I am truly grateful to have the flexibility to have it all, yet I often find that a home-based business and kids don’t go together all that well. The reality is that when my kids are home they linger around the computer begging me to stop checking my email and to instead take them to their favorite website. Alternatively, when I’m busy working on a client project and my babysitter has an emergency, I have to rearrange my whole work schedule to accommodate taking care of them. I find I have to stay very, very flexible.

I am frequently jealous that my husband gets two 40-minute train rides every day to transition into his work day and to unwind at the end of it, while I have to shift gears on the fly many times a day (and that my work never really ends). After the kids go to bed I have at least two more hours of work returning emails, doing evening coaching appointments, and handling administrative tasks.

After years of balancing work and family, here are some of the strategies I’ve implemented to try and achieve more balance in my life:

* I have wonderful childcare outside of my home — my sitter takes the children from school to their various activities and back to her house until I pick them up at 5:15pm.

* When they are home with me, I have given my children their own work spaces in my office with art supplies and their favorite projects so that we can all be working together and no one feels left out.

* I try to meditate for 20 minutes every day because I find that I am mentally clearer and more relaxed overall about everything when I make the time for this.

* I have weekly support phone calls with other home-based entrepreneurs during which we discuss each other’s challenging business hurdles and help one another from feeling too isolated.

* While I often check emails on the weekend, I don’t return them until Monday. If I did, I’d be working 24/7 and I simply need a break from work on the weekends.

* I have learned to say “no” more to the “shoulds” in my life. While I used to have the time to volunteer or to help out more at the kids’ schools, I found that the whole family suffers when I over-commit.

You may have noticed that exercise is not on the above list although I’d certainly like it to be. There is a coaching adage — “we have time for what we make time for” — and as I enter my 6th year of my own business, I am finding that it is a critical adage to live by if I want to do it all. I’d love to hear from you about how you balance work and family and I’ll try to include your tips in upcoming articles.

Developing a Business Plan is important to the business owner on multiple levels.

You HAVE to do it.
If you’re going to seek funding either through investors or bank loans, one of the first items requested will be a business plan. Basically, this is where you get to describe what your business is, what funds are needed and how they will be used. You describe the business with words and numbers (the financial statements).

An interior designer came to me, looking for financing. We started working on the business plan and as we worked together on the financial assumptions section, she described how she bills her clients. It became clear that if she slightly upped the deposit amount she asked of her clients, and billed her clients on a more systematic basis, the strain on her business’s cash flow would be significantly less. Turns out, through the process of describing the details of how her business operates, she was able to come up with an alternative solution to obtaining a large loan.

Generating New Ideas

Even if you are not actively seeking financing, the business plan is a structured way for you to hash out your business idea. It disciplines you to think about your business from multiple perspectives, and to set down in writing the assumptions you are using in starting and operating your business.

The best business plans I’ve seen are those which are very clear, so that even an intelligent 8-year can understand what the business is about. I recommend to my clients that they always pretend that they are explaining their business to this young child. Don’t feel the need to use jargon and fancy terms— a business plan is meant to communicate clearly and not confuse.

I’ve often found that the more concisely and simply someone can describe one’s business, the easier it is for her to communicate with customers, investors and consultants. It becomes easier to incorporate lessons learned from other industries and sectors, when you know how to articulate your business from different points of view.

The business plan becomes a point from which to launch discussions and develop new strategies.

It’s good for YOU.

One business owner makes the most scrumptious scones and can write amazing press releases but breaks into a sweat at the thought of doing a sales projection…. Another feels comfortable crunching the numbers but isn’t convinced she knows how she will find out the market research numbers themselves. Writing a business plan will prompt you to work through these questions, especially if you have someone to provide you feedback. As you encounter the sections of the business plan that you find more challenging, you have an opportunity to gain and strengthen your business skills. This process gives you a broader skill set from which to manage your business.

