Running a business, raising a family, caring for parents — where do you fit?

So many founders I speak to started their business for flexibility. But before long, they're building it in the cracks between family commitments: the school run, the hospital appointment, the phone call about their mum or dad. You try to cram a full business into the tiny gaps left by life. You take on more, thinking flexibility means you can because you’ve lost the "fence" that office hours once gave you and suddenly there's no off-switch. Sound familiar?

So when I'm asked, "How do I juggle running a business with family life?", what I'm really hearing is: "Why do I always feel behind?" "Why do I feel guilty for needing rest?" "Why isn't there ever enough time?"

If you're part of the sandwich generation, raising children and caring for ageing parents, it's no wonder you feel like you're failing in both roles. So here's what I want you to know: you're not failing, you're not alone, and you don't need to justify your pace, your boundaries or your rest.

Let's talk about how to build a business that fits your real life, not one that fights it.

You're not failing. You're carrying more than most

The Office for National Statistics estimates there are 1.4 million sandwich carers aged 16 to 64 in the UK: people with a dependent child at home who also give unpaid care to a sick, disabled or elderly relative.¹ You're doing two, sometimes three, jobs at once, and you deserve a plan that's built around the life you're actually living. Here's where to start:

• Count the hours caring really takes. For one week, jot down every hour that goes on caring: the lifts, the phone calls, the appointments, the forms. Take that away from your week and what's left is your real business time. Plan from that number, not the one you had before.
• Bank the good weeks. When caring is quieter, get ahead while you can. Make extra stock, photograph a few new products, write next month's newsletter. Then a hard week draws on what you've banked instead of bringing everything to a stop. 
• Judge the business by the season, not the week. Caring weeks swing wildly, so one bad week tells you very little. Look at how the last three months went as a whole. It's a much fairer picture, and it's the one to make decisions on.

Plan for the day caring takes over

Caring doesn't run to a timetable. The call from the care home comes on launch day. A child is sent home from school just as a wholesale order needs packing. The appointment you moved everything for gets cancelled in the morning. You can't stop those days coming, but you can decide now what happens to the business when they do. So while things are calm, write a one-page "if I'm out" plan:

• The message. Write the note you'd send customers now. Something like: "I'm away for a few days for family reasons. Orders placed now will be sent by XXX. Thank you for your patience." People are kind about honesty. What they don't forgive is a promise that quietly isn't kept.
• The switch. Find the holiday or pause setting on every place you sell, and write down where it is.
• The person. Who could pack and post for you if they had to? List what they'd need: log-ins, where the boxes live, which orders can't wait.
   

Promise the dispatch time you can keep on a bad week

It's tempting to set your dispatch promise on your best week. Set it on your hardest one instead. If "sent within two working days" is only true when nothing else goes wrong, it isn't true for you right now.

Then think about where you post from. If your week now includes a hospital car park or a detour to your parents' house, you don't always need a counter. Royal Mail offers many convenient ways to drop off your items including thousands of Out of Home locations including Parcel Lockers and Royal Mail Shop locations. Once you've paid for the postage and the label's on, you can post orders on a route you're already driving.
 

Build the business around the life you've actually got

A business shaped for the hours you had before caring started will keep asking for hours you haven't got. So shape it for the week you really have.

• Sell what your week can support. If you can't promise quick turnarounds, lean on made-to-order or pre-order windows with clear lead times, rather than lines that need you at the packing table every day.
• Put your lead times where customers can see them. "Made to order, sent within ten working days" on the product page sets expectations before anyone checks out, and saves you the chasing emails.
• Price for the hours you have. If caring leaves you 15 hours a week for the business, your prices have to work for 15 hours, not 40.

So, where do you fit? Not in the gaps that are left over. You fit right at the centre of the plan, because the business only works if it works for you. Start with one thing from this list this week, whether that's counting your hours, writing your "if I'm out" note or changing the lead time on your product page.
You're carrying more than most people will ever see, and you're still showing up. That deserves a business built around you, and I'm cheering you on every step of the way.
 

Sources

1. Office for National Statistics, Sandwich carers, UK: January 2021 to May 2023, 6 November 2024.