Mom Owned and Operated
Candid conversations with and for moms about the real deal of raising a family, running a business, and remembering yourself.
Tired of the fluff and just want real talk about what it takes to succeed as a mompreneur? Then you've come to the right place.
Join your host, business growth strategist Rita Suzanne, as she dives into the nitty-gritty of building a business while raising a family. With over 10 years of experience helping women entrepreneurs thrive, Rita knows what it takes to make it all work.
In each episode, Rita sits down with inspiring mom business owners to uncover the strategies, mindsets, and tactics that are actually making a difference in their lives and businesses.
Tune in and discover the secrets to building a successful business without sacrificing your family or yourself.
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Mom Owned and Operated
Paid Maternity Leave as a Business Owner with Audrey Hutnick
In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne and Audrey Hutnick discuss raising a family, running a business and remembering yourself.
Audrey exemplifies turning passion into action. She is the founder of Smallwave Marketing, a 100% woman-owned agency that provides parental leave consulting for small business owners and entrepreneurs. She works with those that are self employed to create the best possible maternity leave.
Additionally, Audrey believes in giving back to the next generation, serving as a community mentor for JCC Chicago, and as a coach for Girls on the Run--where she encourages girls to build confidence and inspires them to follow their dreams like she has.
You can connect with Audrey on her website, on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Send a text message! Email, if you want a reply though. ;)
P.S. You can find more interviews at momownedandoperated.com and learn about working with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/
Hi, this is Mom Owned and Operated. I am Rita, Suzanne, and today I have my guest, Audrey, with me. Audrey, I'm so excited to have you on so we can talk about all the things. Please tell everyone all about you, your family and your business.
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Audrey Hutnick:I am so excited to be joining this call as a parental leave consultant and owner of Small Wave Consulting. So, kind of as a backstory, I previously owned a marketing agency and, kind of from day one of having that small business, my goal was how can I create a maternity leave for myself? And three years later I was excited to be able to finally take that maternity leave for myself. And three years later I was excited to be able to finally take that maternity leave and realize that there were so many questions and dead ends when I was trying to create some sort of sustainable paid leave for myself, for my small business. And so my son is just about to turn one year old next week and that's kind of where things have morphed. So when I was working in the marketing agency, I was very organically working with many women business owners oftentimes ages 20 to 40, starting to navigate the similar process, and so part of our business offerings kind of shifted into the support on this issue. So that's why I'm excited to be here today.
Rita Suzanne:Yes, so let's talk about how someone is. So are you helping women who have their own businesses or, more so, those who are in corporate or both?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, definitely. So my focus is supporting women, or women and parents just that have their own businesses, that are either looking to start their family or grow their family, and that could be the birthing parent or non birthing parent.
Rita Suzanne:Oh nice, so you're helping them to kind of create a plan for when the birth happens and how to take off time and be financially stable during that time, is that?
Audrey Hutnick:right? Yes, absolutely, and you know, like many things, the best sort of support and plan kind of can take shape the longer time you have. So yeah, the whole idea is, you know, even if you're just starting your business, getting started to think about if leave is important to you, how do you kind of weave that into the framework of your business?
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, I think it's easier when you are working in corporate right, because you're like okay, I can get FMLA, I can get all of these things. When you're working for yourself, are you able to get any of those benefits or like how does that work?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, so that's really the ultimate challenge. So you know, I think, as many of us know, the United States is one of just six countries in this world that does not have any sort of national paid family leave. And then, in addition to that, you know, it's been up to the individual states. So currently there's 13 states in Washington DC that have any sort of support when it comes to a family medical leave, but I am personally located in Illinois and that means there is no support there. So really my work has been focused on anyone, any small business owner, that has zero support when it comes to the state state, yeah, kind of federal, state or federal payouts.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, because I see so many entrepreneurs especially like taking leave, but it's so such a short period of time that they're able to take off, which you know is. I would hope that they would have more freedom, but at least I guess they're not going back to an office, right? But still, you want to have that dedicated time to spend with your baby.
