Being a working mom has been challenging forever. Today, it is impossible. My pessimism makes me believe that we may never recover, permanently pulled apart by both our babies and the unjust expectations of the businesses that pay our salaries. How do we choose?
My optimism encourages me and helps me see that perhaps the toll of this pandemic has finally brought light to an issue that needed more awareness. As a result, I hope that mothers will finally receive the credit they deserve and the structural support that comes with it.
Until we see that, mothers must have access to the tools and resources to build their own businesses if they choose to. If we aren’t supported by the organizations, policies, and laws informing how mothers are treated, we deserve to do without them. For many, entrepreneurship seems like an impossibility. Not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough support. Let’s change this belief system.
After working with dozens of mompreneurs and looking at how they made it work, a few clear themes emerged. The most successful mompreneurs I have worked with are not necessarily the most innovative, wealthy, or time-flexible. The key to growing a business is not reinventing the wheel; it’s obsessively building the habits that will allow your business to flourish.
There are five skills or habits that my most successful clients possess. These behaviors are easy to adopt and to apply. They will allow you to start building a business and ensure that you can nurture it, and grow it, no matter your circumstances.
Define Your Time
You can’t get 50 hours of work done in 10 hours, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a lot done in 10 hours. Knowing how to define the time you have available for your work is essential for staying motivated and focused on the task at hand.
The secret to doing this is to prioritize everything that is non-work related in your week, then use what’s left over to focus on your business. No matter how much time you have to commit, you show up and do the work once you do.
Plan Your Work
Sometimes amid childcare, laundry, and changing diapers, you’ll only have 15-20 minute windows of time available to work. By planning your work, you do all your thinking ahead of time so that when those fleeting windows appear, you can focus solely on execution.
Planning your work also allows you to go off track, speed up, or slow down because you always have the map of the work that needs to be done.
Just Because It’s Easy Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Valuable to Someone
Moms do so much, and they do so much with ease, that they might not realize their skills are valuable to others (read: something others would pay for). Remember that the easier it is for you, the easier it will be to talk about, sell, and repeatedly do.
Prioritize with Ease
Knowing how to define whether something is a nice-to-have or a must-have is essential for all mompreneurs. Understanding that these priorities can change regularly allows the most successful mompreneurs to keep at it and make it.
Say Bye-Bye to Supermom
The “good enough” mother quickly learns that the philosophy applies beyond parenting. You don’t need to be the best at everything, and when it comes to your business, you’d be amazed at how far “good enough” will get you.
Your business should be a source of excitement, autonomy, and dare-I-say, self-care. You’re your boss, be the boss you always wish you had.
Your Next Steps
Whether you’re a current entrepreneur, an aspiring one, or just entrepre-curious, bring these habits and behaviors into your work today. At first, it may seem like more work, but the results don’t take long to see.
About the Author
Frenchie Ferenczi is a business growth and strategy expert who works with entrepreneurs to grow their business and build their wealth by leveraging their greatest asset: themselves. She spent over a decade leading strategy and operations in high-growth startups and has been featured in Thrive Global, Authority Magazine, and more.
