I’m not here because I have it all figured out. But if you’ll allow me, I’d like to pull back the curtain on my journey—from starting my business before kids to running it for the past several years with littles at my feet. I’ll share the mindset shifts, the practical systems, and the real numbers (with context) behind how I’ve continued to grow a multi–six-figure business while working just 15 to 20 hours a week.

At this point in my career, I’ve seen the backend of hundreds, if not thousands, of small businesses, from those making a thousand dollars a month to those hitting ten million a year. I’ve had the rare privilege of seeing the truth behind the highlight reel. And as I always say, the numbers don’t lie.

The good news is this: in my experience, you don’t need to spend every nap time hustling when you really just want to rest. You don’t need a 60-hour workweek or a passive-income empire to run a profitable business as a mom.

If you’ve ever wondered how to work less, mom more, and still hit your goals, I hope you walk away today with a heavy dose of encouragement and a handful of practical strategies you can implement to thrive in both roles.

Here’s what we’ll cover today:

1. How I run a multi–six-figure business in 15 to 20 hours a week while raising littles
2. Five strategies that helped me grow revenue without adding more hours
3. Three practical tools that keep my business running while I raise my babies
4. And finally, some real talk: real numbers and what sustainable growth actually looks like as a mom and CEO

So let’s dive in.

How I run a multi–six-figure business in 15 to 20 hours a week while raising littles

My business didn’t start with nap schedules or 20-hour workweeks. I began this journey with no kids and all the time in the world to pour into my work. Over the years—and especially after becoming a mom—things had to shift, because motherhood changed everything, including my business model.

Ironically, though, the lessons that serve me most now as a working mom—setting boundaries, defining success on my own terms, managing my time, separating my identity from my work—weren’t learned in motherhood. I learned them in the years leading up to it. Those foundational years shaped how I show up today with limited hours and bigger responsibilities, and I’m incredibly grateful I had that groundwork in place.

Before we dive into the strategies, let me quickly take you back to how my business evolved and how those early lessons set me up for sustainable growth. Before I ever became a mom, I spent years learning how to build a business from the ground up.

I didn’t have a roadmap. I figured things out as I went. In those early days, I tried everything. I changed my pricing, experimented with different offers, and said yes to far too much. It didn’t take long before I was buried in projects, overpromising, undercharging, and stretched completely thin.

That’s when I learned my first foundational lesson: boundaries matter. Not just boundaries with clients, but boundaries with my time, my energy, and my expectations. I realized that clear offers, intentional pricing, and limits on my calendar weren’t just good business strategy. They were self-preservation. Little by little, I began building a business with sustainability and longevity in mind, because the truth is you can only run on burnout and adrenaline for so long. Profitability and manageable workloads aren’t only good for you. They’re good for the business and help ensure you can stick around to serve your clients for the long haul.

Fast forward five years, and my business had taken off. What began as a solo, service-based venture had expanded into education, courses, programs, and digital products. I had taught thousands of students, generated more revenue than I ever imagined, and built a team of six employees plus a group of contractors who supported everything behind the scenes.

From the outside, it looked like success. And on paper, it was. But behind the scenes, I was tired. The business had grown quickly, and while I was proud of what we built, I woke up one day and realized my days didn’t look the way I wanted them to.

So I did something that felt radical at the time. I took a full year off. I paused launches, stopped selling, and let myself breathe. During that year, I got pregnant with our oldest daughter. That season allowed me to do one of the most important things I’ve ever done as a business owner: separate my identity from my business.

I started to believe deeply that my work is just a job. It’s a job I love and a job I’m proud of, but it’s not my entire identity. Over the past four years, we’ve welcomed two little ones with another on the way, and I’ve continued running a multi–six-figure business while working only 15 to 20 hours a week so I can prioritize being a mom, especially in this season with littles. We’ve intentionally kept our team small, our operations streamlined, and our growth strategy very focused.

When I became a mom, it wasn’t that everything about how I approached business had to change. It was that the lessons I learned in my first eight years of business became absolutely essential. Boundaries, clarity, focus, and knowing what matters most were no longer optional. I didn’t just want a business that looked successful. I needed one that supported my life instead of competing with it, because the truth is you can grow a business and raise kids. You can scale with limited hours. You can build something you’re proud of without sacrificing everything else that matters to you. But it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens with intention and strategy.

Looking back over twelve years in business, four of those with little ones in tow, I see five guiding strategies that shaped my growth and allowed me to be both mom and CEO in a way that feels aligned. These five strategies helped me increase revenue without adding more hours to my schedule. They aren’t magic tricks or quick wins. They’re steady, strategic choices that made sustainable growth possible for me, and I hope they do the same for you as we walk through them.

Strategy #1: Start with the life you want

Before you set goals, map out offers, or chase after growth, get clear on what you want your life to look like. It may sound cliché, but it matters: your business should serve your life, not the other way around. Strategic business growth begins with clarity about how you want your days, weeks, and seasons to feel.

There is no one-size-fits-all business model, and that’s the beauty of it. You get to define what success means for you.

So start here:

• What do you want your life to look like? Get specific.
• How much do you want to travel?
• What do you want your home life to feel like?
• Do you enjoy cooking and meal prep, or would you rather outsource it?
• Do you want quiet time in the morning before your family wakes?
• What time do you want to get up?
• What time do you want to go to bed?

The clearer you are on the life you want, the easier it becomes to build a business that truly supports it.

Next, ask yourself what you want your business to look like. And again, be specific.

