Being a working mum means juggling priorities and responsibilities at work while trying to look after a child who needs your love and attention. Despite this, women all over the world do this every day. Writer Jess Bourne spoke to Elsie Rutterford and Dominika Minarovic, both founders and directors of skincare brand, BYBI, about what life is like as a working mum
Q: What is your business, BYBI?
A: Elsie: It’s a skincare business that we started in 2017. We created it to be a natural, vegan and sustainable brand that felt modern and fresh. We operate in a number of countries and in around 3,000 stores globally. We did sell it to a partner who runs the operational side of things, but we have stayed on as the founders and product leaders.
Q: Where did you meet and where did the idea for the business come from?
A: Dominika: We met working in marketing roles, almost ten years ago now. We originally started a content platform called Clean Beauty Insiders which was a blog that was all about natural skincare. We used to post recipes on how to make your own skincare using food and it just grew from there.
We decided to start a business together as we felt like we had a really good partnership, and we really respected each other’s work ethic. And we had a mutual love of wellness and beauty. Then we launched the brand two years later.
Q: What was it like working through the pandemic?
A: Elsie: At the beginning of the pandemic, it was working out how to run our team. A lot of our distribution was online so for online sales it was very good. But big retail partners made their own internal cuts to their assortment and the bit that we were in got cut. And obviously the shops were in and out of being open. But luckily, because online sales were so strong, that balanced it out a little bit.
Q: What was the main motivation behind setting up the TikTok account?
A: Dominika: We’ve been on a wild entrepreneurial journey, and I think it’s important to share the realities behind it. That’s not to say that it is all negative because some realities are incredibly positive but social media has a way of presenting things with slightly glossy edges and we’re very honest and we present the realities.
We also wanted to support other female founders to make them feel less alone and make them feel motivated that they can succeed. And also give them support in terms of business advice and fundraising advice. The fact that we’re mothers and also run a business are forever intrinsically linked and we wanted to make sure that we covered very important topics of being a working mum and making sure that we’re continuing to encourage discussion.
Q: What is it like being a working mum?
A: Dominika: That’s a pretty loaded question. I would say it’s quite challenging because you are juggling quite a lot of different needs and your kids can be quite unpredictable which can be challenging to manage a schedule. And obviously doing the two is also incredibly exhausting. You finish work and you can’t put your feet up and relax, it’s straight into job number two.
Your kids tend to really need their mum particularly when they’re young, so a lot of the responsibility and default parenting does fall to the mums. It can be quite overwhelming trying to work, however it is nice to have something else to focus on and motivate you. In some ways you get the best of both worlds, but it definitely requires a lot of organisation and a lot of patience.
Q: What is the most challenging part about being a working mum?
A: Elsie: It’s difficult to split your head mentally sometimes. Our experience of being working mums is quite unique because we’ve been business owners throughout it, but we’ve also sold our business while being a mum as well. And now we are freelance, consulting on BYBI and a number of other brands. Trying to flip in and out of your working brain and your parenting brain is quite tricky, especially if we’re supposed to be with our kids, but we need to pick up on something with work. It can be hard to quickly jump in and out of the two roles, because they’re really different and they require someone different. Personally, there’s a lot of guilt that comes with it. I feel very guilty when I’m not able to give my kids all my energy and attention because I’m thinking about work and vice versa and that’s been there since the beginning.
Our maternity leave was also an interesting challenge. So, we didn’t really go away and have maternity leave which came with its pros and cons. It was good because it was flexible and we could step in and out of it, but equally there wasn’t a period of time that was solely dedicated to our kids. There was always the background noise of what was going on in the business.
Q: In terms of being a working mum, do you think there is anything that needs to change to make it easier for mums to return to work?
A: Dominika: The key is flexible working. Understanding that parents have other commitments and that not being seen as a negative. But also understanding that people can still function and deliver really high-quality work for a business outside of the nine to five construct. So, moving a business’s measurement of input in terms of time to actually just output and what is that person delivering. It’s a complete shift in mentality and putting that trust and support into your employees. Research has shown that when you do, they have stronger commitment to the business and they’re willing to take on extra tasks.
Q: Do you think more needs to be done to enable fathers to take more time off?
A: Elsie: A massive barrier for women coming back to work is childcare and the cost of it. Women are faced with not being able to earn as much as it would cost, so then they can’t go back to work, but if they know that their kid can stay at home with their dad, it makes a massive change to them feeling confident about going back to work. Also encouraging men to [take time off] because of the way we view the father it might end up that actually men wouldn’t bother taking it. So not only introducing something that would drive equality but also send the right message and encourage fathers to take it up so that the burden is shifted from the mother.
