You know the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child?”
Well, I often say it takes a village to raise a mom too. Navigating parenthood is easier when you have your own Mommy Advisory Board to help you tackle topics such as potty training and veggie eating. I have found my friends instrumental in helping me maintain my sanity (“you mean my kid is not the only one who has been forgetting his manners lately?”) Being able to send a quick text message for a pediatrician recommendation, or meet over coffee to discuss kindergarten readiness has been essential to my life as a mother.
As my business grows, I am realizing all the same needs apply to helping me navigate the world of business. And specifically the world of being an ‘mompreneur.’
I mean, there are countless articles on setting up a website, but none address how to do it one handed while breastfeeding a newborn. And how do you manage your social media campaign when your child is home from school on her umpteenth snow day of the winter?
My friend Beryl and I have been in exactly this same place. Heck, we still are! It’s her daughter who has barely gone to school during this year’s polar vortex.
A few years ago, we found our selves building baby businesses while rocking babies. We were on separate coasts, behind our laptops, squeezing out a few precious work hours during naptime and our efforts were not really understood by all the other people in our lives –and maybe we didn’t even fully understand our efforts either.
We started talking to each other, and other mom business owners like us on a regular basis, and not only did our businesses start to flourish, but we started feeling more confident and having more clarity around what we were trying to do in the world and for our families. We started to find more balance between ourselves, our businesses, and our families.
We saw a need for mom business owners, especially online business owners to have a community of similar moms for support, cheerleading and idea generation.
We knew that these amazing moms needed to hear from other moms who were balancing businesses with families, how they were doing it and where they were struggling.
Just like hearing from your friend that her child won’t eat broccoli either, makes you feel like maybe you are not alone in motherhood. Hearing from other moms about the realities of entrepreneurship, makes you feel a little more understood (and maybe a little less crazy!)
On one of our ‘car chats,’ we talked about how great it would be to have a weekend with other mom entrepreneurs to focus on building our businesses while navigating the complexities of being a working mom and a stay at home mom at the same time.
So, we created one.
This year, Beryl and I will be hosting two live weekend retreats, one on each coast, for mom business owners (or those just starting one). Our inaugural retreat will take place April 25-27 in Jefferson Maryland. (The second retreat will take place in the San Francisco Bay Area in August, stay tuned for details!)
The Well Balanced Mama Live Retreat: April 25-27th, Maryland
A close knit group of 10 women will spend 3 days live at the beautiful Fox Haven Learning Center in Jefferson, MD diving deep into their business goals for 2014. In addition, we’ll spend 4 months together virtually mapping out your business and actually getting things done.
We are beyond thrilled for this program and in fact, quiet a few of the spots have already been sold. We know this retreat can make a huge impact in your business and in your life and we want you there. Read more about it and apply here.
Motherhood is a wonderful, exciting and sometimes scary place to navigate. The same can be said for entrepreneurship. In both cases, find your village and I promise you will grow, as a mother and as a business owner.
If you are looking for a village, come join ours.
