How I Create Consistent Income In Under 10 Hours Per Week
Something I often talk about is how my current season of life, as a mum of young kids, informs the way that I run my business.
Family is one of my highest values and creating a business and a schedule that fits in and around my life as a mum is a big priority for me.
This is one of the many joys of being an entrepreneur – getting to choose my own hours, set my own schedule and make it work FOR me. It is the actual dream. And it’s not lost on me how incredible that is.
The flexibility of being your own boss is second to none. I love being a business owner AND I love being a mum AND I love being able to do both at the same time in a way that works for me right now in this season.
One question I often get asked is: “how do you do it all?”
And the short answer to that question is… I don’t.
BUT I thought I’d take the time and dive into this in greater detail for you on today’s episode of the Feminine Fire podcast.
I share how I create consistent income in under 10 hours a week as a mum of 2 young kids – and what it really looks like.
A breakdown of my week
While each day looks a bit different for me – my weeks do look a bit more consistent across the board. And this will give you an idea of what 10 hours per week looks like for me first and foremost.
The first thing to know is that my kids are both under school age.
Noah is almost 4 years old. He has pre-school 2 days per week and 1 day a week with my parents or Matt’s parents.
Hugo is 9 months old. I’m still breastfeeding him multiple times per day so I have him home with me full time, while Noah is home with us 2 days per week.
So my weekly schedule looks something like this…
On Mondays – Noah spends the day with my mum or with my in-laws. So it’s Hugo and I on Mondays. Hugo has swimming lessons in the morning. Then for about an hour or two over lunchtime my mum or in-laws will look after Hugo while I have a client call or a podcast interview. This is something we’ve just started doing. Now that Hugo is a bit older and eating solids, it’s easier for me to leave him for an hour or 2. So Mondays at lunchtime, I get in about an hour and a half to two hours of work. And this is actually when I’ll be hosting the group coaching and training calls for my new program Confident Consistent Cash. This recent change to my schedule is one of the reasons why I was able to add in a new program at this time.
On Tuesdays – Noah is at preschool, so it’s Hugo and I again all day. We don’t have anything consistently booked on a Tuesday but I like to get out of the house for at least one activity – even if that’s just a walk and a coffee. If Hugo’s naps align, there’s a mums and bubs gym class that I can go to on a Tuesday afternoon before picking up Noah from preschool. In the evening, after the boys are in bed, I often do an hour of work. This will often be when I record solo podcast episodes or get some writing or content creation done or copy review for my clients if I haven’t done it for the week yet.
On Wednesdays – Noah is at preschool again, so it’s Hugo and I again all day. And Wednesdays are my call day for the Spiritual Business Mistressmind. We have weekly group coaching calls in the Mistressmind but alternate the times each week. So one week it’s our daytime call at 11.30am and I will have Hugo with me, usually sitting in the highchair eating snacks while I’m coaching. The next week it’s our evening call at 7.30pm once the boys are in bed.
On Thursdays – I have both boys at home with me. Noah has swimming lessons and it’s usually a pretty busy mum day. I don’t schedule anything for work during the day, but sometimes I’ll book a client call or a podcast interview in the afternoon once Matt gets home from work.
On Fridays – I have both boys again but nothing booked in. I like to keep Fridays free just in case we want to go for a day trip somewhere. A few weeks ago I met one of my friends halfway between here and Canberra, about an hour’s drive for both of us and we had lunch and Noah played on the playground. It was just divine. And I want to be able to have the freedom to do that on a Friday, so I don’t book anything in for me or the boys on that day.
Monday to Friday – I also have daily support and check in with my clients and team in Slack. I do this in and around everything else I’ve got going on. Sometimes that looks like responding to clients while Hugo’s napping or while breastfeeding or while we’re out on a walk or at a cafe while he sleeps in the pram. I don’t have a set schedule for what this looks like but my clients know that I’ll get back to them usually on the same day, if not, within 24 hours.
