The Fine Art of Juggling Business and Motherhood for Mom Entrepreneurs

Title:The Fine Art of Juggling Business and Motherhoodfor Mom EntrepreneursWord Count:1005Summary:It is not easy to juggle business and motherhoodbut here a story of how one mom managed to do both.

Keywords:Work at home, entrepreneurs, home-based business,Terilee Harrison, The Business Mom Guide BookArticle Body:Like every entrepreneurial mom, two of the toppriorities in my life are my family and mybusiness.My Story. I have always been a driven person. Iknew what I needed to do to earn my next promotion.I took every class and seminar that I could findto help me get ahead. When I was in my early 20,all my colleagues were men in their 40. If I hadkept going, I would certainly have reached upperlevel management.My desire and drive for status in the corporateworld came to a screeching halt on a day in late1993--the day I became Jackie Mom. That day, as

all Moms understand, my priorities dramaticallyshifted. Life was no longer ll about me? Iwanted to spend as much time with her as I could.Suddenly work and school were unimportant. Ibegan looking for opportunities to work from homeor for good part-time jobs.It is not easy to juggle business and motherhood.I do not claim to be an expert. After Jackie wasborn, I spent several years in the corporate worldnot realizing there were other opportunities forme. While I worked full-time, my constantconcern was that I was missing everything whilemy child was in daycare for 11 hours a day. BecauseI know children are only little or a short time?a cloud of overwhelming sadness was constantlyhanging over me. In my efforts to overcome thisconcern, I was fortunate along the way to findseveral excellent part-time jobs, and I evenjob-shared for a year. I have actually onlyworked full-time for half of my daughter 12 years.Yet it still never occurred to me that I could

leave the security of a corporate job to have myown business.Thankfully, the entrepreneurial bug bit me inlate 2002. I now have my own business, and I loveevery minute of it. I am much happier and I amable to set my schedule around my children 抯important activities and, on occasion work withthem beside me. I recently sat at breakfast withJackie and asked her when she has been happiestwith my work schedule. She too was happiest whenI was able to take her to school and pick her upmyself and attend all her important activities.My husband, Terry is about to begin working in mybusiness full-time, too. While we are lookingforward to being together more and workingtogether to help build our business, this will bea major life change for us. Our son Cole (agethree) is currently in daycare for threepart-time days each week. Last week we discussedsome of the adjustments we will need to make with

Terry being home more. We made the commitment tojuggle taking care of Cole and working in thebusiness the remaining two days a week for thenext two years until he starts kindergarten. Weknow it is best for Cole, that this time is aspecial time to be with him, and he is worth it.I have learned many things as a Mom Entrepreneur,and I would like to share two of them. TheImportance of Being Present. Several months ago,I had a breakfast meeting with my business partnerand one of our networking organization members.The member was sharing some of the things he hadlearned in a workshop. I will never forget whenhe said, ou are not listening, youe never listened,and you are not listening now Then he explainedhow he realized he hadnot been listening to hisown daughter. I immediately understood what hewas saying and my heart sank. I thought of mychildren. Although I had always wanted to have asmuch time with them as possible, I had becomeinvolved in growing my business. While juggling

both work and family, I had stopped listening. Ihad been fooling myself and I had been very wrong.I apologized to my daughter that day. I changedimmediately, including even little things. Forexample, while ironing on stars Jackie had earnedin P.E., I took the time to talk about how she hadearned the stars. I understood how much I wasgoing to miss unless I was present all the time.Working moms often struggle with the lack of timespent with their children, but when we are present,every moment we spend with our children can bespecial quality time.The Value of Teamwork. One of the most importantthings we can do for our families is to have opencommunication. I am not afraid to ask for helpfrom my family. I try my best to communicate myupcoming schedule ahead of time. When I have aparticularly hectic week, we talk about what ishappening, if it 抯 temporary, acknowledge thestress it puts on all of us and handle it together.As a team, we worked out a plan for the days when

I leave early to attend a breakfast meeting. WhenI say, have a breakfast meetingtomorrow,?everyone knows what to do. Forexample, my husband takes care of our son anddrops him off at preschool. My familyunderstands my commitment to them is, if at allpossible, I will only attend one breakfastmeeting a week. I communicate with them what ishappening in the business and try to involve themin it, too. We are all in this together. As thebusiness succeeds, we all succeed.You can help, too. I love to help others, and asI continue my personal journey towards a morebalanced life, I want to collect the experiencesof other entrepreneurial moms. I am also writinga book for Mom Entrepreneurs. The commentssubmitted for these articles could also befeatured in the book. It is my goal to share yourstories so that we can all help each other tomaster the fine art of juggling business andmotherhood.