Writing It

So what about the business plan itself? Over upcoming issues we’ll go into more depth on the various sections that comprise a business plan. In the meantime, there are a number of plans and guidelines online. For example, many commercial banks have sections on their websites oriented to small business. They often offer business plan templates and guidelines. Also check out the organizations listed under “Resources.” These are organizations that will help you through the process and cheer you on.

The most important thing is to just write it! Happy writing!

Joannie’s Recipe for PR Success

1. Be passionate and committed to your clients and their message.
2. Possess a great drive, determination and true enjoyment of what you do.
3. Do all it takes to meet your goals from writing press releases to making dozens of pitch calls.
4. Network, network… network!
5. Read up on other people’s biographies. You can learn a lot from other people’s mistakes and successes. Remember that the people of our past and present can be great mentors.

Agency for Hire
When choosing an agency

* Search for an agency with a solid reputation.
* Look at the work each agency has done in the past.
* Then meet with each agency and pick the one where you feel strong chemistry.

How agencies work

* Most agencies work by project or on a monthly retainer. A monthly retainer is a fee paid by the client to the agency for the services performed on a monthly basis.

Final thought

If your PR firm admires and believes in you, then the public relations work will reflect that belief and the results will be that much better.

Joannie was both excited and enticed by the set of promotional skills that the public relations industry could offer her. With the goal to better promote the arts Joannie took on a modest role as a public relations intern at the renowned public relations firm of Ruder Finn. Working diligently in only three months time Joannie rose to join the ranks of full time employees and launched a lifetime career of empowering people and companies with a message to help people. While at Ruder Finn she acquired an impressive roster of healthcare and travel clients but after time found herself conflicted between playing the roles of mother to two sons and promoting her clients full-time.

With little to lose and much to gain she left the hectic world of travel accounts to go on her own. For Joannie the biggest challenge of going solo was working out of her home and learning to manage the flow of everything . She credits her success to her great drive, determination and a true enjoyment of what she does. Joannie also stresses the importance of her willingness to do all that it takes to meet her goals if it be writing the press release to making dozens of pitch calls.

Joannie’s ability to win people over won her, her first client, the Boys Choir of Harlem who along with the Girls Choir of Harlem, are still with her today. Joannie acquired both clients through networking experiences which are an important part of this industry. She had a good friend who worked on the board at BCH whom knew the Choir was looking for someone to do publicity on their upcoming tour. Her friend then recommended Joannie to the director of BCH and she secured the position. One of her greatest successes and most personal rewards was achieved when working with another long standing client, the Columbia University School of Nursing that she also obtained through networking. In the face of controversy, Joannie orchestrated a pr campaign that helped to empower nurse practitioners and advocate their expertise as primary care providers. Joannie secured extensive media coverage that educated and informed the public about the quality primary care offered by NPs. A 60 Minutes feature entitled, “The Nurse Will See You Now” was just one of the TV pieces that Joannie initiated and facilitated.

The 60 Minutes piece was so effective that it won CAPNA and Joannie an award from the American Nursing Association. Even more importantly is the fact that it was how the campaign impacted people’s image of what nurses do and in turn helped nurses to move forward and get the word out that the healthcare industry was changing.

Joannie’s need to empower people led her to her current position as President of New York Women In Communications, in which she continues to impact people. The organization’s mission is to nurture and help young women who want to enter into the communications business, to provide a network and to offer high quality programming that helps its members to grow and get insight into the industry.

Starting a Business

Kristina and her brother Alex realized they would like to open a business together. She had been working full time at Estee Lauder for Clinique for several years as a consumer marketing professional, and always liked to figure out how to generate more businesses. Wondering how to do it for themselves, they first considered opening a place similar to Dean & Deluca and later a coffee bar. In their search to find a place, they found a location they realized would make a great bar. Opening a bar, Zinc Bar, became the new business concept.

While considering the name of the bar, Kristina remembered when she was in Paris and noticed that all bars had zinc tops. In addition, reading Ernest Hemingway, who would tell his friends to meet at the Zinc, which meant “at the bar” Kristina thought Zinc Bar would be perfect in representing Hemingway’s gathering place.

