Late last week, I asked you to consider whether or not it is time to hire some help for your home business, including childcare assistance, students to help with your paperwork or simply an occasional housekeeper. Today, I want to focus on some “do it yourself” ways to take control of your business, and your time.
Take a moment to think about how much time you spend at the grocery store, cooking meals, planning meals and serving meals. If your family is anything like mine, it takes at minimum two hours on non-grocery days and up to four on grocery days. That is a tremendous amount of often wasted time that you could be spending with your family, or working on your business.
Here are three suggestions for making more time for your home business through meal planning.
1). Think about Once a Month Cooking. Yes, it sounds scary. People who use Once a Month Cooking quite literally make all of their meals on one (very long) day. When my husband and I both worked shift-work, I OAMC’d for almost a year. It was wonderful. Each night he came home, I had a meal hot and ready in less than 15 minutes. I’ve started a two-week version of OAMC now that I am busy with a home business and it is saving me at least an extra hour (or two) per day on meal planning and preparation.
2). Consider trying a local meal-assembly franchise. These are places where you pick up to twelve meals, assemble them in a professional kitchen and place them in your own freezer for later use. I tried this when I was pregnant and loved it! It essentially the same concept as OAMC, but with no mess afterward. Each city has different franchises so I would encourage you do a “meal assembly” search on Google to find one near you. Keep in mind, these franchises cost more than doing it yourself, however it will save you a tremendous amount of time which you could transfer to working on your business.
3.) Plan ahead. Successful business owners plan ahead. They set goals, they create business plans and they may even order office supplies in bulk. What if you did that with your family meals? There are numerous web sites (including Families.com) that will give you wonderful suggestions for meal planning. How many times do you drive to the grocery store because you forgot to purchase an ingredient for a certain recipe? How often are you frantically driving to the store to get milk, eggs or orange juice? Planning ahead reduces the time spent running to the grocery store or fumbling through your pantry. Plan your meals like you plan your business and you will be left with more enjoyable meals, and more time for your home business.
Tell us about your own experiences with any of these suggestions in the comments section. We would love to hear from you!