My process for doing mompreneur work
What exactly is mompreneur work? Well it’s basically when you mix being an entrepreneur with being a momma. I’d say the creative world is exploding with creative entrepreneur mommas or mompreneurs.
Every career comes with its own challenges and being a mompreneur isn’t short in that department. I think the best thing we can do as mompreneurs is be grace-givers in every area of our lives. Don’t look down on others for how they are being a momma to their children and don’t look down on yourself for how you are being a momma to your children.
Yes, we should grow as women. We can look at an issue in our heart, give it pretend grace, and move on. That issue will eat us alive.
But we can look our yelling square in the eyes, see it for what it is, and receive the grace that’s ours. If we do that, our yelling does not eat us or our children. Our words get to be redeemed and used as a powerful instrument in the kingdom to change our little ones and encourage them.
We get to equip the next generation in a 24/7 kind of way. That’s kind of cool.
Back to this mompreneur thing. It’s hard to explain exactly what being a mompreneur entails because it’s different for everyone.
My process for doing mompreneur work
Embrace the fact that I don’t have to be superwoman
I used to feel like I needed to be able to do it all to be a good mom or wife or friend. Nope! Being a good mom, wife, and friend has a lot more to do with the love I show others and absolutely nothing to do with what I can get done in a day.
Pray through my work hours
How many hours should I work each week? It seems like such a simple question, right? Well, for me, it was a big question and I spent a lot of time (2 weeks) praying and thinking through this decision.
I made a list of everything I do in my business...
If I was called to it, I kept it on my list.
If I wasn’t called to it, I moved it off my list.
And I looked at everything that was left. The in-between stuff. I looked at the value of that task and decided whether or not to keep it. I gave myself freedom to assign a monetary value (because money does matter in business and in being able to take home a consistent paycheck), and a passion value to every item.
If I was passionate and it made money, I kept it. If I was passionate about it and it didn’t make money, I prayed about it just for affirmation that I was on the right track with that item. The items I was passionate about stayed on the list every single time. And I figured they would, but it helps to know that you’re not wasting your time.
After all, I want to be in this business for the long run.
With the remaining items on the list, I decided how many hours I thought each task would take me and then I added some margin to that. I knew I needed 1 hour of margin for every day that I worked. I also wanted 4 hours of margin for the month. That left me with 12 hours of margin for the month plus margin around each task.
I landed on 16 hours. Yes, I can think of things I could do to bump that number all the way up to 40 hours a week (and there would be nothing wrong with that). Those things would increase my paycheck — triple my paycheck — but those things would come at a cost. I wouldn’t be able to stay home like I want to stay home.
I want to say really quick that it’s good to work 40 hours a week. That’s not my point at all! It’s just that I want to spend that extra time with Daniel and Hannah right now. So we make sacrifices in our family (we meal prep instead of eat out, we don’t have our groceries delivered, etc.) so that I can be at home a little more. Does that make sense?
I just want to make sure you know that there’s nothing wrong with work X hours a week. If you’ve prayed through that decision and the Lord has led you there, own it. That’s what I did and that’s why I stand by my 16 hours a week and think it’s the best thing ever! Ha!
Hire a nanny
I know a lot of moms who work from home while they are taking care of their kiddos! Bravo! That’s really fascinating to me because that’s just not how my brain works. I really thrive on having dedicated writing, video, photo-taking, creative time! So hiring a nanny was the next step for us.
Yes, it meant tax changes. Yes, it was completely scary. Ha! But it was worth it and I wrote a whole blog post on my entire process for making the nanny thing a reality!
Regular work hours
When I first brought on our nanny, we talked through a schedule that would work well for her and for me. I had a slight preference for working 2 longer days a week and using the other 3 days for adventures and home time with Daniel and Hannah. So we landed on Mondays and Fridays from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm.
As much as I love adventures, tossing out routines, and flying by the seat of my pants, I really need a routine when it comes to business. It just makes it easier to commit to meetings and batch my work!
