How cool is this? I (Jeni) was featured and quoted in an article published on SMH, The Age, Brisbane Times, WA Today. Apparently it was on the homepage for a short period of time too, but I missed it. The story is about female entrepreneurs, and how we juggle business and family commitments.
Juggling act: growing a family and a business – Female entrepreneurs. Download PDF.
Here’s an extract.
“Women who run entrepreneurial businesses are often faced with more challenging business and life choices than their male counterparts. Females often combine a primary care role raising a family with running their business, and have to balance the growth of their enterprise with the growth of their family.
For some, it’s a choice between pursuing a high-growth strategy and managing family responsibilities, or a slower, organic growth to free up more time.
Interestingly, Jeni Oye, founder of online jewellery business Oye Modern, says she would have achieved an identical result for her business with or without children.
“If I hadn’t had kids I still would have achieved what I have – I just would have done it in a tenth of the time,” she says.
“When I started the business I had three children under three [Oye has a four-year-old and two-year-old twins]. I was at the hospital just after I had the twins on the phone to my husband talking him through how to handle an order.”
Oye says her situation has helped her become ultra-efficient (after all, why have one baby when you can have two at once?) “The secret is to work out what your top priorities are and tackle them first,” she explains, adding that an early lesson was not to try to manage the children and the business at the same time.
“Checking your email while trying to feed the kids is a disaster. I had to learn to let go of the business a little bit and separate family time from business time. When I did that, things fell into place and everyone was much happier.”
Read the rest of the article here:
Juggling act: growing a family and a business – Female entrepreneurs. Download PDF.