Business Is Personal

#inclusivebusiness #breakingTheMold It’s time we broke the mold.

It’s time we stopped pretending like business and “life” aren’t intertwined. Or that they can be separated at all.

Yes, perhaps for a few hours.
Yes, you can prioritize biz over home/other responsibilities – for a while. You can choose one over the other – at a particular point of time.

But lets face it –
1. Most of us women are primary care givers (or were) to children, or aging parents. Most of us women are the primary housekeepers, relationship keepers, tradition keepers of the family.

2. Most of us women started our own businesses for the freedom. The freedom to create money, and respect, doing work we love, WHILE also being able to do all the other things life requires of us as women AND the things we want to do for ourselves.

(Yes, there are exceptions to those statements – but those are the EXCEPTIONS, not the norm).

It’s time we stopped approaching business as this “either or” model or the “exclusive” model that it’s traditionally been. That “business” and “life” are or can be treated as apart from each other.

For me, business IS personal. My business evolved to support the lifestyle I want. My personal life influences many, if not all, of my business decisions – including what to launch, when, how!!!

Your life impacts your business.
Your business impacts your life.

And that means that children will show up just when you’re recording a big video (even tho you you made a hundred arrangements to have them settled in and well fed and well entertained…..)

And that means acknowledging that your time, your energy and your attention will be fractured and all over the place when you have a 3 yr old and 5 yr old or a 9 yr old home from school.

And that means acknowledging that kids may occasionally pop on up client calls

And that “women” networking events and venues need to be child friendly

And that a mom will typically have less time and energy to put in to her business than others.

And that……also means we all need to be more accommodating and non-judgmental of OTHER women who work with kids, around kids schedules.

And that the women with kids need to stop apologizing as much about the fact that they have kids!!!

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That was accomodating “life” aka kids into business.

But there’s also the other part ..

Sharing your BUSINESS WITH YOUR KIDS, with your family.

Especially with kids.

I think it’s important for our kids to see us as smart, capable women, and not just “mommy” who cooks and cleans for them.

I think it’s important for our kids to know what we do, beyond the housework.

I think it’s important for our kids to start learning about business, and how things work in the outside world.

My son is now 9. But he knows there was a time when mommy worked on making digital TVs, then she worked on Android phones, then she wrote “articles” and now she makes websites and helps other mommies in business. That’s his version. But he “knows”.

And this gives him the framework to “know” so much more.
That he’s free to explore and chose. He doesn’t have to be tied to a job/career.
That he can take things up, experiment, see what he likes.

He’s also learning about “business” – coming up with different ideas and evaluating how much time, effort and money they’ll take – versus what he’ll make….. something I find many business women still struggling with.

I know this has been a bit of a rant….
but I think it’s really important we stop trying to compartmentalize business and life.
that we stop approaching business and life as two water tight compartments