Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. With today’s modern technology, it is so much easier to work from home, or from anywhere for that matter. Just look at some of the successful entrepreneurs, like Natalie Sisson, The Suitcase Entrepreneur, who makes a practice of running her business as she travels around the world.
All you need are some technical devices and you’re off. With Skype and Facetime, you can even eyeball your clients and with software like Free Conference Call, you can talk to numerous people at the same time, for free.
And these days, it is much more accepted that women will set up their businesses and work around their families’ needs as well. In fact, the word mumpreneur was coined to name this growing group of women entrepreneurs.
But now for the bad news, with today’s modern technology, it is so easy to connect 24/7, with no breaks from business, and being constantly on call. Our children are involved in so many activities, that any free time is likely spent transporting them from one extracurricular program to another.
In other words, women are stretched pretty thin and the expectations are high. All of which does a number on our self-esteem and produces our constant feelings of not being good enough.
For our forthcoming book, Enough, my co-author Amy Hunter and I connected with over 350 women through interviews, focus groups and an extensive survey, and the message came through loud and clear – with over 75 percent revealing that they felt overwhelmed, and as a result questioned their ability to successfully manage everything.
This sense of overwhelm is eating away at the fabric of our families. Even the super-successful entrepreneurs we interviewed questioned themselves. Not around their ability to succeed in business, but more whether down the road they would regret their decisions to put the business first.
So with change comes complex choices to be made. Yes the technology makes running a business easier, but it is a double-edged sword, because it can keep you tied to your business when your attention is needed elsewhere.
What’s the answer? I think it is an individual decision. We can’t have it all at once, and it is all about choosing your priorities and re-examining them on a regular basis. These days we now at least have the role models in place, but there’s often a price to be paid for super-success, and you have to ask yourself if you are willing to pay it.