How to Launch Your Own Business While Managing Motherhood
There was a moment after my daughter was born, that I was able to look at my situation in my career and full time corporate job, and almost as if I was out of my body view it for what it was – inflexible, stressful, and unsatisfying.
I’ve never been the type of person who can just surender to the mediocre. I’m not saying that working for a company, or being an employee is a bad thing in any way. If you wake up each morning and feel energized for your day and what you do, then this post is not for you. But if you are a mom who’s also working, and you’re stuck between the need to provide for your family, and the sinking feeling that you’re on the wrong path in your life and career for yourself, then please keep reading.
Side note: If you are a mompreneur or mom boss who already owns your own business this post also holds some valuable nuggets for you.
Like I said, I was sitting a the desk in my cubicle. It was 5pm, and I wanted nothing more than to leave and race home to scoop my daughter up and smell her intoxicating baby smell, hug her tight, and whisper in her ear that I love her more than anything, yet I couldn’t. I’d already been “talked to” about how I need to be at my desk for a full eight to nine hours a day, whether I was done with my work or not. So there I sat, twiddling my thumbs, tasks check, email inbox empty, watching the big hand on the clock slowly, painfully tick each minute by in an agonizing countdown to the time where I could escape my prison of a job for the evening.
That’s when I started to plan. How could I get out of this monotonous situation. In theory I liked my job, being the marketing manager of a company was what I had gone to school for, and in theory, I was looking at a path to growth. It was secure (in quotes), and blaa, blaa, blaa. But I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t challenged, and most of all, I didn’t have the flexibility to work, and be there for my family. Does this sound like you?
Fast forward to now, I own a thriving business. I have a number of side ventures, including this platform, Womanhood Unwrapped that feed my creativity and soul, and I am able to be there for all of the school pick ups, games, drop offs, play dates, you name it.
So if you’re dying to escape the professional trap you find yourself in. If you have a busines idea that you are itching to start. Or, you just want more flexibility with your family, I’m excited to share some of what I’ve learned as a woman business owner, and mompreneur with over ten years of experience starting businesses, failing at businesses, and getting back up to try again.
Setting Realistic Goals
Dream Big, Plan Smart
Okay, as much as the intro you just read might have fired you up and made you think you can just drop everything you’re doing and jump head-first into something new, most of us, especially working parents, do not have the luxury of just taking a disorganized leap of faith. So what can you do?
Start by creating a list of achievable goals that you can begin to check off each week with the overarching plan of launching your dream business. There are lots of ways to work through your business goals, but I’m a big fan of SMART goal setting.
“What is this?” You might ask yourself.
The acronym SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Let’s break it down:
Specific - Outline what you specifically want to accomplish in a twelve month period of time. For example: “Determining my company name,” “Creating a list of who we serve,” “Registering my business entity,” are all specific goals.
Measurable - Ensure that each of your goals can be measured. If one of your goals is to “meet with people in the industry and gain insight,” make sure you include a list of specific people or a number of people so you can measure your progress.
Achievable - It is achievable to “Take a course on pastry making” if you want to open a bakery, let’s say. However, it is not necessarily achievable to quit your current job and spend all of your savings on leasing a space without experience or a plan.
Relevant - It’s super easy as a budding business owner or entrepreneur to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to setting goals. With each goal or task you set, ask yourself, “Does this directly help my overall goal of starting a business in some way?” If you can’t find a connection between your action and your goal, maybe scrap that idea. Time is more precious than any other element when it comes to starting your own business as a mom. Don’t waste it.
Time-Bound - Speaking of time, make sure you attach a timeline to each task or goal you create within your SMART goals plan. This will help you keep moving forward, even if the progress is slow. Remember that anything worth having comes with effort and time, so give yourself a timeline and try your best to stick with it!
Prioritize Your Priorities
Have you ever heard the saying, “You get what you ask for?” I’ll tell you what: Nothing I’ve learned as a woman business owner is more true than this statement. Whether the thing you “get” is what you actually wanted comes down to how well you prioritize your priorities in not just your budding career as a mompreneur but also your personal and family life.
That means if one of your priorities is to pick up your kids from school every day, it’s not going to work for you to have a business where you are on the hook during the middle of the day. Trust me, I learned this the hard way.
As much as “doing it all” seems possible from the outside, that myth truly falls apart when you’re in it. To become great at something, you also need to be realistic about what you need to do and what you want to do in life that will affect your business.
Time Management Tips for the Busy Mompreneur
Mastering the Mompreneur Calendar
Here’s the thing: starting a business and then managing a business is not easy. If you clicked on this article and were hoping for a magic pill to allow you to own a business and make money without doing any work, you came to the wrong place. I’ve gained so much as a business owner in terms of freedom and gratification. But what I’ve traded in is regularity, security, and consistency.
