Yes, it is possible to have kids and a company. In fact, there are more and more people doing it. They’re known as mompreneurs and they’re making waves all over. To help you become part of this growing trend, I’ve collected some of the best tips and tricks to starting this kind of career. Sound good? Let’s dive right on in!
It’s all about scaling
Being a successful mompreneur is finding ways to start small and then scale up to where you can still meet all the commitments that you have without sacrificing on your happiness. For that reason, it’s important to build in a way to scale the business, so that you can start smaller and slowly ratchet it up from there.
This is very important! After all, when we first start out on a new project it’s easy for us to do a lot, as we’re filled with enthusiasm and energy. The thing is, that will change as this becomes the new normal. At that point, we might want to be able to take things back a notch so that we can do the work that’s fallen behind or – gasp – take some time off. If that’s not possible then it becomes very easy indeed to suffer burn out or, when things go wrong (which they will) give up.
That’s not what you want. So be mindful of that. Start a business that you don’t immediately have to leap off the deep end but where you can scale. You’ll thank yourself for it.
Read a lot
Articles like this one are very important as they show you what is possible and what is not. This will make it far more likely that you’ll find out about mistakes before you yourself have made them. It will also give you a lot more tips about how to do things well.
Follow the rule of three. That is, if one person says it, it’s interesting but not yet worth acting on. If two people say it, you need to start paying more attention. If three different unrelated sources are saying it then it’s time to start taking action.
Of course, with sources, I mean real mompreneurs. There are tons of people out there that will pretend to know what they’re talking about who are neither moms or preneurs. Generally, they won’t know what they’re talking about so they can safely be ignored. Don’t be shy to get academic help if you’re not sure in any information, plenty of professionals can consult you online in real time.
Know how to prioritize
Before you start your business, write down your list of priorities and put it up somewhere where you can see it easily. Then, always work towards meeting those top goals first. That means understanding how to prioritize. There are a lot of tricks that you can use. I’m personally quite fond of the Eisenhower method.
In it, you understand the difference between urgent and important. Urgent is something like a phone call. As in, if you don’t pay attention to it right now then it will stop ringing. Of course, it might not be important, as it might just be a telemarketer.
Your health and that of your children is important but isn’t always urgent. For example, sometimes you can get away with getting some fast food. By drawing a grid with important along the bottom and urgent on the up and down, you can categorize things as important and urgent, either important or urgent, or neither.
From there you then know what you have to tackle and what can wait or even be safely be ignored. Note that the most effective way to use a tool like this is on your list of priorities in plain view. Otherwise, things end up being listed as important which really aren’t and vice versa.
Follow your own advice
Advice from other people is nice and very useful. But always remember it’s you that has to run your business and look after your children and if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t matter how good the advice is. For that reason, do what works for you. If everybody advises you differently but you are certain that this is the right way forward, then go for it. You will always know better.
Of course, you might want to leave a way back in case the advice was right and you weren’t (that does happen) but you should still go for it. Only by trying can we be certain something does or doesn’t work for you. And only from there can you go forward.
So try and try. And realize that failure is only a stepping stone to success.
_____________
Want to share your stories? Sign up to become a Spoke contributor!
Hi! Originally I'm from Finland but now I live in Chicago, IL. I used to study sociology and after my graduation, I used to work as HR manager, but now I'm a freelance content writer and young mom. And my topics of interest cover mostly psychology, career, self-improvement and relationships.
