How to Redefine Balance as Mompreneurs of Special Needs Children

BY MICHELE WILSON

After three decades of entrepreneurship experience, I’ve learned about the struggle to achieve a work-life balance. Add being a mom of a special needs child to the mix, and it starts to feel impossible. However, I want to comfort you by saying: finding balance is possible; it just takes practice.

The Unique Challenges of Being a Mompreneur of Special Needs Children

Mompreneurs make great business leaders because we know how to manage our time, bring our projects to the finish line, and adapt to any situation. That’s why it’s no surprise that women own about 43% of small businesses (14 million) in the US.

According to a Gusto survey of female business owners, the most common reason women started a business during the pandemic was to have more flexibility. In addition, 58% of the women surveyed wanted more control over their work schedule, while 37% wanted to improve their financial opportunities.

However, being a mom of a special needs child comes with unique challenges. Our daily lives are more complicated, so working a full-time job is nearly impossible, let alone finding that precious work-life balance. Our to-do lists are longer than usual because we have to include regular doctor appointments, multiple forms of therapy, medication administration, and much more.

Redefining Balance Is Key to Running a Successful Business

For special needs moms, work-life balance is not about time management. It’s about redefining balance and making choices that align with your family, purpose, and passion. Through my observations and experience, I have discovered three empowering strategies to help redefine balance so that you can start and grow your business:

1. I’ve learned from the book “Language of Achievement” by David Bryd that positive change and growth are best achieved by learning how to manage the power of choice. Future success is built on your daily choices, day by day, moment by moment.

2. Unfortunately, we do not experience immediate results from our choices. Achievement simply results from consistently doing the “right things” over a sustained period. The process of achievement begins with learning how to manage the effectiveness of your moment-by-moment choices.

3. The Wheel of Life, also known as the “life balance wheel,” “the coaching wheel,” or the “life wheel,” is used to assess and understand how areas in your life are currently balanced and to help achieve a work-life balance. It is a simple yet powerful visualization tool that allows you to observe all areas of your life: Spirituality, Health & Wellness, Money & Finance, Career & Business, Social & Friends, Love, Family, Kids, Personal Growth, Hobbies & Recreation Community, and Giving Back. Using The Wheel of Life as an assessment tool helps you determine how to realign with your core values.

Ultimately, work-life balance as a mompreneur of special needs children is about aligning your passion with your profession. You can do this by establishing a personal management system, a set of tools and techniques that moms can use to effectively organize and manage their time, tasks, and goals.

This system will enable you to make effective choices aligned with your passion and goals. It often includes your vision statement, dream list, calendar, todo list, and a system for tracking progress on goals. A personal management system aims to help moms be more productive, efficient, and organized so that they can achieve their goals and objectives more easily.

Conclusion

What I want you to take away from this is that you can become the mompreneur you’ve always wanted to be. The thing about life is that it’s different for all of us. Our past experiences and memories shape us into who we are. As such, words have different meanings for every single one of us. However, it’s important to remember that words have power.

Moreover, I’ve learned that words only have power when shared in the same context. To redefine balance takes practice. If you need help figuring out where to start, ask for help. I’d recommend finding a group that supports mom entrepreneurs of special needs children.

You could also work with a business coach who understands time management and productivity. He can help you create a personal management system focused on goal achievement instead of goal planning and one that is tailored to your specific needs and goals.

About the author:

Michele A. Wilson is a multi-passionate mompreneur, enlightened leader, business lifestyle consultant, columnist, best-selling author, and a seeker of untapped solutions.

As a single mom raising a special needs child and running multiple businesses for over three decades, many times from her son’s hospital room, Michele has successfully handled many challenges along the way. She has taken her 30 years of entrepreneurship experience and helped over 300 businesses and families start and protect their businesses during the past 13 years.

Today Michele is the Founder & CEO of Mompreneur Universe. She gets to teach mothers of children with special needs how to redefine balance, clarify their lives, and start a business they love.