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, yeah, definitely, and you know the beauty and the challenge of having your own business is you get to decide what you want to do. So I sent out an initial survey and people that have taken a leave from their business in the past and it's averaged about. People take about two and a half months of leave in their business, but that can range from six weeks or two weeks to six weeks to five months. But the kicker is that about 86% of those people that have responded said it was an unpaid leave, and that's also a big challenge as well.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, because as a business owner, how do you take such a long period of time off without you know losing clients? And you know how does that, you know how do you like? What kind of strategies would you have in place for that? Like, how does the? How do they continue to make money if they're not there? Yeah, exactly.
Audrey Hutnick:And that's where a few of the kind of pre-planning, you know, tasks really come into play. So like, first and foremost, if you have a team of at least two to three people, it definitely can be worth it to look into a short-term disability policy, and that's oftentimes if you have at least 10 months kind of on your side. Other things are having some sort of financial plan. So I like to refer to the profit first model by Mike Michalowicz and just kind of using an idea of how can I just set some money aside, however long that time I have, and kind of have that nest egg. But, you know, if time is less on your side, that's kind of where, like, my marketing mind goes and it's, you know, focused on how can you create solid like network and networking groups for yourself and can you create a wait list and what kind of marketing are you doing now for you know, nine, 12, whatever months from now?
Rita Suzanne:for you know, nine, 12, whatever months from now? Yeah, yeah, I think it's hard to actually think that far ahead, which is why having someone like you come in and kind of help them to see how to best approach the situation right, Because we're so close to our business that sometimes we can't see so far ahead. So what type of you know, practices or planning tactics would you use to make that happen?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah. So right now I currently kind of offer two ways of support, and that's much to to. You know, being a small business owner myself, I know that you could be the most resourceful person. Maybe you have a little bit of a bigger budget to spend, so the idea is to kind of fit people where they're at. So the first offering is a downloadable kind of like a wedding planning guide. So if you're thinking like, if I had 12 months until my wedding, what do I need to be doing each month to make it feel very, not overwhelming at all? So that kind of guide in terms of planning your own parental leave. And then the second offering is really more of that custom approach, so kind of doing a deep dive, working together, making sure one of the things that I really stress is making sure you have your support system and, as small business owners, that can really, you know, mingle together of what do you need as a support system for your business as well as you personally, once you do have a new baby around.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, it's, it's, it's a lot, it's a lot. So how did you? I know you mentioned briefly like how you kind of got into this, but what made you start this aspect of your business?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, so I started my first business when I was 30 years old or maybe 29 years old, and I knew, you know, kind of as I started my kind of family plan and think about the next five years, I knew that whatever career path I took, it was important to me that I would feel supported in kind of growing my family. So really, when I co-founded my marketing agency, like we sat down and talked about what are ways that we can create enough revenue stream now so that we can really really looked like talking with HR professionals or like financial planners, insurance agents, but I really kind of kept on hitting dead ends because we were too small, it was just two of us, we weren't profitable, profitable for a lot of people, and so it was really until I found you know another, another woman that got it and and can kind of lead me in the right direction to kind of kick things off.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, I think that you know and then and then figuring out like how to take that break is probably the biggest thing, and I love the profit first model. I think that it's a very smart thing, especially for entrepreneurs. You know, except the part about having five different. You know bank accounts.
Audrey Hutnick:Exactly. I think that there's a lot of room for you to adapt it to your own. You know way of doing it, but it's a good kickoff for sure, I agree.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, I don't. I don't know about that part I. I love the concept of it. I think it's very smart to do that. I have three accounts, but I don't have five.
Audrey Hutnick:My bookkeeper wasn't happy, but she was doing it, but it all made sense afterwards.
