Transcript
Basically to make entrepreneurship work and starting my own company. I have kept part time work, which has been a little bit more solid, part time freelance work, essentially, so that I had income coming in while I am in the process of building my own companies and it’s hard. I mean, basically you doubled down and put in the time and work some days ended up being really, really long. But yeah, essentially I’ve kind of just taken on the role of two adults, which is, I guess what single parents do. Right. So also on a financial level. So basically I’ve just always made sure I had some sort of steady income while I’ve been building my own businesses.
I right now have a matchmaking service and I am building a recruitment agency as well. I started out on my own about three years ago when my oldest child was 13, my middle was around 11 and my youngest was 9. And I basically did it for two reasons. One, because I, by nature, I’ve always been a creator and a builder and a doer. And I don’t like being told what to do, like calling my own shots and having complete freedom to determine my destiny and then that of my kids as well, which might sound a little bit out there, but it’s just who I am. Basically I want to have the freedom to create my own life on my terms, and I definitely want to be able to work from home as well. So I started out instead of just going from full time, working in Berlin to completely being an entrepreneur and going out on my own, I kind of baby step my way at myself away from that. By doing that, I went down to part time first and kind of had my, my business on the side. And then I went from part time to freelancing, just doing project based work to continue to fund and finance life essentially while I was building a business on the side. So yeah, that’s it how I did it.
How did I support myself when I started out? So I was working, a full time job at first and then I stepped away from that and made it a part time job and started building my own business on the side. Because as a single parent, there’s no way I could just quit my job. I also didn’t have really the patience or the know how to get funding. So I just kind of started working on the side. So essentially my business was the side-hustle for a while. And then slowly as it grew, I could step away from my part time job. And then in the meantime, I basically pick up occasional freelance projects to make sure there’s regular income coming in while I’m still in the process of building my own company. So you just worked two jobs essentially.
Reaching my professional goals and my business goals, as well as raising my kids is always challenging. I randomly have days where I feel really like I get lucky and things just work. My kids are taken care of. They’re happy. I’ve gotten what I need to get done for the day, I’ve got a new client or, you know, maybe some sort of success I’ve delivered on a promise to a client. Or I found some partner to work with. You know, sometimes they get really lucky and things just magically fall into place, but those are the exception to the rule. Most days it’s really a juggling kind of balancing act that you always have to do because you have your goals and you know, where you want your business to be. And then you’ve still got these little humans to take care of as well and you want to make sure that they’re taken care of and, that they don’t feel neglected or ignored, it’s a constant balancing act. So I would say, yeah, it’s challenging almost every day, but it’s also extremely rewarding. Because you don’t want your children to grow up feeling like they were neglected because, you know, mom ignored me because she was so busy pursuing her professional goals. Right. Or mom didn’t have time for us, so you want to be conscious of what they need, but then also reach your own goals and take care of yourself in the meantime. Right. Challenging but possible. Yeah.
So other challenges besides the balance of taking care of kids and building my own business and financing all of that, what I would say is growth as a challenge because there’s only so many hours in a day, there’s only so much that you as one person can do. So I would even just say my current challenge right now is growing from myself. And I’ve got a couple of freelancers who sometimes work with me to expanding my services beyond just me. So the growth factor is, is a current challenge I have right now, you know, I need to find somebody for marketing. I need to build a better online presence. I don’t have much of one, a lot of my business has just come from word of mouth, which has been awesome, but you’re limited then in the growth and the amount that you can do. But I find myself looking at my schedule thinking: Hmm, how am I going to get all these things done? You know? So I’m currently working on that. And I think I’m going to have to bring in either a, like a PA type of personal assistant to take care of some of the administrative tasks that I’m involved in so that I can spend more time on the creative side or bring somebody in to help on the marketing side as well. Like it’s just it’s time at this point for reinforcements, because I think otherwise you, as an individual can only do so much. So growth really, I think is my personal biggest challenge.
I think two things have made me successful and that is the hard work, really just being willing to roll up my sleeves and do the work necessary to continue to support myself and my family while I build my own business. It’s very, very, very simple. It’s just a matter of working hard. And then also kind of this inner drive and determination that I have. I really would like to live life on my own terms. And it’s hard to live life on your own terms if you’re building somebody else’s dream essentially. But if you’re building your own, and if you have a strong vision of where you want to be, then you can get very, very far with hard work and knowing what it is you want. So, I’m hard headed as well. Like I can be very stubborn and stubbornness can be a good thing when it comes to pursuing what it is that you want to pursue, because otherwise it’d be easy to get off track. It’d be easy to get discouraged. It’d be easy to listen to other people who might think you’re a little crazy for not sticking with the safe, secure job or finding a sugar daddy. Like my daughter says I should do so. Again, it’s just hard work and determination, I would say are the two main things that have helped me get to where I am so far, and that will help me get to where I really want to be, which I’m not quite there yet.
