The following is a guest post from Mrs. Money Finance. Over the past year Mrs. Money took what was a dream of better serving new Moms and turned it into a business. She took the step of partially quitting her day job as a teacher and is pursuing this venture more full-time! I asked her to share some of her journey to potentially inspire you in your own passion projects!

I never really envisioned myself as an entrepreneur if I’m being honest. But, that all changed sometime in the spring of 2021. I’d just had my second baby, Segundo MoneyFinance, and was coming to terms with something I realized after having Baby Money Finance — moms need more support postpartum.

I bounced the idea to YoungMoneyFinance one morning after having too much caffeine and when I told him what I wanted to do, he immediately jumped at the idea, telling me I had to do it. Ever since then, I’ve been slowly working on creating a business to coach and support new moms who are pregnant and postpartum by connecting them with resources and providing support and guidance with all things motherhood.

Why I decided to pursue this full time

This passion has continued to grow into something I want to make into my full-time job. There are a lot of reasons this is the path I’m pursing now though. First, I have been feeling burnt out in my current career as an educator for a few years now. I think that between covid and having children, I have truly felt as if my job is taking a lot more energy than I wanted to give, and I noticed my passion for teaching has waned. 

Now I know you’re probably thinking if I don’t have energy to give to education, how can I possibly have energy to start something new, and that’s a good point. However, I’ve learned that when you are passionate about something, it doesn’t feel as much like work and therefore it doesn’t drain you the same way. Every day I pursue my business I’m learning new things, I’m connecting with new people, and I’m growing and stretching myself in ways I wasn’t expecting, and all of that gives me more energy than I’m spending on creating something new!

Knowing that my work is energizing me and making a big difference for new moms has helped me continue to push even when things don’t go the way I expected or when things have gone more slowly than I first anticipated. I view each failure as an opportunity to learn so that I don’t make the same mistakes more than once and I can keep learning from the work I’m doing.

How is this working financially?

If you’ve ever started a business before, you might know that they don’t always make a lot of money right off the bat. So thinking through the finances has been a huge process when starting this venture. First, I am an educator, so I don’t make a lot of money to begin with (that’s a topic for another day!). So, I knew I wasn’t going to have to contend with replacing a huge salary when stepping in this direction. Next, I was only working part time when I decided to take this leap. That really helped because, again, I wasn’t making all that much to begin with.

Third though, and maybe most importantly, I didn’t totally quit. I am very blessed to work for an employer that was willing to work with me when it comes to my hours, so I have reduced my hours this year rather than quitting completely. This has helped me feel more confident because I do have some consistent money coming in each month. Without that, I don’t know if I would’ve felt as brave to make this decision. It also helps that Young MoneyFinance got a decent raise recently which has helped the impact to our budget to be minimal.

The Good and the Challenges So far

Like I’ve mentioned before, starting a business is HARD. I have learned so much through this process! First, coming up with a name and a website are probably the last things you need to worry about if I’m honest. I thought they were really important, but more important is coming up with a marketing strategy that you feel confident about that will lead to clients.

One of the biggest challenges for me so far as been finding my ideal clients. I am still working through how to adjust my marketing strategy to find more clients, but I really thought I’d be able to grow a booming business just through word of mouth. I still believe that that can work, but I also have learned that I need to put a lot more time and effort into marketing than I expected when I decided to start this business.

But, the good news is that I’ve met some incredible people on this journey all ready. From meeting others who are passionate about the work that I do, to getting advice and guidance from those who have been in business for quite some time, its been really fun growing my network and supporting other women in business!

Final Thoughts

If you’re thinking about starting a business, and the finances part of the equation works out, do it! You can start a business while still working full or part time, and the lessons you’ll learn along the way are ones you can take with you always. Definitely surround yourself with supportive family and friends, and just do it!

YMF Thoughts

It’s been a fun and interesting ride watching / helping / supporting Mrs. Money in her pursuit of a new job; one that she is building from scratch. I’ve often described myself as a risk mitigator, and I encouraged MMF to do something similar. Sure starting a new business is risky but we looked for ways to minimize that risk. She was able to go part-time at her job, which means she’s bringing in 50% of her old salary instead of 0%. We worked to build up a slush fund to sustain our normal level of finances for a few months to help ease the transition of not making as much money for a while (which hopefully won’t be too long!). Finally if this doesn’t work out (not jinxing it, just mitigating risks!), she is still maintaining her relationships in education and could find a spot to land if need be!

PS if you’re curious to learn more about what she’s up to or if you’re pregnant or know someone that is that would love help navigating these new unchartered waters, check out her site – Resurgens Postpartum.