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Mom Boss Life

 

For the mom boss who’s rocking her career and business, or the aspiring founder itching to ditch her 9-5

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How Bozoma Saint John is Curating Black Girl Magic in the Workplace

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“I’m following the path that was destined for me.”

In a world where Black representation is far in between and is demanded more in the workplace, Bozoma Saint John has been taking over, one high heel at a time.

The marketing executive has not stopped conquering the corporate world, despite America’s lack of diversity in the workplace that is failing Black women. Currently, Saint John is the new Chief Marketing Officer for Netflix, being the company’s 3rd CMO in the last year. Before then, she was the CMO for Endeavor, the chief brand officer at Uber, and numerous titles for big companies. Saint John has made it her mission to bridge between culture and commerce. And during this time, when social media and society are demanding a #pulluporshutup from organizations and companies, having a woman who demands respect is refreshing.

The Connecticut native told NPR, “When companies face that kind of situation, they have to do everything to essentially rehabilitate. Rehabilitation is not just surface. It can’t just be the brand. It’s not a new commercial you put on air. There’s something wrong with your culture.”

There are many things that we can learn from the businesswoman: from the way that she carries herself to the way that she works hard to get what she wants. Here are somethings that you can adapt into your life:

Be true to yourself

Saint John has never changed who she is to appeal to anyone. Standing 6”4 with flowing black hair that either hang down her back or is sitting pretty in a beautiful afro, she reflects her wardrobe to her mood. You can either catch the powerhouse rocking sequins or an outfit that matches her classic Balenciaga bag. She told Vogue magazine, “I’ve always wanted to wear what makes me feel most powerful.”

Your experience will make you stronger

At a young age, Saint John and her family ran away from their home in Ghana from a coup d’etat that forced them to flee and seek political asylum in the United States. They settled in Colorado Springs, where she later attended Wesleyan University. There, she landed a job with Spike Lee’s advertising agency, and the rest is history.

No matter what life hands you, you can accomplish your wildest dreams!

Don’t shove your ideas down other people’s throats, even if you’re the boss

The known red-lipstick-wearing-boss told Net-A-Porter: “Great leadership means getting your colleagues to really believe in the greatness of the idea – that’s where success comes from.”

Connect with people’s emotions

Saint John reflected her time as head of Global Consumer Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes in an interview with PCMA. She said that she saw the position as a way “to market the brand in a way that felt more human.” She believes in making an impact that focused on algorithms and data, “But data is only as good as the story that you tell out of it.”

Now, she is dropping her gems for the world to conquer the workplace. She released The Badass Workshop, ‘an evolving blueprint for success.’ It is curated in five one hour classes that are based off on Saint John’s experience in the workforce and what she’s learned throughout her life. Take one course or all five to learn how to “use your own voice to claim your space and place.”

 

Content courtesy of  Lara Ashley, Founder and Editor of Brenley Magazine, Redefining what it means to be a Southern belle; an online magazine that helps women wear their crowns with grace.

 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR, LARA ASHLEY

Lara Ashley is a multifaceted journalist, she obtained her Mass Communications degree at Southern University and A&M College and is obtaining a Master’s degree in Magazine Journalism in the U.K. from Cardiff University. When she’s not watching her fav reality shows (LOVES the Real Housewives franchise), spending her afternoons watching Netflix or with a good book, she’s writing and journaling.

Follow Lara @brenleymag and connect with her on Facebook

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How to Recession-Proof Your Business

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Businesses that are fluid last through the many changes in the economy and lifestyles of their customer by being flexible and reinventing themselves when needed.

When I was younger my mother told me she wanted to be a Mortician – because she would always have work. However, after working in a funeral home for a year, she realized that it wasn’t something she would want to do for her emotional wellbeing.

Even so, that was one business, that no matter what, people would always need.

Evaluate your environment for needs

The first step is to observe and research needs of customers that aren’t necessarily based on an economic abundance, but something that people will get done or a service they would need, regardless of the financial state of the country.

Some to consider are:

Car Services, plumbing, electrical services, home care services, micro-businesses, moving company, handyman business, nursing home, midwife, doula for births or deaths and other business services with very little overhead cost.

Time is money

Sometimes, as business owners, you find you may be giving away a lot of your services and products for free in order to lure customers in. Find ways to avoid having to downplay your products and services, but draw in and retain your customers.

Make your business virtual

If your business is an in-person business, find ways to capitalize off of your knowledge by writing a book on the area of your business, creating a course on your business form or doing a subscription box service. As long as you can mail someone your product, communicate with them online, on the phone, or in person – you can create a virtual compliment to your businesses.

Expand in ways that don’t cost much, but compliment 

When you are building your business, troubleshoot and brainstorm how many ways you can offer the same services. Then list the compliments to your business services. After you know numerous ways you can branch your business into other areas, research the price of expansion.

Scaling up and down

Have a plan to scale your business to what your customer base needs. Hiring consultants, or contract workers for specific task can provide quality as well as allow an easy scale back or scale up for certain surges in your business.

