Balancing your home life while building your birth business takes practice and experimentation. Many birth professionals are also mothers of young children, and much of the work we do managing our businesses is at home while we’re also mothering and running the household. As business owners, how do we make time for it all?

If you love your birth work, chances are you’ve got books. Lots of them. And what about organizing handouts for clients? Then there are the nifty tools we take to births. Here are a few tips to keep it all straight.

For the first five years, my doula business finances were a mess! I was getting plenty of births, but I had no idea if I was making a profit, how much, and when it came to the end of the year, figuring out my expenses for tax time was just awful!

And then I stumbled on a product that has solved all most of my accounting problems. It’s called the “File-it!” calendar, and I’ve used it for the last five years with great success.

In my house, paper breeds. Despite the attempts I’ve made to recycle, throw out, file and pile, paper still grows. Although I haven’t perfected the system, here are 10 tips that can help you take control of the paper in your life.

This week we’ll be taking a look at all the ways you organize your office, paperwork, files and electronic data. Each day I’ll offer you some tips and resources to help you organize your office in some way. Today we will take a look at where you run your birth business.

Today I’ll share the filing system that has evolved over time. It’s a loose rendition of Julie Morgenstern’s paper filing system from her book, “Organizing From The Inside Out”.