Why solopreneurship is so appealing to parents

3 hours ago7 min read1 comments

As I write this, my six-and-a-half-month-old daughter is perched on my lap in my home office, a space she occupies for an hour or two each day. Despite the colorful array of toys I’ve carefully arranged for her, her tiny hands invariably reach for my keyboard, occasionally inserting an unexpected typo into my work.For twelve years, I’ve navigated the world as a freelance journalist, yet this work-from-home, choose-your-own-schedule arrangement has never felt so profoundly valuable. Last year, I was present for nearly every doctor’s appointment, ultrasound, and blood test with my wife before we welcomed our daughter in April.Since her birth, this flexibility has allowed me not only to attend every pediatrician visit and lend a helping hand during the day but to be a tangible part of those fleeting, milestone moments—the first giggle, the wobbly attempt to sit up. I find it difficult to envision the alternative: walking out the door each morning only to return mere hours before bedtime, a reality so many working parents reluctantly accept.This deep-seated need for presence is precisely why solopreneurship resonates so powerfully with parents, particularly women, who often step away from demanding careers to start their families. Studies from Australia and Canada corroborate this, revealing a synchronous transition into parenthood and self-employment, with research even suggesting that self-employed mothers often outperform their childless counterparts.Consider the story of Fernanda Chouza, whose journey reflects this narrative. After the birth of her first child, she initially moved in the opposite direction, taking on a more challenging role at a rapidly growing AI startup in San Francisco.Over time, she earned a degree of respect and leeway to care for her children, but a layoff in 2022, when her kids were two and four, forced a reckoning. 'As I looked at hyper-growth companies,' she reflects, 'I realized I would need to put in, like, two years of elbow grease to get to the point where I can take a week off for my kids.The idea of starting from scratch was too hard. ' This pivot led her to establish The Launch Shop, a one-woman marketing agency offering fractional product marketing expertise.She describes the previous constant tug-of-war: hours at work shadowed by guilt for not being home, and hours at home clouded by anxiety about dropping the ball at work. 'Now I have full flexibility,' Chouza says, her tone conveying palpable relief.'I don't have to be constantly apologizing for stuff, and I only show up when I'm at the top of my game. When I'm off, I'm fully off; I don't have anxiety on the weekends, I don't have anxiety at night, and I can be a lot more mentally present with my kids.' Financially, the shift has been a net positive; her salary is approximately 50% higher than her previous earnings, while granting her significantly more genuine time off. This year alone, she has taken a week or more off on eight separate occasions, for reasons ranging from a child’s eye infection to a two-week trip abroad to visit grandparents—a level of freedom that felt unattainable in her corporate life, where she felt penalized for motherhood.Beyond flexibility, solopreneurship can also serve as a surprising 'side door' to elevated career opportunities. Chouza notes that in the current market, companies are hesitant to hire full-time executives but still need short-term, high-level support.'By being fractional I’m actually punching so far above my weight,' she explains. 'I would have never had this exposure if I was just trying to go through the front door, but I’m coming in through this side door and getting these amazing logos on my résumé.' This experience builds a compelling bridge, or even a ladder, back into the traditional workforce. Kyle Jensen, director of entrepreneurship programs at the Yale School of Management, frames it as crafting a professional narrative.'You can think of it as not necessarily ‘I'm going to build a startup that's going to pay me a lot of money,’ but ‘I’m going to write a story for myself that professionally fills those years,’' he elucidates. 'I created something new, I operated it, I ran it, and through all of this I developed all sorts of executive acumen and business sense.' Ultimately, beyond the professional development and financial metrics, the core appeal for parents lies in a fundamental trade-off. Jensen articulates it perfectly: 'With this manner of entrepreneurship, you can treat your human capital as a luxury good, and you can choose different distributions of time that allows you to enjoy things that are important but not necessarily prioritized in our society—like parenting.' He adds, with poignant simplicity, 'The only person who's going to remember that you worked extra hours are your children. ' It is in this reclamation of time and presence that the true, immeasurable reward of the solopreneurial path for parents is found.

#solopreneurship

#parents

#work from home

#flexibility

#career

#family

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