Family / Work Life Balance

You see these two innocent looking boys?! Well they are actually W I L D! 😆 Lucky for them, they are also great at snuggling to get away with anything they want! Some days, I feel like I failthem. Other days, I feel like a “good mom” (whatever that means). One thing is for sure…none of it is easy.

I get this question often: How do you run a business and raise a young family?

Here’s a little glimpse of my “why”. Working in retail and/or owning a boutique for most of my working career has taught me that clothing is a form of expression art. It is fun to wear what feels like a representation of you. That being said, owning a boutique can leave you with a constant feeling of discontentment. You always have to find the next thing. Create the next thing. Re-brand yourself. As much fun as that may sound…it is a never ending process. Don’t get me wrong - I love it. The key is to put it in perspective. You have to compartmentalize that feeling of discontentment. That feeling of discontentment cannot creep into your family life or your relationship with your kids.My boys and my husband keep me grounded. When the boutique gets to be too much, I always remember that they are my “why”. No matter what.

I sometimes think about how I want my boutique to succeed. What I have learned is that success is often times measured by the wrong things. At the end of the day, the titles that you have or what you accomplished from a financial or career standpoint is not what you will be remembered by. It is how you treated people and how you made others feel. That helps keep me motived in a business that has me on a never ending quest to find the newest thing.

So to answer the question clearly…what works for me is just keeping a work/life balance that fits with my family- they are my priority and I schedule my work times around them. Anything worth having is worth working for, but you have to be okay with the sacrifices being made.