 

Content courtesy of LM Preston, author of Building Your Empowered Steps and Homeschooling While Raising Amazing Learners, www.empoweredsteps.com

 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR, LM PRESTON

LM Preston, is an author, business owner, wife and mother who has written both fiction and non-fiction books that have reached best-seller status. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures. She also is a personal coach who supports clients in writing, publishing, goal realization, career imagination, parenting, homeschooling while working and much more.

Connect with LM on Facebook and follow her work on Twitter @LM_Preston

Her fiction novels can be found here, and her blog can be read, here.

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Managing a Business & Homeschooling in a Crisis

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Business owners have a survivor’s nature. They are adventurous, take risk and think outside the box more so than most anyone. An entrepreneur knows about risk. However, knowing how to plan for challenges and crisis isn’t always a priority until it is too late.
Put Pride Aside

The main issue most run into that have the ability to work at doing something they love, is to start to do something they don’t like – in order to make enough money to survive. This means, possibly doing things you originally considered out of scope of not a focus for your household or business.

There was a time when we were launching our real estate business that we needed to find money to advertise, my husband took a paper route delivering newspapers and started delivering pizzas on the slow days to put that money aside for our advertising. He fell back on those jobs throughout our marriage when we needed money fast and wanted the flexibility to make it. I also, took on babysitting other people’s kids overnight that worked night jobs to supplement. We did what we needed to do – not what we liked to do – to reach our goals.

All hands on-deck

If you live with others or others are invested with your business, everyone should do their part. Setting expectations for sharing the financial load of maintaining a home, a business is important. There will always -always, be a weak link. That is the case even among stars. However, identify the person, resource, or issue and mold it into the best representation of itself.

Income & Juggling Budget Obligations

Any household, business, or person, should strive to have multiple streams of income. Even if one parent decides to stay home, finding another source of income for the family that takes little effort to cultivate is important in relieving stress.

For a business owner, they need to have methods their business can create and funnel in income without it being as time or energy dependent. Some quick tips on how to do this:

  • Compress resources: for example, instead of purchasing or doing a long term lease for an office space, do a Day-Office instead where you rent an office for the day or times you need it. This works well for micro-businesses.
  • Don’t be the only source of income for your business: For micro-businesses it’s great that you can run everything yourself to make money, but what if you get sick? Fine other sources of income besides your time/body. For instance, I am a career re-imagination coach, education coach and writing coach – but there isn’t enough hours in the day for me to service everyone. I created online courses to support my readers, clients and students.
  • Barter and Trades: If your business doesn’t have the funds or your household doesn’t, fine ways to trade your skills, time, efforts with others that will be able to do the same for you.
Homeschool Down to Basics

Now with many being forced to homeschool their kids, try to work from home, and deal with the stress of crisis, taking things bare bones can relieve stress. When homeschooling and working, own your flexibility.

Have a schedule of work your kids can do independently based on their learning styles, attention span, educational gaps. Then assess how much one-on-one time you can spend with them each day. Only focus one on one time on Reading, Reading Comprehension, Writing and Building Math Skills. Make all other subjects secondary.

Homeschooling is MUCH easier when you do it without state oversight by withdrawing your child from school and stating that you are officially a homeschooler. Doing so, reduces the amount of work required for your child to do and allows you to customize their education.

Please see the HSLDA (Homeschool Defense) for the laws in your state: https://hslda.org/content/laws/

 

Content courtesy of LM Preston, author of Building Your Empowered Steps and Homeschooling While Working To Shape Amazing Learners, www.empoweredsteps.com

 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR, LM PRESTON

LM Preston, is an author, business owner, wife and mother who has written both fiction and non-fiction books that have reached best-seller status. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures. She also is a personal coach who supports clients in writing, publishing, goal realization, career imagination, parenting, homeschooling while working and much more.

Connect with LM on Facebook and follow her work on Twitter @LM_Preston

Her fiction novels can be found here, and her blog can be read, here.

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Challenges with Partnering with Your Spouse

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Being an entrepreneur, self-starting business woman, and a wife is difficult. However, when you add in the dynamics of your husband being your business partner, things can get even more challenging.

My husband and I have owned several businesses together and separately. The most successful businesses were the ones we worked on building together. They were also the most challenging business to manage because there were so many dynamics to doing it successful that clashed with our personalities, areas of passions, and work methods.

Who is the boss?

That is the major hurdle that many couples have to establish. In our case, I had the business idea, but my husband was the business front man since he had the sales experience and passion for in person and phone sales. In his mind, he was the boss. In my mind, I was the boss. This bought challenges when it came to the goals of the business, who did what, who made the decisions, and of course the power struggle.

To fix this we had to:

  • Agree on mission of business
  • Create a business plan
  • Decide on how decisions were made
  • Divide areas of management determined by the person’s strength
  • Agree on expectations – write them down, make them visible
Time management

The other area that was hard to manage was our time. Since both of us needed to work the business, work our actual full time jobs, and parent our children, we had many times when we thought the other person was cooking dinner, putting the kids to bed or picking them up from school.

To fix this we had to:

  • Create weekly schedules
  • Assign each other or delegate task out
  • Cut time at full-time job (one of us) to part-time or hire a nanny
Make time for life and dates

Sometimes the business takes over. It can cause stress to manifest in the personal relationship of the couple in business. Building a business is fun, exciting and like raising a child that you have more control over. If you aren’t careful though, it will consume everything you care about.

