Top class businessmen often tell us about their successful habits and we can learn a lot from what they tell us. But as a mumpreneur or work at home mum, running a business and a family means that such habits are not always easy to adopt.

Being a mum and an entrepreneur is a delicate balancing act and many mums often turn to online life coaching experts and services to approach this significant challenge. When I coach women, I look at the individual and the circumstances surrounding her, her family and her career. I also focus her in on seven fundamental “habits” that will help her to juggle it all without feeling overwhelmed.

Habit No. 1 - Prioritise!

We certainly don’t have enough time and it is very precious and easily wasted. Have you ever noticed that time flies when you’re having fun, but the opposite is also true?

On the other hand, when we are busy, time appears to fly and unless we grasp the concept of time management, we are likely to feel overwhelmed.

Most professional coaching experts will tell you that time management is rule number one.

Look at all the tasks ahead of you, get a piece of paper and write it all down. You will need to allocate a priority to each task and condense this into a manageable timetable. When you embark on this task, it can seem daunting, if not impossible. However, with a little ingenuity and application, you can make it work. Print your resulting prioritisation plan out, put it somewhere you can see it and refer to it frequently.

Habit No. 2 - Don’t forget about you!

The second habit of highly effective mumpreneurs is that they remember to think about themselves! Without rewarding yourself and enjoying valuable “me” time you will quickly burn yourself out and be far less productive.

Don’t think about priority time for yourself as being a selfish decision, but view it as a large investment in your vitality and business life.

Habit No. 3 - Make friends with a little routine in your life.

Setting up a routine is one of the best habits you can practise. By placing a routine and sticking to it, you will become more effective, even though it may take a minimum of 14 tries before you get into the habit.

Some of us do not like to be structured in this way, but experience has shown that injecting some routine markedly helps with daily management.

Habit No. 4 - Block out time without distractions.

Even though phone calls from good friends can occasionally be quite a relief from daily pressures, make a point of not letting distractions get in the way of your efficiency. It’s essential to section off time where you can switch off your smart-phone and apply the voice-mail option.

I’m not advocating that you ignore people, but just try blocking out some “do not disturb” time to focus on larger projects. You can then allocate time to return calls once you’ve completed the tasks and projects that are essential to grow your business.

Habit No. 5 - Create sacred space to work.

The fifth habit is about setting up your own personal and private area. A surprising number of mumpreneurs operate their businesses from their homes. If you are a work at home entrepreneur, don’t try balancing a laptop on the kitchen table and putting your file cabinet in your bedroom!

Wherever it is in your home, make your workspace sacred and ideally place it in its own room, off-limits to the kids when you are working. Set this room up with ergonomics and efficiency in mind, and don’t use the room for any other purpose than work. If possible, have another computer set up elsewhere for personal use.

Habit No. 6 - Healthy body, healthy business.

If you don’t take care of yourself, all the rest of your habits will be tough to maintain. Exercise and fitness must become a habit and you should plan on getting at least three exercise sessions in per week.

Pick anything, just take up whatever is the most convenient for you to get started on as a new exercise habit. So if you don’t reside close to a gym, it’s just not reasonable to plan to go to a gym three times a week, as you’ll quickly realise that you simply don’t have the extra time to travel back and forth. Always try to keep it simple - walking, running, cycling or dancing to an exercise DVD are all excellent examples of ways for you to keep your body moving, and they’re easy to integrate into your daily life as a mum as well.

Habit No. 7 - Build a superstar success team.

You’ve heard the expression “no man is an island” and the same applies to women! None of us can run a business alone and we all need support in various guises - mothers even more than most as we’re juggling so many commitments. Ask yourself what sort of support you need to become a highly successful mumpreneur and start to look for ways of building your “superstar success team.”

Professional coaching for women can help you to achieve your business goals much more quickly than you would on your own and is an important part of any highly effective mumpreneur’s success team.

But however you choose to build your team, don’t try to do everything on your own as there is so much to be gained from seeking the wisdom of good friends, confidants, associates and professional coaching experts. They can be superb sounding posts and lynchpins to your business success!

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

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