Grow Your Business With Your Kids

category: Mommy Entrepreneurs
by Lisa Druxman,

Entrepreneur As your children require less of your time, you can work on expanding your business.
Eight years. It’s hard to believe that I started my business eight years ago when my son was born. It’s even harder to believe that we have remained a home-based business for that entire period. It made sense. I could be home with him at all hours, work during nap times and around his playtimes. As we hired more employees, I set them up to work virtually from their homes and gave them all keys to my house. It worked . . . until now. My business is finally moving into office space. I guess I just reached a tipping point. It was time, for my business and for my family. I can’t help but feel like my business is growing up, just as my kids are.

When I started Stroller Strides, it was small (like my baby) and only needed a few hours per day of my time. As my children grew, so did my business’s needs. Looking back, my business has grown very fast. But then again, so have my kids.

I am often asked (through this column): When is the right time to start your mompreneur business or what is the right type of business? If possible, you should choose a business that can start small and be supportive of your goals as a family. For me, I would never trade being home to see my son’s first steps or my daughter’s first ballet class. I am content knowing I was home to put them down for naps and to pick them up from school. If you can, you may want to keep your business small and not try to take over the world so you can be present for these precious moments. Now that my son is in third grade, I can see that he doesn’t need me to be around so much. Besides being in school full time, he plays with his friends for hours. I can see that I will have plenty of years to work traditional business hours.
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Comments

1 Comment so far

Rachel | 18 November 2009, 23:22
Oooohhh, I want the rest of this article but the link is broken both here and on the Ent…website

I’m so relating and love that you have gone before me Lisa I see a light at the end of the next two years for my business, as my youngest will then be in full-time school and I can finally move on my bazillion ideas for growing my biz. At the same time, that light seems dim when I think how much I’ll miss all these precious mommy moments I’m enjoying as I “struggle” to keep my business goals small and managable so I can enjoy being a full-time mom!

Thanks for the great insight as always!