So I finally decided to start my own online baking business after fives of doubting my capability. My mother passes away in December due to cancer and she constantly told me to pursue my dream. Well in January of this year I formed my LLC and started working towards establishing a legitimate business. I think some where between. My mom passing in December and my second daughter being born in November I forgot that the body required sleep to function properly. I work a full time job M-F so when I come home at 6 I clock in to my 2nd shift baking business...

How do balance both careers while spending time with my newborn, my 14 year old daughter and my super hot husband who cares for our baby during the day? BTW I bake until 2am 3 nights a week and then I'm up and out by 6:15 am just to get to work by 7ish (we have crazy traffic in Northern Va.)

Wow, you have quite the schedule!   You didn't say if you are doing cakes or baked goods in general.  If you're doing cakes, the only suggestion I would have is start slow.  Do not book several cakes in a weekend until you are really comfortable because they ALWAYS take longer than you think they will.

Good luck to you :)

I was cracking up when I read super hot husband, you definitely are a newlywed. It will be really hard you are still in the progress of getting use to your baby and husband. Writing a schedule may be helpful, but be realistic about your obligations time each takes.

Looks like you have too much on your shoulders. 

Does your husband work? 

Do you have to work so much?

 You need 8 hours of sleep  and 1 hour of time every day to yourself,if you can manage that, that's where to start.

Your 14 year old daughter is old enough to help you with baby and cakes.

QUOTE:  "...MADE THEM (a few custom cakes and cupcakes) AVAILABLE VIA SOCIAL NETWORK AND THE DEMAND BECAME OUTRAGEOUS..."

Easy solution, raise your prices.   If the "demand is outrageous", you are charging too little.

My prices are fair...

I'd say it would be absolutely wrong to make a 14 year old girl make up for too much work load her mother takes on. Unless she's begging her mother to help she can't be expected to work night shifts along with her mother.

But that aside. Can  you see yourself doing this tide schedule in five years for now? Is it worth it? Does your relationship with your husband and kids suffer? Are you enjoying what you are doing? Would you like to shift your attention fully on the cake decoration business?  Could you employ someone to help? Are you happy with the current situation? 

Anewer those questions truthfully and maybe discuss with you super hot hubby what to do ;)

I find life is too short to waste precious time being unhappy...

Even a TIGHT schedule.  Lol

BookaBakes~~ The easiest solution to reducing your workload (balancing a full time job, baby, and super hot husband) is to reduce demand.  By reducing demand, you will still have the opportunity to create the baked goods and candies, but you will have fewer orders , which will result in more time.

The quickest way to reduce demand is to raise prices.  Additionally, by raising prices now, 6 months into this new business endeavor, you will create a business model that will be more profitable in the long haul and create a long-term customer base with customer referrals that wish to purchase "elite" baked goods.

There is no way that you and I, or anyone else here on an anonymous international cake forum, can determine a solution--we don't know each other or the specifics of your business demand/geographic location/expenses/overhead/profit margin, etc.  It would be like someone on the forum doing your family taxes for 2016--we don't have the information. 

The quality of your baked goods looks excellent on your facebook page, and it sounds like you definitely possess the baking skills and many of the needed business skills in place as well; so you are on the right track.  Since you are booked until September, perhaps you could set aside specific chunks of time to devote to the business/pricing/long term profitably goals in the remaining 3 months of 2015.

Wow, BookaBakes, I am impressed.

Julia1812, yes you are right about teenagers. I have 5 kids, the oldest are 14 and 12 . They help me with house chores, and with 3 year old kid, if I am busy with cake order, but it would be  completely wrong to make them work on cake orders.

After reading the responses, I don't know what the question is anymore. Is this like an early Christmas letter? I'm jealous. Congratulations, OP.

Yeah, I misunderstood the original post.  I thought you were nervous and looking for input on starting a business.  But, it looks like your already in the thick of it and doing quite well.  Maybe you should give me advice because I am not booked thru September, lol

 What are they? If you're in Northern VA you could probably raise your prices, but if they're in line with what the going rates are there then that's different. "Fair" doesn't mean that you're priced right, necessarily.

You could just take time off for a while. I have a friend who owned a profitable yarn shop for years. Then she got married and not long afterwards pregnant. She sold the shop so she could spend more time with her new hubby and when the baby came she said it was the best decision she ever made. She ran the shop herself with a few employees and found herself not being able to see her husband very much. If you don't need the income, then bake for family and friends, police, etc. But not for money until you get your sleep back. I have a 14 month old and there is no way in heck I could've started a business while preggo or nursing and I'm just now starting to get my sleep back. No business for me until he starts preschool or daycare or something like that. Doesn't mean I can't bake, I just don't do it for money which doesn't tire me out (that's the little one's job, ha ha). Don't take on so much stress, cause you're not the only one who feels it. :)

Also, along with what Apti said, reduce demand, but don't feel like you have to take EVERY order that comes your way, learn to say you're booked that week or something :)

I would like to visit your Facebook page how can I do so?

If you're wanting to check out my work I suggest you go to Instagram. @Bookabakes

I am going to base my answer on how I would feel in your situation. 

Three hours sleep is not enough for you to function properly and without a doubt one of your jobs will end up suffering. In this case it sounds like your family are the ones missing out. Your children are so young and OMGoodness do they grow up fast.

I feel that if you keep up the schedule that you have the relationships with your family will suffer as your children grow and you miss out on so much. It sounds like you are almost working two full time jobs so is it possible for you to decide on one of those jobs instead of doing both?

