Starting with my husband. Marriage goes in my cycles. I learned in counseling that marriage is not often 50/50. And I so believe that. There is always someone putting out more in 1 area than the other. In this case I am putting out a lot in the realm of the business side of our family’s success, but Rick is putting out more with the area of household operations. Where one lacks the other picks up the slack. Rick has been executing a lot of our family’s calendar. So if I schedule appointments Rick will make sure the kids get there. In this season of life we designate tasks to each other to ensure all gets taken care of.

My mom helps with the kids when we need her to and typically will cook meals twice a month to help out. Or even if we are preparing for a family shoot she is right there with us helping get the kids dress and prepared. If you have extended family that is willing to help don’t be afraid to ask for help! Sometimes I need help from sports moms to help carpool. Especially with having 2 kids in sports. This is crucial. And even my photographer Angie. I couldn’t do this without her. She has saved me so much time by us outsourcing a lot of our photo shoots to her. We used to shoot them ourselves, but the time editing was just too much for us. Angie is now part of the fam. Again it takes a village.

Ladies do not DROWN yourself trying to raise the flag that you are a boss babe. Because you get no medal for it, the only thing you do is run yourself to the ground. It is ok to grab extra hands to help you!

2.Outsource

I used to say I would always do my own laundry, but here I am having someone else do my laundry. To effectively manage life right now we made the decision to outsource various areas in our household. I don’t know if it will be permanent, but until we have more time, we decided to outsource some aspects. We send our laundry out on Mondays and it gets returned on Tuesdays. Folded and all ready to put in drawers. We have a cleaning lady come out every other week to do deep cleaning.

That meant I had to pull back in a couple areas of my shopping budget but it was WORTH IT! If your budget allows consider areas that you may be able to outsource certain household tasks to give you more time.

3.Plan

Being a household of 7, because even our dogs will have things on the calendar is not easy. It requires me regularly updating my calendar. Each week I will carve out time to go through my planner and update it. Then daily when I start my day I look at what we have going on. I use my Erin Condren planner for managing all schedules. I solidify my family calendar and then sync it with my blog calendar. I keep a content calendar for my blog so I always ensure that it makes sense with the happenings of our family life.

I would strongly recommend when you plan having not just your family dates but also your business due dates out so nothing gets missed. Before each month or before the boys sport seasons start I will always plug in all of their games etc in as soon as the schedule is posted. You have to stay diligent with keeping your planner updated. That is the key to my success managing it all. You can reference this post where I go into more detail about how I use my planner.

4.Communicate

I used to keep everything I had to do in my head. Well that wasn’t very efficient and didn’t allow my husband to plan and help me. We have our family business meetings to discuss the week ahead. I also keep a dry-erase calendar on a wall in our home where the entire family can see what we have scheduled. I also use a color coding here so they know if the event has to do with them. In order for everything to be successful you have to ensure everyone involved is in the know.

5. Create Business Hours

My corporate job has structured hours, but I have also given my blog business hours when I tackle a lot of tasks. This allows me to effectively work and my family also is aware of these hours so Rick will try to keep the kiddos occupied. I typically handle emails during this time, write my blogs, business accounting. The tasks that really require attention I make sure to knock out during this allotted time. It’s important that I also create daily tasks that I want to accomplish. It helps me stay productive and not try to do too much.

6. Know when to Shut Down

It can get easy to just want to keep grinding and never stop. This was me. I would go to work and then come home and keep going with my blog business. Regardless if we are seeing the fruit of this hard work, it is still not sustainable. Don’t run yourself to the ground. Be present with your family/friends and know when to shut it down. This has been important for me to remember and follow. I am not going to lie when you have deadlines it can be tough to turn that off, but you have to. It will help you run your business better and be better!

7. Learn to Say NO

This is important. Sometimes are calendar can be filled because we just committed to way too many things. Rick sometimes jokes and says I am sure you will fill out the weekend calendar soon, and it’s kind of true. Create limits and be bold and say no. When I first started generating money I was saying yes to every deal that came my way. Not anymore. I am very strategic on the brands I work with now. I first ensure it aligns with the aesthetic of my brand and the values of my brand. This is also so important because you want to control the narrative of your brand. And ensure that all your partnerships will show truly what your brand is. Saying yes to everything will make that tough.

I always look at my content calendar to see if I even have availability. On the family side if I would let my kids they would be playing 3 instruments and playing in 3 different sports at a time. But that ain’t happening. We let the kids choose what activity, and sports they want to do each season, but it can’t be them all.

In general, ask yourself how will this add value to your life. And sadly sometimes you have to say no. Saying no doesn’t make you a bad person it is just taking control of your time. .

8. Master your To-Do List

This is different from your planner in my opinion. Each day I create a to-do list for my blog tasks and corporate tasks. It can get easy to say you are working but not be efficiently working and getting side-tracked. I am the type where I will be writing a blog and then get an email and get side-tracked with that. Having a to-do list keeps me focused and allows me to prioritize my day and work efficiently. It’s easy to fill your day with all the things you got side tracked with. Work off your to-do list.

It’s always important to remember that you are here to do great things, and your assignments would not be for you if He didn’t think you could do it! While I know not all of you are bloggers many of my tips can be applied. We are all managing a lot of tasks and it can get tough. I hope by me sharing some of these steps will help you make your weeks more efficient.

What tip for balancing business and family will you try out in your daily life? Let me know in a comment below!

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  1. Taryn, these tips are SUPER helpful! I found you on instagram and I can truly say you inspire me to pick back up blogging! Your tip on creating a to-do list is spot on. I get sidetracked easily so that is something I need to do; have to-do lists for what I want to specifically accomplish that day.

    • Thank you!! I am so glad you found me! It makes me so happy that you started back blogging! Keep pushing!