Why moms make the best entrepreneurs.
When you take a look at family life and compare it to entrepreneurship, there are some interesting parallels. Running a great family is more similar to running a great business than you might think.
Jill Salzman started The Founding Moms in 2011. It’s a collective of offline meetups and online resources for mom entrepreneurs. She’s an accomplished entrepreneur (and mom, she has two kids) and wanted to help bring ideas and resources to other moms looking to start and grow their businesses.
She gave a Ted Talk in 2011 outlining three main points on why moms make the best entrepreneurs. Here they are in her own words:
- We make it up. Entrepreneurs are really good at “innovating.” And “creating.” And “launching.” All terms very familiar in the startup space, and all fancy ways of merely saying that we make things up. All. The. Time. Ask business owners and they’ll likely tell you that, at any one time, they had no idea what they were doing, either. Many never feel like they do. Similarly, when parents raise a child, they also have no idea what’s coming-minute-to-minute. You know that special way moms predict the needs, wants and desires of their children? They can’t. Just like entrepreneurs. We’re really good at taking the hits as they come and figuring it out along the way.
- We’re expert multi-taskers. It’s been said that women are superb at doing more than one thing at the same time. In fact, researchers at the University of London found that “Men have more difficulty multi-tasking.” Whether or not it’s a scientific fact, it’s not a choice, either, for parents raising children. We need to take on the skill of handling two (or three? or seven?) things at once, and many of us do it with ease. Entrepreneurs always run into the multi-tasking demand. How else do you accomplish the 483 tasks a day that a business demands? For moms running their own businesses, it’s a no-brainer.
- We tell everyone. Half the battle running any business is getting the word out about a product or service. Sales and marketing are the most frequently discussed topics at any of our Founding Moms’ Exchanges because they are so important to growing revenues. And fortunately, women know how to spread the word. We’re naturals. Malcolm Gladwell said that “talking to people is the most useful and efficient way of finding new things,” and I’d add that it also helps to build your business. Which we do well. Since moms are often already doing it-about their families, about their work, and about their businesses-they have a one-up on fellow business owners trying to get the word out.
While these qualities are not specific to mom entrepreneurs, they are part of the long list of reasons that we make the best entrepreneurs. We’re terrific at making it happen.
Thanks to my Mom, and to all the moms out there, for making it happen day in and day out. Thanks for teaching us to make it up as we go, for dealing with life’s normal ups and downs, and for persevering even when it seems we’re out of ideas and energy. Thanks for the love, and for teaching us how to share it in life — and business.
Sign up for The Sunday Snippet!
Good ideas to help you prosper delivered fresh each Sunday morning.