Establishing and building a business is one of the most exciting, intense and stressful experiences life has to offer—and you can say the same about establishing and building a family. So is it possible to do both at once without losing your mind? Might there even be advantages to growing a business at the same time you’re growing a family? We talked to three successful local entrepreneur parents to find out their take.
A bit of a stretch
Owning an exercise studio means leaning on the team for support
Amy Bright and her husband, Barclay, have five children ranging in age from 10 to 18, so it’s hard to imagine how they could each find time to own a business, as well, but, as of three years ago, when Amy became the co-owner/operating partner of Pure Barre Charlottesville, they do.
“It’s been a wild ride!” Amy laughs. “It’s hard and messy at times, but totally worth it.”
Pure Barre is the largest and most-established barre class franchise, with over 300 studios in North America, and Amy works hard to foster a sense of community in her Charlottesville studio. Because the technique is low-impact, focusing on isometric exercises and stretching, it’s appropriate for all ages. “I love that 18- and 80-year-olds can work out together here,” she says.
As for the challenges, she echoes the time-shortage lament: “There is always something to do, and not enough hours in a day to do all that I think needs to get done.” But she also finds that the demands of family force her to be a good organizer of her time.
“Work is like a gas: It expands to fill whatever space you give it,” she says. “It would take over if I let it, and having a family helps me manage that.”
Her transition from being a stay-at-home mom to working outside the home full-time was a challenge for their family, but Amy credits Barclay, himself the co-founder of a local private equity firm, and her kids with being very supportive, and expresses gratitude for her “incredible team” at Pure Barre, who enable her to turn work off when she gets home.
For other parents thinking of starting a business, Amy has this to say: “You don’t have to be perfect. Don’t listen to the parenting guilt, or hear any message that says you aren’t already enough, because you are. Take care of yourself, and try to enjoy the ride.”
Family business
Entrepreneur mixes work and family with help from her son
LaTrina Candia is a familiar face to many in the Charlottesville area due to the outrageously creative and popular wrestling personas she’s devised as one of the Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers (CLAW). When she’s not dominating the sport of charity ladies’ arm wrestling, Candia runs her own business, LeopBird Concepts, and single-parents an outrageously creative (go figure!) 6-year-old boy named Cyrus.
Candia founded LeopBird Concepts in 2013 as a gathering place for her various interests and ideas, and her company’s mission is to encourage others to “unthink life.” Her most successful product to date is Luna Cream, which she describes as a “magical body cream from the moon.”
“Breaking the barriers that challenge your imagination benefits both your work and family life,” Candia says, and it informs her strategy of balancing work and family by bringing the two together.
Being able to bring her son along to LeopBird Concepts meetings and strategy sessions both suits her needs and “feels great.”
“Six-year-olds are the best business partners because they are honest and full of ideas,” she says, so she strives to actively include Cyrus in the ideation process, where they’re both able to “make suggestions, learn and grow.”
She acknowledges that intertwining family and business is tricky, and rarely seamless, but thinks having the opportunity to build a business as a family is worth the struggle.
Her goals for the future? Managing the media exposure and advertisement necessary to keep Luna Cream selling well. Plus, “Cyrus loves inventing, and I would like to continue to cultivate this interest and step back and be amazed.”
Picture perfect
Photographer mom makes family the priority
Sarah Cramer Shields has a passion for understanding people, and a keen eye for the little detail that makes a moment special, which, combined with her prodigious talent for photography, has led her to establish two successful ventures: Cramer Photo, which she started in 2005, and Our Local Commons, a 3-year-old joint business venture with photographer Andrea Hubbell. All this and two boys, Albert, 2, and Cramer, 5 months. As Sarah puts it, “Life is crazy, but awesome.”
She and her husband, Matt, both work full-time (Matt is a physics teacher at Charlottesville High School), and Sarah stresses that they couldn’t get by without help from friends and family.
“Matt’s parents are local and amazing, and our next door neighbor, Lorretta, is a saint. Truly,” she says.
Sarah often works weekends, which leaves Matt in charge of the kids. When things get too nutty, the family blows off steam with trips to the park or a walk downtown, and they regularly enjoy dinner as a family. Sarah says the hardest part of combining a growing business with a growing family is the ever-present sense of competing priorities.
“There is never enough time, and you’re never able to turn your brain off,” she says. But she also feels that having so much going on forces her to create boundaries and structure.
“I work hard in the designated time I have for business, and I cherish and appreciate the family time,” says Sarah. She recently built a studio in her backyard in an effort to keep work at work while remaining close by. Even so, baby Cramer occasionally “assists” from his baby carrier, and Matt “wears a million hats for Cramer Photo—he’s my sounding board, web guy and biggest cheerleader.”
Sarah offers this advice for parents scared to try balancing work and family: “There is never a perfect time to have kids. If you want to have a family and run your own gig, just go for it. It’s really beautiful to have a family to work for.”