It’s difficult to maintain a work-family balance when we are trying to get a new business off the ground. How can professional support help us? How does entering business awards help structure our business? How can we inspire our children to be entrepreneurs? In this episode, Stacey Morgan shares how she maintains her home life alongside her professional life, and explains how entering awards changed her perspective on her business. Some days I’m a really good business owner, some days I’m a really good mom, and some days I’m a mix of both—and that’s ok. -Stacey Morgan   3 Things We Learned From This Episode Don’t rely on support from your family only (04:57- 07:15) We often feel the need to put on the façade of ‘everything’s going great’ when speaking about our business to our family because we don’t want them to lose confidence in us. We need to have a community of professionals in the same position as us with whom we can speak openly and honestly about the challenges we face.   It’s not natural to be a 24-hour mom (7:17-9:30) We are inclined to think that if we don’t want to spend 24 hours a day with our children we are bad parents. This is not true to even previous eras of parenting. We need to balance the time we spend parenting and working to avoid feeling exhausted and resentful, and so that we can make the most of the time we have with our children.   Applying for awards helps you structure your business (13:41-15:35) As business owners we keep a lot of information in our heads and hardly ever communicate it to others. Entering business awards puts us on the spot in terms of all aspects of our business and it forces us to answer questions we have never considered. We stand to gain a well-rounded perspective of our business, see where we’re doing well and what we need to work on.   As mothers and business owners, we need to distinguish between our two roles whilst also recognizing where the positive overlaps are. Our family should not be our only source of support for our business, and we shouldn’t feel like we are neglecting them by not being there 24/7. We need a professional team and support structure so that we can take the time for our families. We must also make time for opportunities that can help our businesses grow, even when their value is not immediately evident. Entering awards is an extremely useful exercise as it makes us take a closer look at how our business is performing.   Guest Bio- Stacey Morgan, Founder and Principal of Port Macquarie Performing Arts (PMPA) and Podcast Host, is a passionate dance educator from Wauchope, NSW. She has received numerous awards at the Greater Port Macquarie Business Awards, namely, Excellence in Technology 2012, Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2014, 2015 and 2016, and Excellence in Innovation 2015. Stacey grew up dancing under the expert instruction of Francessca O’Donnell and gained her Associate Teaching Diploma from the British Ballet Association. She went on to dance professionally overseas and in Australian productions of musicals like Grease, Gypsy and 42nd Street. Stacey has a Bachelor of Creative Industries in Dance and a Bachelor of Education in Drama from the Queensland University of Technology, and she also has her Masters in Arts Education - majoring in Dance Teaching - from Deakin University. Prior to opening PMPA, she was Education Manager for the Royal New Zealand Ballet where she facilitated a nation-wide education program for dance. Stacey is the co-host of Miss Bossy Boots, a podcast inspiring leadership for Women in Business.   http://pmperformingarts.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceymorganpmpa/