This past year after working in the same industry for 18 years and after two kids, I took a leap of faith and started a new career. Not only did I start a new career, but I started my own business…legit from scratch! I have two toddlers at home and after over a decade of traveling and working for a corporation, I decided I wanted more. We’ve had a great nanny but I have to tell you it is so rewarding to be the one taking your kids to the park and discovering new places with them. No, I did not have a single bright idea that worked perfectly when I started working for myself, but once I discovered what I wanted to do, there was no looking back.
In September I joined the local MOMS Club. It’s a group of moms and kids who meet up at parks, have MNOs (mom’s night out), craft club, book club for moms and kids and tons of activities. We have a jam packed schedule which is awesome and I have a group of women who know exactly what I’m going through. Top it off the kids have friends to play with! In talking to other moms, I realize I’m nowhere near alone in my journey of trying to discover what to do to be a financial contributor for my family while wanting to maintain my lifestyle of being with my kids all the time.
What did I decide to focus my business on? Well, a few things, but my main two passions are social media and podcasting. I know social media thanks to this blog and have focused pretty hard on keeping updated on algorithm changes and best practices, therefore this was a pretty obvious service to offer. My other main service offering, which is something I have become passionate about, is podcasting. No, I don’t have my own podcast, but I pitch podcasters to be on podcasts, write show notes for my favorite podcasts, source guests for podcasts and manage the social media for them. Podcasting was something I stumbled upon when I started listening to my first podcast, Whiskey & Work. The host, Kelsey Murphy is one of my favorite humans on the planet and she introduced me to the podcast world. I’m now privileged and blessed to not only work with Kelsey but to have her as part of my tribe.
My work and my schedule revolve around my tiny humans. I still get to attend park dates and doctor’s appointments and we eat every meal together. I work odd hours and at times when they are awake, but it doesn’t take away from us being together. There are certain days that I call content batching days and these days are long and cumbersome, but they allow me to enjoy more freedom all the other days of the week.
In talking to other moms, two questions often come up; 1) how do you decide what business to start and 2) how big do you scale it while the kids are still at home? Online businesses are the wave of the future. You can clearly see that with Amazon and all of the online shopping we do. Virtual assistants are in huge demand which means that whether you’re good at social media, project management, accounting, email organization, funnel creation or a huge list of other things, there’s something out there for you. No successful business was built overnight, so blowing up into a huge business by next week isn’t something I’m currently concerned with. My plan is to start scaling my business now and when my youngest is in Kindergarten in 2 years, I hope to have a solid client base which has then blown up and I can focus on more during school hours.
Your business is whatever you want to make it; however large or small, hours that work for you, services that you enjoy offering and at a price that you get to decide to charge. You choose the clients you work with and whether a job will fit your schedule and life. It might seem scary to decide to start something new, but at the same time it’s exciting and will be so very rewarding.
