Motherhood Journey Into Entrepreneurship

For most moms... the Pandemic has forced us to look at work in a new way. Layoffs, work from home orders and kids out of school 3 months early... has brought a lot of moms to a creative space of figuring out alternative ways to make money. Even the corporate moms who had never thought of entrepreneurship... are giving it a second glance. 

People go into entrepreneurship for many reasons but moms typically go into MOM-preneurship for additional reasons that the average single person doesn’t have to consider. Like the shade they get from the supervisors or management about maternity leave. Imagine not being able to fully enjoy your pregnancy because of the anxiety you have around whether you have job security... Many women wait until their 2nd or 3rd trimester or until they start showing to even reveal their baby bump because they want to wait as long as possible before the company starts looking for a “more dependable employee” to take their job! Too often, employers with rigid time constraints of an am-pm schedule hassle moms who have to come late or leave early to drop off or pick up their children, or needing to use their sick time because their kids get sick. Some employers won’t even allow parents to make up missed time in a day to go see their children get an award or to see their participation in a play! Parent-teacher conferences even get a side eye! I know so many teachers who have not even been able to meet the parents of the children they’ve taught all year because they are afraid of taking off work. The list goes on for moms... You can have multiple children in multiple schools and your work schedule isn’t flexible enough to cater to the children’s schedule so you may end up paying thousands of dollars in before and after school care if the school doesn’t have a built in after school program.  

Extra-curricular activities are another small fortune and you may need to add another stream of income to pay for it. This is another reason why many moms take the Mompreneur route, even if it just starts as a side hustle. A shift is definitely coming and is needed in the workforce. The stigma of the working mom needs to be removed. The coldest part is it’s usually a female supervisor with the most issues. We won’t even go there on this.. that’s a whole other topic!

Most moms are very dependable when they’re able to work around their family and have the flexibility to prioritize accordingly. As we are seeing now… how many meetings could’ve been emails or zoom calls! It is actually the reason why moms are so successful as entrepreneurs... it’s their work ethic and ability to multitask. At the end of this Pandemic, I hope many moms have the courage to branch out and start their own businesses or bring these issues to the forefront to ignite change. Just start! It may be your first step to freedom.