Rita Suzanne:So now that you've been in business for a while and transitioned, and so I like to ask people if you know, if another woman came to you and she's, or another mom and she's wanting to start her own business, what is some, what would you tell her and like what would some advice be that you would give her?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah. So two pieces of advice come to mind. The first one is just kind of get out there and network. I think that networking is very much a skill where it feels very intimidating and uncomfortable at first and the more you do it it's just like, okay, it's just a conversation, it's just second nature. But I've found that, no matter like the phase of life, phase of business, a networking conversation has always been the thing that takes me to that next level. And even if it's like, oh, it definitely makes sense that I'm meeting with this person, like you never know that her neighbor is actually looking for your service. So that would definitely be one piece of advice. And the other is like just getting started. So in my marketing background we would oftentimes see clients like being like oh, I can't get started, I don't have my website or I need to spend all this money on this big tool, and it's like no, actually start, start seeing what is the need, who, who do you want to be working with, and just start building as you're selling.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, I think, um, for me, you know I've I've been doing this for 10 years now and something that I wish I would have started doing part of me sooner was building time. Like I had a great relationship with all of my clients and that helped me throughout the years and my clients kind of went in a different direction. That would have been a perfect time for me to have a network. And when I didn't, then when I decided to come back and start doing the same thing, it was almost like starting all over again.
Rita Suzanne:And so I would say to anyone who's just starting out, or even like, wherever you are in your business, work on building those relationships and networking, like you mentioned, is so important and it tough to anybody and I think that people, when they, when they're networking, what I find is what I find is interesting is that people, people go in immediately trying to sell and I think that that's where they go wrong and like go in just trying to make friends with people. Like don't go in there with any expectations or anything in mind. Just go in there and just make friends, be nice, be friendly and just go in there with that expectation and, you know, I think that will serve you better in the long run than any of that like hey, buy my thing here's, you know, like, and and I think that that goes in any situation, right, if you're, if you're networking online, same thing, that's not just for in-person stuff networking online.
Audrey Hutnick:Same thing. That's not just for in-person stuff, right, and I think to your point. It's what I like. The main networking circles that I like to be a part of is who's going to say your name in a room when you're not there? And for me, you know, one-on-one off networking events are great, but I really like those kind of those communities where you come back maybe a couple times a month or once a month, once a quarter, and you start to build those relationships, because that's when really people are talking about you in a positive way, even if you can't be in that room.
Rita Suzanne:So do you like local networking or virtual? Or what are your as a marketer? What are your thoughts?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, well, having started my business in 2020, so very much got started with the virtual networking. I think that there's benefits for both. I think I'm located in Chicago and you know I'm a part of Chicago-based groups, but we do meet online, and so there's that the convenience factor, and then maybe once a quarter, we'll all get drinks, and so I like that combination where it's like such a thing out as people and then, especially as moms, let's get things done quickly, Because to waste two hours driving somewhere she's like. You know, I've got time for that.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, I feel like, um, you know, when I first started, it was there was not a lot of. For me, I didn't see the need to do a lot of local networking, right, and? And at the time my kids were younger and so I wouldn't. I didn't have the support to go out and do a lot of local networking. And but now I feel like our market has changed so much that you cannot just solely rely on social networking, right, like? I feel like you have to do both. You cannot just rely on one or the other. There has to be more. You cannot just rely on one or the other, there has to be more. And the thing about local networking or any of that, is you create a connection so much quicker right than anything on social, and I love that aspect of it. I think that if you want to make relationships quickly go to something local, that's going to help.
Audrey Hutnick:And I also will emphasize the power of mom's groups. You know, having only been eligible for mom's group for a year, it's amazing, just like that next level of support, or like automate, like, um, yeah, yeah, just willing acceptance, right, yeah, exactly, it's just, it's like that next level of like, okay, I, there's some sort of commonality that we want to work together towards.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, yeah, you know it's.
Rita Suzanne:It's a different thing, like we understand each other, like even though you know, my kids are all teenagers now and you, you know, have a baby. Um, you know, I still can remember what it's like having a baby and I remember, I remember what it you know, the, the amount of work it takes to to have a little one. And so I think that what you're doing is super important, and especially, you know, for for business owners like, and they want to take a little bit of time off, or even maybe they don't want to take, like, a full amount of time off, but maybe they want to reduce their, their time that they're working right. Is that something that you would help them, like, create a plan for? Like, maybe they don't want to work, you know, 40 hours, maybe they only want to work 10 hours so that they can be present in their business but also have more of that time for their baby.