To fix this we had to:

  • Have standing date night – no talking business, kids, or work (we played board games, went to movies, or a day trip)
  • Take mandatory vacation (even if only for two days)
  • Do something special for each other, write notes to remind each other we love them, sneak off for breakfast.
  • Continue to work on our balancing act

 

Content courtesy of LM Preston, author of Building Your Empowered Steps and Homeschooling While Working To Shape Amazing Learners, www.empoweredsteps.com

LM is having a 50% sale off her book, Building Your Empowered Steps (code: BZ34N ). Click here for more. 

 

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR, LM PRESTON

LM Preston, is an author, business owner, wife and mother who has written both fiction and non-fiction books that have reached best-seller status. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures. She also is a personal coach who supports clients in writing, publishing, goal realization, career imagination, parenting, homeschooling while working and much more.

Connect with LM on Facebook and follow her work on Twitter @LM_Preston

Her fiction novels can be found here, and her blog can be read, here.

 

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Validating Your Offer and Leaning Into Your Role as Founder

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If you are not familiar with Emylee and Abigail over at Boss Project, you need to get familiar. I met these ladies in 2018 and immediately connected with their content and mission to help founders become full time creators. 

I even taught a session for their Boss Project Summit called “Progress Over Perfection” – an EPIC 4 day virtual (and free) conference to help founders and creatives connect with great content and grow their businesses. Needless to say, I’m #girlcrushing hard and not mad about it.

I recently sat down with them to chat about the realness of being a female founder on their top-rated podcast, Strategy Hour, and we chatted all things marketing, feeling the need to do everything and be everywhere, and how to prioritize all the crazy things that are actually working in your business so you can move forward.

Have a listen and check out the show notes and blog post below.

 

Life as a successful female entrepreneur can be frazzling with all the different responsibilities you have to take on.

Sometimes it can be difficult to know which thing to tackle first! Today on the podcast we have Jessica Korthuis, founder of Sohuis, a marketing and branding educational company that provides on-demand trainings for early-stage female entrepreneurs. Jessica is a powerhouse brand strategist marketer, and she has worked with brands like Red Bull, TEDxWomen, Girls Who Code, Stanford University, Bloomingdale’s, and Florida Institute of Technology. 

In this episode, we are talking about all the differences between small business ownership and entrepreneurship. We cover marketing tips, feeling the need to do everything and be everywhere, and how to prioritize the stuff that is actually working in your business so you can move forward.

Joining this discussion, you’ll hear some top tips for validating your product, how to stop being a perfectionist and take action, and the value of being transparent to build audience trust.

There is a lot of mindset-related stuff we are tackling today! Jessica is really in tune with female founders, and the different way intuition works when running a business. So, if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed about what is on your plate and what you have to handle, perfect! This episode will definitely provide some clarity for you.

Prioritize: Don’t Take Action for Action’s Sake

As we move from being entrepreneurs to business owners things can and do change a lot. There are some very clear differences between the two roles and it helps to be ready for the new challenges that will arise. As a new product of yours gets ready for release, the walls can start to feel like they are caving in on you with all the new responsibilities. Many women just accept this and begin to believe they will never sleep again because this is just how running a business is. The truth is, some of these pressures are more important than others. We can sometimes get weighed down by ‘shiny ball syndrome’, or the concept that all these attractive pressures such as social media and so on can be extremely distracting.

As women growing up, Jess shows us that we were told from a young age to behave a certain way and that everything has to be ‘just so’. This indoctrination can take a counterproductive form as you transition from entrepreneur to business owner.

You want everything to be perfect and can sometimes struggle to delegate. Don’t let this happen to you. Jess recommends the ‘sinking Titanic’ strategy. If you were trying to keep the Titanic afloat, you wouldn’t be washing dishes as your contribution. It’s the same with a new company: you have to prioritize. At the end of the day, global brands are looking to startups as examples of how to run a business, because they are so lean and able to move so quickly. This is a blessing so use it and get that profit coming in by being able to act on your priorities!

Validating Your Product Through a Mixture of Intuition and Openness to Feedback

As you’re getting your startup going, you will have a product you’re getting ready to release to the world, and it is important to have some tools for navigating its conception as well as evolution once in the market. It’s good to have some strategies for validating your product. A great strategy Jess believes in is simply using your intuition and figuring out how to get more customers. It’s as simple as that, but this process of researching and interfacing with customers can actually become quite challenging. When things turn out differently to what you expected, remember not to take it too personally. It is easy to become precious about our concepts, but it is important to survey products as you navigate their release. Data is just data so use it, incorporate it, and then move forward. While making your product surveys it is also important to ask the right questions. Don’t ask leading questions, ones that try to influence your customer into giving you the answer you want.

We talk about The Mom Test, or founders bias, the tendency to let our subjectivities get in the way with market research. Try to avoid this, ask the right questions, move onto your next assumption, make a tweak, and then repeat! Don’t see a discontinuity between a product and the data as a failure. It’s rather an opportunity to make a tiny pivot because entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a race.

