hello! im a puzzled nurse and a cake decorator. puzzled because i dont know how to manage my home-based business and at the same time keep a balance between my family and work. i have a full time work as a nurse (luckily i work only during day hours) and im a mother of a 10-month-old baby (with a nanny). previously, i only accept a very limited cake orders per week when my husband is still employed abroad. however, now that my husband is jobless, i must take this business very seriously in order to sustain our needs. my problem is that, we are only living in my parents' house and we only have a small production area. i told my husband that we should hire a helper for our business, however, he disagreed because we are just living in my parent's house,and he doesn't want to hassle my parents with additional persons coming in and out of the house.

how do you manage your cake business and keep a quality time with your loved ones? if its not too much to ask, can somebody please share  your family and cake business routine everyday? do you freeze your cakes? is it okay to decorate a fondant cake 1-2 days before the date of pick-up/delivery?

i still could not figure out how to do it. this business is really time consuming, and its very possible that my time for my family will be lessened. i really need to take more cake orders and at the same time, keep a balance between my family, work and business.

please help! thanks in advance.

shine

Your husband can surely take care of the child?  Many men from many cultures learn to do so very well, when both parents are on limited incomes (such as both in graduate school) and can stagger their shifts.

You are going to burn out very quickly now that you are financially carrying a family and an employee (the nanny).  Why are YOU worrying about increasing  the cake income?  Surely you and your husband need to start with a different plan for how the family as a whole gains its needs?

As far as baking cakes is concerned, there is plenty that can be done to improve efficiency.  Freezing cakes is one perfectly good practise (as long as the cakes are not hot from the oven).  Finishing cakes the day before the event is necessary because cakes have to settle at various stages of assembly.

If the cake business has to increase, then you have to have somebody to bake the layers, mix the icings, and do whatever fiddly assembly of decorative elements like flowers.  Also to shop for ingredients and clean up. You have a second pair of hands sitting under your nose--use them.

But one person working two jobs NEVER helps with the family time. I wish you well in your effort.

Hi !!!!  I'm in the process of writing a Cake Decorating Business Class, and I am currently working on the "time management" component.  Feel free to email me if you'd like to see it when I'm done.  I'm happy to help!

Lisa Raffael

www.deliciousdesserts.net

[email protected]

AWhen my wife was pregnant a few years ago we came to the conclusion that you can't adequately balance a full-time job, running your own business, and a baby. After our daughter was born we sold the business.

If your top priority is immediate income there are better and more efficient choices than running your own business. Take a look at how much profit you are actually collecting versus how much time you are spending on the business (which is really two jobs in itself: making the cakes and managing the business side), and compare that with potential income from a side job.

To the OP - hubby has to get more engaged.  He  needs to be taking care of the baby (eliminate the nanny expense) and during baby's nap time needs to be making icing and filling for you.  If you're going to be working two jobs to support the family, then hubby has to take on all the support roles.  And yes, it will be stressful and you will not have a lot of family time.  But sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I've never understood the concept of the nanny.  When my dh and I got together, I already had 2 daughters (and yes, I had done the whole single mom thing). Our son came along, and since dh was only working 3 days a week, he took care of the baby the rest of the week.  He was also going to school at night, so he did his studying around diapers, feedings, etc., and graduated 2nd in his class.  Between his 3-day job and my full-time job, we managed.  There was only a babysitter when we were both at work. 

You can manage a day job and caking at night, but it's going to take total commitment from both of you.  You're in this together so you'll have to work it out together.  It CAN be done.  Good luck.

Hubby and I had 4 sons. We learned to manage life and business by allocating "working" time. See----- he thought grocery shopping and errands were "fun" for me.... So we agreed to each "invest" a certain numbers of hours per day--- I actually think it was 14 early on. Whether you spent that time "at work , cleaning, on errands, cooking or burping babies... it didn't matter--- it was time "invested" in our family, financially or for benefit of the kids. Yes, I got "credit" for Mommy & me classes and library story time. It wasn't that formal, but it helped to define how long our days were and that we each had time to unwind... and sleep even (with babies, a luxury!).

I agree with Leah! All hands on deck! You can each pitch in what you can. And listen to Jason to really see IF the $$$$ is there to make it worthwhile.

OP, it appears you're in the Philippines, are there any cultural barriers that might stop your husband from helping out with the more domestic chores (and others as suggested by previous posters)? Where I'm from there's no way in hell you're going to get hubby all up in the BC and dishes or grocery shopping... except blackmail of course LOL. Just kidding. Maybe he could take over the business part of things like Jason did for his wife so you can focus on the baking and decorating? For now y'all are going to have to work around your work schedule and baby. Maybe you could teach him to take orders, do the paperwork, advertising, deliveries, and even managing your facebook page. That should free up some time for you.

thank you so much everyone for your ideas...its really a great help.

 @ LisaRaffael, that's wonderful! looking forward to see the "time management" component of your cake decorating business class. thanks!

May I suggest any of the books written by our wonder member Mimi Fix.  She has written several books about having a home based business.  

http://www.amazon.com/Mimi-Fix/e/B0034P1RFU

Great advice by everyone, do not burn yourself out - the stress is not worth it.  If you just keep running you are going to crash and then what will happen.  You need to sit down and talk to your husband and talk figure out what is going to work for the whole family.  I wish you all the best