Moms Mean Business

Have you ever felt torn between wanting to be an attentive, present mom and an ambitious, fulfilled professional? In Moms Mean Business, Erin Baebler and Lara Galloway argue that these two identities don't have to compete—they can coexist beautifully when approached with clarity, intention, and structure. The authors contend that the secret to a happy, sustainable career as a mom entrepreneur isn’t about striving for ‘balance’ (an illusion, they say), but about designing a business that fits who you are, honors your priorities, and integrates smoothly with your life instead of fighting against it.

At its heart, the book is both a motivational guide and a practical manual. It invites you to take ownership of your time, define your values, and structure your business around what matters most—to you, not to society, the media, or the “shoulds” of motherhood. Drawing from their coaching experience with hundreds of mom entrepreneurs and real-life stories from women who’ve built thriving companies, Baebler and Galloway walk readers through an eight-chapter framework that alternates between deep personal reflection and smart business planning, all anchored in the realities of motherhood.

Owning Your Life Before You Own Your Business

The first half of the book—“Own Your Life”—tackles the foundational work that most entrepreneurs skip. Before talking spreadsheets and marketing, the authors push readers to explore who you are and what a life that “works” for you looks like. You start by examining your current circumstances honestly—your family’s needs, your financial reality, your energy levels, and your emotional bandwidth—and then take an eye-opening self-assessment that reveals how aligned your days are with your values, motivators, priorities, and passions. Baebler and Galloway argue that for moms, success must start here, because your “why” will drive every decision you make. Without that clarity, you risk designing a business that thrives financially but drains you personally.

You then move to envisioning success on your own terms. The authors show that too many mothers chase society’s yardsticks—more clients, more money, a bigger house—and then feel hollow when they reach them. True success, they insist, is personal, flexible, and evolving. Through reflective exercises, you sketch out what a truly fulfilling life might look like three, five, or ten years ahead. They draw on stories from real moms like Andreea Ayers, who turned down expanding her soap company into Whole Foods because it didn’t match her vision of flexibility, and Trish Morrison, who redefined success when her business began to overtake her family life. Said simply: success that costs your sanity or your relationships isn’t success at all.

The Myth of Balance and the Power of Boundaries

Once you know what you value, the next challenge is managing time—arguably the scarcest resource in a mother’s world. The authors deconstruct the myth of balance and replace it with a more realistic goal: feeling balanced. Instead of waiting for equilibrium, aim to make sure your time reflects your priorities. Baebler and Galloway teach concrete methods: auditing how you actually spend your days, identifying old habits that waste time, and creating clear boundaries so work and family don’t bleed into each other. For example, if your business hours are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., don’t fold laundry or check social media during that window. And when it’s family time, let emails wait. The book encourages moms to become their own “boss of time,” echoing Laura Vanderkam’s notion in 168 Hours that we all have the same 168 hours each week—it’s how we spend them that matters.

Why Self-Care Is a Business Strategy

In a standout chapter on self-care, the authors make a bold claim: taking care of yourself isn’t indulgent—it’s strategic. Without deliberate rest, nourishment, and emotional replenishment, burnout is inevitable. They demystify self-care as something that doesn’t need to involve spas or yoga retreats. It can be simple: a daily walk, a call with a friend, ten quiet minutes of meditation, or even enjoying coffee in peace. The key is scheduling these breaks without guilt. Their “Self-Care Hit List” encourages you to pre-plan ways to recharge so you have immediate options when life gets wild. (“Twofers”—pairing joy with practicality, like listening to a podcast while walking the dog—are highly encouraged.)

What’s brilliant here is how they connect self-care directly to business outcomes. A well-rested mom leads better. A fulfilled woman markets more authentically. “You are the CEO of both your company and your family,” they write—so model the energy and self-respect you want your children, team, and clients to emulate.