Your business is not going to succeed due to one thing but is rather a journey with twists and turns.

Most importantly, don’t get too caught up in the data either. A balance needs to be struck between intuition and openness to feedback. In the universe of entrepreneurship, you are the sun, and the planets and stars are your coaches and feedback: without your idea their input is useless.

Stop Procrastinating and Take Action

One thing that a lot of people tend to get caught up in is this idea that they are not ready to take action yet for whatever reason. It could be that you haven’t created your marketing campaign, created your website, or designed your logo. Some people might be worried about having their idea stolen. The truth is that if you’re not creating some hugely disruptive product then the chances that somebody will want to steal your idea, or that it’s even your idea in the first place are quite low.

It’s all about the secret sauce you put on it anyways. Newsflash: all these things we think we need to do first are just forms of procrastination! You don’t need them! Get out there and take action! Before you get hung up on the opinions of your dad or friend who says you need a pretty logo before starting, just get going. Those people might not understand business that well, and so will suggest these unimportant things to you, but there is a lot to do before the branding stage that will drive your business forward hugely.

Winning Trust by Showing Vulnerability

It is easy to get caught up in the lessons you might have learned from a different background and then apply them inappropriately to the context of your new business. For example, if you have been a designer before then you may think perfect branding is what you need to make your business succeed. This is becoming less true these days especially with the huge buying portion of the market which the millennial group has now claimed. These groups are using things like trust and amiability as benchmarks before supporting products, and the ability of an entrepreneur to show vulnerability plays a huge role in this process.

People trust brands that seem human, so remember you don’t have to have everything perfect before putting something out there. People want the behind the scenes take on a product they love, so forget the makeup or the filters, and share the raw truth of your process!

Top Strategic Tips for Validating a Product

This is for those of us who have just launched something. Maybe it succeeded and maybe it was a slight flop, but either way, we are not wondering what the next steps to take are to find that progress and take our business to the next level. How do we go about accessing some data to validate and tweak our product? Jessica recommends before any validation survey, one should spend some time finding out exactly what it is they want to discover. She likes to set up what she calls customer discovery interviews, phone calls she organizes with past customers whose details she has acquired over time. These can be done over Skype or Zoom and the point of them is to locate data points that can be used to drive decisions going forward. See yourself as a data forensic in this process. Do you have recurring customers? Ask them why they keep buying. If you know somebody who bought a product years ago and didn’t repurchase, that is a data point too. Why did they choose not to come back? Using a strategy like this will help you get much more clear on the landscape of your product and help you figure out how to keep that revenue flowing.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Prioritize: Don’t Take Action For Action’s Sake. [0:03:03] 

  • Validating Your Product Through a Mixture of Intuition and Openness to Feedback. [0:15:00]

  • Stop Procrastinating and Take Action. [0:33:25]

  • Winning Trust by Showing Vulnerability. [0:43:46] 

  • Top Strategic Tips for Validating a Product. [0:46:40]

#TALKSTRATEGYTOME [0:44:51]

  1. Launch your product

  2. Determine what you need to know to make it grow

  3. Gather this data using surveys

  4. Contact old customers to conduct surveys

  5. Reasons for returning and non-returning customers are data points

 

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How to Create a Mindful Morning Routine

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Are you someone who rolls over the second your alarm goes off and proceeds to open your email, your Instagram, or start texting your group chat? That used to be me too.

After years of feeling exhausted in the mornings, I eventually had enough of starting my days on the wrong side of the bed (or wrong side of the screen). Over time, I created what I like to call “mindful mornings” as a way to wake up your mind and our body before entering into the social and digital world.

You may be surprised to learn that a morning routine begins the night before. To effectively create the sacred space you want to wake up in, you must prepare the environment you desire for yourself before you go to bed. Dim your lights, burn incense, read a book for at least 20 minutes before bed, and, most importantly, leave your phone charging in another room overnight! (Yes, it’s time to invest in an analog alarm clock or even a wake-up light one). Make the act of preparing for bed feel just as good as lulling off into sleep; this allows the body to be even more relaxed and will help you feel more restful the following morning.

When you first wake up, you might find yourself feeling tired and groggy because you have a whole day of sitting at a desk ahead of you, and you’ve just spent the previous day doing the same thing. It’s the 8+ hours we spend staring at a screen for work that makes it so vital to give our eyes the break we need from technology—blue light in particular—and get our bodies moving first thing in the morning. 

If instead you immediately introduce technology into your morning, you are shutting out your mind and body when you really need to be focusing on the opposite. After opening your eyes, it’s important to take in your surroundings–before anything else. Maybe you had a bad night’s sleep or a nightmare. Acknowledge this. You also need to take the time to quickly scan your body and ask yourself what it needs. Each day you might need something different, or perhaps you find something consistent your body has been lacking. For me, I get my endorphin rush by working out at 7am. 

Trust me, I never thought becoming a morning workout person would be my thing, but it has changed my life. A research-backed article from Healthline from June of 2019 gives us thirteen reasons why working out in the morning improves your mental and physical health. It doesn’t even have to be for an extended period. Stretching or doing yoga for fifteen minutes will do wonders (and your body will thank you later). As the article states, “an early morning workout could set the tone for a healthier day.” This includes your food choices, your mood, and, best of all, will help decrease your distractions.

