Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Being a mum, health practitioner and running a private practice/small business is quite a juggle, and being organised really helps.
And now, 20 years into an established private practice, I strictly limit my work hours. I work 5 mornings a week, then come home to breastfeed and play with my 2-year-old daughter. And I don’t check work emails once I’ve knocked off. It’s a lovely balance. It’s taken a lot of time and learning to make that sustainable. A wonderful thing about looking after many families with their health is that I get to share tips with other parents to help them strike a better life/work balance.
I’m glad that my partner and I can finally afford to both work part-time, allowing us to spend ample time together – with our daughter and with some needed time apart.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
There have been so many challenges: The financial limitations as a start-up; learning to run a private practice at 22 years of age; coming back from the brink of bankruptcy after putting my trust in the wrong person. I think what has kept me going is a passion for natural health, to help people and their families, and a strong ethic. I have a strong, uncompromising sense of integrity and professionalism, and the strength to fire people who didn’t match those values.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The pros are: being able to choose my own hours; working in something that I believe in; being able to create and foster the sort of practice I want to work in, and to stay working at the same place; being able to see my kid patients grow up, and to help them with their health along the way; working in a small team that doesn’t tolerate toxic behaviour among staff; and having a practice that upholds strong ethics and professionalism, in a warm and friendly environment that helps many people.
The cons are having ongoing heavy responsibility and liability and regularly being called upon to trouble-shoot.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
I would love to have a manager that can trouble-shoot on my behalf, freeing up more of my time.
I’d love to help more people through an online fertility course, teaching women what they can do to improve their chances of conceiving, having a healthy pregnancy, a natural birth and beyond – all in a super accessible format.
I’d also love to help more people in small business! I’ve launched a Facebook page and offer video consults so far..
Visit the Freedom Chinese Medicine website to find our more about the services they offer and join their online Facebook community. You can also join Elaine’s Small Business Advice page on Facebook.
