The Business Minded Mom’s Guide to a 2 Hour Work Day
You’re a Busy Mom and you’re a Business Minded Mom.
The Busy Mom might have a precious (but exhausting) newborn infant, a crazy toddler coloring on the walls, or elementary school kids that need to be chauffeured to activities, need help with homework, the list goes on and on.
But you are also a Business Minded Mom, and this means you have dreams of owning and running a successful business. One that allows you more time to be home with the kids, making them breakfast, putting them to bed, eating lunch together at the table.
To make this dream come true, you must make a choice, and it is going to be a big one.
Will you fully embrace the work from home lifestyle and say once and for all you are going to #ditchthedaycare (and the enormous monthly bill that comes with it), or are you going to let go of your dream and follow mainstream, work outside the home, motherhood because it provides more ‘security’ but certainly more stress?
We understand where you’re at, we have been there! But we were also just crazy enough to believe that we could have it all… A successful business working from home with the kids, money in the bank account, and sanity too.
We made it work by developing the Business Minded Mom’s Guide to a 2 Hour Work Day, and we are here to share it with you. If you’re ready to get started on this journey now, then let’s dive in.
Business Minded Mom: Monday
Your goal for today is to complete all your social media marketing for the week. You can easily schedule it using tools like:
HootSuite: A dashboard that allows you to manage multiple social media channels, schedule content, analyze reports, and measure what content is successful.’
Buffer: Another dashboard similar to HootSuite. Both of these providers offer free plans as well as paid.
Now that you know where to schedule your social media, you need to create your social media. We recommend downloading free images from photo websites like:
Using any of these sites you can find thousands of beautiful images for your marketing message. The easiest way to create a week’s worth of social media in 2 hours or less is to find 14 images (if you are posting 2 x a day) and save them to your computer. These images should all have a common theme for the week. Now let’s move on.
Format your images into a marketing message
We like to use free services like Canva or Brainyquote to turn our images into stunning social media posts. Both of these services are free, although some elements you can pay for.
Sit down, take your 14 images and make 14 cohesive social media posts focusing on your topic for the week.
Your children are sure to start circling the wagons as soon as you sit down to work, so before you sit down, make sure you have a theme in mind.
What are you promoting? Sales? Followers? Email Sign Ups? Brand Recognition? Make your focus clear, and then just get it done.
A typical Disney movie lasts about 2 hours, pop some popcorn, pull out the blankets, put the baby down for a nap, and schedule that social media mama!
Business Minded Mom: Tuesday
Your goal for today is to shoot helpful videos for your audience.
Video is going to be the #1 way you connect with your audience and get them to trust you. Whether you believe it or not, they are suspicious of you and if you can really help them. Video is going to be the way you overcome these prejudices.
Having said that, we know that shooting a video while you are a busy mom is hard. Like REALLY hard. Our best advice is to let go of what you think of yourself, and just get it done.
You might not be able to put on a full face of makeup, but you can put on a bright, clean shirt and brush your hair. The message that you send to your audience is what’s important.
To send a better message try these tips:
- Research what’s trending in your audience niche
- Write down 5 ideas to talk about (you can make these into 1 video or 5 separate videos).
- Research each idea and write a brief outline. Keep your videos to about 5 minutes, which is great because that is all we busy moms have!
- Find a clean space in your house, record the video.
- Upload to your YouTube channel.
- Share across all your social media business pages.
Tools we like to use:
Business Minded Mom: Wednesday
Your goal for today is to write and publish a blog post.
Oh no…. did we just say that?! How on earth can we tell a busy (but business minded mom) to sit down and write?
Don’t we know that you can’t even focus on writing the grocery list without being interrupted 500 times, let alone write a cohesive and interesting business article?
Yes, yes we do know that.
We have been there, we ARE there… My daughter has interrupted me 2 times already asking for more pepperoni while I write this sentence. And yes, I’m letting her eat pepperoni out of a bag while I work, because work must get done and the girl loves cured meats. Now isn’t the time for me to judge my parenting skills or her culinary tastes…
Because you only have 2 hours to work today, here is what we suggest.
- Make sure that you have your own personal website / blog to build authority and trust in you and your brand. It goes without saying that you can’t be found online without having an online ‘address’.
- Once a week write 600-1,000 words about your business. If you cannot sit down and write it all out at once, then maybe a voice to type app on your phone is better.
- As you move through the week, when you are thinking about your post, turn on the app and speak what’s on your mind. By the time Wednesday rolls around you can easily turn your spoken notes into a fresh and real blog post.
- Take the images you created on Monday and insert into the blog post. Use quotes from the blog post to make new images on social media.
- Research and write a catchy headline that speaks to the needs of your audience.
Tools we like to use:
Microsoft Word
Tweak Your Biz Headline Generator
Business Minded Mom: Thursday
Your goal for today is to catch up.
Didn’t I tell you we understood?
As Business Minded Moms we are never going to work as fast as a single 20-something.
You may have thought this dream to own your own business would never work for you because you have been trying to learn from a 30 year old man whose only distraction is another new follower alert pinging on his Youtube channel.
Meanwhile you’re breaking up fights between a 4 and 8-year-old, cleaning up the dog’s puke, taking kids to urgent care twice in one month (I have my hand raised right now), planning meals (I have been known to microwave ears of corn, put it on a plate, and call it dinner…) but the point is you are way busier than any other entrepreneur trying to build a business. And we applaud you for that!
So Thursday is your catch up day, this is going to take time, no need to rush. If you haven’t got everything done yet this week, here is your check-up list:
- Insert your 600-1,000 words into a blog post
- Insert new images into the blog post
- Embed YouTube video from Tuesday into blog post and social media channels
- Enter your blog post into your social media scheduler (from Monday) to begin posting
Tools we like to use:
Business Minded Mom: Friday
Your goal for today is to engage with your tribe.
Business minded moms know the value of their people!
We encourage you to engage with your audience on a regular basis because getting your audience to become certain of you, trust that you’re real, and eventually buy from you, will take time. You must become the person they see as an actual person, in this alternate reality, social media world we live in.
You will soon realize that the busyness of your life and your inherent talents will allow you to perform better on one medium than others. It might be video, SnapChat, Instagram, regular social media posts, group chats, etc. but you will find your niche.
The point is to just engage with your followers and drive people to your website, offer, videos, or groups. We like to break the engagement down like this:
- Visit Facebook groups and answer questions
- Note common problems in Google spreadsheets
- Answer comments in Instagram and Facebook pages
- Record a Facebook Live on your Facebook business page or group
Tools we like to use:
Conclusion
We know you have tried before and maybe didn’t get too far.
We also know we are not the first women you have heard telling you this is possible.
But we also know that we have been where you are, tried what didn’t work, modified what did work, and now encourage you to try one more time.
It certainly doesn’t get easier, the kids may not quit yelling, and life will keep moving just as fast.
But we can promise you, coming from 2 moms who know what you’re going through, the little actions you take today are going to add up BIG TIME.
We know you are not a single man, having power lunches, and staying up till 2 am working the business.
We DO know that you are a magical and powerful creature called a MOM. A business minded mom who has dreams for your business, has faith it will happen, and are willing to work (no matter how much or little in a day) that your dreams are SO close to coming true.
We can’t wait to help you make the #ditchthedaycare lifestyle your new reality!
