25 Jun Celebrating 15 Years at Reconciled Solutions
I am so very proud to say that Reconciled Solutions is celebrating 15 years in business this June 2021! Let’s take a look back in celebration of our 15th anniversary.
I started this biz back in June 2006 with a dream of helping people be more tactical with their financials: both personal and business.
Back then, I did not know any mompreneurs. I had a very sketchy understanding of what clean business financials looked like, and no written business plan.
In the grand scheme of things, 15 years ago definitely does not qualify as ancient history. However, it feels like it when I think of the difference between then and now in regards to resources available to young mother entrepreneurs. I cannot reiterate enough how time and technology have made the journey to becoming a mompreneur a much easier, more direct path.
When you figure out what you want to do in your career, one of the best ways to get to where you want to be is to build a relationship with someone who has already done what you want to do.
I knew a lot of people when I printed my first business card back in 2006, but I did not know any young mothers who had left the traditional workforce to try to build a lifestyle business. It definitely would have helped to have a mentor in my life: somebody else that had been there and made it through to the other side of mompreneurship. Someone who was running a profitable and sustainable business while raising a family and cultivating a marriage.
I wanted a job where I could be my own boss.
I wanted to earn some money to help support my family’s financial needs. Additionally, I needed a flexible schedule that allowed me to be a mother and wife. I also wanted to make a positive contribution to my clients’ financial peace of mind. I didn’t know anyone who fit that description, and neither did my husband. He wanted to be helpful and encouraging, but he also hadn’t seen anyone build a business and family simultaneously.
What we knew of entrepreneurs in 2006 was this: most were men, and many ended up working themselves into an early end to their marriage while their spouse took care of the “home front”. My husband tried to be supportive but just did not understand the struggles I was facing – nor the all-consuming nature of entrepreneurship.
Here are a few things I tried as I built my business.
Mentorship Programs
First, I was introduced to SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives). While it offers valuable resources to entrepreneurs, SCORE did not have mentors who were young female mothers. Rather, their mentors were retired men who had led teams of 100-plus people in their corporate careers and were now looking for something business-related to do in their retirement. They did not understand the first thing about balancing a baby on your hip while trying to design and run a business with only one hand on the keyboard- the ultimate lesson in multi-tasking.
Online Networking
Facebook started in 2004. Two years later, we were still learning it was a place you could post a picture of yourself and update your “relationship status”.
There were no Facebook Groups spurring conversations on a range of small business topics. Nobody knew about Meetup groups or LinkedIn; they were in their infancy stages. Instagram, Clubhouse, and Twitter did not yet exist.
Traditional Networking
An entrepreneur had to find connections through more traditional networking methods like Chambers of Commerce and networking groups. These groups met at “Happy Hour” times, around 5-7 PM. By design, they excluded those who needed to go home and prepare a meal for their families. We did not have the option of Zoom conferencing or speed networking. It’s a good thing there was no pandemic in 2006 because many more businesses would have failed to exist.
Despite many challenges and mistakes, I have fallen and gotten up again, over and over, in the past 15 years. I am honored to say that I’ve become part of a community of entrepreneurs working to build profitable, sustainable businesses. Not only do our businesses support our lifestyles, but we also support each other– through thick and thin, good times and bad, success and failure.
There is nothing like commiserating with a fellow entrepreneur. We all understand the push and pull of managing important relationships and what it means to hold opposing ideas of success: putting family first versus meeting client deliverables. We all share similar experiences, like paying staff ahead of yourself in order to afford more time with your house full of little ones. Or spending one week with your newborn before bounding back to work because you just couldn’t afford the price of a two-week break.
2021 has been a pivotal year for Reconciled Solutions.
Reconciled Solutions is helping more clients succeed with visibility and clarity on their financials than ever before! We have secured $11 Million (and counting) in Disaster Relief to help our Small Business Clients continue operating. Additionally, we run a group coaching program for Professional Services-based businesses in their first 3 years. Some big things are in the works, too! We are launching a new website soon, as well as a whole new set of strategy consulting products. I am taking my first one-month vacation, an event that I aspire to make happen annually!
It has not come without struggle and strife.
I have often said that I am a “slow learner,” but maybe the truth is actually something different. Maybe each year for the past 15 years, I have slowly built a toolkit for becoming the best version of myself. The best mother, wife, business owner, director of sales, project manager, director of marketing, business coach, social media expert, chief technologist writer, speaker, and publisher.
Most importantly, I hope to have become a mentor to other small business owners trying to figure out this crazy balancing act that is life as a small business owner. Have you been looking for a community of small business entrepreneurs? Are you fighting for clarity, visibility, profitability, and sustainability in your own business? I think you have come to the right place! That is what we do here.
