Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for female business leaders is finding a way to juggle family and work.
But two local women have found a way around that – by starting their own companies, which allow them to carve out their own schedules.
Before she had children, Shannon Lorenz worked for an event company.
“I learned really quickly that it was going to be a really difficult road if I was going to try and commute and have my career and be a mom,” she said.
“I just found I was burning out and decided to create a business around creating flexibility in my life and my lifestyle.”
Her solution?
Striking off on her own and starting Garibaldi Events, which she has been running for six years.
Her first client was her former employer, and from there it snowballed until she started putting together events such as Refresh Market in Squamish.
The annual event has turned into the largest indie-market in B.C., and has now expanded to Refresh Kids – featuring young entrepreneurs and items specifically for children – which was held last weekend.
This allowed Lorenz to be both a full-time worker and a full-time mom.
Conny Millard, a local business coach, encountered a very similar obstacle.
As an ambitious executive sales and marketing manager in the tech industry for three countries, she eventually reached a point where her professional success was coming at a great price.
During a family vacation, Millard tried serving her son breakfast one morning, but realized she didn’t know what he wanted anymore.
It was at that moment when the challenge of maintaining a balance between work and life came to a head. Shortly after, things began to get more strained between herself and her family.
“I nearly lost everything. I nearly lost my husband,” said Millard.
“It was at that point when I moved out and sat in my little apartment and thought about what’s really important here. I had a real wakeup call.”
Like Lorenz, she then restructured her life in a way that would allow her the flexibility to accommodate success both on the job and with her family.
Now, Millard will be marking the ninth year she’s been operating a business coaching company called The Business Sanctuary.
Millard said that women still face a lot of obstacles in the workplace.
In addition to being less likely to be picked for top positions, women often have to deal with the extra costs of paying for daycare and taking care of family, she said.
“It makes it tricky to justify working while you’re really just working to pay the daycare bill,” she said.
Advocating for affordable daycare and asking employers for the flexibility to work at home is key, but sometimes this doesn’t work in every situation for a variety of reasons.
One way around this, she said, would be to learn entrepreneurial skills, which may help women structure a schedule allowing them work where and when they want. Programs that would make this skillset more accessible to women will help level the playing field, she said.
To start off, aspiring women entrepreneurs can begin their journey to creating their own company by finding support networks from the local community, Millard said.
This can include finding mentors in the community or a network of friends who are willing to promote your brand and give business advice, she said.
