We juggle work and family daily to manage our home and work lives. But as small business owners, this is even more complicated. We have the drive to start our business, but we’re torn between that and caring for our young children. It is a real dilemma and may not be resolved in this one post. But we can sure try! Right?
Remember, there’s no need to feel guilty about this process; we all go through it. I came out the other side and learned a lot of tips to make the process smoother. So today, to help you get into the groove of being an entrepreneur, I will share my favorite tips. I keep coming back to update this post because the juggle doesn’t stop once you hire your first team member or contractor. This round update adds a few tips for solopreneurs and small business owners with a person or two helping them out.
Topics
- 10+ Tips to Juggle Work and Family While Being a Successful Small Business Owner
- Set Boundaries With Clients and Your Team, Not Just Your Family – New for 2026
- Let Technology Carry Some of the Mental Load – new for 2026
- Know When to Delegate Instead of Doing It All Yourself – New for 2026
- Protect Recovery Time, Not Just Work Time – New for 2026
- FAQs
- Closing
Key Takeaways
- Juggling work and family as a solopreneur is challenging, but many strategies can ease this balance.
- Create a flexible schedule, utilize distraction-free office spaces, and set clear boundaries with clients (affiliate) and family.
- Use tech tools for scheduling and task management to streamline responsibilities and stay organized.
- Seek support from fellow entrepreneurs and delegate tasks that don’t require your specific attention.
- Lastly, prioritize recovery time alongside work and family commitments for better overall well-being.
10+ Tips to Juggle Work and Family While Being a Successful Small Business Owner
1. Split up your day instead of working from 9 – 5
If you work from home in your small business, try splitting up your workday when your kids are at activities. If you don’t have a separate office, install a curtain to divide the room into different spaces. Check out the DIY room dividers (affiliate) I created I made on Sabrina’s Organizing for my home office over the years.
How to Create a DIY Fabric Room Divider
Want to create a fabric divider? Here’s how I created a DIY Fabric Room Divider.
How to Create an Attractive Armoire Room Divider
Looking to divide a room with a room divider? Why not use an Armoire? Here’s how to make an armoire room divider. Try it today!
2. Make sure you have a routine schedule when the kids or pets are home with you.
To juggle work and family successfully, plan and set up a schedule. Consider the people and pets involved to keep them satisfied and content, while still completing your tasks throughout the day.
3. Pick the right office space to minimize distractions
Make sure your office lets you isolate yourself when you need to get things done. Read my other posts on creating the perfect home office.
How to Create a Tiny Home Office In a Small Home
And, How To Make a Great Home Office Even Better
How to Create an Ideal Home Office for your business
Easy Ways to Make A Home Office More Secure
4. Pick Zoom call hours that correspond to your child’s sleep schedule
If you need to talk to people on the phone or join webinars, set work hours and make sure everyone knows them each day. Add your work hours to the signature section of your emails.
5. Add 15 minutes between meetings when you travel.
If you work outside your office, factor in travel time. Extra time reduces stress and gives you breathing room if meetings run a little late.
6. Pick a few times a day to check email and do admin work.
I find that checking email in the morning, then again at lunch, and then again before I leave for the day works nicely. You don’t need to check your email every hour.
7. Get together at least once a month with like-minded small business owners.
Create a moms’ or parents’ entrepreneur support group with other small business owners, and regularly discuss ways to improve home and work situations. Creating a playgroup with moms where the kids play together, and the moms can talk about their struggles and solutions to their business, works wonderfully. Getting feedback and advice does help. Try Meetups to see if there are groups in your area.
8. Get help from others when you need focus time.
Ask friends and family to watch your kids when you attend important meetings or activities. I found that hiring a babysitter for a few hours a week gave me extra time to complete the list of unfinished focus tasks. For $50/week, I could set aside 2 hours for my business. It was a Godsend.
9. Set up a day during the week to plan for next week.
Sunday was always a good day to do this. Using a daily planner allowed enough space to fill in what needed to be done for my family and my business. You can make a line down the page and use one column for work and one for home tasks. Being proactive with your home and work schedule will help you see the big picture and find open blocks to add activities. Check out my balancing your life planner post to help small business owners.
10. Add smaller tasks (15 – 20 minutes) to your schedule.
Another juggling work and family tip is to break tasks into smaller pieces. If you use an electronic calendar and can create recurring appointments, make these recurring appointments for smaller tasks like taking a shower, eating lunch, etc. Don’t forget to add an alarm, too! As parents, we tend to forget to care for ourselves, so doing this will remind us what needs to be a priority.
Set Boundaries With Clients and Your Team, Not Just Your Family – New for 2026
This post started out written for solopreneurs, but plenty of you have grown into a small team of a few people, and once someone besides you represents your business, the boundaries you set for family time need to extend outward too. A client who has your cell number, or a team member who isn’t sure when you’re “off,” will fill whatever space you leave open.
A few boundaries worth putting in writing, even informally:
- State your working hours somewhere clients (affiliate) and team members will actually see them: in your email signature, on your booking page, or in a pinned message in your team chat.
- Decide in advance what counts as urgent enough to interrupt family time, and tell your team or contractors what that bar is, so they’re not guessing.