On the weekends – I don’t usually work. Sometimes I’ll catch up on a bit of admin or content creation if I need to OR I’ll do some planning for the week on a Sunday afternoon or evening. But I try to keep weekends as sacred family time.
So that’s what my schedule generally looks like each week – and it amounts to about 8-10 hours of work each week when I take into account client calls, content creation, time in Slack and all the little itty bitty pieces of work here and there.
A couple of things I want to highlight:
This is what works for me and my family right now – and it will change and continue to change. At some point, maybe later this year, Hugo will be ready to have a whole day with my parents or Matt’s parents. And at some point, probably next year, we’ll look into daycare for him. And then I’ll be back to having 3 child-free days each week. But for now, I make this super flexible schedule work because family is the priority and this is what works best for us in this season.
I make it work. It’s not convenient. Running a business in and around caring responsibilities is not convenient. It requires a lot of negotiating and prioritising and shifting things around. But I make it work because I love it and I want to do this work and support my clients alongside raising my kids. And while it might not be convenient, it IS soul nourishing and it’s something that is just mine – it gives me purpose and motivation and something fulfilling outside of being a mama, which I really need. It helps me be a better mum and a better human.
I wanted to share that because in the day and age of lifestyle businesses and big income claims on Instagram – in a podcast episode about creating consistent income in under 10 hours a week – it can sound super glamorous. Like ooooh, “consistent income in 10 hours a week.” But for me, it literally looks like a mum in her activewear and oversized jumper wiping the snot from her kids nose while sending a voice note to a client. Don’t get me wrong, it's incredible and flexible and so freakin’ rewarding, but it’s also super stretchy and inconvenient and requires a lot of grit and determination to make it work.
Okay – so now that you’ve got some context around what my week looks like and how I spend the time that I do have in the business…
Let's chat about what it takes to create consistent income in less than 10 hours a week.
Because it’s very intentional. It doesn’t just accidentally happen.
1. I have a clear strategy to create consistent income
Consistent, reliable income is the goal. So my offer suite is geared towards that, my strategy is geared towards that, everything is working towards that goal of creating consistent income each month.
I have a very simple business model. I have my mastermind, the Spiritual Business Mistressmind, which is a 6 month mastermind where the live rounds roll on from one to the other. So the income from the Mistressmind is the foundation on which my monthly recurring revenue is built. Everything else, including my new program Confident Consistent Cash, stacks on top of that. So I can always forecast out 6-9 months in advance and know what money I’ve got coming in, and I can plan accordingly.
2. I track my income and look at our cash and expenses at least once a week.
Now some business coaches will recommend you do this daily. And I think staying on top of your cash regularly is super important. It’s just not realistic for me to do that on a daily basis in this current season, so I have a weekly money date with myself, usually on a Wednesday. I call it my Money Magic Hour.
This is where I:
Look at my business bank accounts
Track my income and expenses
Follow up anything that needs following up
Manually pay some invoices
Do what I need to do for tax.
I sit down and I focus on all money related tasks for that hour. So I know each week what we’re looking like cash-wise.
If you are not regularly checking in with your business bank accounts, if you are not familiar with the money you’re making (or not making) – then how are you going to know whether you’re making consistent cash in your business or not? How are you going to know where the gaps are?
This is essential. So if you’re not doing it – start doing it.
3. I am really organised and planned.
I know what I’m launching and when I’m launching it, and I usually have the skeleton plan of the whole year mapped out and then every 3-6 months, I fill in the details.
And the times when I haven’t been AS organised or planned as I’d like to be – those are the times when things feel harder or more overwhelming. So I know if I feel like I’m getting to a point where I feel a bit overwhelmed – I need to stop, sit down and get clear on the plan, first and foremost.
And then everything in the business, from our high level yearly plan right down to what needs to happen each week inside our programs and for the podcast and everything in between – all of it – is in Asana, which is the project management tool we use as a team.
We have simple and clear processes to get things done. I know what I need to do and by when, and my team do too.
