REAL LIFE: Why Mumpreneur is NOT a dirty word …

By Candice Meisels

There is controversy around the word Mumpreneur because yes why should women be known by any different because they are female or a mum?

Men are not called Menpreneurs or Dadpreneurs if they are fathers. We are all entrepreneurs if we create or found a business.

However, the word Mumpreneur was created to showcase how mothers often need to pivot and re-examine their values and priorities once they have given birth.

Traditional jobs and careers may not be viable financially. The rungs of the corporate ladder may not gleam and sparkle with endless opportunity like they once did. Priorities change when a woman transitions into motherhood even if we are desperate to think that they won’t or that they should not.

I became a mother at 26. I was married for 6 months and had been climbing the corporate ladder at a steady and fast pace when I fell pregnant. I was not very maternal and was driven and career focused. I believed that my then unborn child would fit around my life rather than me fitting my life around my daughter. I was wrong.

After I had my eldest daughter (now 11), my priorities shifted. Maternal feelings bloomed and I started to dream and review my values and priorities.

This led us moving from the corporate rat race of London life to the sunny Sydney shores that promised a better work and life balance. I wanted sunshine, a more laid-back life, less of the daily grind and I knew that if I believed in this, it would happen.

We moved to Australia in 2011. I worked as a freelancer and had my second daughter at aged 28 while enjoying the parks, fresh air and sun filled days that Sydney offered my young family.

In 2013, I set up my business, a PR Consultancy serving Australia’s start ups and small to medium sized businesses and today it is as strong as ever. I chose to be a Mumpreneur. Yes, it was a choice, not a side step or a step down the ladder of my career.

I make more financially than I would in a senior level job. I have more work life balance to go for a jog or train when I can, to support my husband to follow his career path and to be able to take and fetch my now five daughters from school most days.

To be a Mumpreneur to me is a choice. It provides me with flexibility and freedom. I get to serve and use my passion, brain and connections to act as a channel between our incredible Australian start ups and SME’s and the media as well as their target audience. I give them a voice which many larger PR agencies choose not to their lack of resources or budget.

To me the word Mumpreneur is empowering. It means that a mum has made the best decision to align with her values, priorities and dreams.

Whilst I respect women and mothers and their decisions to live their best lives, I ask that other women don’t think of the word as a dirty word.

Whilst women and mums may choose to have kids, choose to work in a job, choose to be a lady of leisure or choose to set up a business around their family or around their own lifestyle, we need to support each other regardless of our choices.

I do pro-bono work to support male and female start ups and SME”s where possible because regardless of gender start up and SME’s need support. They have incredible stories to share with us and they are enriching our lives and our economy.

I do have a soft spot for female business owners, women who work, women who don’t work and mothers who have founded their own businesses because I understand first-hand the additional decisions and challenges involved regardless of the decision undertaken.

Motherhood can be isolating and lonely even more so with the pandemic. Mothers are often taken for granted by their own families and by the public in general.

I was blessed to attend a business conference recently for women and mothers in business. I was blown away by the incredible businesses and lives that these women from all over Australia have made for themselves and their families.

Let’s back each other regardless of our decisions because life is hard enough as it is.

The AusMumpreneur Network which includes awards, conferences and The Women’s Business School has opened nominations to nominate a Mum in business who you may admire, know or have purchased from. Show that you care and back a Mum in business by nominating her. For every nomination, the AusMumpreneur team will donate $1 to Share the Dignity, another amazing organisation who used the AusMumpreneur network to launch back in 2015 and who has now collected over 3 million sanitary products to stop period poverty.

I have volunteered as a judge, speaker, teacher and mentor and have worked with so many of these incredible Mumpreneurs. I was also inspired by one such Mumpreneur who is a foster carer and business owner in South Australia. She inspired me through her story to look into foster care in NSW and we have since fostered and adopted our fifth daughter because of this network of Mumpreneurs.

I have five daughters and each one may make a different decision on how to live their adult lives. Imagine if we showed respect, love and gratitude for females and mothers regardless of their life choices. Imagine how much positivity we could add to our world by just backing another women or mother regardless of their live choices.