- If you have even one contractor or employee, agree on who covers what when you’re unavailable, so the business doesn’t grind to a halt the moment you step away.
Let Technology Carry Some of the Mental Load – new for 2026
You no longer have to hold the whole schedule in your head. AI-assisted scheduling tools (like the AI features now built into Google Calendar and Microsoft 365) can find meeting times that respect blocks you’ve marked off for family, and a shared task app- Todoist, Asana, or even a shared note lets a partner or team member see what’s on your plate (affiliate) without you having to explain it out loud.
Pro Tip: The tool matters less than the habit. Pick one calendar and one task list for work and home both, so you’re never checking three places to find out what’s next.
Know When to Delegate Instead of Doing It All Yourself – New for 2026
Every hour you spend on a task someone else could do is an hour you’re not spending with your family or on the parts of the business only you can do.
A good rule of thumb: if a task is repeatable, teachable, and doesn’t require your specific judgment, it’s a candidate to hand off, whether that’s to a team member or to outside help. Creating a checklist task for them works well so they aren’t calling you all the time.
Not sure what to hand off first? Figuring out what’s safe (affiliate) to delegate and building a process that doesn’t fall apart without you is exactly what I help solopreneurs and small business owners work through in Small Business Virtual Consultations Service, part of my suite of services. Think of it as a sounding board and accountability partner for the decisions you’re currently making alone. Let’s talk about what’s worth taking off your plate (affiliate).
Protect Recovery Time, Not Just Work Time – New for 2026
It’s easy to block off work hours and family hours and forget you need time that isn’t spoken for by either. A few minutes of downtime between “work mode” and “family mode” a walk, a quiet cup of coffee (affiliate), closing your laptop fully instead of leaving it open on the counter helps you show up better for both. Treat it like any other recurring appointment: if it’s not on the calendar, it tends to disappear first.
Creative Ways to Deal with Distractions, like kids, dogs, and cats in your home office
Get your free copy of Creative Ways to Deal with Distractions, like kids, dogs, and cats in your home office
FAQs
Split your day around your family’s real schedule instead of forcing a fixed 9–5, protect a distraction-free workspace, and put both work and family commitments on one shared calendar.
No single tip fixes the juggle; layering a few small changes (a set email-checking schedule, a weekly planning session, some outside help) often works better than one big overhaul.
Set consistent working hours and put them somewhere visible your email signature or a booking page so family, clients, and any team members know when you’re reachable.
Pair that with a physical boundary, like a curtain or divider if you don’t have a separate office, so “at work” is a place, not just a time.
Yes, delegating isn’t just for larger teams. Any task that’s repeatable, teachable, and doesn’t require your specific judgment is a candidate to hand off, whether to a new team member or to outside support like a virtual assistant. Check out my virtual assistant post.
Delegating even a few hours a week protects the time you need for both the business and your family.
AI-assisted scheduling tools can find meeting times that respect the blocks you’ve set aside for family, and a shared task app keeps work and home to-dos in one place instead of scattered across your head, your phone, and a notepad. The tool matters less than picking one system and sticking with it.
A single weekly planning session, many solopreneurs use Sunday, is usually enough if you use it consistently. Fifteen to thirty minutes mapping out work tasks and family commitments side by side (a two-column layout works well) lets you spot conflicts before the week starts, not during it.
Below are articles about how to Juggle Work and Family While Having a business from other experts:
How to juggle babies and business
And, How to Balance a Growing Business When Your Family Is Growing Too
How I Manage 5 Kids and a Growing Business
Closing
Whatever you do to improve juggling work and family, choose only to change one thing in your day at a time. See if it works. If it gives you more free time to spend with your family, great!
Then, try another tip and see if that works. Be sure to allow enough time to see whether it helps your business run more smoothly.
Not every tip from this post will work for your situation, so be flexible and nonjudgmental with yourself, and you will be able to make owning your own business successful.
Spending time and organizing your day will give you time to detach at the end of each day. Visit these additional posts for more on this topic.
Now it’s your turn. What tips do you have for managing your work and family life? Please join in the conversation by writing a comment below. I would love to hear from you.
Please note that these are affiliate links through Amazon (affiliate), and I will earn affiliate fees at no additional cost if you decide to make a purchase.
You Don’t Have to Juggle It Alone
Between running the business, keeping the household on schedule, and everything in between, some weeks the “juggle” is really a request for another set of hands. If you’re at the point where a sounding board, an accountability partner, or a little delegated admin work would help more than another productivity tip, my Admin Suite of Services is built for exactly that. Reach out and let’s talk about what’s realistic to take off your plate (affiliate) this month.
Great advice! It almost feels embarrassing to add recurring mundane tasks to the schedule, but it works! After a while, you don’t need the reminder, but having it on your list ensures that you don’t forget until it becomes ingrained as a habit.
It will definitely be interesting when my husband and I start a little family, because he and I are just so used to focusing on the tasks WE HAVE TO DO and then we focus on going on adventures just for us. But when a lil’ babe is involved… We are going to really have to STOP what we are doing and think about things to do with that little one too! Totally life changing!
I agree. There are a lot of things we did before our kids were around that we just let go of post-baby. Good luck in the process. And, enjoy it, it doesn’t last long. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.