A Day in the Life of a Mumpreneur - Diary of a Working Mum

 As well as running Afrotouch Design and working a regular job, I am a mum to three beautiful children, so I thought you would be interested in finding out about a day in the life of a mumpreneur. Mumpreneurs are mothers who also run their own businesses and it is tiring, challenging, but ultimately a rewarding way to build my business.

Let me start off by introducing you to my family. Amayah is seven, Josiah is four and Jaida is two. They are my world and I am blessed to have them, but as you can imagine trying to manage home life, work a full-time career and also run a growing business is not always straightforward.

I am definitely learning to navigate my way through, and I most definitely don’t always get it right. What I have learned over the last three years is that you cannot balance everything equally. It’s just not possible! What I try to do is harmonise things and honour the season that I’m in, a lesson I learned from mum of two and business owner Shunta Grant, from the Business Life and Joy Podcast. Here’s what a day in the life of a mumpreneur looks like for me.

A Day in the Life of a Mumpreneur Starts Early

I wake up at 5am most days. I recently joined a Whatsapp group called The 5am Club, run by UKCurlygirl. It’s been really great as it’s a group of women who are all striving to make adjustments in their lives to create more productivity in the day. We keep each other motivated and I often start the day with positive affirmations, prayer and meditation or journaling.

The kids are early risers and often they are up by 6.30, so I use that first hour and a half to get myself ready, put a load of washing in (I do a little washing every day as it makes life a little easier and the pile is more manageable), sort the school bags and snack boxes and set things up for the morning routine. My husband baths them and gets them ready for school. Whilst he does that, I get any orders that have come in overnight ready for posting at lunchtime.

We don’t have a nanny or childcare so we work things out between ourselves. We plan who will do the drop off on a weekly basis, depending on our work schedule, but he tends to drop them off and I’ll do the pick-up.

Working at my Regular Job and Managing the School Day

I start my regular job at 8.30, working until 4.30. My career involves lots of driving around to different cities and meeting with various healthcare professionals. The best bit is that I work from home and can manage my time throughout the day. We make use of the school’s after school clubs and so I often pick up the children by about 5pm. I used to feel really guilty about leaving them in school for so long, but they are really disappointed when they see me because they want to stay and play with their friends. Sometimes it takes about 15 mins to get them to leave!

We’re home by about 5.45pm and I prepare dinner, help the kids do homework, sort the washing and get them ready for bed. They are usually in bed by 7.30ish, which means it is often a bit of a rush and can be slightly stressful, but we get it done.

Sitting Down to Work on Afrotouch Design

A day in the life of a mumpreneur does not end when the children are asleep. I tend to work on the business for about two to three hours in the evening. This often involves making products, packing orders, responding to emails, managing social media, accounting and all their things relating to business. Over the last year, I outsourced some of the administrative type activities to a virtual assistant and this has been really helpful for me.

Gone are the days when I would work through the night till all hours of the morning. Don’t underestimate the importance of sleep for a working mum. I’m in bed by 10.30 and I do okay on six and a half hours of sleep. I’m trying to be in bed by 10pm, since I’m up by 5am, and I’m hoping that as I streamline processes in my business and become more efficient with my time, I’ll be able to achieve this.

Other Aspects of Life for a Working Mum

I don’t get to the gym as often as I used to, and this is something that I need to work on. I’m better in the morning and so my plan is to try and get in a 30 to 45-minute workout in before the kids get up. Wish me luck with that!?

People always talk about self-care, and we all know that it’s important, but in reality, it’s really difficult when you’re constantly busy. The last person you think about is yourself. However, being a successful mumpreneur is all about prioritising what’s important and, fundamentally, if you are not mentally and physically in a good place, everything gets harder. So, this is something I’m learning and trying to incorporate into my day. It’s all a learning process!

That’s my day in the life of a mumpreneur; next month I’ll give you my top tips for making it work as a mumpreneur and working mum.