Using Business Principles To Bring Order To Your Home

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{This guest post from Amy at 20 Minute Mom.}

When I turned in my badge as a Registered Nurse in favor of being a Stay-at-Home-Mom, I knew I was giving up a steady paycheck and an esteemed job title. Of course, I also knew I would be gaining the privilege of being with our beautiful daughter on a daily basis. So, I happily turned in my scrubs and left the “working world” behind to sign up for a new daily grind of cleaning, cooking, watching Veggie Tales and playing with blocks. What I didn’t realize was that I was leaving the medical world to climb the corporate ladder – I was now Mom-In-Charge.

My husband and I were recently discussing how many parallels actually exist between my current role in our home and his role as COO (Chief Operating Officer) of a growing business. The job of the COO is to create and manage systems within the business so that it can deliver services or products to its customers on the most excellent and efficient basis possible and, in the end, generate profit. In my home, the job of “Mom In Charge” (MIC) basically boils down to the same concept.

As I see it, my job as MIC is to create and manage systems within the home that provide for all the various projects to be completed efficiently and, in the end, generate profit. Only, in this case, my profit consists of time and energy – the two most valuable (and scarce) resources in my life. Being profitable means I have time and energy leftover to experience and enjoy the people my kids are becoming, invest in my marriage, build relationships with friends, read a book or just sit on our patio and enjoy a glass of wine as the sun goes down.

I didn’t always see it that way though. I used to think being a Stay-at-Home Mom meant I had to do everything myself. Most days that meant hoping to heaven that my daughter took a long afternoon nap so I could get the whole house in order before my hubby got home and saw what a wreck the place was! As far as profit, it was non-existent. In business terms, I was constantly running “in the red” and I would collapse into bed at night exhausted and still thinking of everything I didn’t get done that day.

However, once I came to a clear understanding of my real job description, I set about the task of building systems for all the various things that needed to be accomplished in our home in a given day, week, month and year. As more of the systems were created, I found that more got done and, within a relatively short period of time, I started seeing my profit grow!

A Profitable Homemaker uses the same principles as running a business: team-building, delegating, budgeting, organizing, and goal-setting. For my household, that usually means I implement a combination of flexible schedules and routines, teach children to help from a young age, and organize my house in a way that is easy to maintain.

With a little time invested, I’m confident you can reach the top of your domestic ladder and start generating profits of your own.

Amy is a Registered Nurse turned Stay-at-Home Mom who lives with her hard-working husband and pig-tailed daughter in Southern California. When she’s not creating straight vacuum lines and warding off spider intrusions she enjoys reading, pomegranate martinis, Target, and Dodgers’ baseball.

She shares her time-saving household management tips at www.20MinuteMom.com.