Starting a business as a mum - why do we do it?
There are many reasons why we start businesses as mums - whether it happens once we have children, when we’re on maternity leave, or as we start to think about having them. We reevaluate things and think about how they are going to fit into our lives. Or more often - how the hell are we going to keep going with a 9-5 when we have these little people to look after…
The main reason for me becoming freelance and now starting this business has been flexibility - and that seems to be the same for most mums out there. If flexibility isn’t the main reason, it always features highly on the list of things that made someone go for starting their own business or want to do it.
So what’s the problem with our lack of flexibility as employees? I loved my job working in an agency and I worked with lovely people. It was a small family run agency and so there was always a natural gravitation towards the importance of family. Don’t get me wrong - there was flexibility, but that only goes so far. Finishing early here and there or swapping a working day in the week when I was part time was never a problem.
But kids get ill, they have appointments and they also have needs. When they start nursery they get ill a lot. Well mine did. They both started at five months so they were still building their immune systems and joining in with every germ fest going. And although we have lovely family and friends our only childcare option is nursery. My husband’s big corporate workplace are not particularly flexible with their employees being ill - never mind their children! So if the kids are ill it falls to me to cover that and I think that’s the same for a lot of mums being the primary carer for their children in that way.
But that meant I didn’t get paid. Not only was that obviously an issue for me, I absolutely hated the stress of having to ring in to say I couldn’t be in because I needed to look after my children. I felt like I was letting people down. I’d always been one of those people who was happy to stay late if a job needed finishing. But when you need to get out of the door at 5pm to give you time to get through traffic and never-ending roadworks, in order to get to nursery to pick them up in time before you were fined, the 9-5 just becomes an absolute inconvenience. And you start to feel guilty as you feel you can’t do your job as well as you once did. It’s not our fault for having children - I just think that is how we have been conditioned and the way that workplaces and jobs are structured.
Modern day 9-5 jobs just don’t fit with being a mum. We want jobs that fit around our families and not have to fit our families around our jobs. Having my own business allows me to do this. It’s still hard work but having the flexibility of setting your own schedules and working hours does make life a lot easier. It also means you can be there when your children need you and you can make it to the nativity or the Mothers Day Morning without having to answer to anyone else and fill in any holiday forms. I can get up from my desk and take the dog for a walk whenever I want. I can put the washing machine on mid morning, ready to get out at lunch time. If we have appointments in the day we can go to them and I can fit a few extra hours of work in to the evening.
It’s not always easy and can often feel like harder work than being an employee but when you’re doing it for yourself, for your own reasons, it’s all worth it. Just recently my youngest has had tonsillitis followed by a sick bug, so ended up off nursery for over a week. I couldn’t really do much work in the day and it was hard starting work at 9pm at night once everyone was in bed - but at least I have that option. I can reschedule things and just do the best with the time I have. I know I do all this so that I can be with them when they’re sick and I can make it to things they’re doing at nursery and school.
This is the reason I focus on helping other mums like me to get out there with their own businesses. A lot of mums have the ideas for their businesses but don’t have the visuals to just get themselves out there. I’m so passionate about helping them do it the right way by creating beautiful professional brand identities backed up by a brand strategy. This gives them the foundations to build on in an affordable way. We don’t all have thousands to throw at branding and websites - but you don’t need a website to get started these days. You do however need a professional brand identity backed up with an understanding of your brand. If you do it right in the first place you’ll save time and money by attracting the right clients quicker.