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2013-02-19 06:08:11
In the first of a new series of weekly articles looking at the successes and
challenges of small companies around the world, the BBC's Kate Dailey visits
Richmond, Virginia, to explore how one married couple who run their own
business from home manage to create a work-life balance.
John and Sherry Petersik run a successful blog about their life at home. But
when your business is built around writing about your life, how do you balance
the two?
The set-up seems like a dream - work with your spouse to build your perfect
kitchen, blog about it, and make enough money from doing so that both of you
can stay at home and raise your child.
But it's not nearly that simple.
That's what John and Sherry Petersik, founders of the blog Young House Love,
have discovered in the five years their blog has turned from a project for
friends and family to an internet phenomenon.
The Petersiks now work full-time at the blog, which offers do-it-yourself
projects, home renovation tips, and profiles of reader redesign. They post
seven times a week and garner more than five million page views a month.
'Two-person newspaper'
While the success of the blog has allowed them both to work from home and raise
their two-year-old daughter, Clara, it's presented its own challenges.
Young House Love book cover In 2012, the Petersiks published a book of
home-improvement projects
"It's like a two-person newspaper, you're churning out stories every day," says
Sherry. "It's not like you paint something and then it's on the blog. You paint
it and then you have to wait for good lighting to photograph it.
"And then you have to write something and then you're the editor and you have
to proof it. And then you edit again and then you share it, and people have
questions, so you're doing public relations."
And when your job is based around your home life, it can be difficult to draw a
hard line between public and private, between work and play. When they're
enjoying time together as a family, says John, the pressure to share with their
readers is ever-present.
"There's a voice on the back of our head - should we be taking a picture of
this?" he says.
"We're trying to develop a second voice to argue, 'Just enjoy this for what it
is. You don't have to share with the rest of the world. They have enough of you
already.'"
To that end, the Petersiks have made work-life balance a frequent, public
pursuit. For the past three years, they have included some variation of this
desire on the occasional lists of goals they post on their site.
'Don't burn out'
But cutting back comes at a price.
"A lot of people, even ourselves when we started, don't realise that when you
want to turn a blog it into a job, it does become a business. You have to
figure out where your income is going to come from, you have to manage those
revenue streams," says John.
Balancing act: Tips for the self-employed
Breaking away from work is tricky no matter who you are, but for those who work
from home can find it exceptionally difficult to carve out personal and
professional time.
Kristie Arslan, president of the National Association for the Self-Employed,
offered some tips for at-home workers:
Make a schedule: You have to create your schedule like a normal work day - work
from 09:00-17:00, or whatever works for you, and stick to those hours.
Close the door: When the workday ends, leave your working space - and close it
off for the night. Whether it's an office or just a corner of the kitchen,
don't use it for anything but work.
Stick to it: You have to maintain that schedule, because if you don't you fall
victim to creep.
Get out: If it's impossible to feel relaxed at home, seek external office
space. Co-working spaces provide both a neutral work environment and "the water
cooler experience".
The couple is responsible for quarterly business taxes. They must keep up their
health insurance payments, pay for server space, hire an accountant, and put
money away for their retirement.
Though the Petersiks in the past have made revenue through paid writing jobs
and private design consulting, the majority of their income now comes from
advertising on the site - either through automatically generated Google ads, or
through direct site sponsors, which often include design and home supply
companies such as the Tile Shop. The sponsors are individually managed by the
couple themselves,
In order to generate that ad revenue, they need to ensure a steady flow of
traffic - so cutting back requires some careful consideration.
"We have to figure it out while still guarding the business, because this puts
food on the table and pays for our daughter's roof over her head," Sherry says.
"We can't be stupid about it, but we need to make choices that make this
sustainable for us in the long haul so we don't burn out."
Struggling to find a work-life balance is a problem that plagues many workers,
especially those who are self-employed. In the US, that includes 80% of small
businesses, says the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) - and
that same segment is growing faster than any other in the US economy.
As the site - and their visibility - has grown, the Petersiks have been able to
supplement their revenue through projects like a best-selling book and a
lighting line. They're also determined to maintain their current traffic
targets while writing one less post a week.
'Goals intertwined'
But, Matthew Kelly, the head of Floyd Consulting, reminds the couple that
work-life balance may be elusive for a reason.
John and Sherry Petersik with their daughter Clara The Petersiks say a happy
marriage is key to their successful business
"The term itself is fatally flawed," he says. "Work and life are too
intertwined."
Kelly, the author of Off Balance: Getting Beyond the Work-Life Balance Myth to
Personal and Professional Satisfaction, says that more important than being
balanced is being "satisfied" both professionally and personally. "The idea
that I'm going to spend as much time with my professional stuff as with my
personal stuff just doesn't work," he says.
Instead, he recommends to his clients that they establish what is important to
them in their personal lives and then carve out non-negotiable time to get that
done, even if it means working odd hours.
That's a skill that the Petersiks already practise. "As much as we talk about
working nights and weekends, a lot of that is because we're stay-at-home
parents and we don't take that lightly," Sherry says. "When she's awake and it
is a nice day, we will take her to the park, and then we'll work when she's
asleep."
After all, making time for family and home life is essential to the couple's
success.
"Our life goals sort of piggyback off of our work goals because they are so
intertwined," John says.
"We still need to experience life, and have a happy marriage and happy family,
to make the business work."