Spicing it up a little

At the start the business was slow, so they decided to add music to spice it up, and it has been a success for almost ten years. They started with a jazz trio, and not so long afterward they hired a Brazilian Jazz Band who joined the Zinc Bar and stayed for almost three years. Today they have Latin, Cuban, Brazilian, and African music, and Zinc Bar is considered THE music place. On weekends it has been presenting Brazilian Jazz for at least 8 years. The Zinc Bar has both regular clients of various nationalities, and tourists. The shows start late at night, and musicians from Harlem go there to enjoy the last show of Jazz, which starts at 2:00am. Although the owners do not advertise, they have write ups in several magazines, and the music gets a lot of publicity.

Balancing work and family

Kristina and Alex focused on being able to make their own choices and they have realized this goal. They have a good relationship, help each other and make business decisions together. Besides, their family has always been supportive.
Kristina’s work experience was not in running bars. However, growing up in New York City and going to bars and nightclubs helped her to start and envision a formula of success with Alex. When asked about the change from a 9-5 full time job to a demanding schedule of working nights, Kristina replied, “It was like freedom”. As a kid, she remembers that her mother would go out in the middle of the night to Carnegie Hall and take Kristina along, highlighting that they have always been night people.

In the early days, as in the majority of small business start-ups, Kristina and Alex would do everything, from sweeping the floor, to bartending and watching the door. Kristina loved being a bartender but when she got pregnant it became too much and by then they had started hiring more people. Kristina has two sons, ages 6 and 8, and when her first child was born she took care of the bar’s daytime activities. As she missed being a part of the business while it operated at night, she would bartend on Mondays, but it was very tiring. After the second child was born, Kristina did not bartend and today she and her brother split nights at the Zinc Bar, to make sure the place is running smoothly. Although she works late, she is home when her children come from school and can spend quality time with them, before going to work.

Woman-owned bar and music club

As a woman running a bar and music club, in the beginning Kristina had to work hard to prove her point, that she is a co-owner of a bar and music club. She would not back down until the employees understood that she was also the boss.

This is sometimes also a challenge with customers. She’s had male customers who were drunk and did not respond well to a woman asking him to take it easy on the drinks and mentioning that he is being a problem. Kristina now delegates this responsibility to her doorman, which seems to lessen any negative reactions.

On the positive side, the Zinc Bar has a touch and sense of style from a female perspective, balanced with her brother ideas, to make it a perfect combination that we cannot find in man only owned bars and nightclubs. Kristina and Alex’s goal for the Zinc as a bar, to have a beautiful place with personal touches, led them to include one of a kind original hand picked art, and a sensual fabric on parts of the ceiling and doorways. Their goal for the Zinc as a music club was for people to enjoy seriously good but fun music and be comfortable. Alex picks all the bands, and both Kristina and Alex have a good relationship with all the musicians.

In addition, although nowadays they have managers and a full staff, according to Kristina, spending time making sure the customers are happy, the staff is performing professionally, and the music sounds right is vital to the longevity and image of the Zinc Bar.

Plans for the future

Alex and Kristina original plan was to open one place after the other, but their plans were put off in order for them to have children (Alex is the father of two children). A couple of months ago they opened a cocktail bar with more partners called Flatiron Lounge, and it has been a success. They were able to involve talented partners who are onsite working as managers and bartenders. Kristina and Alex divide their time between both places. With both businesses working well, they are already looking for new locations, for a Brazilian place, which might be their next venture.

Advice

Even though some business owners think about their businesses 24/7, Kristina argues that it is very important to have fun; get a facial once in a while, and if you are angry with someone or something, go blow some steam off, go work out or wear it off. The main idea is not to carry it around with you and not to bring it home or to work.

Kristina offers the following advice to the entrepreneurial woman: “It can be done, it is hard, but it can be done.” She acknowledges that it is hard to make a decision to have children, and keep up with one’s career plans. However, Kristina shows us that with discipline and will it is possible to accomplish balance: one can be a caring mother, run a business and still have fun, look good and feel good.