Written by Agnes Molnar, Founder & Managing Consultant of Search Explained
I am often asked by clients, customers as well as fellow MVP friends and colleagues, how, as a mother of 3 children, I manage to juggle running my business, which involves lots of international travel and raising a family.
In this post, I’m going to draw back the curtain and give you a little peep into my world. I’ll share a little about what happens behind the scenes with my personal life and with Search Explained.
The simple fact is that I love traveling and am passionate about my job which gives me the energy that I need for each of the projects.
Speaking of projects, I never look at them as a “job”. Instead, I see them as new and exciting challenges; before I accept any projects I need to feel a rush of stimulation and that flame fanning deep inside me.
Not a Solo Entrepreneurship
Although I am the face of the business Search Explained is not a solo entrepreneurship and I am not working alone. The business is by no means a large corporation, rather it’s a small and enthusiastic team that is very energetic and passionate about what we do.
We have a global client base and currently, Search Explained operates in Western Europe, the USA and Singapore. Thanks to technology most tasks can be handled remotely once an initial relationship has been established.
Juggling Family & Business
I have an amazing almost-mind-reader assistant who helps me keep on track with everything in the business. She gets me organized and handles all kinds of tasks that are both large and small which helps me keep a clear head and on top of everything.
I’ve been a Certified Scrum Master for several years. Being passionate about agile techniques has its own benefits in my professional work, but also in my everyday life.
Whilst we don’t live our family life in sprints and don’t start our days with stand-up meetings we definitely have some nice challenges that we solve by using agility:
- I am a working Mom and travel a lot, on average at least one week each month.
- My husband also travels for work, although not as much as I do. His trips are usually shorter, one or two days.
- Our kids are involved in after-school activities which keep us busy every weekday afternoon, and sometimes during the weekends, too.
And of course, we also have unexpected things happening, like a canceled or delayed flight, a crazy traffic jam or a sick child. Or anything else. Or any combination of these…
Scheduling
Many people ask how we manage to juggle our schedule to meet all our needs.
I have to be honest and say that it is not easy. It’s a nice challenge. But I love solving challenges 😊
Tackling the challenge needs dedication. Doing Judo, dance, ESL classes or anything else with your kids has to be a decision made together.
I use my online calendar to schedule business meetings, yes, but we also have a shared a family calendar with my husband. We have a corkboard in our dining room, too, where everything including kids timetables, meal plans, etc. all go along with detailed task lists for each of my 3 children.
As a family, we always discuss what’s done and what should be done the next day (kind of daily stand-ups), and we also add new tasks to the board every afternoon.
Reviewing
In both my business and my family life, I am a big fan of reviewing. I make a point of getting together with the team/family and discussing if a plan cannot be met. Not only the facts but also the reasons, and examining whether we could have avoided the problem somehow, what we should do next time, etc.
Yes, it is a busy lifestyle that I lead, but I love it and wouldn’t change a thing.
How about you? How do you manage your schedules? Let me know in the comments below.
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