Motherhood did not catch me by surprise, but Mompreneurship did. I had no idea what it meant until I was already doing it, and here are some of the lessons I learned.
They say parenthood changes you. That your life will forever be divided into before and after. I agree mostly with the second part, however, motherhood did not change me. If anything, it sharpened me. It did help me to set up my priorities better, but more than that, it released everything that was holding me back, including myself, and my comfort zone.
Motherhood did not change me at the core. I felt like I was still the same woman as before, but it empowered me to be that woman more fiercely and more intentionally than ever before.
I was expecting to learn everything about being a mom to an infant and later to a toddler. All about bedtime routines, teething, potty training, and how to generally make it through the early years. I also anticipated I would learn about myself as a mother and how I would manage the new role. I didn't expect to also learn about myself, as a professional, having to navigate through a new set of values and expectations from myself as a person.
Becoming an entrepreneur was not really about changing my ways, but discovering better ways, and it didn’t feel like I was re-inventing myself. It felt as if I was finally doing what I always wanted, but never had the chance or didn’t even realize it.
A mompreneur is a back loaded journey. You already carry baggage at the very beginning of it, that limits your every move tremendously and more than the average solopreneur.
There is no other way to put this. To become a mompreneur is not just more challenging, but it carries more meaning than other solopreneurs. It is not only a wish for financial freedom, it's also a freedom to express your voice as a professional that sometimes gets lost in the pile of parenthood and family life.
TIME IS PRECIOUS
They say this about your kids, and how you should treasure every moment because they grow up so fast. And you should take a look at how you are spending your time away from them, and make sure it’s worth it, both from the financial and personal satisfaction aspects.
Start appreciating your time is not just for your own self confidence, it will help you determine how much your time is worth when negotiating with clients, and make sure you're happy with the compensation you get for your hard work.
Treasure every moment
As a professional, if something takes you away from your family, it had better be worthwhile and ultimately allow you to provide for your family or give you an added value that makes you happy.
Only you can determine the value of your time, and only you know if the compensation is good enough for you and your family.
BE YOURSELF
The second thing I learned was to gain confidence in my own way of doing things, and not be pushed around by the ways of others. Again, this also came from the first lesson, of having very little time to put into my business to begin with, and not wanting to waste it on anything else but my own working style and how I wanted to do things. After all, isn’t this one of the perks of being your own boss? - Everything else that diverts you from your way of doing things can potentially cause extra work or longer adjustment to learn new processes.
It’s not that you can’t learn or be inspired by other examples of time management or work methods, but in the end, you call the shots. And only you get to decide which elements will be implemented in your workflow.
Since not all working hours are billable, and finding your path takes time, the last thing you want is to waste time on doing things the way other people do them, so focus on learning the techniques that work best for you and stick with them.
YOU COME FIRST
Third lesson, and by far the hardest, was that putting myself first actually means putting my family first. Your well-being is inseparable from your family’s well-being. Taking care of you means taking care of them.
You hear this tip all the time, the old metaphor of a mother on a plane, putting her life jacket on first, and only then attending to her child. But you don't really get it until you see the actual impact on your child, when you are not doing well and not prioritizing your health and mental state of mind.
Take time to rest
Focusing on yourself from time to time is not only a recommendation, it is a necessity when trying to combine entrepreneurship with family life.
Well-being is not just about taking time for your hobbies or making sure you eat right, it also means to lean on occasional help from your partner, family, child care services, or your community and friends.
Get your partner to support your needs, get a babysitter, a playdate, a playgroup, do whatever you need to give yourself time to work peacefully and no less important - time to rest.
FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNEW BEFORE
What you actually don't know about yourself when going into the motherhood journey, is how you will feel about your professional occupation once you're a mother. And that's where I see women going through dramatic crises, hard decisions, lots of guilt, and extreme stress.
What you thought you knew about your wishes to go back to work or to stay home with your kid, especially when it's your first, is sometimes the complete opposite of what you end up doing.
Women who went on a temporary maternity leave and never went back to their office, women who went back to office and felt miserable, women who couldn't wait to get back to work, and women who completely lost touch with their professional background and took an entirely different course from that point on.
These women didn’t lose anything because of motherhood, they gained a new perspective on their personal goals, and had the courage to change their life to match with their new world view and ambitions.
Even if you don’t know it yet, there is a reason motherhood led you to take this path and explore your new journey as a mompreneur.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO COMPROMISE YOUR AMBITIONS
When reality doesn't align with your new aspirations, (for instance, you realize you want to stay home with your baby but can't afford to pay the bills, or on the contrary, you want to go back to work but can't find the balance with your new family life), that doesn't necessarily mean you need to change or compromise your desires, it means you need come up with a plan to make it work.
That's how many moms become mompreneurs. Even if it wasn't their first choice, it was the one that made most sense. For those who couldn't work 10 hours a day anymore, the ones who didn't want to, and the ones who wanted to do something entirely different. They all have in common their need to take control of the situation and make a fulfilling livelihood alongside with the new challenges of motherhood.
To be a mompreneur is more than being a mother and an entrepreneur, it's about listening to your deepest intuition and finding the courage to go for it. When you are in charge of a tiny individual, it takes a lot more from you, than when you had no one else to provide for other than yourself.
The decision to become a mompreneur comes from different considerations than the ones you had years ago. A solopreneur is usually drawn to working solo because it is common in their industry, or because it suits their personality, and usually serves the desire to work remotely and have the freedom to run their own schedule.
A mompreneur is usually the outcome of having to juggle many personal responsibilities with the desire to work and make sustainable income, usually a second income to a partner's income.
More often you can hear stories of successful single mompreneurs or breadwinner mompreneurs who started a small business that thrived into their main sources of income.
Whether you're in it for the small side hustle, trying out experimental passive income streams, or if you are a full time committed entrepreneur, the path of your brand journey will be more challenging and perhaps more rewarding than any other entrepreneur out there.
The seeds you plant today, no matter the outcome, are the expression of your strong will to make something of your own, provide for your family, and be a role model for your children.
And for all these reasons, is why I love working with mompreneurs and aim to match the most accurate brand strategy that will express their unique voice and send them off to a good start on their mompreneur journey.
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