Running a small business from home seems like the ultimate blending of worlds at first glance. With both work and home life at your fingertips at all times, managing them together should be easy, right?

But when competing work and family priorities arise and everyone expects something from you at once, the juggle can become overwhelming for many business owners – whether they work from home or not.

The struggle is real for photographer and mum-of-three Allison Voigt, founder of Avalanche Photography.

After working as a travel nurse and honing her photographic skills amongst the picturesque surrounds of remote Indigenous communities, Allison decided to put down roots and start her own photography business from her home in Ipswich, Queensland.

While her fledgling business has been growing, so has her family, and she admits the going hasn’t been easy.

“We’ve had a lot of disruptions in our home life,” Allison admits. “Circumstances in life just tend to happen at the most inopportune moments. You’ve got to navigate between, do I choose to bring money into the business by taking this job, or do I stick to that promise to my child that I’ll come to the Easter hat parade?

“Sometimes those deadlines are unable to be met for the exact reasons why we took on a small home business to begin with.”

Allison reached out to Kochie’s Business Builders’ Small Business Help Desk with a question we had to answer:

“How do people manage to set firm boundaries when you’re self employed and working from home the majority of the time, and you have the school wanting a meeting or someone needs a medical appointment?”

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Small Business Help Desk: Tips to juggle home life and your small business

Allison’s concerns are common among all small business owners with family life to consider – and to add fuel to the fire, the division between home and work can be seriously blurred for those who run a business from home.

As a mum of three herself, with two successful businesses, Hero Packaging and Sell Anything Online founder Anaita Sarkar is passionate about helping other parents strike a calmer balance.

She believes it’s all about setting firm boundaries between the competing priorities in life, and building a reasonable mindset to help you cope.

Anaita shares her top tips to do just that.

WATCH: Anaita answers Allison’s question (post continues below)

Boundaries are all about mindset – so take charge

“Firstly, you are in charge of your boundaries,” says Anaita. “If you need to go to the school for a meeting or have a medical appointment, make that your priority. You can push work to the next day. You are your own boss and you get to control the time you spend doing the tasks you want.

“Don’t think about work-life balance in the traditional sense, based on hours worked. Consider the quality of work that you do, too.

“A simple tip that I use every day is writing a to-do list and putting my tasks as blocked-out time in my calendar,” she suggests.

Feeling guilty about not quite meeting all the expectations? Anaita says it’s time to do away with that mindset and think differently. This can seem tough at first, but remember, with great privilege comes great power.

“Boundaries are all about mindset and I never want you to feel guilty about your work-life balance. It’s such a privilege as a small business owner that we get to wake up, do what we want, and choose the hours that we work,” she says.

Prioritise daily, communicate clearly

All small business owners know how jam-packed the calendar can become when you’re trying to juggle it all at once.

“Every day, I prioritise 4pm to 7pm to spend quality time with my kids,” Anaita reveals. “I pick them up from school and preschool, bring them home, make them dinner, put them to bed, and then I work from 8pm onwards. I don’t need to answer to anybody else and I still get to make quality time for my kids.”

Anaita says reassurance and clear communication is all a client really needs to feel confident in your approach.

“If a client has given you a timeline that doesn’t seem like a very good work-life balance, then you have to choose – use clear communication and perhaps give them alternate times that could work for them. All you need to do is make sure they know that you really want this to work,” she says.

You can’t be everything to everyone ALL of the time

Remember this as you purposefully set clear boundaries that work for both your family and your business.

“Boundaries are really hard and sometimes you have to make tough decisions between what makes you money and your personal life,” Anaita advises. “Make sure you focus on the priorities and try not to feel guilty about the rest.”

If you have some handy tips about creating boundaries and managing your time, share in the comments below.

Want more of your small business questions answered? Head to our Small Business Help Desk page for more helpful articles and videos:

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with NRMA Small Business Insurance.