International Women’s day is more prominent than ever this year, as it comes on the heels of unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality and justice around the globe. So, as an agency comprised entirely of hard-working mums, we decided to celebrate with some similarily inspirational mothers from the food industry, by asking them to give us a sneak peek into their lives as they run their own successful businesses, whilst also raising a family.
Jenny Tschiesche – Lunch Box Doctor
Who are you?
Jenny Tschiesche, one of the UK’s leading nutrition experts and founder of the lunchboxdoctor.com, a hugely popular website that encourages children and families to eat healthy and nutritious food. I have worked with leading brands and health campaigns including BBC Sport, Sport England and Cancer Research UK. And I continue to regularly contribute to TV and radio shows, including Good Morning Britain and BBC Radio. I have also been featured in The Guardian, Daily Mail, and Top Santé.
My first recipe book, Sheet Pan Cooking, which was published in March, includes 101 recipes for simple and nutritious meals straight from the oven. Gut Health and Probiotics is my second book being published this year.
How long have you been running your business?
Since 2009.
What were the key reasons you started it?
It sounds clichéd but I wanted to make a difference to people’s lives. The epidemic of diet-related health problems and the fact that so many people had delegated meal preparation to food manufacturers bothered me and still does. I wanted, and still want, to make very practical sense of nutrition and help people apply it to their lives.
Was it a business that you started post having a family?
I started my nutrition degree before falling pregnant with my first child. However, by the time I had completed my degree I had a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old!
What was your background pre-kids?
I was a director of a division of Cable and Wireless.
What are your biggest challenges around work and family life?
Managing a schedule which is quite unpredictable with the needs of my children.
What had been your funniest moment juggling work and home?
In the early days when I had an evening nutrition clinic I remember clearly pulling alongside my husbands car as he arrived home and I was on my way out to the clinic. We literally passed the baby from one car window to the other!
What are your top tips for creating the work-life balance?
Set boundaries. Children simply have to know when it is suitable to interrupt and when it is not. It’s a lot easier now they’re older. It was far harder when they were little and yet if I hadn’t started my business when they were babies they might not have been so adaptable.
Are there any must-have apps or subscriptions that make your life easier/better?
Not that I have discovered.
Do you think being a working mum is inspiring your Children?
I think it is inspiring to children as I was once inspired by my working mum. I don’t know any different. They don’t either. I want my daughter to know that it’s possible but also that there are challenges. She is a teenager now so she can understand how much harder it is if we choose to be self-employed and have less predictable hours, and yet how one can build a business round a passion.
Who has inspired you and why?
I am inspired by my own mother. She has 7 children. She worked full time. Each evening we ate a cooked meal. I am sure there were compromises but it never felt that way to me.
Leanne Crowther – Flower & White
Who are you?
Leanne Crowther 44 yrs old from Shropshire with Welsh roots.
What do you do?
Co Founder Heading up Sales and Marketing at Flower and White.
How long have you been running your business?
7 years.
What were the key reasons you started it?
We wanted more control of our lives.
Was it a business that you started post having a family?
Yes, Brian stayed home to be a house husband and started a business whilst I went back to work. Not sure how he was entertaining the kids whilst he was doing all that baking.
What was your background pre-kids?
Regional Retail Manager for Footwear and fashion brands in the UK
What are your biggest challenges around work and family life?
Trying to be there for everyone when they need me, usually, they all need me at the same time.
What had been your funniest moment juggling work and home?
Was in the early days when we were baking in our home kitchen – we had a couple of catering size bags of icing sugar on a low table. We turned our backs only to return and find a two-year-old and a kitchen covered from head to toe in the white stuff!!!
What are your top tips for creating the work-life balance?
HOME – Good use of shared calendars and ask for help from your partner! WORK- Build a strong team around you, don’t micromanage, say thank you and mean it.
Are there any must-have apps or subscriptions that make your life easier/better?
So many, all around banking, food shopping, Hello Fresh, Deliveroo and Pinterest.
Do you think being a working mum is inspiring your Children?
Absolutely. They don’t understand it yet, but I know they will. I try to ensure that although I’m busy my husband or I drop them off at school every day.
Who has inspired you and why? My mum – raising 6 kids who are all well-rounded individuals (mostly) following a divorce from my dad. A number of my previous employers who have taught me little snippets that have helped guide me through employing and working with others. My husband – never have I met anyone more determined and honourable.
Phillipa Hayward – Aabelard
Who are you?
Philippa Hayward, founder of Aabelard, mum of three boys, wife of one husband.
What do you do?
Run my own business selling luxury handcrafted aprons which I designed and brought to market just over 2 years ago. I do everything from marketing, to packing and posting. I’m looking to expand the lines I sell over the next few years to include other products under my brand promise – Useful made beautiful.
What were the key reasons you started it?
Aabelard began as a day out really. I was casting around for something to do, had an idea for a bag I wanted to make and so went on a course to learn how to do it. Loved it. Did another day and made an apron. Everyone else loved that. Comments were so positive that the idea began to percolate in my mind… could this be a business? I’d had lots of ideas for businesses before but none that I hadn’t managed to dismiss as not really viable. This one I couldn’t shake. I’d made something really beautiful and really practical. Then I turned 50 and thought, why not? If I don’t give it a go now, I never will. My career in publishing was long gone having given it up when I had children. Also, as a mother to three boys, I wanted to show them that I was more than just the person who picked up their pants and drove them around. I wanted to show them that mum was much more than they were used to and hoped that they could see how an idea that begins in your mind can become something tangible through hard work. I wanted to remind my husband of the working woman I had been. I wanted to show myself that I still had the tenacity, imagination and skills to do this. I wanted to scare myself.
