Let’s face it being a female in today’s world is hard. Being an African female is tough. Now being a married African female is even tougher. Being a married African female who runs her own business is a whole different ball game. How exactly does one balance a business and family in this part of the world?

I was chatting with a group of friends recently and one of them spoke about how her pillow has become her best friend and she needed to replace that with a human asap! This friend of mine is quite young and also doing amazingly well with her company.

Like anyone who has human blood flowing through their veins, there comes a time in your life when the urge to settle down really hits you. I guess that’s where my friend is at right now. Without missing a bit I said, “gurl you better enjoy singlehood while you still have it”.

Now, I gave her my response based on my own experience but it was shocking to see a lot of women immediately agree with me on the chat. I am quite sure she must have been surprised too. Which got me thinking, female entrepreneurs with families are sure juggling a lot!

Being African and Female

We come from a society where women’s voices are struggling to be heard. As women, we have to work twice as hard at our places of work or businesses to get a fraction of the respect and rewards our male counterparts get. Before I go further, this is not a post about feminism. This is about the struggle of an African woman who has to split her time, resources and energy between caring for her home and running a successful business.

Traditionally women are meant to home keepers. Some would say our office is the kitchen or “the other room” and we ought to be content with that. As an African female, you are brought up to hear phrases like…“Is that how you will manage your home? ”  “Your place is by your husband’s side”, “You need to focus on your family and leave all these frivolities” etc  From birth, we are already faced with a lot of barriers. 

These words echo through our minds as females as we exchange our vows with our would-be spouses. They resonate within us as we scour through various job positions, looking for specific positions that would not be too demanding on family time. Hence the reason a lot of women venture into entrepreneurship. By being your own boss, you are in total control of your schedule.

The Fallacies of Entrepreneurship

As women, we go into business with three main goals in mind … becoming financially independent, the freedom to create your own schedule and the ability to balance business and family. Entrepreneurship is a risky, tedious venture. As the owner of your business, you are the sole risk-taker. Globally, 20% of businesses fail within the first year. In Africa, thanks to poor infrastructure, lack of access to finance and a few other factors, that figure is much closer to 30%.

Women already have the odds stacked against them so they have to do double-time to not become part of that statistic.

Fallacy 1. If you previously thought owning a business was your way out of a 9-5 job, welcome to the world of entrepreneurship where it is a 24/7 job. It literally competes with family time, shoulder-to-shoulder for attention.

Fallacy 2. The internet has made running a business a lot easier – I tend to disagree with this. You see while the internet took away some of the challenges of limited customer reach, reducing the need to need to have a physical office in some cases, it brought with it, its own set of challenges. You see, with over 400 million internet users, Africa is one of the most digitally connected populations. So you have to compete with millions of other businesses local and international for the attention of the continent’s 281 million shoppers.

Fallacy 3: Owning a business is exciting – This is true and false. While the challenge of growing a business can be at times exciting, it is an often lonely road. The fate of your staff and to an extent your vendors rests with you. You have to always carefully consider every decision you make.

Secret of Balancing Family and Business

Get Help!

While I am one of the lucky few whose spouse has been supportive of all my ventures, we cannot but shake that aspect of culture that nudges us to shut down our laptops by 5pm to ensure diner is ready on time.

I spent some time investigating how some successful business-women made it happen and I realized one thing, they all had some form of help. Even with an “understanding” spouse, we are still pretty much stretched thin. We have to make ourselves available for work commitments, make time for the spouse, make time for the kids and be available for spontaneous visits from friends and family.

In the middle of that, we have to find time to build social connections in our neighbourhoods and then network for business.

Personally, I think that to balance family and business, one should not shy away from help or be afraid to ask for it where needed. I have seen tools designed to help you balance your life and your business but the truth is that at it’s best, they cannot account for the unpredictable nature of life. You cannot forecast when a child would fall ill or how long they would be ill. Neither can you forecast the same for yourself, can you?

However, with more help coming from family members, friends or even paid employees, you know that there will always be someone to help you remain steady on your feet.

In Summary

In the words of Tracy Chapman “A woman’s work is never done”. Women can have it all – an awesome relationship with family and a thriving business. However, the success of this merger lies in the level of support and actionable help she can get from her family and network of friends.

We have an in-built desire to be there for everybody, to support and take care of our family as much as we can. However, we ought to remember that we are the machines that drive the operation and when that machine breaks down, the entire operation grinds to a halt whether anyone likes it or not.