After focusing on your body, which is the most important part of your morning, you can focus on the second most important thing: your external relationships. No, that does not mean it’s time to start texting your friends. This is the part of the morning you focus on those with whom you live with (roommate(s), partner, children, or pets). If you don’t live with anyone, I encourage you to resist the urge to communicate via phone until you get to the office where you can engage in an IRL conversation with a coworker. 

As you’re getting ready for your day, take time to eat a balanced breakfast without distractions. Another Healthline article identifies how to practice mindful eating. Maybe you read a few pages of your book or a news article. You can slowly begin to introduce music if you feel that your body needs the extra energy. And if you think you don’t have time, think about those twenty minutes in your morning that you spend scrolling on your phone. 

Of course, some people like to stay up late and can’t fathom switching their schedules. Some people would much rather work out in the evenings or maybe not even at all. This morning routine is a method that’s worked for me, but I know everyone is different. So I’m including a few ideas I’ve compiled from others.

Take 10-15 minutes to do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Meditate for two minutes, write two pages in your journal, make a gratitude list with five things, and read two pages of a book. That’s it! Of course, you can mix in whatever you love to do best or wish you spent more time on. Make it unique to you, and allow it to spark joy–first thing in the morning.

If you have a morning routine, share it below! I’d love to hear how other people spend their mornings before going to work.

Still not sure what morning routine would work best for you? I encourage you to read Daniel Pink’s book, “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing,” for some insight into your internal clock.

 

Content courtesy of Liana Pavane, digital wellness expert and founder of TTYL—a tech-free community dedicated to human connection.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR, LIANA PAVANE

Liana founded TTYL in 2018 to help people have a healthier relationship with technology and social media. Since launching, she has been featured on NY1, Bedford + Bowery, The Joy List, the SHIPS podcast, and more for her work in digital wellness.

As a professional community builder, Liana believes in the power of unplugging and living in the present moment. Her tech-free events have been hosted at prominent spaces such as Athleta, Showfields, The Assemblage, The Phluid Project, and Tijuana Picnic.

Liana is also a born and raised New Yorker who studied theatre at Ithaca College. When she’s not growing her business or hosting an event, you can find Liana networking with like-minded people or finding joy away from her phone.

Connect with Liana on Instagram and follow her journey here.

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Why Womenpreneurs Need to Reclaim Their Time

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This article was recently published on Thrive Global.

Hey gals, Jessica here. 2019 was a year for the books, would you agree? I have been challenged in so many new ways this year, and have been rewarded (two-fold) in ways that I never could have imaged.

As we enter into this new decade, I wanted to reflect on something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this year – productivity. Now, I’d like to preface this piece by saying that I’m not going to give you 5 tips to be more productive, nor am I going to give you 3 tools to increase your productivity. Our incredible team of Sohuis contributors have loads of content dedicated towards everything relating to helping you become a productivity ninja.

In this post, I wanted to take a broader look at productivity and share some personal experiences with you that I’ve learned this year that could help you think differently about how you’re going to show up for yourself in 2020 and beyond. 

First and foremost, I wanted to share that I’ve learned that productivity is not the same as busy. And man – do we glorify being busy.

The other day I was cleaning out my bookshelf and I came across one of my old calendars/notebooks. This wasn’t any old calendar/notebook though, this was my calendar from the very first year Thomas and I launched our agency. That thing was so worn out, the pages were barely attached. It’s red, with one of those old school ties you wrap around it to close it, with a slot in the middle to insert a pencil. I kept that notebook for so many reasons, the primary being that it’s literally a time capsule from my first year as an entrepreneur (my naiveté leaps from the pages). It’s also the last year that I reluctantly gave up using a paper calendar, that’s a story for another day. Every single square is jam-packed with notes, meetings, calls, to-do’s, my entire life for a year lives in this historical text, and I will never throw that old notebook away. 

As I was reading through my days of 2013 (this way predates children), the only thing I could think about was time. I thought about how, during those days, I genuinely believed that I didn’t have enough of it, I could always use more of it, and I didn’t see it for what it truly is, currency. Truthfully, this was because I hadn’t developed a sense of how valuable my time was, which I would figure out as I evolved over the years.

I gave away my time like free balloons at a balloon festival and holy crap – was I tired. 

Tired in a different way that I am tired today (where my mamas at?), tired because I was so incredibly inefficient and unproductive. My days were so full, I literally had an event of some sort from sun up to sun down. Client calls, demos, networking events, parties, community events, pitch competitions – client work, you name it. I was so insanely busy, but I wasn’t necessarily productive, and I sure as shit wasn’t efficient.

Now, that’s not to say that we didn’t do great work – we did. But now that I’m on the other side of entrepreneurship having folded our agency and started a new company armed with my learnings and lessons, I now understand that time was, and is, my most valuable currency. 

This little story brings me to what I wanted to talk about now – productivity. It’s easy to understand the relationship between these two commodities, time and productivity. Without productivity, we waste time, and in theory, additional time gives us the ability to do more things. 

