By In the business world there are clear cases of entrepreneurs born with an innate ability to create businesses. However, most of them have acquired these entrepreneurial traits by their life experience. In my opinion this is the case of many homemakers.
Several times I have heard my sister referring to herself as the CEO of an SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) which is her family. Homemaking is a profession and maintaining a professional attitude is decisive because running the household requires a lot of managerial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset. Homemakers are entrepreneurs running the family business. In my opinion these are the top 5 entrepreneurial skills homemakers have.
Vision and Passion
Being the owner of a business requires having a good and deep understanding of all the different realities of the organization. Homemakers also need to have a vision and passion to run the house and to take care of their family, which is their biggest project.
Leadership
Being in charge of education, health and finance at the same time requires accomplished leadership and managerial skills. Parents who accept being role models for their children are modeling tomorrow’s leaders. Leadership begins at home.
Resilience
I remember now a company that placed an ad for a job looking to fill a Director of Operations position. The job required the job holder to be on call at all times, day or night and to be very fit because they needed the ability to stand for hours, be constantly moving and operate on little to no sleep. This is a homemaker!
Homemakers are specially resilient because they have the capacity to be happy and recover from difficulties and failures. Sometimes things do not go as planned, but they are able to find new ways to start again and carry on.
Decision Making
As entrepreneurs, homemakers have to make smart decisions and come up with solutions even in unexpected situations. This requires strategic thinking and planning and the talent to make decisions that will benefit the whole family.
Flexibility
The conciliation between personal and professional life is a challenge that we face everyday. Flexibility is needed because we need to remain calm and open to change when things do not work out as planned. Flexibility also includes good planning, time management and a great dose of creativity. It requires the readiness to think of a better plan when the previous one did not work out and most importantly to always stay optimistic.
In conclusion, being a homemaker is a fascinating task with a big responsibility. If we want to develop as a professional, we need to respond with an entrepreneurial mindset towards our job.
Poetry, Home & Innovation 