“A woman’s work is never done.” The old adage is true — cleaning, cooking, running errands, managing the household and keeping up relationships. A woman with a family is triple the work, a woman with a business, quadruple (or more)! If you have all three to manage then you have a recipe for bat-shit crazy!
As more and more women start and run their own businesses, there’s a huge need for “balance,” which seems a nearly impossible feat at times. The areas where the challenges lie are many, but show me a challenge and I’ll show you a strong, successful female CEO who has found a solution.
Relationships
When talking about relationships, one of the most polarizing topics for ladypreneurs is that of the supportive or non-supportive spouse. Statistically speaking, staying married under normal circumstances is tough, add the stress of business to that and imagine the difficulty that can occur.
Romy Taormina, CEO of PSI Bands said “I haven’t always had spouse support. When I wasn’t getting paid and growing the business, it was difficult to justify working so much with no salary. Once business started to happen, the support became evident. I don’t fault him for that. It’s tricky to not have income. A lot is in your own psyche “ok, if I’m going to be working from 10-11p.m., that means time away from my spouse” but there’s always opportunity costs whether is financial or time. Now we’ve reversed roles and he’s at home doing laundry, and grocery shopping!”
Jenny Feterovich, CEO of Parliament Studios said “I never had a life until I got married and had to have time for us as a couple. I had to put a do not disturb on my phone at 8p.m.” all so she could escape the urge to check her email in favor of quality time with her husband.
Self Care
Self care is one of the first items to go down the tubes when the calendar gets full. Long gone are the days of luxurious baths and nights out with friends. They are replaced with kid events, business meetings and endless phone calls. Lori Lustberg, CEO of her company of the same name said one of the major players in her daily success is “Working on self care, learning to say no and set boundaries.”
Hiring and Delegation
A huge area of issue is Superwoman Syndrome, whereas these busy women try to do everything themselves and as a result, burn out, are severely unhappy or get sick due to all of the pressure of running everything alone. Andrea Rogers, Founder and creator of Xtend Barre, shared one of the keys to her success which was “hiring the right people. I hired someone to help me grow my business because we had an immediate connection and the same values and goals. ‘Begin as you mean to go’ — is my philosophy. Make sure you’re taking care of them and make sure they understand their value.”
Taking care of your team is crucial to success. Hillary Topper, CEO of HJMT Public Relations shares on thing that’s been major for her growth “team building. I give to them first before I take from the business like a retreat or something.”
Time Management
When asked about her struggles with managing business with family, Sandy Rubenstein, CEO of DX agency, says “Prioritize what’s important to you outside of work because you can’t do everything. You want relationships to be successful. Which ones do I really want to be a success and can I live with those decisions? I can’t be everyone’s best friend or go to every school event. But I can be really good at one or two or three things. People who are successful have made the appropriate decisions”.
Andrea of Xtend Barre said it best when she said “I make sure I’m carving out as much quality time as I can (in relationships). If you lose that, does anything else matter?”
By Amy Wright