Building from Strength: From Inner Work to Outer Action

The second half of the book—“Own Your Business”—shifts into outward action, but still rooted in that inner work. The authors guide you to inventory your personal toolkit: your core strengths, skills, personality traits, education, experience, and relationships. They argue that most moms underestimate the value of everything they already know and do daily— from coordinating a family’s logistics (which mirrors project management) to volunteering at school (which mirrors marketing, fundraising, or leadership). The book introduces the idea of “grit” as a crucial business trait (from psychologist Angela Duckworth’s research): perseverance and resilience matter more than raw talent. Real-life examples like business owners Michelle McCullough and Lisa Merriam show that persistence and courage—not perfection—build momentum.

Then comes the business planning section, where Galloway and Baebler translate corporate strategy into mother-friendly simplicity. Their adaptation of the One Page Business Plan by Jim Horan guides you to articulate your vision, mission, measurable objectives, strategies, and daily actions—all on a single page. They cleverly liken the cycle of business development to stages of parenting: conception (idea formation), infancy (constant care), toddlerhood (experimentation), adolescence (refinement), and maturity (sustainability or exit). Each stage has distinct pressures and lessons, helping readers set realistic expectations and not compare their start-up “baby” to someone else’s mature “teen.”

Sustaining Momentum

The final chapters tie everything together by addressing productivity, accountability, and perseverance. “Productivity,” the authors insist, is not doing more—it’s doing what matters most. They reframe it through methods like the Pomodoro Technique (25-minute sprints), the Pareto Principle (focusing on the 20% of tasks that yield 80% of results), and the Four Quadrants of Productivity that help you separate money-making tasks from “time sucks.”

To stay on track long-term, the book offers accountability strategies that don’t require guilt or external policing. Whether it’s a supportive peer partner, a business coach, or visual tools like checklists and calendars, accountability makes motivation visible. Above all, they remind readers that obstacles—fear, ruts, failure, or life curveballs like illness or family crises—are inevitable. The key is returning, again and again, to your values and priorities to decide your next step confidently.

Why This Approach Works

Ultimately, Moms Mean Business succeeds because it respects motherhood as both a constraint and a catalyst. It acknowledges that time is finite, energy fluctuates, and guilt can be constant—but it reframes those realities as strategic guides. By grounding choices in clarity and compassion, Baebler and Galloway give mothers permission to build businesses that are ambitious and aligned. The message is clear: when you design a business that supports your life, both can thrive.

Erin Baebler and Lara Galloway begin where few business books do—before you even choose your business idea. They believe you can’t create something meaningful unless it reflects your authentic self. That’s why Chapter 1 centers on identifying who you are and what truly matters to you. This may sound simple, but the authors argue it’s radical—because most women build their lives around what others expect. They often follow paths parents, partners, or society built for them, only to find themselves successful but unsatisfied.

Values, Motivators, Priorities, and Passions

Baebler and Galloway group personal discovery into four key categories: values, motivators, priorities, and passions. Values are the principles that guide your decisions; motivators are the forces that keep you going; priorities define what truly comes first; and passions reveal what lights you up. They give dozens of examples to help readers brainstorm—family, independence, creativity, health, freedom, kindness, achievement—and encourage you to choose only those that feel deeply yours, not “shoulds.”

For instance, one of their featured moms, Kim Walls, the founder of Episencial, built her skincare company entirely around passion. She didn’t just see a market opportunity—she saw a problem she felt compelled to solve. Her story demonstrates how passion fuels persistence. Another, Debra Gano of BYOU Magazine, described how her drive to empower girls outweighed her fear of failure. The message: passion provides stamina when profit isn’t instant.

Defining Priorities and Saying No

Setting priorities, the authors say, is where self-knowledge meets courage. Many moms juggle dozens of “top priorities,” from marriage and health to PTA committees and business goals. But as they stress, “You can’t have seventeen things that are most important.” They insist you narrow your focus to no more than four priorities and use them as your personal compass. Using these priorities as filters helps you say a respectful “no” to opportunities or obligations that don’t serve them. For example, entrepreneur Kelsey Ramsden’s story—taking a massive construction job while balancing motherhood—shows how honoring one’s priorities (proving capability, strengthening family) can defy criticism and reshuffle expectations.