Was it a business that you started post having a family?
Yes. My youngest was 5 when I began.
What was your background pre-kids?
I was Marketing Director for non-fiction at Random House and subsequently worked as a consultant for World Book Day and Penguin Books. I set up a charity when I lived in the Middle East and made jewellery for a while.
What are your biggest challenges around work and family life?
Things change every day – one minute there’s a routine, then there’s a crisis whether it’s a broken boiler or a broken ankle. Fitting things around the demands of a very busy family is tricky, especially when I have to go away for days to sell at fairs and events. I don’t mind juggling, but sometimes its emotionally exhausting trying to do everything everyday. Running your own business means you can’t often switch off and that’s tricky on holidays for example.
What had been your funniest moment juggling work and home?
Taking me teenage son to a show with me and watching him trying to sell to strangers. Hilarious – he wanted the ground to swallow him up. (I shouldn’t laugh, I know!) Tough love.
What are your top tips for creating the work-life balance?
Make lists. Tick them off. Don’t panic if something moves from one day to the next. Lists help you sleep better.
Drink tea and light a nice candle.
Be realistic. Know what you want and why you’re doing this. You don’t have to aim for global domination with your business. It’s fine to be small and niche. If that’s what you want, that’s what’s going to make you happy.
Ask for help and advice. Chat with friends – they may not be doing what you do but they will give you perspective and advice. Friends keep you sane.
If you completely unskilled in one area, pay for a professional even if only for a short time.
Failure teaches you more than success, so step away for a minute, breathe and enjoy.
Are there any must-have apps or subscriptions that make your life easier/better?
Schedugram
Do you think being a working mum is inspiring your Children?
100 percent – my children had never known me working, it’s important that they have a female role model as well as their dad.
Who has inspired you and why?
Jo Malone – sanity personified
Anita Roddick – if you care about something, you can make it a success
Gail Rebuck – my old boss. Terrifying but inspiring. Great at the bigger picture.
Katy Truss – Fabulous food finds
Who are you?
I am Katy Truss, a food professional living by the seaside in Norfolk juggling my two and three-year-olds, work and life.
What do you do?
I run Fabulous Food Finds which promotes outstanding food and drink businesses through the website, blogs and social media channels. I also work closely with the BBC Good Food brand on their live events, managing their bursary and subsidised schemes which makes the shows more accessible for small producers. I regularly judge for the Great Taste Awards and have lots of products sent to me to review or approve. I’m currently working on developing my website and sharing lots more of my food finds now I have more time to work.
How long have you been running your business?
Since 2013
What were the key reasons you started it?
I left London to move back home to North Norfolk where I grew up. I knew that my partner and I would have a better chance of buying property and knew it would be a lovely place to start a family. I loved my job working for the BBC Good Food Shows so was happy to be able to set up a business that meant I could still be involved in the shows and also share my passion and knowledge of the industry with foodies, producers, chefs, press etc through my own media channels.
Was it a business that you started post having a family?
No, although starting a family was in the long-term plans. I discovered I was pregnant one week after buying our first home in 2014 (I thought we had dodgy water as my tea tasting so awful!) and then just weeks after my eldest’s first birthday my unplanned (but gorgeous!) son was born. So it was very lucky I had an understanding client and was able to return to working with the BBC Good Food Shows after maternity leave.
What was your background pre-kids?
Working in London for the BBC Good Food Shows and prior to that a degree in business studies including a year working with business consultants at IBM, a season as a holiday rep in a French ski resort and many part-time jobs growing up. I also ate out a lot, cooked lots of lovely food at home, went to the pub, had a social life… ahhh, how life changes with kids!
What are your biggest challenges around work and family life?
When the kids get ill and can’t go to nursery, it just means work has to stop. Working from home sounds like a dream but with two toddlers it is impossible to get anything done when they are here.
What had been your funniest moment juggling work and home?
When I was heavily pregnant with my first I tried my hand at interviewing celebrities at the BBC Good Food Show… I had the Hairy Bikers pretend to measure me to confirm if I was rounder than I was tall and Paul Hollywood convinced I’d be having twins!
What are your top tips for creating the work-life balance?
- Try to keep it as separate as possible. When I tried combining the two I didn’t do either job as well as I could/ should have.
- Don’t feel guilty about sending them to a childminder/ nursery – it’s great for your sanity and it certainly makes me a nicer, happier and better mum!
- Get a cleaner! We get one for 2 hours a week which is the best £25 we spend!
Are there any must-have apps or subscriptions that make your life easier/better?
I’m still waiting for the dream app/ subscription to come along. Although I’ve started using Asana to get organised and the Toucan Box (crafts) is great to entertain kids 3 years + if you don’t have a lot of imagination and can afford it!
Do you think being a working mum is inspiring your Children?
My daughter has just turned three and has started asking questions about the work that I do and wants to help. I love that they will grow up in a family where it is normal to be a working mother. I hope both of them will grow up without a feeling of gender inequality and that neither of them will feel they should or shouldn’t do a particular job based on their sex.
Who has inspired you and why?
Working mothers everywhere! Before having children I never gave thought or credit to mums that were juggling work, homes and children. It is seriously hard work – relentless, perhaps is the better word. But I’ve met lots of mums who get on and do it every day, very often with a good man or a supportive family beside them, but sometimes without – that inspires me to go on!
We hope this post has inspired you as a woman, whether you are looking to get into the food industry or you are already here. Thank you to Jenny, Leanne, Philipa & Katy who contributed to the blog and helped us celebrate International Women’s Day 2018.