Because owning a business as a mom has many ups and downs and unexpected variables—like a kid coming home sick from school in the middle of a pitch meeting–mastering the mompreneur calendar is critical to not only your success but also your survival.
I’m a big fan of my Google calendar and put everything on it, from when I will work out (shout out to self-care!) to my daily meetings, solo work times, and pick-up times for my kiddos.
Side note: Your calendar will fall apart some days, and that’s okay! But it will be there for you when you can get back to it. I promise.
The Art of Delegation
Spoiler alert: you won’t be able to do it all. You probably already know this, but owning a business as a mom takes a ton of time, energy, and effort. That means delegation is a key part of starting a business and staying sane. As much as you might think it’s possible to grow your business, manage your time, take care of yourself and your family, and actually thrive, doing it all alone is a recipe for disaster (most often in the form of burnout. Read this blog from Womanhood Unwrapped about Burnout for more on that subject.
The goal I’ve had to learn, as much as I am a perfectionist, is that a completed task is much more valuable than a perfectly executed yet incomplete task. So, delegate, delegate, delegate!
Whether it’s allowing an employee to take over and own a project, hiring a virtual assistant, or getting a meal delivery service, delegation is your best friend as a mother and business owner.
Building a Support Network
It Takes a Village (And a Network)
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a working mom, both as a mother and a business owner, is that it takes a village and a network to thrive. You cannot be everywhere at once, and there is also a very special thing that happens when you allow yourself to be open enough to ask for and accept help. The help often gives your kids an added mentor or outlet for their own growth. The network often gives you ideas you wouldn’t have otherwise had.
The best leaders are also the best connectors in their ecosystem of employees and professional networks. Allowing your “village” to help you demonstrates leadership, not weakness. So please, for the love of God, capitalize on this help at your fingertips.
Leveraging Online Communities
Just as you found this article on Womanhood Unwrapped, there are many other online communities and resources for working moms and business owners. Don’t let yourself get stuck in a spiral of uncertainty or doubt. When in doubt, open your computer and search for a resource. I guarantee you, there’s another mompreneur out there with insight for you.
Some of my most trusted online resources include:
Self-Care for the Mompreneur
The Non-Negotiables
I know that self-care has become somewhat of a dirty word for a lot of moms. It’s not that we don’t want to take care of ourselves, right? It’s that there is literally no time in the day to prioritize oneself a lot of the time. Starting a business compounds this fact. Believe it or not, I have burned out so many times I’ve become a master at seeing the warning signs.
The challenge is that if you don’t work in time for your own self-care and self-revitalization, you will burn out, and then you won’t be of service to yourself or anyone else. I’m not suggesting that you take a spa day every week or meditate for an hour a day – believe me, that’s the type of stuff that makes me roll my eyes.
However, similar to how we talked earlier about setting achievable goals, you can also plan for an achievable self-care routine. Here are some examples of my self-care regime each week:
Get up an hour before the rest of your family so that you can journal or meditate for ten minutes (not an hour), or read. I love the “Daily Calm” on the Calm app. Try not to check your email during this time.
Take a 30-minute walk a few times a week.
Grab a coffee or a glass of wine with a friend.
Get a pedicure or manicure once a month. The foot massage is worth its weight in my self-care book!
Obviously, there are many other more involved forms of self-care, but these are a few that take very little time and do a lot.
Staying Inspired and Motivated
Advice on maintaining enthusiasm and inspiration, including joining peer groups or following inspiring figures.
A playful guide to motivational podcasts or videos (possibly ones created by other entrepreneurial moms).
One of the hardest things about being a mompreneur and woman business owner is staying motivated and inspired to keep going. There are definitely days when I want to throw in the towel on flexibility and trade it for the blanket of corporate comfortability. These are the moments when I find I need to dig deep and remind myself why I own my own business, why I started on this journey, and what it means to me.
Some of the ways I stay motivated include:
Keeping a gratitude journal - I write in mine every day.
Making time for mentorship relationships - I have a few female mentors that I chat with regularly to keep me motivated.
Reading (or listening) to books from other successful leaders. Here are a few I recommend:
Writing down what I love about my work.
One of the most fulfilling things about owning my own business is that no matter where things stand at any given time, I know that the results are directly tied to my effort, creativity, and freedom to do what I want and create a business that means something to me.
You can have this freedom and control for your life as well, it just takes the willingness to begin!
Tell me know what you’re trying to start! Let’s make it happen.
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