• What impact do you want to make?
• How often do you want to work?
• Do you want to work part-time?
• Who do you want to serve?
• How big do you want your team to be?

And maybe most importantly, ask yourself what being a good mom means to you.

• Does it mean picking your kids up from school?
• Being at every game?
• Having slow mornings at home?

You get to define it. Start there. Get clear on what you want out of your life and your business. That is the first strategy, and I believe it is the most important one.

Strategy #2: Do the math on your time and money

Time is your most limited and valuable resource, especially as a mom and business owner.

In my course, The Blueprint Model, I teach something called the Time Bank. I love this concept because it helps you think about your time like a bank account. You only get so many hours to spend each week, and the goal is to stay positive, not rack up overdraft fees with your schedule.

To start, get clear on how many hours you actually want to work. In this season of motherhood, I want to dedicate 20 hours a week to my work. I have two days of childcare, which gives me about 10 hours, and I wake up early each morning for another two hours before my family is up. That’s how I create 20 working hours a week. These are your “time deposits.”

Once you know your deposits, do a brain dump of every task and responsibility on your plate. You can do this for home and work, but I’ll focus on work here: email, social media, client communication, meetings, travel, and the actual work you do for clients or customers. How much time does each task take? These are your “time withdrawals.”

Now do the math. How many hours do you have each week? For me, it’s 20. How much time does it take to complete everything on my list? Those are your withdrawals. At the end of the week, are you positive or negative in your time bank?

So many of us feel rushed or behind. I often feel this way, and anytime I do, I sit down and revisit this exercise. Seeing it in black and white helps me understand why I’m overwhelmed or why I’ve taken on too much. I’ll share some practical ways to keep your time bank positive later in the episode, but this exercise alone has been incredibly eye-opening.

Strategy #3: Get strategic with your offers

And as a quick side note, I also had to pay attention to whether I actually enjoyed the work.

Business models can be designed in so many different ways. For example, a wedding photographer might take on ten weddings a year at ten thousand dollars each and make one hundred thousand. Another photographer might not want to work weekends at all, so they might book three portrait sessions a week at six hundred fifty dollars each and also make one hundred thousand. This is what I mean when I talk about designing a business model that works for you, your life, your interests, and your goals, instead of forcing your life to fit a business that only looks good on paper.

That is the power of being strategic with your offers.

So after looking at my own time and defining what I wanted my life and work to look like, I did the same thing. I got strategic, especially in this season with limited hours. What’s working? What’s not? What is the best use of my time? Which offers are the most profitable and which ones do I actually enjoy?

Strategy #4: Delegate like a CEO, even if it’s just you

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: ask for help. From outsourcing laundry to hiring a VA, if you want to grow your business with limited hours, you will need more help than you think. The real question is how and when to delegate, what to hand off, and how to pay for it.

This is where the Time Bank comes back in.

Start by identifying the tasks that only you can do or that are most important for you to do. It can feel tricky at first, but with practice it gets easier. For instance, in my business, I know I’m the visionary. Financial reporting is how my brain works, so I want to spend time improving the financial reports we build for our CFO clients. I want to refine my course, The Blueprint Model, and create new spreadsheets and reporting tools for our shop. I’m also the face of the brand, which means I need to make time—and genuinely enjoy making time—to spread the word about what we do.

I love being a guest on podcasts like this one. I love writing and recording content for our own podcast and blog. Long-form content, SEO content, and serving our audience well through our weekly newsletter are all things that need me.

Those tasks I mentioned are the ones that are most important for me to do or the ones only I can do. Everything else, I work to get off my plate. This is something I teach more deeply in The Blueprint Model through what we call the Time Matrix. It’s a simple framework where we sort tasks into four quadrants: eliminate, automate, delegate, or keep. Once I identify the tasks that truly require my attention, I prioritize those. Then I move through the rest with intention.

First, I eliminate. I remove any tasks that aren’t the best use of my time or anyone else’s time on my team. This is one of the reasons I stepped away from social media back in 2017. It’s not that social media isn’t useful. It just wasn’t the most useful strategy for me, and I wanted to put my time into other marketing efforts that aligned better with my strengths and goals.

From there, I automate anything that can be automated. This may sound like a small example, but it’s true: my nanny always washes our bedsheets on Mondays. I know they’ll get done every week without me thinking about it. That’s a task I’ve both automated and delegated. We also order out on Thursday nights, so I know I’m not cooking that evening. I meal prep and grocery shop on Friday mornings. In the past, we’ve set email automations through tools like Dubsado for guest outreach on our podcast. If something can be automated, I do that before delegating. Automation keeps things streamlined and consistent.

Last comes delegation. If a task can’t be eliminated or automated and it’s not the best use of your time, delegate it. Start small. Hire someone to answer emails—this is often one of the best first contractors to bring on. Hire someone to watch your kids so you have dedicated work hours, even if it’s a neighbor or a childcare swap with a friend. I’ve had students who trade days: one mom watches all the kids one day, and the other does the same the next day. Think creatively.

On my team, contractors help with podcast editing, blog posts, Pinterest management, and email correspondence. Hiring a bookkeeper is a great support role for many business owners. Nannies, house cleaners, meal services like HelloFresh, grocery pickup, Target curbside—these are all practical ways to free up time for the work that matters most and the home responsibilities that need attention.

I know asking for help can be hard. Paying for help can feel even harder, especially if your budget is tight. Limited work hours can be frustrating. I’ve felt that too. But I also believe that having limited hours has pushed me to get very clear on what matters most and to find creative ways to pay for and delegate the support we need.