If this wasn’t the case – if I wasn’t organised and planned, if it wasn’t mapped out in Asana with clear due dates – the business wouldn’t be able to operate in the way that it does and I wouldn’t be able to operate at the level that I do. Planning and organisation is essential.
It means that when I sit down to do some work in one of the small pockets of time that I do have, I’m not twiddling my thumbs trying to work out what I need to do. I already know what I need to do, I already know what my priorities are – I just sit down and go. The thinking time and decision making is taken out of it. It’s so much more efficient. And efficiency is everything when you don’t have much time.
4. I have the right support for me and my business.
Both support in the home and in the business.
I’ve already shared the fact that my parents and Matt’s parents look after Noah and Hugo during the week. That’s a MASSIVE support that allows me to have time in the business. Without that, things would have to look different. And that would be okay, we’d make it work, but I realise how privileged it is to have free childcare as a parent in this day and age. Childcare is expensive. So this is huge.
I’ve also got the support of Matt and we’re very much a team when it comes to parenting and life. I by no means do everything in the house. In fact, Matt probably does more. Especially right now, as I’m breastfeeding Hugo and he requires more of me, less of Matt. And I think it’s important to share that because having a partner to share that load with does influence the time I’ve got and how I run my business. I’ve had many clients who are single mums and don’t have a partner to share that load with, so I know what that looks like on the backend of running and building a business. And I think it’s important to give you the full picture of what that looks like for me.
If you’ve been around for a while you’ll have heard me talk about how one of the first things I outsourced ever was cleaning our home. We don’t have a cleaner at the moment. It’s something that we haven’t organised since we moved earlier this year, and we’re doing okay without for now, but is definitely something that we’ll be outsourcing again in future.
When it comes to the business – getting the right support has been essential. So for me that looks like having an incredible Content Manager, shout out to Tahryn Bolt from the Social Bolt, we’ve been working together for a few years now. And my wonderful VA, Jilanne from the Virtual Chapter. These two women are the dream team for me. And that’s because I know what my strengths are, I know where I most need support and I’ve gotten really good at delegating what I’m not great at or don’t have time to do. Tahryn takes my words and turns them into content magic, across the business in so many ways, much much faster than I can do it. And Jilanne does all the set up, scheduling, back end automations, client onboarding and offboarding, everything that would take me forever to learn and do, Jilanne just does, like the VA angel she is. This combo for me has been life changing.
I also outsource the podcast editing, a bit of graphic design, although I do some of that myself, and I have my own business coach who supports me with strategy, planning and day to day execution. Shout out to you, Ellie Swift. I walk my talk when it comes to investing in my business and getting the support I need.
So when people ask: how do you do it? How do you run a successful business that makes consistent income as a mama of 2 in less than 10 hours per week?
The answer is: I don’t.
I have the support on all the fronts to make it happen, the clear strategy that is geared towards creating consistent cash, the money habits to track my income and goals, and the planning and the organisation to know what I’m doing, when and that it’s all contributing to my goals and vision for the business. This is not a one woman show and it certainly doesn’t happen by accident. It’s very intentional.
And this is what I’m so excited to teach about in Confident Consistent Cash.
How to intentionally set your business up to create consistent cash:
The strategy that will support YOU to do it
The specific supports YOU need in your business to make it happen
The habits and planning and organisational tools that will make it easier for YOU.
There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to this stuff. But I hope what I’ve shared with you today is helpful in terms of taking a peek behind the curtain of my business and my schedule and seeing what this actually looks like for a business.
My number one wish is for you to get to a place where you’re creating consistent cash in your business, and you’re doing it on your terms, in a way that works for you, your lifestyle and your current season of life.
That’s why I’ve created Confident Consistent Cash.
Doors are closing soon. We kick off next week – Monday 19th June. So if you want to create consistent cash in your business on your own terms, then I’d love for you to join me.
You can read more and sign up at here
I’m so looking forward to supporting you to create consistent cash in your business! Let’s make it happen together!