Business owning Mamas!

[KABB]

Hello everyone! I think this may be a long shot but I was wondering if anyone out there was a brick and mortar business owning mama. We started our small, local business in January and it seems I don't really fit with the SAHMs anymore or the WOSTH moms either because the kids come to the biz with us whenever I'm there. 

Edited by KABB - 4/3/11 at 4:54pm

[lilacvioletiris]

I starting a business back in October 2010 because I knew I wanted to stay at home but our family would need extra income.  I am still TTC.  Right now my business of sewing and crocheting is something that I do in my home.  Still building up my business base and I wanted to do that before any little ones came along.

[MamaBearCare]

I started my own birth doula business because of my love for birth and my desire to help families have the best birth experience possible, without having unnecessary procedures pushed upon them.  I've branched out to being a PreConception doula, as support for those TTC because I knew I needed that sort of help while I was going through infertility issues.  I also do belly casting and placenta encapsulation. 

At some point, hopefully soon, I will be able to go into some sort of office space where I can help more than one family at a time and start teaching childbirth classes as well.  Right now I do the paperwork at home and stay in contact with my clients until it is time to go to them for meetings...or the birth...  I also give seminars around town on what doulas do and how we can help people.

[Adaline'sMama]

I own and run an old country general store (board and baton, not brick and mortar ) I totally understand what you mean by the not being able to identify with SAHMs or WOHMs. Kiddo is with me all the time, and we live here, so people are in and out all day long.

[somamama]

Hey ladies! I guess I belong in here. 

DH & I own a fine art reproduction company where artists and galleries bring us original works of art and DH photographs them and then we make prints to be sold online or in the galleries. We started about 5 years ago and DH was doing this full time while I was working full time an ad agency for the insurance and steady bill money. I quit last January, got pregnant in April and DS was born 5 days before the year anniversary of when I quit.

I know how lucky I am that DS can come with me every where and that I don't have to keep regular business hours and that I can do some of my work from home (we have a physical studio about 10 minutes from home where we do most of the work and have clients meet us) but I still feel spread too thin sometimes. Like I'm doing too much and doing none of it well. DS is my first priority and so far I'm not mucking that up too bad (it's only been 5 months so far so there's still plenty of time for that!) but I let a lot of work things fall through the cracks and don't feel good about that. 

How do you guys manage everything and keep a balance between work and home when neither job has specific set hours therefore both end up being 24/7?

[Stacey Preedy]

I own a window cleaning business (yes a bit odd for a woman lol but i get to boss guys around all day long) its all paper work and answering phones now from home but its so annoying how people think you do nothing all day because you work from home. I don't think some mums that work get that its like having your kids running around in your office and when you live in your work place, if you can't be bothered to get work done you can't just leave it at work and worry about it the next day when you go back, it's always there in your head saying i need to be done and you can't just switch it off.