I am a mompreneur, which might sound glamorous when it really isn’t. It’s hard work and anyone who tells you that you’re so lucky you get to stay home and look after your kids has no idea what they’re talking about.

A business doesn’t build itself, nor does it grow by itself. Like a plant, it needs lots of love, nurturing, and attention. To be blunt, my business is like an additional child, and it needs as much from me as my child does.

A seed is planted

When I fell pregnant, I had a busy career working in the finance industry. It kept me at the office late at night, and I worked more weekends than I’d care to admit. My job was a labor of love, and I was 100% committed to it until my baby was born.

In an instant, my priorities changed, and I knew that my life would not be the same again… ever. However, that didn’t mean that I wanted to become a stay-at-home mom full-time. First, there was no way we could afford it, and second, I knew I would find it frustrating and unfulfilling.

The solution dawned on me right away: I would start a business and run it from home. In retrospect, it sounded so simple at the time, although it would turn out to be a bit more complex than that.

Supermom to the rescue

I had my plans laid out and was raring to go when I started my business. I sell educational toys online, and for the first while, I kept my inventory in our basement. I was determined to do it all by myself.

How hard could it be, I scoffed. All I needed to do was set up a website, stock my basement, wait for orders, and start shipping them. Oh, and I needed to look after my child and our home, as well. How hard could it be?

Nothing comes easy

Getting my business off the ground took a lot more time and effort than I thought it would. It meant long hours in front of the computer, talking to suppliers, and dealing with unhappy customers, most of it being done with a cranky baby on my hip.

I was so exhausted, and more than once, I questioned my mompreneurial tendencies, wondering if I would have been better off going back to my old job.

Getting help

One morning, after I’d put my car keys in the fridge and tried to pack the laundry in the dishwasher, I realized that I could not do it all alone. Getting help would not be an admission of defeat. Instead, it would be a positive step toward growing my business and giving me the time to be the best mom I could be.

The first thing I did was to hire a company offering 3PL services, and now I don’t have to worry about keeping stock and shipping it to my customers. Next, I hired a website developer, and with his expertise, my business grew beyond my wildest expectations.

Why do mompreneurs feel the need to do it all? I think it’s a societal pressure we feel to be perfect at everything we do and not rely on anyone for help, thinking it would be tantamount to acknowledging our shortcomings. We look at other mompreneurs on social media and tell ourselves that if they can do it, so can we.

But it’s important to remember that social media isn’t always as real as it seems. And those perfect mompreneurs probably have a load of laundry that needs to be folded and a team of people helping them run their businesses too.