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, absolutely, and that's something that I very much stress kind of in the planning process and I think, much like pregnancy hype and planning and all that, everything is all about getting you to that 40 week mark, right. And then it's you have the baby and they're like, what do I do now? And I think it's very similar with business, right, you like, okay, how do I plan to take time off? Okay, this is covered, this is covered. And then you come back to your business, but you forget that you're going to be a completely different person or have different priorities, and so that's really what part of what we talk about is.
Audrey Hutnick:You know what, what do you want? You know, obviously things will change and that's kind of inevitable. But for myself, I was like, when I come back from my maternity leave, I'm not going to work on Fridays, like that's going to be mom Sunday, right, and so I was able to kind of navigate to weave that into my messaging of being like, when I return, like this is my availability. So I think that's super important to think about, even when, like all the other messaging and communication is all about, like, up until baby arrives.
Rita Suzanne:Right, right, yeah, I think it's, and it's good to have someone who's going to have you thinking about those things ahead of time, so that you can prepare your clients or your team and and everybody else to kind of step up for you when that happens, because we don't realize, as you know mothers, you know what it's like to have a baby until we have a baby right. So now that you are running your business and you have your baby, what is it like? How are you able to and I hate we're using the word juggle, but how are you?
Rita Suzanne:able to maintain both things. How is it working for you?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, no lies, is definitely a challenge. I think you know we were talking about earlier that um. For other countries, you know, a maternity leave can be an entire year and and so to to think that you need to be able to like get it all under control in you know, a few months, I think one. We need to just give ourselves the grace and understand that that doesn't make sense. And it's okay if it's very hard, because it can be and it is. But yeah, I mean for myself.
Audrey Hutnick:I have tried out several different ways, just kind of navigating childcare, and have now recently, you know, been on my third go about what works for me. But yeah, I think it's just really putting it out there that like, okay, I'm not going to be able to dedicate 50 hours, get on my computer whenever I need to. It's going to be, you know, things will get done, because I also believe that, like, once you get into mom mode, you do things like 10 times faster. It's still good, but you're just like, all right, okay, I'm going to do this and maybe you're going to send that email at 8pm instead of instead of at 4 pm, and you know that's okay. But I think at the end of the day, and especially the beauty of owning your own business, is you have that flexibility to ultimately get it done.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah, are you using child care?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, so I'm excited about kind of what our current situation is. I go to it's a childcare and co-working space, so I just go there for a couple of afternoons a week and do a little bit of business work and I'm also can keep it up, you know just kind of be like, oh, he's playing, he's eating his Cheerios. So it's also some valuable time that I don't feel completely disconnected into work.
Rita Suzanne:I love that, yeah, and he gets a little bit of socialization at the same time. I think that that's really important. I always talk about how, when I started my business, my sons were four and six and so I wanted to be home with them, but also I wish I could have done child care. But also I wish I could have done child care and I couldn't have afforded it at the time because I was very much bootstrapping it and I was like I mean, literally moved across the country sleeping on an air mattress. I mean it was rough and I was excited and grateful to be at home with my sons, but I would have loved to have some child care or some type of help, because then the time that I would have got to spend with them would have been, I would have been less stressed. Yeah, right, yeah, absolutely.
Rita Suzanne:And so I say that to say, like to other moms who are able to do that I think that it's super important and I think that it just helps you to be a better mom and helps you probably have that focus time on your business where you know people say like just eliminating your time, that you're allowed to work on your business, you're able to just get things done, do, do, do, do, do, do, do and just do it, because you have that limited amount of time and you aren't working, whereas when I was doing it, I was working throughout the entire day because I was interrupted 50,000 times and I was very much stressed out the entire time. But you know it was. It was definitely a different, different journey for me and you know I am super grateful that I didn't have to take my kids to just drop them off, you know, but you know it, it is what it is, and so I I think that for everyone is a different journey and I love that you're able to, like sit down with them and kind of introduce the concepts and ideas of like, have you thought of this, have you considered this? And helping them to pick out things that maybe are right for them and their situation and point out things that maybe they didn't think about because they're not in that situation, right? Just yet.
