In January I launched a start-up business. Now I fully understand the jokes I have heard over the years about how much you work when jumping off the entrepreneurial cliff. I am constantly working. In any given week I am maintaining my website, subscription email service, going through emails, writing for three different blogs and the Huffington Post, working with my individual clients, networking, following-up after networking events, teaching my classes at Rutgers, working on advertising, and writing my dream book with a dear friend. My to-do list is a mile long. My list of great ideas to move my business forward goes from here to the moon. And I absolutely love it.
As a single mom this isn't easy, yet I would not have it any other way. No, I don't sleep much. I can not remember the last time I sat down and just watched a TV show.
The best part of my job? My three daughters are watching me go for it. They have a living example of a mom who truly believes in herself. They see me day in and day out work on a business with deep passion and commitment. They have a living example of a woman who believes she can make it and is not scared of anything.
And recently my three daughters have noticed. They have made comments to their dad about how hard I work. I'm still home to run most of their carpools, I have not missed an event. We still sit and eat dinner as a family. But no, I don't have as much time for them as I once did. After my first daughter was born I gave up a very successful career to be home. There were 8 years when I was a full-time stay-at-home mom. Their days were filled with play dates and playgroups. We made home-made play dough and the kitchen table was often covered with shaving cream for fun. I
Now, they do see me on my computer when they are doing their homework. They see me up early on Saturday morning playing catch-up. They suddenly find a list of chores they need to handle because I simply do not have the time. They have to step up a bit and manage a few things on their own. They are old enough to move into this phase with me.
My custody schedule is a week on week off. During my weeks off, I do go full throttle. I attend a networking event every day and usually speak at least once. I try to book my client meetings for afternoons when I am not with my kids. So time during my weeks with my girls are a bit slower, but my brain doesn't slow down.
Their dad knows that he did not have these issues as he was building his career. He could stay at the office as long as he wanted because I was home and had full responsibility of childcare, carpools, sick days, snow days and helping mom days at our local preschools. So when I have the kids he often pitches in if I need to attend an event or sit with a client.
The grind of a start-up and starting a career after being out of the workforce for so long is well, a grind. But for me it is the perfect fit with my personality and the passion I have for helping small business owners get up and running with a social media strategy. I'm building my company on my core values and as a side benefit empowering my daughters to go out there and build a life based on their own passions.
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