We all know raising kids is a full-time job with around-the-clock duties and tasks that never end. While diaper changing, hair braiding and helping with homework are niche skills, parenting requires a set of guiding principles that are helpful to another audience: small business owners.
Yes, raising children and starting a business have a lot more in common than may be outwardly apparent. Perhaps one of the biggest commonalities between the two is the need for perseverance – while parents may daydream about their single, childless days when they could go on vacation at the drop of a hat, their kids are still their main priority.
What kept you going during the 1 a.m. feedings, diaper changes and temper tantrums? Besides all the coffee in the world or glass of wine for sanity’s sake, you had an inner drive that made you realize it was all worth it.
Just the same, a successful entrepreneur won’t be discouraged by a few bumps in the road and will stick with a business through good times and in bad, even during the first year. When you’re balancing QuickBooks at 2:30 a.m. or getting stood up for client calls at 7 a.m., it would be easy to throw in the towel and start working as a balloon animal artist, but you know from raising children that there will be a reward eventually.
Focus on two the P’s
Patience and prioritization are key in both parenting and running a business. There’s plenty of chaos in parents’ and entrepreneurs’ lives, and being able to remain calm, even if you have to take a page from “Seinfeld” and chant “Serenity now!” is key to surviving stressors that pop up every day.
It may not be easy, but prioritization could be the difference between a calm day and one with several fires. It could be the real ones Timmy started in your toaster oven because he was hungry or proverbial ones caused by an angry customer.
Being a parent and a business owner simultaneously brings up some special challenges. You may think that a pesky spreadsheet won’t get done unless you do it yourself, but learning to delegate can free up your plate so you can catch Timmy’s basketball game. Unless there are any urgent fires to put out, I, for one, prioritize my weekly movie date with my youngest daughter – and my colleagues and employees know that.
Always Adapt
Parents know that many expectations about raising a child are thrown out almost as quickly as baby’s first diaper. Your child will never watch TV, won’t ever have junk food – the list goes on and on. But then reality settles in and all of a sudden you barely have enough time to catch up on your Facebook notifications, let alone cook your toddler an organic meal every night. So you learn to drop expectations and just do the best you can.
Similarly, after a year in business, you may realize that your idea of selling ads only in independently owned media outlets may have been a little shortsighted and that that you’ll need to refocus or broaden your targets to reach success.
Regardless of whether you’re a first-time parent, first-time business owner or have done both a couple times, keep in mind that lessons learned can be applied to either realm. As with most things in life, don’t let a little hurdle get in your way. It’s just a reality that maybe Timmy shows up to school dressed in his pajamas when it was actually School Pride Day, and maybe your business suffers a rough month or two because you are wet behind the ears. Either way, most things grow up and improve if parents and business owners learn from their mistakes.