Rita Suzanne:Yeah.
Audrey Hutnick:And I think you know, much like anything in parenthood, there's never one right solution or one right answer, just like childcare, there's so many things that work for different people. That's the whole idea is okay, and especially hearing from what people have done in the past that have been effective for them in their business, it's kind of learning what as a community we can do and and work towards to kind of support one another in the small business journey so different, like in hindsight, to just think about, like what would have been better and probably would have helped me to move faster in my business would have.
Rita Suzanne:You know, that would have probably supported me in a lot of different ways. So I love talking about self-care and how you're, especially now that you're a mom. You know, because the way that we take care of ourselves before we have families and the way that we take care of ourselves and are able to prioritize ourselves can often switch when we start to have littles, and so I'd love to know, like, how are you able to take care of yourself now? Like what are you doing for you?
Audrey Hutnick:for you. Yeah, so I mean I've, I've taken on some time. That's just for me. Um, it's usually around the six 30 mark, so kind of right before bedtime is usually when I'll like try to go to the gym or try to have some sort of mom's night out with social things. So I'll try to do that a couple of times a week. Um, yeah, and then other than that, it's like you know, it's as simple as like finding an audio book or something that I'm really excited to listen to, and I can still be like walking with my baby or whatnot, but still also taking a little bit of time for me. So I just try to fit that in of like things that I'm really curious about or you know can be creative about and trying to, you know, get both things kind of flowing there.
Rita Suzanne:It's crazy because, you know, like, when I first started this and I would always, some people will say things, like you know, get their hair done and their nails done. And while I think that that's a form of self care, it's, you know, definitely not the only form of self care, right? Like I used to say, taking a bath was my form of self care because that was my alone time, like you know. And when, when your kids start to like follow you into the bathroom and take the bathroom by yourself, is a form of self-care. It, just like you know it, it comes in so many different forms of of just like having that moment to just like recharge and reflect, and it doesn't matter what it could be.
Rita Suzanne:Some people feel like their business is a form of self-care for them, right, because it's a form of their self, their identity, right? So I think that self-care just can look so many different ways and I love hearing other people's definitions of what it looks like for them. And, you know, I'm glad that you're able to do some things for you. What are you listening to? Are you listening to anything good?
Audrey Hutnick:lately. Yeah, I, I was just listening to Funny Story by Emily Henry, so this kind of as my fiction listening and then my nonfiction, I usually kind of switch off. I was listening to Find your Unicorn Space by Eve Rodsky and that's been really great in terms of I mean, almost answering that self-care question but in a more like actually like me, working on something creative is, you know, kind of my self-care. So, yeah, it's been a really great book.
Rita Suzanne:I love that. I love to hear what other people are listening to. I just started listening to Gary Vee's new new audio book, Day Trading Attention, and it's pretty interesting as well, you know, as a marketer. I thought you might be interested in that.
Rita Suzanne:I like his perspective, but I think that you mentioned earlier that you know well or or maybe I anyways the thing about someone like Gary V is right. I remember his he used to say hustle, hustle, hustle. Right, it was always a hustle mentality, hustle mentality. And you know, I used to work 20 hours a week, or 20 hours a day. That was his thing. And I used to say all the time to my friends well, it doesn't matter, his wife is at home taking care of their kids, he can work 20 hours a day.
Rita Suzanne:You know, there is a huge difference the way that someone like that can work, and I I think that there's still some value in some of the things that he teaches and says, for you know, someone like us, a mom, business owner, we can take some of the things and make them applicable, and some of the things we can just say you know what that's not applicable to me? It doesn't work, it doesn't work for me. You don't have to work 20 hours a day. We cannot. We need to sleep, yeah, so where are you online? Where can everyone find you?
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, so I'm on Instagram, so it's small wave consulting as well, as my website is smallwaveconsultingcom.
Rita Suzanne:All right, well, thank you so much, audrey. It's been such a pleasure chatting with you.
Audrey Hutnick:Yeah, thanks so much.
