The number of women and mothers running a business is on the increase, and it is interesting to consider why more women are taking this option instead of getting a traditional job.
98% of business owners surveyed by the Business Mums Network plan to run their business long term. Many of them comment that they never expect to return to the traditional workforce.
But why did they start a business in the first place?
In many cases, there is more than one reason for starting a business and there are probably more reasons than there are businesses.
“I worked for years for other people, putting in huge amounts of effort and time,” said one business mum. “After four redundancies, I wanted more control over my life. Add in the flexibility to choose my hours and attend school events, and my own business was the obvious solution.”
Kathie Thomas was “fed up with office politics, being stuck in traffic, cancelled trains, boring meetings... the list goes on,” so she started A Clayton’s Secretary.
Like many mothers, Nicole found that she “basically just could not get back into the workforce part-time - my employer was not flexible. For years, I had considered working for myself and avoiding the office politics so I’m happy with the result.”
Then there are women who didn’t have a career as such or didn’t like their career any more. Carol Heath of Little Critters “really did not want to return to teaching. There were a number of reasons for this but the main ones being stress and pay. I still make less than I would as a teacher, but I am happier in what I am doing. There is a great satisfaction in working for yourself.”
Leah Madden of Bloom Maternity “felt that I could be a better mother and roll model by still being my own person, and having an interest outside the home” whilst Liz Hassock, a MiEssence consultant, wanted to do something positive for the environment.
Women like Julie Nichols (of Julie Nichols Designs) needed a flexible income to work in with the fact her husband is in the defence force and the family had to move around, and other women have had sick family members they couldn’t leave all day.
Donna-Marie Coggins of Jacaranda Business Support is one of many women who combined a number of reasons. “My son has health issues so I needed flexibility but as a sole parent I also needed to earn an income. I grew up in a family business environment so it was a natural progression for me anyway, and I saw I could fill a need.”
What about the kids
Although two thirds of the responses showed staying with kids as a factor in starting a business, half of the people surveyed had thought about running a business before they became parents. And 7% of those surveyed didn’t have children when they started business.
Young children are common amongst Business Mums (about 60% of their children were 5 years or younger when the business started) but some Mums had teenagers (7%) and adult children (3%) when they started.
Jo Ivory of Vintage Kids started with two teenagers and a new baby. “I suffered from PND after baby 3 and took up sewing again after many years. This increased my self esteem, reminded me that I had skills, made me feel better about myself and helped me get through my PND and focus on building a business which I enjoyed.”
Case Study
“My children are the sole and entire influence for starting my business.”
Andrea World and her husband had a mortgage, a toddler and a new baby – and one income. They found themselves unable to meet their mortgage repayments on a single income, nor could they afford full time childcare for Andrea to get a job.
“I was extremely happy being a SAHM and did not like the idea of going back to work at all,” said Andrea. “I also didn’t want my children in daycare while I worked for someone who may not have realised my children came first.
“We sold the house and used some of the money to start the business as a means to creating my own income level and working around the children. Having to sell the house at first felt like an enormous loss, but it has opened up an opportunity that I never imagined.”
Andrea probably would never have started her business, Mummy’s Little Helper, without the sale of her house, but now loves the flexibility of working from home and the freedom to be with her children when they need her. “Now I have a strong goal of buying a new house and plenty of motivation to make this business successful.”
Tash Hughes started her business, Word Constructions, because she is passionate about writing and helping other businesses have clear communications. She runs her business from home so she can work around her children and choose her working conditions. Visit www.wordconstructions.com to learn how Tash can help your business.