I would be burning out really quickly and finding that everything is just too much and I think that MY 'super hot husband?' lol would also be getting sick of working full time and then having to mind a baby/pick up the slack that Mum has left (and I don't mean that rudely but if I was working all those hours I for sure wouldn't have much time for the kids) as well as feeling neglected himself. It sure would not work for us.

Only you and your family can know what is right for your family so take my my post with a grain of salt, I am just imagining how it would work for my family.

All the best :-) 

I only bake 3 nights a week and I don't bake on Saturdays or Sundays. My 14 year is going on 15 years old she is not a baby. She plays sports and has an active social life. I attend and am active at every practice, game and or event. I was a single parent with no help for 13 of those years and managed to work a similar schedule without neglecting my child or responsibles. You learn to adapt until you can do better. I asked for advice on time management options but so far I have mostly received criticism  concerning my parenting. Unlike most the dynamics of our household are not traditional. I am not a stay at home mom with a ton of free time on my hands. My husband is the stay at home parent with the free time that requested to stay at home with our daughter I suggested daycare but he wouldn't hear of it. He is my biggest supporter and always encourages me to pursue my passion. As I said before my goal is to make this my full time job. With anything of importance it takes time and sacrifice. It's not a hobby for me or something to pass the time away but I love it and if I can make a viable career doing something that I love then I'm willing to make some sacrifices. Thank you all for your responses whether positive or negative. I will delete this post and just pray for direction next time.

I am sorry if you found some of the responses (and I assume mine) negative, I am sure that no one was intending them to be so. Your post actually suggests that you are working from 7am until 2am or 3am that night/following morning and then surviving on three hours sleep at least 5 days a week and that you are struggling with that.

If you are the kind of person that can survive on such a little amount of sleep then more power to you but personally I turn into the biggest crab you have ever seen.

I also was not suggesting that your 14 year old is a baby - just that kids grow up so fast and from my point of view time spent with them is so precious.

When I read over your post I couldn't see anywhere that you could take extra time from etc as I took it that you were already working basically every waking (and some sleeping) hour.

If you are not doing anything during the weekends then I would suggest that you start spending a couple of hours at night or when your bubba is sleeping doing the baking of cakes that will be used for the coming week (or even fortnight) ahead. You could even bake them one night, leave them to set overnight, split them and fill them, give a thin crumb coat and freeze them after that which will reduce the time you need to finish them when they are due, they do take up a lot of space though done like this. If you don't know whether you will like the result then do a trial run.

Wrap well, label and freeze. You can do the same with the icings - make a big batch, split into plastic containers and glad wrap, label and freeze. I do it all the time with SMBC and Ganache. I couldn't see why it wont work with other icings. Just pull out the day/night before you want to use and defrost in the fridge. Re - whip if needed and use. I bring my ganache out of the fridge a few hours before I want to use to get to room temp.

Sorry, I laughed about the super hot husband comment, I just thought that’s how I felt about my husband when were newlyweds, after 10+ years of marriage, not so much. I have a friend whom is a single mom works full-time and bakes and decorates cakes and other baked goods. The reason I mention her is because she is experiencing a similar dilemma, that is, she wants to do the baking full-time instead of her current job. Although she is getting a lot of orders she doesn’t feel quitting her job is an option no because she doesn’t have a working spouse. I know if she had someone else to help out, she would be baking full-time. I am just a hobby baker for now who plans on putting some effort into starting a business part-time (I’m sorry I’m not more help). Sorry you were offended, I think members may have  misunderstood what you were asking.  I think it would be more helpful to bookabakes if people whom run successful bakeries would share with her how they got started.  

Good luck Bookabakes

Quite frankly, it doesn't seem to me that you're really looking for suggestions, since everyone who's suggested anything has been shot down with an objection from you. You still didn't say what your pricing is, and since that's generally the first thing that you can do to help manage your time better, I have to wonder what your goal in posting was. It seems more like wanting people to know how super busy you are than really looking for help when people suggest ways to cut back and get more sleep, which is what you mentioned in your first post. 

I think that's what I was trying to say earlier......

good luck & best wishes OP.

yeah, I was going to reference your comment but decided to leave it all on myself.

You had the courage to say what I was thinking :)

My response was highly edited too.   ;)

I wanted to post on this thread but didn't have time before my family went on vacation.    So I am a little late to this party. 

The one thing that is glaring to me, but that no one touched on, is that you are 6/7 ish months post loss of a parent.    How are you doing grief wise?  I hope to not sound presumptious, but you mentioned that your mom passed away and that she was a big reason why you felt the need to fulfill this baking dream.    I too know this feeling.   That need to grab life and run with it because it in some ways helps to cope with the things that are hard.   

I hope you are doing well grief wise,  grief is a strange and very personal journey that  is as individual as a fingerprint.   It also has it's own timeline and can make decisions really fuzzy sometimes. 

My grief counselor told me not to make any big decisions for the first year after my tragic loss.    I am 19 months out and I am finally starting to feel like my world is beginning to make sense.   My advice to you, should you want it, be sure to take care of your soul.   Make sure you are only doing what makes your heart sing.    Give yourself time to acclimate to the changes and don't kick yourself around if it feels daunting.    It is.    You have been through a lot of life changes this year.    It's totally ok to stop and freak for a minute. 

God bless you lovely and best wishes on everything 

heather