How to Pursue Your Entrepreneurial Dream at Night

It's not a question of either or, but rather a question of when and how you take that entrepreneurial leap. How can you pursue your entrepreneurial dream in between working your day job and living your life? It's a daunting task to say the least...

Are your mornings frantically spent getting kids to become coherent, out of their pajamas, fed, cognizant of where their everythings are, and eventually in a form of transportation en route to school, play date, or other activity? Then it's off to work in your corporate job or continue in your mom role, supporting the family via childcare, diaper changes, pickups, cleanups, grocery shopping, cooking, and if you are lucky, squeezing in an occasional business call as the child and home environment allows. When suppertime arrives, the chaos begins again, lasting through bedtime.

So when is an entrepreneurial mom with a big idea to embark on her trail-blazing journey? For better or worse, the answer if in these two little words: at night.

The Secret to Building a Mom Empire from 8 pm to 11 pm

Whether you relish every moment of your busy days spent supporting your family, or long for more time to devote to your big idea, this is the reality for most entrepreneurial moms: they build their businesses at night and usually continue to run their businesses at hours when the rest of the business world is winding down.

In fact, according to a recent survey, an overwhelming 87% of our members told us that the bulk of their business is actually run between the hours of 8pm and 11pm, with many others listing even longer hours stretching into later times of the night. Yes, just as our non-entrepreneurial mom counterparts are winding down for the night over a good book and hot tea, many of us are just gearing up and settling in for what constitutes our workday - at night.

If you ask most successful entrepreneurial moms how they started out, none of them will tell you that one day (when they were doing just about nothing), their big idea came to them into which they were able to invest all of their time. It's a lovely daydream to imagine hours of uninterrupted creativity, execution, and planning time for your budding business, but we know the real deal: other stuff comes first.

5 Secrets to Building a Business on a Condensed (Nighttime) Schedule

1. Be a web technologies whiz. As a night-time entrepreneurial mom it's important to utilize fully the many powerful internet-based technologies to collaborate with partners and conduct sales calls. Services such as Skype and GoToMeeting offer chat, video calls, and conference voice calls perfectly suited for virtual collaboration.
2. Plan regular nights out of the house to work. If you can secure childcare for the kids after bedtime, try booking 1-2 nights out to work per week. Amass a short list of 3-4 late coffee shops near you where you can work alone, or meet with team members and partners. Great night-time meeting venues are ones with wine, sandwich, and dessert options to satisfy any taste at any hour.
3. Have a nighttime work plan of attack. In the bustle of daytime, have a dry erase board in the kitchen, a notebook in your purse, or use voice memos on your iPhone to create your agenda for your precious few work hours at night. List the people to whom you need to connect and evenly balance the agenda items with short and sweet to-do's, as well as 1-2 bigger issues to tackle. Build in a plan for feeling good and accomplished by the end of your condensed work session.
4. Choose and create your business model wisely. Choose a business and create a business model that is achievable on your nighttime schedule. If you're deciding between a few multi-level business options for example, choose one that doesn't require daytime sales calls.
5. Be realistic, keep perspective, and protect your health. While it's plausible to build a successful business "on the side" at night, keep in mind your overall life goals that include family intimacy, physical wellness, and social engagements. It's easy to get swept up in a tidal wave of passion for your business at those late hours, sacrificing essential sleep. Keep a schedule and don't let yourself skip that evening yoga in favor of more work hours, and maintain that girls' night out that always recharges you.

With careful organization, planning, self discipline, and adherence to boundaries, you can parcel out just the right amount of time, mental energy, and physical investment in your big idea to steadily build something amazing. Before you know it, with smart growth you just might need to make the decision to move your night job to the daytime.

Taken from momeomagazine.com  Written by Christie Schultz