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with host Rachael Jansen
- Confused? This episode is from the initial launch of the podcast, when it was called The School-Hours Entrepreneurs Podcast
Welcome to the show, the first episode of what was then called The School-Hours Entrepreneurs Podcast, a show for women creating their business dreams during school hours.
As with any first-time meeting, it’s a good idea to introduce yourself, so that’s what this is. Here I explain who #SHE is – a School-Hours Entrepreneur, and why I believe it’s the right time for women to be in business for themselves.
I believe business opportunities are here for us, to help us create a life with more freedom and flexibility.Rachael Jansen
School-hours entrepreneurs are women who have swapped a corporate office for a home office – or they would like to – with the goal of having a business of their own to give them more flexibility and freedom in their lives.
It’s about taking your corporate expertise and creating something fulfilling and rewarding, without having to answer to someone else’s timetable.
The difference with school-hours entrepreneurs to other women or men in business though, is that we do it while also trying to manage a family, which presents some unique challenges, the main one of which is time. Hence the reference to school hours, because that’s when most of us are most likely available but I won’ lie – it’s not easy trying to get everything done in half the time other people have.
It’s not impossible though, as shown by the many women out their doing it successfully.
Fact is, lots of us want to work – we’ve had or still have careers – and we don’t want to give it all up because we’re also mums and the combined workload is too much. We still want to DO something that is for us.
Or, some of us have to work, but wish it could be doing something other than what it currently is or that the hours were more flexible.
The upshot is that more and more women are looking to work for themselves as a solution to finding some kind of sweet spot between the two conflicting areas – fulfillment and family – because widespread flexibility in Australian workplaces just doesn’t exist as yet.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures tell us that just over a third of small business operators in Oz are women, and that the numbers are growing.
In the Australian Women in Business Report from last year, the ABS not only showed increasing numbers of women are choosing to be an entrepreneur, but that they are doing so because they see it as a solution to the work-life balance issue.
… becoming an entrepreneur appears to provide a solution to the problem of maintaining a balance between work and family responsibilities. It not only allows women to have careers that are vital and challenging, but it also gives them the power to decide when, how, and where their work gets done. Note that it is not a decrease in hours worked that women seek, but rather the flexibility to accomplish goals on their own terms. Australian Women in Business report, ABS
It’s not for everyone. Establishing a business is hard work and time-consuming, and the biggest personal growth exercise I’ve ever encountered.
It is though, something worth considering, especially if you can’t access some kind of flexible working arrangement and you’re finding yourself burning out trying to manage everything.
After three years of wading through this working-for-yourself gig, I can see not only the opportunity for women but also the challenges to making it happen.
So I set about interviewing women who are doing it, and also experts who can help with the information you need to overcome some of those obstacles.
In this episode, I share a little about me and why I’m doing this. You might recognise some of your own story here.
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