Authenticity Over Comparison

The authors warn against the toxic trap of comparison—a recurring theme throughout the book. Moms are inundated with perfect Instagram ideals and pressure to live “Pottery Barn lives.” “To compare is to despair,” they quote, reminding readers that real success means living a life that works for you. One contributor, Sarah Kirk of Swoop Bags, learned this when she compared her brand to others and realized her “smaller,” more flexible model actually made her happier.

Your Life as the Foundation

Finally, Baebler and Galloway advocate taking a “snapshot” of your life today. What’s working? What’s not? What do your circumstances allow or restrict right now? They emphasize that recognizing limits—childcare hours, financial needs, energy—doesn’t constrain you; it frees you to make realistic plans. In a culture obsessed with scaling fast, they normalize slower, steadier growth that matches life phases. As they summarize, designing a business begins not with the idea, but with the architect—you.

In Chapter 2, the authors dismantle the conventional notion that success equals money, titles, or luxury. For mom entrepreneurs, they argue, true success integrates personal fulfillment, family harmony, and meaningful work. Yet defining what success means for you can be surprisingly tricky—especially when you’re conditioned to adopt society’s metrics. Baebler and Galloway challenge you to create your own definition, free from comparison and fear.

The Comparison Trap

The authors describe how comparison—through media, neighbors, or corporate peers—steals clarity. They encourage readers to recognize “to compare is to despair.” Just as Sheryl Sandberg noted in Lean In, external metrics often keep women striving for validation rather than satisfaction. One poignant story is Lara Galloway’s own: after leaving IBM to raise her kids, she found her old definition of success (titles, income, recognition) shattered. Her turning point came when she replaced external milestones with internal ones: health, creativity, and meaningful work.

Fear of Success and Redefining It

Interestingly, many women fear not failure, but success—worrying that too much growth could upend family rhythms or attract judgment. Baebler and Galloway urge you to name those fears, then consciously envision success that excites rather than terrifies you. Using exercises like vision boards and reflective prompts, they ask questions such as, “When your friends describe your future lifestyle, what do they say?” and “What milestones made you proud?” These tools clarify the emotional texture of success, not just its appearance.

Trish Morrison’s story of founding MomCom captures this process vividly. Originally, she chased quantity—bigger conferences, more cities—until she realized the model violated her core intention: connection and balance. Success, she learned, meant depth, not scale. Re-aligning her business restored joy.

Crafting a Vision That Feels Right

By guiding you through a “future self” visualization exercise, the authors help you picture life three to five years ahead. They ask, “How much do you work? How do you spend your time? Who are you surrounded by?” These details anchor ambition in reality. They remind you: success evolves, just like your kids do. Checking in annually protects you from chasing outdated dreams.

In the end, defining success becomes an act of courage. As they put it, “Be sure your vision of success is your own.” That clarity turns decision-making—from pricing services to scheduling family vacations—into something grounded, not guilt-driven.

Time management, covered in Chapter 3, is the lifeblood of a mom entrepreneur’s sanity. Baebler and Galloway insist the problem isn’t actually time scarcity—it’s how we spend it. Everyone has 168 hours each week, but few use them intentionally. They transform time from an enemy into a currency: valuable, limited, and exchangeable only for what truly matters.

Audit and Awareness

The first step is awareness: track your time for one week. Note what fills your hours—emails, errands, carpooling, procrastination. This audit lays bare how “I don’t have time” often means “I’m spending time on different things.” From there, the authors show how to create alignment: connecting your daily calendar to your true priorities.

They bust the myth of perfect balance. Instead of striving to be everything simultaneously, focus on feeling balanced by spending time on the right things. Their exercise of drawing lines between daily tasks and top priorities visualizes this relationship—it’s clear which actions feed your goals and which can go.

Planning, Boundaries, and Hit Lists

Practical strategies include planning tasks the day before, setting firm work hours, and using Hit Lists—quick-reference lists of small, meaningful tasks for short bursts of free time (e.g., posting to social media or reading an article). They also advocate guarding “boundary time.” Just as your child can’t interrupt a client call, your work shouldn’t invade family dinner. Visual and language cues—like “Mom’s office hours”—can retrain others to respect that space.

