The Coronavirus has given many us an opportunity to pause and think about life, our purpose, and even the right work life balance.  What’s your perspective and has it changed over time?

Jazmine Watson | Portrait Photographer

When I first began photography, I was a stay-at-home-mom. My schedule was usually open any day during the mornings and evenings for photoshoots as long as I had someone to watch my son. For a few years, it was a challenge to balance family time along with photography because I was managing everything in my business by myself. Consultations, emailing, messaging across multiple social sites, advertising, location scouting, researching, finances, site-building, blogging, creating marketing material, photographing, culling images, editing, uploading, delivering, upgrading equipment… I did it all alone. It was very overwhelming, especially editing multiple sessions at the same time. Insomnia became the norm, but handling such a large workload caused a lot of stress which lead to the neglect of a lot of family time, which I regret. Read more>>

Jennifer McKay Higgins | Decorative Painter

At the beginning of my career 20 years ago, I was a new mom and I was painting custom murals and faux finishes in private residences. I was often permitted to bring my daughter with me until she was a toddler, at which point I had to take her to day care while I painted for often 7-8 hours a day. I was a completely solo parent. As she got older it became harder to find after school care, so I tailored my work day to her school day and tried starting an Etsy store in 2010 to supplement. At the time I had all fine wall art and some photography for sale; I kept the store there despite basically non-existant sales. When my daughter was 11 she began experiencing pain in both knees, and over the next few years other symptoms developed, and the pain never stopped. I found my work hours becoming more limited due to increasing numbers of doctor appointments. Four or five hours a day became my average. Read more>>

Erica Harms Welborn | Residential Real Estate Broker & Owner

Beginning in college, especially when studying abroad in Spain, I became really interested in how much the people there valued their time. They would rather live with less, in order to save funds to buy their time back, to be with the people they loved Despite this experience, as a young agent, I admit I was sucked in my the allure of the Almighty Dollar, but I was overwhelmed and hit a ceiling of what I felt like I could do on my own. As I came back to my passion for buying time back, I began putting my energy into growing the brokerage, where I was able to buy my time back by sharing opportunities with my agents, that helped them support their families as well. The leverage in real estate is one of my favorite things about it. Read more>>

Neelam Damani & Rubina Ali | Ayurvedic Tea

Five-day work week with two days off. No work after 6pm. Lots of time for family and friends. Something like that. At least that was our definition of a work-life balance when my sister and I launched Roots in Harmony, our herbal tea business. Yes we know, not very practical for a startup, but we had heard too many horror bits about entrepreneurs working around the clock, with no time to spare. Only focused on making money and business success. No way, we were not going to be another casualty to that lifestyle. Even though we grew up in a traditional South Asian family with great emphasis on owning a business, we resisted the pressure. My sister Rubina pursued a degree in Biology and I earned a degree in Education. But after years of resisting, something shifted in our 40’s. Read more>>