This episode discusses the challenge of running a business with children in the home, as well as how to get your children involved in your business. We talk about WHY it’s so important to let your kids see you in action – and what lessons they learn as they grow up in an entrepreneurial-focused home. You can find Jamie HERE.
The Challenges + Benefits of Building A Business with Children at Home with Jamie Lackey
After nearly 20 years as a social worker, Jamie Lackey saw first-hand that the mothers she served couldn’t afford the basic necessities to care for their babies and children. The statistics remain staggering – one in three women in Georgia can’t afford diapers. So, in 2014, she took a leap and founded Helping Mamas, with a mission to collect and donate baby supplies to organizations who serve women and children in need in Georgia. Lackey successfully raised $100,000 in financial and $50,000 in in-kind donations in the first year alone and has worked tirelessly to grow the organization to include over 150 partner agencies across the state serving over 55,000 families to distribute over 1,000,000 essential baby items such as diapers, clothing, baby wipes, strollers and car seats.
In her role as CEO, Lackey oversees and manages volunteers, corporate groups and partnerships; prepares grants and works with an active board of directors; and handles the day-to-day operations to move the agency forward. She is the recipient of the United Way of Metro Atlanta’s first annual Spark award, which recognizes a local nonprofit organization with the most innovative strategy to impacting poverty. Jamie received a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Georgia and Bachelor’s in Social Work from the University of Tennessee. Lackey is a working mother of two and resides in Snellville, GA.
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BULLET POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Let’s dive more into you and your story from your own words!
- I was a social worker and nonprofit professional for nearly 20 years and I was also a mom and I was starting to have conversations like – do I want to keep working full time? Do I want to start a consulting business? Do I want to be a stay-at-home mom? What do I want to do to be around both my kids and have a career? And it dawned on me that all the women that I had worked with and served and been a part of their lives through social work, weren’t having that conversation. The conversations they were having were – Do I take the second or third job to pay the rent this month? Can I afford food this month or is it diapers? Those were the conversations they were having and it just was really eye-opening.
- I’m a mom and I’m a social worker. Both those people get things done. So how do I combine those two skills and talents and put that together to come up with a solution to solve this problem.
- While I was putting it all together, I just thought, I want women and parents to know that there are other women and parents out there who really care if they’re successful, who really want to make a difference. And the best way to do that for us was to tangibly be able to give them something to make their life easier.
- It’s hopefully someone that says, I see you, you are heard and life may be hard right now, but we’ve got you, we’ve got this box of diapers for you and we care about you and your children. That was just as important to me as the diapers – giving that sense of hope and encouragement that someone was there and saw them and heard them and cared.
- What do you think your biggest challenge has been with growing this incredible business with children at home?
- I think the one thing you always think, and people say this all the time, is ‘oh, you started your own business and can set your own hours, you must have all of this time’ – and that is so not true. That was the biggest challenge for me – I thought I was getting into something that would give me a little bit better balance, but initially, it was not at all.
- You have to learn to decide what are the things we say yes to and what are the things we say no to? And some days it’s going to be that work takes up more space in your day. And sometimes your personal life does and that’s okay.
- Your time is your most valuable resource. And it is the only resource that truly is totally finite, and being able to learn how to say no is a skill that you’re going to take with you through your entire entrepreneurial journey.
- You can’t hold yourself to the standard that you’re going to be everything to everybody. Cause you’re just going to burn out and it’s going to be miserable.
- What else would you say has really benefited your children in being a part of this whole journey with you?
- We like to adventure as a family – we like trips that are adventurous. I want my kids to adventure, not just on vacation, but in life. I want them to feel like they can take risks and that they are good enough and worth it to take the risk on themselves.
- It’s okay for kids to see us struggle because it teaches them how to handle it. It teaches them how to get through it in life. Not just in entrepreneurial stuff, but in their everyday relationships. I think modeling that it’s okay to struggle and it’s okay to fail takes off some of that pressure that we have in our society.
- What advice would you give to women who have children who are in this space and they’re wanting to provide just the best support system and an environment for their children to thrive while they’re also trying to build a business?
- I think to be confident and know that you are enough.
- One of the biggest things that you can do is know that whatever decisions you’re making – whether it’s for your business or for your family – if you’re doing it out of love, and respect, and the hopes of moving things forward, then you’re not making the wrong decisions. They’re all the right decisions if you’re making them from the right place.
- Learn from your mistakes and learn from your failures and be willing to admit it to your kids.
- Please don’t think you’re going to have to be perfect. Don’t strive for that or you’re going to drive yourself crazy.
- We always talk about finishing in our family – we don’t quit what we start, we finish. So whether that’s a negative finish or a positive, we’re proud of where we ended up.
