Motherhood & Business: You’re More Prepared than You Might Think!

Staying home and taking care of the kids is a tough job, but for many families it is also tough on the finances. For others who can perhaps afford to stay home, the lack of mental challenge can get frustrating. But what most women don’t realize that while changing diapers, running carpools, and fixing dinner may feel like a brain drain, you’re actually building skills you can use to start your own business. In truth, there are actually more similarities between raising a child and growing a business, with each stage providing parallels that actually give moms an edge in business.

The following points are taken from the chapters of my book, The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business (Wiley):

Getting Pregnant: The decisions to start a family and start a business are strangely similar in emotion and process. Sometimes it takes a couple tries to get it right and other times it can be happen, well, by accident. We are never properly training for either endeavor, but we dive in and tend to learn as we go. Both starting a business and a family involve looking into the future to plan for the growth of our child (real and business).

Labor and Delivery: Starting a business and delivering a baby are both tough. Yet after the fact, we can look back with fondness to see the positive results. We bond with both our business and our baby so that years later, the hard stuff doesn’t seem so difficult anymore. And that bond gets us through some pretty tough stuff. Yes, we go through many sleepless nights, but somehow we make it through and eventually catch up on our rest (When they go off to college? Get married?). There is also something amazing about Mother Nature that helps us to forget the pain so that we’re willing to do it again.

Baby to Toddler Years: In the beginning, we have to do everything for our baby and our business. As we work hard to teach them to walk and to talk, we marvel at their growth. The Terrible Twos (for my daughters, it was the Terrible Threes) are a time when our baby and our business experiences growing pains that we somehow find our way through. We also learn that “Spit (up) happens” and to be prepared for the unexpected (sound like anyone’s business experience?). At the end of the day, though, a sense of humor really comes in handy at home and as you build your business.

Elementary School: Anyone who can figure out how to teach a child to clean up his room can convince a customer to buy their products or services. It is about creative persuasion and as moms, we get chances to hone that skill every day. We also learn that it isn’t good to discipline in anger, neither child nor employee, and how important it is to follow through with threats.

Pre-Teen years: As a child and a business begin to grow up, you need to start to let go. You have to allow for each to make mistakes and learn from failure, as long as it is controlled. It is also important to not avoid conflict as some of the best and most creative ideas and outcomes have come from productive conflict.

Teen years: As the independence of your child and business start to emerge, it is crucial that your presence continue to be felt. Continually remind them, as well as your customers, that you are still around. It is crucial, too, that you don’t fall into the trap of making decisions that are popular rather than right.

Letting go: The process of sending a kid off to college and exiting a business are very similar in emotion and process. You have to plan for that exit and make decisions and investments along the way to ensure you are able to execute it when the time comes. Like being a parent, owning a business is the toughest job you’ll ever love. What most people don’t realize is that the right business is also one of the best ways to take control of your life and make money while arranging your work around your family duties. It is possible to be a good mom and build a successful business and when you make the choice to live a fulfilled life, you have an edge in everything you do.

Julie Lenzer Kirk, an award-winning entrepreneur and mother of two, grew her business to multi-millions in revenues while raising her family. She cashed out of her company and now teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland while providing workshops, consulting, and keynotes as the President & CEO of Path Forward International. She is the author of The ParentPreneur Edge: What Parenting Teaches About Building a Successful Business (John Wiley & Sons) and can be reached at Julie@JulieLenzerKirk.com. You can also sign up for her monthly “Boot in the Butt” e-newsletter via her website at www.JulieLenzerKirk.com.