Today, as I woke up from a short nap, I started thinking about how bless I am. I wanted to write this blog post to encourage any struggling mammas out there. Mompreneurs who struggle with guilt, or who think they are doing all this work for nothing.
A year ago today, I was working double the hours for half the pay, I was doing a job that I loved, that I was very qualified for but, I was severely underpaid. This was a huge problem for me. I was leaving my husband and 2 kids at home all weekend so that I would go make a little side cash. I had to stand up for 6-10 hours per shift causing me to have bad back issues and often times treated like I had to value or say in what I did.
Just about a year ago, I started a long and hard search to find online employment or something I could do to earn some money from home. I came across the term Virtual Assistant and I was intrigued. This was it! This inspired me! I learnt all I could about being an amazing assistant/creative designer/ social media managing...Did multiple courses, invested part of the money I had made in setting up my business and in learning all the skills I needed to be not just good at what I did, but amazing!
I felt guilt on the way, I was dedicating a lot of time to building the business, I spent hours working at night and waking up not feeling up to dealing with the full on energy my boys have in the morning. I kept telling myself that I would soon see the fruit of my hard labor and that it would be worth it!
I had some hard lessons to learn on the way. I never ran a business, I didn't consider myself business minded at all. In the first months I got myself into a few situations where I was exploited and not treated very well. However, all those mistakes thought me never to accept anything less than my worth just because I needed the money or because the person sounded so genuine!
I also struggle my self-image. Right now I'm on my bed...which is often times my home office, in my Pj's with my hair in a messy bun..and when I say messy bun, I don't mean those nice pinterest image messy bun...I mean MESSY! I have a 5 day old baby sleeping next to me. I have about 5 huge zits on my face from being super hormonal and anyway...you get the picture...not feeling so glorious.
But you know what, this is sooo worth it. I'm home with the kids. I can see all their lego creations, watch them grow, go for walks, homeschool them and best of all I'm working half the time as I was last year, making the same amount of money. I have learnt SOOOO MUCH and I have so much to give to my family, my clients and myself sometimes too :) all because I decided to take that risk and step into the unknown.
If you too are building your own business and are struggling with not having enough time to do it all, it might be time to consider Hiring a Virtual Assistant. I would love to chat with you to see if I can help you out with that.