I'm A Single Mum. That's A Big Part Of Why NE SupportWorks The Way It Does.
I'm a single mum during the week, and that's a big part of why NE Support works the way it does.
My parents live close by, and without their support, I genuinely couldn't do what I do. School runs, pickups, the day-to-day logistics of two boys alongside a full client list—none of it works without that help sitting right underneath it. I've got two boys, aged 11 and 9, and juggling a full working week around them is simply the reality I run my business inside of.
Here's the honest trade-off. If I worked a conventional nine to five, I couldn't do this job, and I couldn't earn what I earn doing it. But this job only works in the first place because the hours flex around real life rather than the other way round. That's not a perk I've added on top of the business. It's the actual structure underneath it.
It's why I say the same thing to anyone working with me: be flexible on when; as long as the work gets done properly and on time, I genuinely don't mind when or from where. I'd rather judge someone by finished work than by whether they were sat at a desk at a specific hour, because that's exactly how I'd want to be judged myself.
Nearly every small business owner I work with is juggling something similar underneath the surface. Childcare, a second job, caring for a parent, their own health—real life doesn't pause because a business needs running. The businesses that survive that tend not to be the ones with the most rigid routine. They're the ones built with enough give in them to bend without breaking.
Holidays are honestly the hardest part to plan around, and I'd rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. This year I feel like I've found a reasonable balance, but it's taken deliberate effort to get there, not luck.
If your business only works when your life goes exactly to plan, it's worth asking whether it's actually built to last. Mine wasn't, until I stopped pretending it needed to be that way.