And in 2019, I feel like I finally learned the art of truly balancing productivity and time. Coincidentally, as my daughter gets older and becomes involved in more activities, it’s even more critical that I maintain this balance as much as possible. 

So as you embark on this next decade and season of change, whether you’re a small business owner or aspiring entrepreneur, here are a few things I figured out this year that I will continue to do in 2020 and beyond to increase my productivity and maximize my time:

I learned to unapologetically shut down and turn off my work when my mind and soul need it.

Also related, I hardly ever (ever) work more than 6 hours a day. For those of you slaving away working 15 hour days, I can feel your distain. Don’t worry, I did that for a loooong time too, (too long). Obviously this may not work for everybody with where they are in their careers, but it’s important to note that I have made a conscious choice to seek opportunities, clients and roles that allow me the flexibility to do this. I have turned down well-paying positions because it meant I wouldn’t have the flexibility of time, and I’ve learned over the years, since the days of my old red notebook, that I do not function well as a human being if I cannot take a break and reclaim my time. This has lead me down a unique and interesting professional path, but necessary for me, to maintain my mental health, happiness and relationship with my work. 

Think I’m crazy for working less hours and not slaving away at my business like I did before? Take a look at what Microsoft has done in Japan. Microsoft tested a 4-day work week during the month of August and gave all of their employees Fridays off (while paying them their full salary), and you know what they discovered – a productivity increase of 40%. 

Humans are not designed to be machines with focused outputs for extended periods of time. In fact, a recent study showed that the traditional 8-hour work day is a completely irrelevant and antiquated way of working. Our brains actually crave 1 hour of work time and 15-minutes of rest. When is the last time you could feel yourself getting tired at work, but you pushed through to make your quota, or you worked through your lunch break because it made you feel more productive? 

I explicitly seek professional opportunities that allow me to work from home majority of the time for this exact reason. I don’t work from home so I can answer emails in my pajamas (although that’s pretty awesome). I work from home so that I can take a quick 15-minute break and fold some laundry, or run an errand, to give my brain some time to recharge and relax. 

For almost 2 decades I worked 12-15+ hour days, so trust me when I say I’ve been there. And I’m aware that not everyone can make similar choices that I have. I’m also aware that I have missed opportunities or passed up certain things in exchange for this time – which is something I accepted long ago. 

So, if you are in the position to reclaim your time, or you’re working towards a place where you can work in a similar fashion, know that your productivity is not based on the amount of time you dedicate – it’s about how you structure the time that you do spend. 

The other thing I learned this year is that slaving away at your business is unhealthy. 

Yes, it’s true that entrepreneurs have a hard time disconnecting from their businesses. But when you become a slave to your business, your business ends up running you, where it should be the other way around. As entrepreneurs, the core of our identities gets associated with our company, and during that process, it’s so easy to absorb your entire self into your work. 

I learned during the time of our agency that we were walking a tricky tight rope of muddying the waters between personal and business, and Thomas and I made a distinct choice to physically shut the doors to our home office and turn off our computers around 3pm on Friday afternoon. Everyone thought we were crazy.

In fact, someone once told me that if I wasn’t working on my business 24/7, I wasn’t a “real” entrepreneur. 

To that I said, “ugh, yea…but I like sleep, and travel, and spending time with the ones I care about. And If I can’t be present and enjoy these simple pleasures of life, what does it matter how successful I am?” If success comes at the price of alienating yourself from everyone you know (your kids, your family, your friends, whoever is important to you) – then, was it really worth it? 

I share this with you because I want you to know that it’s okay to set your business down for a minute.

It’s okay, healthy and encouraged to take breaks and stop for 5-minutes to smell the roses and admire how far you’ve come. I recently partnered with The Boss Project and spoke at a virtual conference on how to maximize your marketing for the holidays, and my session was on how to realistically commit to your goals in 2020 and beyond. In that session, I stressed that everyone forgets that success is the culmination of a million little steps – it’s the tiny steps that add up to the large leaps. And while everyone else only sees the large leaps, you are living alongside your tiny steps. 

So as you think about entering into the New Year with your ambitious goals and aspirations, I implore you to make a personal agreement with yourself that you will focus on productivity over busyness, and you will work to reclaim your time, giving yourself, your soul, and your mind a few breaks along the way. Don’t worry, we’ll all get there in the end, it’s important to enjoy the scenery along the way. 🙂 

xoxo,

 

AUTHOR, JESSICA KORTHUIS

Jessica is the founder of Sohuis, and educational platform and membership community that provides marketing and branding educational resources to help early-stage founders brand and market their businesses. She has a passion for writing and educating and an obsession with teaching others how to bring their brands to life.

Jessica has been featured by Thrive Global, Girlboss, the Lean Startup Company, is a 40 Under 40 Award recipient and has been listed as a “Woman to Watch in 2019 and Beyond” by the national publication, Biz Journals. She is a contributing writer to Girl CEO Inc., proud mompreneur, and to keep up with her super inspiring and fun content, follow her on Instagram @jessica_korthuis.

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12 Things No One Tells You About Running a Home Business

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Hey gals!