Meal plan
This is not a fancy meal plan! Haha! I do this so that we don’t waste a lot of grocery money. It involves soup and salad on Mondays, tacos on Tuesdays, and stir fry on Sundays. It turns out that our whole family loves stir fry and it’s an easy way to use our leftover veggies from the week.
The rest of the days are filled with any of the following: roasted salmon or chicken, roasted veggies, steak, or something I create! Isaac’s favorite is when I create something from scratch!
Sidenote: I’m dairy free for Hannah right now, so meal planning is essential to me getting food! Haha! You cannot live on Justin’s peanut butter cups alone.
Grocery shop on Thursdays
Mostly, I let Isaac do this. We spend way too much money when I’m the one grocery shopping. The crazy thing is that I make a list and we both go straight off the list that I make. I never add anything to the list because I always go over our budget. What?! Isaac gets everything on the list plus some and he stays under budget.
I don’t know what it is, but I apparently lack some skills when it comes to grocery shopping, so I leave that to him. For dairy free granola, I love to get it at a particular specialty store, so I tag along for that! Plus, it’s in another town so we all pile in and it’s a car ride adventure!
Meal prep some meals
I make a big batch of soup on Thursdays or Sundays (depending on when we run out) and cut every single vegetable and piece of fruit that we buy so that it doesn’t go bad. Well, I guess I don’t cut the apples, clementines, or magos. But everything else is prepped so that we don’t waste anything!
I’ve also been making this big batch of quinoa + pepper + black bean mixture and I just throw it in glass bowls for lunches. We can top it with hummus, salsa and avocado or turn it into tacos — whatever we feel like doing!
I don’t worry about making every meal for the week. I’m sure that really works well for some people, but having little ones doesn’t leave much time for that! I try to get all of the meal prep done in 2-3 hours and leave off anything that doesn’t happen during that time. Gotta snuggle those babies while they’re little, ya know?
Decide where to work
I prefer to work from a coffee shop when I’m writing! If I’m working on video or handling almost anything else, I love being at home. There’s something about a table in the corner of a coffee shop with the smell of coffee waking me up (creatively speaking) every now and then.
I’m giving this new thing a try where I batch work by the week. So one week will be devoted to writing blog posts and emails, the next week will be for social media and marketing, the next week will be for product development, and the next will be for just being creative! I think this process is really going to work for me and just minimize the decisions I need to make.
For instance, this week I only have to login to Asana and see which post I’m writing next. Then I just have to get started.
I don’t know about you, but I really thrive when I can get into a rhythm and just keep that momentum going! I’ll let you know how it ends up working!
Carry my camera with me everywhere I go
How does the saying go? The cobblers kids have no shoes…
That was so true about my kiddos and pictures until this year. I guess they had photos, but I just wanted to photograph them more. Everything about them and our lives and our family dynamic is changing so quickly and I want to be able to point to pictures and tell them stories from this time in our lives!
Having my camera with me at all times is a must.
I have a bag from one of my faves — Kelly Moore — that I use as an everyday camera bag: The Austin. Then, I have a bag that I use for work trips to one of my favorite coffee shops. It has enough room for my camera, an extra lens and a mic if I need to bring that: Woodstock Vegan.
Keep a notebook handy
You know, so I don’t have to constantly be popping onto my phone because I just have “one more idea.” This is actually something new that I’m trying so that I’m not adding to-dos to my list in Asana 24/7. My plan is to use the notebook any time I have an idea or something I forgot to do. Then, after the kids go to bed when Isaac is taking a shower or just sometime before my next work day, I can open that giant list and sort through what actually needs to happen!
Plus, I’ve heard that actually writing things down helps tell your brain to store that info in the “long term” section of your brain. So... there’s science for that. ;)
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That’s kind of how I do things around here! I always think it’s fun to read how people in other industries make it happen, so it’s time to pull back the curtain and be a bit more candid in the mompreneur world. I say less pressure and anxiety from all the “shoulds” (clean house, stocked fridges, planned activities) that are out there and much more freedom to actually go and do this mompreneur thing that we love so much!
I would love to hear your own process for doing mompreneur work in the comments! What’s been the most helpful to you as you navigate through the possibilities? Do you have any tips and tricks?! Leave them below!
