I’m a Web Developer, and as such I regularly blog on technical subjects close to my area of expertise. But this month’s post is not related to WordPress at all, but it does tell you a little bit about me, my values and passions. Sole traders have an interesting position in the business world, and I have become part of a ‘virtual’ team, working with so many other fantastic sole traders who’s business ethics and values are just as important to me as the quality of work that they produce.
I make no secret that I am a working mother, and although I don’t talk much with my clients about my children, I am always up front that I schedule my work accordingly, and work does slow down in the school holidays. I swapped a high pressure job in London and my daily commute to the City because it felt like the wrong life, and I have never looked back.
I go to a lot of networking events and I’ve noticed a trend in the increasing number of intelligent, focused, experienced business women that I meet. They are professional and hardworking, but they have a secret, and you really have to dig deep to get them to reveal it. They are working mothers, women who have started their own businesses out of necessity, to make their family lives work with a more flexible schedule.
In return for this flexibility, I work early, I work late, I adjust each day to fit, it’s incredibly hard work, but it’s worth it because I take my children to school every day and most days I’m there to collect them. I go to school plays, concerts and swimming galas. We talk about our days every afternoon when I make dinner, and we read together. I couldn’t imagine not having this time with my children.
I spent some really valuable time recently with a valued client, discussing my own marketing strategy. I was trying to explain why I do what I do. A perplexing question to start with, but it soon came tumbling out. She explained that when you do something you love, using the skills you have, make an income, and help other businesses using that skill, you have hit a magic combination. It made sense to me, when I first discovered WordPress it was a proper ‘lightbulb’ moment, I knew I’d found a business where I could use my existing skills, something that I was going to enjoy, and that was going to work with family life. I wasn’t wrong.
I feel proud everyday of where my business is taking me, and I know that what I do inspires my children, they see my dreams and aspirations and how hard I work to achieve these. I feel so passionately that our children learn what they live, and as a parent, being a positive role model is such a vital part of their growth and development. I think working mothers everywhere should give themselves more credit, I applaud them all. I need to blow my nose now, it’s an emotional subject close to my heart, I’ll stick to the technical next time, much easier.