Sohuis team here – sometimes we come across content that we simply cannot pass up sharing. This post was originally posted here, on a blog we love called “The Balance Small Business,” and we wanted to share it with you. 

 

There’s no doubt that starting a home business has many perks. You get to be your own boss. You can work how and when you want. You set your own fees, essentially earning what you’re worth.

But there are a few drawbacks that many home-based entrepreneurs forget to mention.

1. You’ll Get Less Respect or Be Asked When You’re Going to Get a “Real” Job

Although this is a little less than it was 10 years ago, for some reason, many people don’t view home businesses as legitimate career choices. Instead, it’s something people do on the side to make a few extra bucks, or until a real job comes along.

2. People Will Think You Have All the Time in the World to Do Them a Favor

Because you work from home, you must have time to let the cable guy in for your neighbor, pick up your sister’s kids at school, and have lunch with your mother. To avoid becoming the go-to, on-call helper, have set work hours and be a stickler to others about respecting them.

3. You’ll Use More Mental Energy Than at a Job

While jobs do require mental energy, owning a business, in which you’re in charge of every aspect, and your success is dependent on how well you manage it, means you think a lot about your business. Even when you’re not working, you’re thinking about it.

4. Work Isn’t Always Fun

Even if you start a business doing something you love, there are aspects that aren’t fun. Some of these tedious jobs can be outsourced to a virtual assistant, but even then, you’ll have days where you don’t like your business.

5. Work Is Rarely Ever Done

Calendars, schedules, routines, and to-do lists will help you stay on top of tasks, but you’ll probably never come to the end of your list.

6. You’ll Sit More

Because you don’t have to get up, get dressed, and commute to a job, you’ll move less. Unless your home business is in landscaping or fitness training, you’ll likely spend a great deal of time at your computer. This can lead to weight gain and related health issues. In fact, health experts indicate that sedentary workers don’t need to exercise more, they just need to sit less. So get up more often.

7. Work and Life Blur

Having your career in your home means it’s easy to work when you’re off and be off when you’re supposed to work. While flexibility can be an advantage of running a home business, if you’re not consciously making decisions about work and off time, you can begin to feel overwhelmed and scattered. This is where time management can make a big difference in the quality of your work and personal life.

8. It’s Lonely

The quiet and solitude of a home business are nice for being focused and productive, but it’s lonely too. There’s no water cooler for gossip or feedback from a colleague. Social media and online groups can help with this, but it’s important to make an effort to connect with people in real life. This can be done through live networking events, co-working facilities, or MeetUp groups.

9. It Gets Harder to Go Back to a Traditional Work Situation

Once you get used to having your own schedule and working without a boss, it gets difficult to want to go back to that situation.

10. You’ll Work Too Much (or Maybe Not Enough)

Especially in the beginning, home businesses take a great deal of time to get up and running. You may not have a day off for weeks or months. This can cause problems with your family. Or, it’s possible you’ll not work enough. A home business is flexible, but not so flexible that you can make a living during your child’s nap times or working only an hour a day.

11. Some Days You May Not Get Dressed

Working in your pajamas is a perk of having a home business. But spending the entire day in your “jammies” will make you feel frumpy. Many experts suggest a morning routine for your home business just like you would have for your job; shower and get dressed.

12. You’ll Be Home All the Time

Living and working under the same roof can get tedious. On the days you don’t get dressed, it also means you don’t leave the house. Fortunately, many home businesses can be run from other locations and since many public spots have free wi-fi, you can take your work on the road for a change of scenery.

Proudly reshared and supported: the original blog for this post can be found here.

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10 Amazing Christmas Gifts for Womenpreneurs

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It’s Christmas time!

While Santa Claus is checking his list (twice!), you want to make sure he has a good idea of what to get your friend who has been KILLING IT as a BOSS while managing her small business! For the entrepreneurs and career women, here is a list of great gifts that you can either get for yourself or get for your fellow girl bosses this Christmas:

This 2020 planner by the creative geniuses of Create & Cultivate will inspire any entrepreneur. There are weekly and monthly spreadsheets to keep you organize with your goals and notes. There’s even a #BOSSboard that lets your creative juices flow by doodling and writing your next big business plan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be organized and chic with this desk organizer that’ll sit nicely on your desk. This rose gold piece contains a pen holder, paper organizer, and desk drawer. You’ll get a lot of work done with this beauty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conde Nast International hosted a lunch with author Kevin Braddock on his book for #WorldMentalHealthDay so it must be a good read. Sometimes the grind can take a toll on a small business owner, and it can be difficult to navigate the triumphs and trials. The book, Asking for Help dives into mental health education, awareness, as well as fighting against social stigma.

 

 

 

 

 

For the stylish entrepreneur, this bag will have everyone turn heads while carrying this fabulous bag! This wine red shoulder bag can hold any 13 inch laptop or tablet, with foam bubble padded in the bag for bump and shock resistance. Stylish, comfortable, affordable; what more can you want?!

 

 

 

 

 

Every business owner needs business cards, and every owner also needs a card holder that represent them and their brand. This cardholder from Kate Spade will guarantee have people give you compliments as you seal with the deal with your business contacts.

