Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have been really thinking about the advice offered about How to Manage Kids in the Home Office. The blog offers a lot of tips on how to make things work, but I really wanted to hear some comments from members here about what they find works and doesn`t work with running a business and having small children.

I am particularlly interested in how you handle the phone situation. The blog article mentioned just telling customers that you have a child and move on. But I was wondering if that could turn off potential clients. I know sometimes there is no way around it, and in an ideal world your darling child will be quiet everytime you are on the phone, but we all know that is not reality.

Thoughts anyone?

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I think I just say, yeah, that`s my daughter ... and get back to the business at hand. I only work with small businesses though - no corporate clients - so the relationship is more casual in nature.

I mean, I just have to be honest.

I do mostly try to reserve my phone calls for naptime though ... but sometimes she does wake up early.

I`ve done a lot of work lately (VA type work) with a company who`s entire employee base is pretty much telecommuters. I don`t know the exact numbers, but of 3,000 employees, I`d say upwards of 80% or more work from home. This is an international company, with high visibility and high-end clients.

I routinely have phone meetings and discussions, and equally routinely have distractions rarely associated with a corporate office. For example, not only do kids and pets enter into the scene, but so do doorbells for deliveries, emergency vehicle sirens, and such things as washing machines, timers, and so on.

I suppose there are going to be old-fashioned business people who still believe that the only way to run a business is have everyone dressed in a suit, sitting in a cubicle or office, and have working hours between 8am-5pm. So?

The way the world is going, more often than not someone in NYC will have to connect with someone in Sydney, Australia. Given the 12-hour differential, what happens? Who goes to the office at 3am so they can "sound professional" talking with someone on the other side of the planet?

Fuggeddaboudditt..! :-D If your client is scared away because you actually have a life, then you don`t need that client. That`s my thought on it, at any rate. There are lots of potential clients.

Nhgnikole and CraigL you have no idea how much weight you have taken off my shoulders. I am so glad to hear your responses. All this time I have been trying to figure out how to "sound" more corporate, but the reality is I am not. I am a stay-at-home mom with a small business who still can do what I say I can do, AND I can do it really well.

Of course, I am still going to take every precaution to keep the background noise to a minimum. But there are just going to be times when things happen.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. I am so glad I found this forum!

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Hi! I have a 4 year old daughter. I work from my home. My daughter is enrolled in full time dayschool but i only have her there 3 days a week. These 3 days allow me to have meetings with clients, travel and make my client calls. On the days that she is home, i still work but try to limit my calls. It really depends on the persons opinion you are dealing with, if it is appropriate. I have encountered times when it was definately uncomfortable. I also have 3 dogs who love to bark, so it can be nervewracking when i here them starting to bark when i am on a call. There are definately pro and cons when you work from home. I have to say i had hired a women to do some work for me. Everytime i would call, the kids were screaming, or she would have to put me on hold to help them with something. I am a Mom so I understood. This happened every time though and it started to intefere w/ communication, b/c she would always have to get off the phone. when i visted her office from time to time to go over the projects, it was a mess. Her 1 year old was everywhere, getting into everything, crying and almost falling down the stairs...i always had to step in to babysit or she would excuse herself to deal with her older daughter and her toys and crafts etc. We would never get to the job at hand and she would always say "next time". Well our projects were never completed and she closed her business. I was not the only one that had this situation with her. I like her but there is a right way and wrong way to working with your children. I think I have a good situation. Halla comes with me when i go to our evening events for business and she loves it, she wears a suit and has her own litle business case. She shakes hands and says "How do you do, We can help you solve that problem". It is really cute. or " we have a solution for that!" Anyway, this environment is ok and the group of folks are ok with it. She doesn`t intefere. As long as being a wahm doesn`t intefere with the job at hand I think it is a plus and I feel fortunate to be able to spend more time with her.

