As an entrepreneur, juggling a business, personal life and family can be one serious balancing act. These businesswomen share more pearls of wisdom on how to set yourself up for success.

CatGazzoli, founder Piccolo

1. You can do anything, but not everything. Prioritise and say no to less important items and requests that won’t help you get to the end point in order to achieve your big goal at hand. There are limited hours in the day and the steps you take to get to your goal have to be the right ones.
2. Mentors. Don’t be shy. Someone has done this before and can help you. People love to share stories and learnings. Reach out to those you would like to get to know and learn from. Search for a mentor and invite them on your journey.
3. Involve your kids. My daughter has not been kept separate from the business and the team who has built Piccolo. They are her family too. With a new business and building one from scratch, I strongly believe it is better to have our kids involved because both business and children are all-consuming entities.
   
   

Karen Thomson, owner and director, Kam Hair and Body

1. Set goals – goals allow you to work out your priorities, what you want to achieve in your career and personal life. Knowing these goals can make planning easier and allows you to focus on things in order to achieve what you want.

2. Have regular childcare - running a business is tough; therefore, it’s important you have childcare so you have clear, childfree time to run it properly.

3. Have flexibility – it’s your own business and although you should spend quality time running it, you should also spend quality time with your children, as it’s important to be flexible around their needs as well as the businesses.

Louise Ferguson, founder, Skinny Tan

1. Be careful with cashflow and what you take on. Big retailers often want very long terms, which means you have to pay manufacturing and marketing costs before you get paid by the retailers. It is possible to factor invoices but this can be expensive. The best idea is to cashflow your business with online sales.
   
   
2. Use Facebook to help generate online sales and build your brand and discover who your customer really is and what they respond to. The great thing about Facebook sales is that you can very tightly control your marketing spend – be ready to turn promotions off that don’t make a return and keep testing.
3. Take one step at a time - a whole business can be overwhelming but you have to keep on moving - make lists and just get the ball rolling. Start today and do at least one thing. Today it might be registering your business name. Tomorrow might be setting up a Facebook page. All the small steps will get you towards the big picture.
   
   
4. If you don’t know something, ask. It is amazing how much other people in business love to help small businesses and you learn a lot along the way – people who see your passion will share information and contacts and if you reach out they can shortcut your path to success.
5. Having your own business allows you the flexibility to work your own hours. As mothers, we see that it means we can be there for our children as we don’t have to leave them to go into an office. However, a word of warning if you are working from home with what is likely to be all consuming work, just make sure you do not end up bringing the office into your children’s lives.

Christina Relf: Self-employed PR and marketing consultant, Real Word Communications

1. Get your network set up. Don’t expect to be able to run a business without adequate support – whether it’s paid-for childcare, kids’ clubs in the school holidays or partners and family.
   
   Don’t try to look after your young child at home while presenting a business-like image to your clients.
   
   
2. There’s nothing like feeling prepared. Identify space in your day or week when you can focus on prioritising your ‘to-do’ list, prepare for meetings or write reports.
   
   It might be six am before everyone else gets up, or it could be nine pm when the children have gone to bed or five pm on a Sunday evening before the week ahead. That said, don’t make a habit of working crazy hours – it’s not good for your health or productivity.
3. Don’t be afraid to let clients know if there’s a problem at home. Everyone is human; most of your clients will have families too.
   
   As long as they know they can count on you to deliver, people will be understanding if you suddenly need to dash off to collect a sick child from school. The trick is to prove how fabulous you are – establish a great client relationship as soon as possible, be consistent, and believe that you’re worth their understanding when you really need it.