 

 

 

 

Is your hard working entrepreneur friend a coffee lover, but doesn’t always have the time to make her own cup? Does Starbucks have majority of her money? Then she’ll LOVE the Primula Pace Cold Brew Coffee Maker! This cold brew coffee maker will make a fresh cup of cold brew coffee within minutes, and will have her up and ready to go (and will save her money!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a business woman, sometimes we have travel for business and conferences. Give the gift that reminds the entrepreneur that you’re always with her, even when she’s on business, with a personalized luggage tag. Have their name or a cute graphic on the tag so they can spot their bags a mile away.

 

 

 

 

Wanna splurge a little bit? These Ghostek soDrop 2 Wireless Headphones are one of the most comfortable headphones on the market. They’re also wireless and have Bluetooth connectivity that’ll pair with any of your devices. An added bonus is that the set comes with a microphone, so you can take a phone call while listening to your favorite music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For someone always on the go, having a portable charger is absolutely essential while being an entrepreneur. You wouldn’t want your phone to die while you’re doing a video recording, or trying to post something on social media. That’s why this phone charger is a must-need this holiday season! The durable charger has an amazing battery capacity so you never have to worry about a low battery while taking notes on your phone.

I hope you enjoyed these gift ideas, show a fellow girl boss that you appreciate them this holiday season!

 

 

 

 

Content courtesy of  Lara Ashley, Founder and Editor of Brenley Magazine, Redefining what it means to be a Southern belle; an online magazine that helps women wear their crowns with grace.

Contributing Author, Lara Ashley

Lara Ashley is a multifaceted Journalist. Lara Ashley obtained her Mass Communications degree at Southern University and A&M College and is obtaining a Master’s degree in Magazine Journalism in the U.K. from Cardiff University. When she’s not watching her fav reality shows (LOVES the Real Housewives franchise), spending her afternoons watching Netflix or with a good book, she’s writing and journaling.

Follow Lara @brenleymag and connect with her on Facebook

 

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Pros & Cons: Launch Your Own Business or Work For Someone Else?

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My husband and I have always been entrepreneurs at heart.

It was in our blood since we were both in grade school. When we started having kids while attending college, we both decided that we needed the stability of a full time pay check instead of the erratic and extensive but flexible hours of running a business.

Most all businesses need capital, and time to kick start. This could mean up to three years of investment without any real return. That makes selecting a business that you are passionate about even harder when that business may not return the dividends you hoped to get just to pay your bills and survive.

In our case we went for businesses that had a good infrastructure and at least moderate success, knowing we would have to work to fund the business. We chose Real Estate and worked that business for almost ten years.

Having a business is about the hustle of the sale

Most people want to start a business to be their own boss. It sounds great until we, as the sole source of income for our household, realize that we aren’t making any money at it – initially. Pouring 50 to 60 hours of effort into something that doesn’t pay off can be a drain.

Here’s what we did to focus on sales, but not worry so much about returns when we first started.
  •       Work part-time to fund marketing and sales for business
  •       Use part-time job to network and gain customers through relationship building
  •       Use part-time job to fund household while building business
  •       Realize that business income is based on sales and that at the base of the business, you have to sell the business offerings
  •       Partnering with someone that can help run the business and take some of the pressure off
  •       Partnering with someone to get vacation time

Many people are in love with the type of business they own, but hate the aspect of selling it. If that is you, maybe other options are better.

Working for a company – the benefits over owning one

With having a bill from college debt, we realized that owning the business didn’t gain us what we needed most at the time-a regular paycheck, health benefits, vacation paid time off, sick leave in some cases and standard work hours.

In most cases, working a job, you can depend on the pay being the same every week and getting the deposit with no more effort than what you were expecting going in.

Deciding on the best-case scenario

The best case for us was working for a company that allowed us to have our business as a part-time endeavor. Having a constant stream of income, we could count on most of the time, gave us comfort and joy in building our business part-time. We partnered with others and the part time business grew to the point my husband could work it full-time. It helped for one of us to stay employed to gain health benefits and others from a well-established company.

Finding what works for you

Doing your research and evaluating what your reason is for starting your business is your first stop. Then map out a business plan. Decide when you need to make money on your business and if you are willing to put in the time and effort selling your product, marketing it, and being on social media to promote it. If you aren’t interesting in the selling of your product, are you willing to pay someone to do that for you? Then you will realize what the cost and benefit is of starting your own company or working for someone else.

Check out LM’s Blog: http://homeschoolandwork.blogspot.com/

Content courtesy of LM Preston, author of Building Your Empowered Steps and Homeschooling While Working To Shape Amazing Learners, www.empoweredsteps.com

Contributing Author, LM Preston

LM Preston, is an author, business owner, wife and mother who has written both fiction and non-fiction books that have reached best-seller status. Her passion for writing and helping others to see their potential through her stories and encouragement has been her life’s greatest adventures. She also is a personal coach who supports clients in writing, publishing, goal realization, career imagination, parenting, homeschooling while working and much more.

Connect with LM on Facebook and follow her work on Twitter @LM_Preston

Her fiction novels can be found here, and her blog can be read, here.

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