Scheduling Like a CEO

Their calendaring method is simple but profound: plan around recurring commitments first (school runs, family meals), then slot in your non-negotiables (work, exercise, rest). Over time, your calendar becomes a mirror of your values. They also encourage integrating “energy management”—knowing when you feel most productive and designing work around those rhythms (similar to The Power of Full Engagement by Loehr & Schwartz). The chapter ends with the liberating truth: being busy isn’t a badge of honor. Doing what matters most is.

In their fourth chapter, Baebler and Galloway tackle one of motherhood’s biggest taboos: self-care. Many women postpone rest until the to-do list is empty—which means never. The authors flip that mindset entirely: self-care is not an indulgence or reward; it’s a requirement for effective leadership.

Rethinking Self-Care

They acknowledge the guilt mothers feel when they take time for themselves. But as they remind readers, neglecting self-care is self-sabotage. You wouldn’t expect your car to run without fuel, yet many moms expect to function nonstop. This honest reframing resonates with women like Julie Cole of Mabel’s Labels, who admits losing herself in years of sleeplessness before realizing mini-moments of joy—like hiking with her kids—count as care.

Building a Self-Care Toolkit

Through their “Self-Care Hit List,” the authors encourage building a menu of recharging activities: reading, walks, laughter, music, even doing nothing (what Italians call il dolce far niente). These aren’t fluff—they increase productivity and problem-solving capacity. They also advise spotting “drains”: unfinished tasks, toxic comparisons, or clutter that quietly sap energy.

Silencing Self-Talk and Celebrating Wins

Perhaps the book’s most therapeutic insight is its discussion of negative self-talk—the “inner bully.” Learning to replace “I can’t” with “I’m learning to” is transformative. They introduce small practices to build self-compassion: celebrating daily wins, giving oneself literal applause, or sending yourself a thank-you card. This may seem small, but it changes the emotional climate of your workday.

In sum, Chapter 4 reframes self-care as the irrigating system of your business. When you thrive, everything you touch—your kids, your clients, your creativity—thrives too.

In ‘Your Toolkit,’ the authors remind readers that they already possess a rich arsenal of skills, traits, and resources. Too often, women underestimate them because they’re informal or domestic. Baebler and Galloway redefine competence broadly: leadership is what you do when managing toddler tantrums and client crises alike.

Discovering Strengths and Traits

They urge women to list their strengths and validate them by asking others for insight—family, colleagues, even kids. They reference Tom Rath’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 to highlight the importance of “playing to your strengths” rather than overcorrecting weaknesses. Essential traits like grit, confidence, courage, and patience emerge as cornerstones of resilience, drawn from psychological research (notably Angela Duckworth on grit).

Making Experience Work for You

The authors show how past jobs and volunteer work—no matter how unrelated—can become assets. One client’s legal background helped her franchise her preschool program. Another mom used her marketing degree to promote handmade crafts effectively. By documenting experiences systematically, you uncover transferable power.

Human Resources and Intuition

Equally important is recognizing your human network—family, friends, mentors, even virtual assistants (Appendix A provides 22 tasks you can delegate). They emphasize mutual support: you receive help and give it back. Then, they add a subtle but striking tool—intuition. Women, they argue, often dismiss their gut feelings. Yet in business, intuition is speed wisdom, a subconscious integration of experience. Ignoring it, one contributor warns, “is the fastest way to waste time.”

Taken together, “Your Toolkit” empowers moms to see competence not as something to seek, but as something to reclaim and wield confidently.

Baebler and Galloway’s approach to business planning in Chapter 6 feels refreshingly human. Instead of 40-page spreadsheets, they base their model on Jim Horan’s One Page Business Plan and adapt it to the rhythms of motherhood. Their message: a plan doesn’t have to be complicated—it just has to connect intentions to actions.

Knowing Your Stage

They introduce a memorable metaphor aligning business growth with stages of parenting: conception, birth, infancy, toddlerhood, adolescence, and maturity. A new company, like a newborn, demands constant attention and yields few immediate rewards. As it grows, it experiments (toddlerhood), gains confidence (adolescence), and eventually operates independently (maturity). Each phase requires different goals and patience. This analogy comforts moms who expect instant returns—success takes nurturing, not just hustling.