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Chrystal, in some ways my child has actually helped my business connection. For example, if a potential new client has kids of their own, they often love to reminisce about the days when their child was the same age. (1 really is a fun age.) It creates a connection and makes the business part of it easier. I also work with a lot of startups and small businesses, as I said, as well as many woman-owned businesses, and they are often dealing with the same things I am dealing with ... running a business while juggling child care, dealing with their mixed feelings, etc. So a lot of them also find relief to know that they aren`t the only one chasing down the baby while discussing an important project!

Actually, the only thing that`s ever bothered me with people working from home is the divided attention problem. "Hang on just a second....okay I`m back."

Regardless of how chaotic it can get, when you work at home, you do have to maintain a continuous conversation on phone meetings. One solution is to only start working at home when the kids are old enough to handle most things on their own. Another, is to have some help with the kids during business hours. The third option is to have business hours or meetings when the kids are in school or asleep.

I think most people won`t have a problem at all with work-at-home people. But when you`re in the middle of a conversation, it`s really hard to deal with an interruption smack dab in the middle of a sentence.

I agree with all of the post and I have also worried of such a thing happening because I have not yet gained a client as of yet but I was thinking about how noisy my kids get just as soon as I pick up the phone. The good part is, is that they both go to school all day (3 and 5 year old)...but I have a new born on the way. I only pray that he is not fussy! But I think that scheduling client meetings on those absolute child free times is a way to cut down. That I am going to try. Or another one is using IM (AOL, YAHOO, MSN) for meetings and info sessions for some people. If out of 25 calls, one or two get a noisy child, I think that is cool.

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IMs for business only work in very constrained situations. Most businesses want a record of conversation, so email works better. But telephone conversations are still fundamental. You can get a lot more information across, quickly, and not have to know how to type. Additionally, a phone call WITH some sort of shared online meeting application is a big deal.

Nobody HAS to schedule a meeting at the same time as the kids have just come running in from school, all excited about their day, their lessons, and what happened. In fact, quality time with the kids at that moment means devoting complete attention to their excitement for life and their adventures.

If a client absolutely refuses to meet on the phone at any other time than exactly the 2 hours when you can`t do it, then you likely don`t need that client. Or, you should reconsider your desire to be an independent business person---a consultant rather than an employee.

You`re "offering" a product with your business. You`re not being "told what to do." It`s your option and customer service policy as to how you`ll handle client needs, not their option and how they`ll demand that you "work for them."

When I was in the bands, drunken idiots would justify interrupting a set by shouting at me that I worked for them! They`re the audience, after all, and I have to do what they want. I told them I worked for the club-owner, and called over a bouncer.

People still believe that idiotic maxim, "The customer is always right." It`s nonsense, but there you have it. However, you don`t have any customers, per se. You have clients. Nobody owns you, and you don`t work for someone. If they argue about it, ask them for a W2 form. :-)

CraigL, I feel like your comments are a bit insensitive towards working moms. It seems to me that you think a person can`t carry on a phone conversation AND do something else at the same time without interupting the conversation. This is just not true. I feel this kind of comment is only discouraging to Chrystal in the long run ... ie is she going to have to wait 18 years to not get interrupted by a child in order to run her business? Pay someone more money than she is making to watch her child? Make phone calls at 1 am (because that`s "when the kids are asleep...") ? It`s fine to set phone hours, but realistically it`s better to be able to accept calls when they come. I have never had a problem with someone saying "I need to call you back in 15 minutes" or "Can you hold on a second? I don`t have anyone else here to answer the other line." or just being on hold so the person can discuss with a colleague. Every customer service line has a hold function - why should a working mom be different? The reasons may be different, but  I think people who are that easily offended by such things are going to be difficult clients from the start, and not worth having.

Personally, I need to schedule phone time for when my daughter is up and running around. I only have a certain amount of solid work hours when she is asleep or being otherwise occupied, and I need to not waste those "focus hours" on talking on the phone. I don`t know a working mom out there who can`t multitask better than anyone!