Do Less

Simplify family life by consciously scaling back on outside activities and commitments. If your child gets invited to two birthday parties in the same weekend, pick one to attend instead of both. Two extracurricular activities are more than enough for most kids. And don't overschedule yourself either. For instance, you don't have to volunteer for every single classroom thing that comes along.   Keep a family calendar to figure out how really over-committed you are, then scale back.

Reconnect with Your Spouse

"We" time is just as important as "me" time. Weekly "date nights" are a great idea, but if you can't find the time—and the babysitters—to regularly make that happen, there are other ways of doing just that.  After the kids go to sleep is a good time to spend some quality time together.  It doesn't really matter what you do but that you do it together in a focused way so that you're really paying attention to each other. And I can’t underline the importance of the support network of Grandparents enough. Every so often my parents take our kids for some granny time and that really becomes our refocus time.  It is as important for them as it is for us.

I am a small business consultant, and I help my clients with designing, implementing and executing strategies into their business for optimisation.  Whether it is sales-related, marketing-related or simply writing copy for their websites, articles, or blogs, a social media marketing campaign or whether they simply need a coach to help keep them on track and focused on the right activities, I love doing all of it.  I absolutely love getting involved in any way they need me to and it’s awesome,  I really get a kick out of seeing my clients triumph after a tough slog.  I find that a lot of my new clients are mums.  New mums, overworked mums, out of time mums, or mums that want to start up a business but don’t know where to start.  My love and passion is in marketing, but with my financial background, and experience in the management consulting industry for a number of years, I have the capability and ability to help in all areas of business.

Five years from now? With any luck, I will still be doing what I’m doing, only on a slightly bigger scale, and hopefully with a couple of other mums helping me out in the business also.  It is my dream to be able to employ or even go into partnership - potentially with a few mums who ‘know’ the trials and tribulations of what we do.  I want to build a business where mums can tap into their creative side, their inner professional, and fulfil that need and ability to think and make the world a better place through what we do. 

What I love about my business is that it’s so far removed from the corporate world I once knew, where you’re expecting and watching out for the person next to you, for the person that wants to undermine you to make themselves feel and look bigger, better, more capable, more worthy for the next pay rise or the next rung on the corporate ladder.  Now I get to live and die by my work.  I can be as creative as I want in my thinking, I won’t upset any applecart or colour outside of the lines that are drawn for me.  My work is honest, it’s real, it helps others achieve what they dream to achieve.  I’m already in a joint venture with a mum who is a graphic artist and web designer, and I love working with her,  and I hope to bring others along for the journey when I’m able.

Sue Mills is a marketing consultant who launched her own business, SMC, specialising in sales and marketing strategies for small business - after the birth of her daughter almost two years ago. You can connect with Sue via her website.