SMART and Shareable Goals

Their planning template integrates both measurable structure (SMART goals) and emotional motivation. They recommend Deborah Grayson Riegel’s twist on SMART: goals that are Shareable, Motivating, Actionable, Resonant, and Timely. Examples range from professional (“Book twelve speaking gigs this year”) to personal (“Put healthy meals on the table five nights a week”). For mom entrepreneurs, the latter is not trivial—family goals support business ones.

Breaking Down Actions

Each objective cascades into strategies and actions—like building media visibility through blogging, social networking, and partnerships. They even include tables mapping out steps and deadlines. This helps readers see that productivity isn’t random—it’s structured around vision. As the authors put it, “When eating an elephant, take it one bite at a time.”

By blending motherhood metaphors with business pragmatism, the chapter transforms planning from a stressor into something deeply intuitive—a roadmap that considers nap schedules as much as profit margins.

Chapter 7 expands on productivity, reframing it from constant busyness to focused intention. The authors call out the “cult of busy” that glorifies 24/7 activity. Instead, they offer systems designed for intelligence, not exhaustion.

Common Productivity Killers

Baebler and Galloway outline four main culprits: lack of boundaries, distractions, doing everything yourself, and poor time estimation. Addressing these, they recommend turning off notifications, delegating to virtual assistants, and scheduling buffer time between tasks. Their appendix on VA outsourcing lists practical jobs—from bookkeeping to travel coordination—that can reclaim hours each week.

Methods That Work

Their practical tools include chunking time (using Pomodoro cycles or two-hour “focus blocks”), project mapping (breaking complex goals into calendar tasks), and the Pareto Principle: 20% of actions produce 80% of results. Their “Four Quadrants of Productivity” helps moms identify which tasks make money, build opportunities, maintain operations, or waste time—and to spend 80% of their effort on the first two.

Energy Over Effort

They emphasize energy management over time management. Just as in The Power of Full Engagement, they argue productivity follows natural rhythms—some moms are early birds, others night owls. The key is aligning demanding work with peak energy. Finally, they remind readers that breaks aren’t laziness—they’re fuel for creativity. As they wittily note, “There’s no prize for being the busiest.” Productivity, redefined, is calm, deliberate progress.

The final chapters show how to maintain focus amid chaos. Because motherhood guarantees interruptions—sick kids, shifting schedules—staying on track requires resilience, not rigidity. Baebler and Galloway blend psychological insight with humor, helping moms forgive themselves when perfection collapses.

Recognizing Obstacles

They identify common derailers: TIKEs (Temporary Innovative Knowledge Euphoria—those post-conference bursts of overcommitment), mistakes, ruts, fear, and failure. Each has an antidote: implement one new idea at a time; see mistakes as data; use ruts as signals of misalignment; and treat fear as proof of growth. Their humor—“If failure was easy, everyone would be doing it”—keeps things lighthearted yet wise.

Accountability Without Guilt

To sustain momentum, they propose gentle accountability systems: visual reminders (sticky notes, calendars), accountability partners, or mentors. They cite data from Success Magazine showing mentored entrepreneurs doubled their revenue. The point isn’t punishment—it’s partnership. They also encourage micro-rewards: dark chocolate after a tough task, a happy dance after closing a client. Celebration sustains consistency better than self-criticism.

Navigating Major Life Changes

When major events hit—illness, divorce, loss—they offer a compassionate blueprint: revisit your priorities, adjust your schedule, lean on your network, and decide if it’s time to pause or pivot. Erin Baebler’s own story of pausing her business during a serious health condition humanizes this advice. Sometimes stepping back is progress. As they write, “It’s not if life will derail you, it’s when—and how you respond that defines your success.”

The book concludes by reinforcing a cycle: clarity, planning, action, reflection, and return. Growth, like parenting, is iterative. When you design your business with compassion and periodic recalibration, success becomes a moving but joyful journey.