Kara DavidsonMost people would love to have a more healthy work-life balance. But the reality is that work weeks have grown longer, more stressful, and less healthy, physically and emotionally. Too often, success in the professional sphere comes at the expense of personal and family lives.
Add motherhood to the mix, and that balance is tested once again.
For mothers interested in being involved in starting or running businesses, here are some tips to help you realize your dreams:
1. Being a mom doesn’t preclude being a manager or an entrepreneur.
2. Always think bigger.
3. Build in flexibility.
4. Make sure the technology supports the culture.
5. Make the business about more than profits.
Being a mom doesn’t preclude being a manager or an entrepreneur.
In a survey, about one in three women responded that they considered motherhood a positive one. Of those respondents, 90 percent were able to balance their work and family lives.
In the workplace, that means that being a mother doesn’t preclude anyone from having a successful career. In fact, you’re much more likely to be successful as a leader if you have a mother at home, a supportive partner, and a network of colleagues and friends who share your values.
For women who choose to pursue entrepreneurial paths, being a mom is not a barrier to accomplishment. In fact, having a family has the potential to help you build a successful business, as you will be more likely to pay attention to their needs.
Always Think bigger
Don’t limit yourself.
Most mompreneurs would agree that you never know what great idea is waiting for you around the corner. You can’t go broke trying to manage your own business or spend all your energy creating a business that doesn’t make money.
But if you do want to run your own business, it is crucial to establish boundaries early. What you do in your personal life, who you do it with and when you do it can have a massive impact on the success or failure of your business. You don’t want to get distracted from the work you need to do.
Ask yourself, “Will I be able to ignore it if I have to?”
Build-in flexibility.
As a working mom, you have to determine the ideal work schedule and consider when you’ll be home. The goal is to have your family’s needs come first, without sacrificing your career. In many cases, it’s up to you to make sure your kids are fed and that the house is clean, while also making sure you have quality time with your spouse. But also be sure that you’re there for your employees and taking care of the needs of your company. If you’re balancing too many things at once, things will get all kinds of messy.
When you make your schedule, be sure to account for every potential disruption. Be sure you are thinking ahead so that your personal life isn’t negatively impacted by being out of the office.
Make sure the technology supports the culture.
All too often, entrepreneurs focus only on what they can do to make more money. This neglects the customer experience, making it difficult to increase sales or attract and retain clients. Even worse, many entrepreneurs forget the customer’s role in their business.
Here are some ideas to ensure the customer’s perspective is taken into account:
Take time to listen to your clients and customers. They’ll give you insights into the market you’re trying to enter.
Know the customer’s business and the experience they want to have. What they like, what makes them come to your product or service, what they need help with.
Develop a core value statement. Determine what you want the experience to be and, of course, who you want to sell your product or service to.
You also need to ensure that you have all of the right technology available for your business needs. For instance, you will need to invest in one of the reliable high-speed xfinity internet plans available to make sure you always stay connected and can communicate quickly and easily with customers and staff alike.
On a personal level too, you can choose how you want to use technology. I avoid email and texting during my business hours. The temptation is real and can be tempting to check, but it’s about how you use it.
Technology can help your team save time as well. For instance, if you have a sales team, you can use an automation platform to automate tasks like sales commission management, quota tracking, and more.
Make the business about more than profits.
Mothers often run on a tight budget or have some sort of economic need, which makes it difficult to follow through with a personal business. However, I don’t agree with the idea that you should never invest in your own business. What I do believe is that you should do your research, find a business that aligns with your interests and then figure out how you can create a business that can survive and thrive.
As the founder of a successful business, I have also struggled to create a work-life balance. I created a startup based on my own vision, and I am lucky to have been able to work from home so that I could devote the time to my kids that I so desperately wanted. However, I did not always have the bandwidth to be everything to everyone, which created a lot of friction.
For more articles visit our page.
