Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Being a single, working mum of now grown children, I have had a lot of experience juggling a plethora of things. I wrote a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald about single motherhood in relation to a politician minimising Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, for being the child of a single mum. The way I have always approached it is to do a task list in order of importance and to be methodical about getting everything done. Priorities often change as I work my way through the list, so I’m constantly adjusting according to what is needed in the moment. That list is like a checkout conveyor belt in a 24/7 supermarket – it’s never empty.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
The biggest challenge was when we realised female-owned businesses are only offered 2% of all venture capital funding. That meant we would have to work 50 times harder than our male colleagues to attract the same amount of money. It was a difficult decision to make but we decided to bootstrap. Those hours spent trying to attract the $$ would be better off spent further developing our product. It was challenging to let the idea of raising capital go because capital can drive a business model to market much faster. However, we have a lot of interest in our product, so we feel like the decision was right for us.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
For anyone who is proactive and comfortable juggling a lot of balls at once, setting up a business around something you are passionate about is hugely rewarding.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
More than 90% of women want to breastfeed but most give up earlier than they would like due to a mix of the impediments to breastfeeding listed above. Having experienced many of those impediments myself, I hope this product creates one less barrier for mums wanting to breastfeed and helps more mums succeed with their breastfeeding goals.
Visit the ecobub website to find out more, and connect with them on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
