Nadine Hughes, Owner The Cook's Companion and The Menu Companion
Nadine Hughes is an entrepreneur and author. Read her inspirational story of how she fueled her passion for food and entertaining into a successful venture while raising two young children. She believes anyone can do it and thrives on motivating and supporting other women to follow their dreams! Her mantra is “why can’t it be me!”
1. What inspired you to turn your love of food, friends and entertaining into a business?
I have always had a love for food but it was more about the experience of sharing food with family and friends than actually being in the kitchen. Growing up in a European family, my parents placed a tremendous amount of importance about eating together as a family and exposing our young palettes to new foods. My sister and I thought everyone ate pickled herring for breakfast and beef tongue for lunch so for me it was a way of life that I didn’t know any different. My mother was also always the one to host our family and friends for all holiday dinners and she thought of nothing to convert the basement Ping-Pong table into a dining table to seat 30.
My own personal journey to a food related business started when my husband and I were living in Australia and running our first business (a logistics company). I was heavily influenced by the wonderful produce, seafood and markets so readily available there. To help gel our newly formed management team and strengthen our network, I would often host parties and dinners to bring our team together socially. In my free time (insert laugh here as a new mother and business owner) I started to plan friends' parties and events as an outlet to relieve the stress and work of a new business venture. When we sold our business in Australia and moved back to Canada, I was fortunate enough to be in a place in my life that I could financially and professionally look at starting a business that had to do with my passion – food and entertaining. As an entrepreneur I knew I wanted to ground my business with a concept that would motivate me to work the long hours it takes in the beginning and to keep pushing the creative and strategic boundaries. I knew if I could feel and speak passionately about my business, I would have a stronger chance of making it a success.
Throughout the start up phase, like all business owners, I was on a roller coaster ride of emotions; have I made the right decision? Can I handle raising young children and work from home? Can I do this without a business network? In the beginning phase you are so caught up in making it work that you don’t have time to focus on these emotions (maybe it’s nature’s way of keeping us going!). I experienced several roadblocks in the early start up days where I had to tweak my plans unexpectedly. When I look back now I know that without those hurdles I probably would not have stretched myself to go in the different direction my business has taken me because it would have been easy to stay stagnant and remain status quo.
2. How did you make it work with your kids and family?
Balancing work life with home life is never easy for anyone but even more so for women who work out of the home, with laundry calling, dirty dishes and children to manage. I have two sons (5 and 9) and an executive husband who travels regularly for work so continuing to work outside of the home was not the most desirable option for my family or me. When I started The Cook’s Companion my youngest son was a newborn and my oldest was only attending half day kindergarten so I became adept at multi-tasking (what mother isn’t?) and making priority lists to help keep me focused and on track – always a good thing for any business person! I knew if I had only a total of 2 hours to work then it had better be a productive 2 hours.
What helped to keep me focused was taking a cue from an old colleague of mine who worked from home. I always remember her saying that each morning she showered, dressed professionally, got the kids ready for school and then walked out her front door and then back in through a side door to her home office. This put her in the mind frame that she was at work and could not be distracted from domestic duties. When mommy’s office door was closed it was closed! Although I don’t go to the extreme of physically walking out of the house and back in again, I do this in my mind. I have learned (not easily though) to put the domestic chores on the back burner until later in the day and more importantly not feel guilty about it. It’s the guilt that mothers feel that can be a stressful and unhealthy energy. I keep reminding myself that the world will not end if the living room does not get vacuumed every day!
Having only 2.5 hours a day (kindergarten hours) for the last few years to run a business has certainly made me proficient in analyzing what is the best return for my time and learn how to say no to those activities or requests that aren’t going to provide the best return, whether it be in dollars, time or exposure. Since September of this year, both my children are in school full time and I feel like a weight has lifted off of my professional shoulders and feel like shouting “Bring it on!” I am now able to take on more roles and projects with my new found hours and at the end of a day be a happier mother because when my kids come home from school, the laptop goes off and my attention is theirs! In these few short months the positive energy and increased business opportunities is a direct result of me being more balanced at home!
Although my family is extremely proud of my accomplishments they are a little jaded at seeing mommy’s face on a magazine or listening to me on TV or radio. It used to be “cool” to them but now “it’s been there done that”! For them, it’s what mom does and they don’t know any different. They are however pretty happy that food is my product and reap the rewards at the dining table!
3. What was your biggest obstacle?
My biggest obstacle was and still is, trying to do it all on my own. There comes a time when you need to expand your business and trust in others to help you get the job done and for me this can be a hard thing to realize and act upon. I’m always happy to share my knowledge with other entrepreneurs, particularly women starting out in business but when it comes to asking for help for myself or asking for what I want, I have a tendency to put this off. Too often I’ll struggle through trying to find my way through a business dilemma instead of calling upon others for advice. Taking the time to build a strong network has helped me learn through this but I still have a long way to go.
Keeping it all together can be a problem for me at times as well. I’d be liar if I said I didn’t have a good old emotional meltdown every once in a while and question why I’m doing what I’m doing. But it’s my personality to have those emotions build up, emotionally explode and then it's like a field clearing ahead of me allowing me to see the solution or new concept. And I figure as long as I know that this is how I operate, I’m okay with the odd meltdown. Just pity the people around me at the time!
4. What did you learn?
First off I should confess that I don’t think moms can have it ALL, there is always a trade off somewhere. It’s finding what works for you and your family that is important. But I also find that it’s similar for fathers too. If you ask my husband, he’ll say that yes he’s allowed to focus more clearly on his role as a business person than I might have the luxury of but, he also has to make a trade off of trying to balance carving out time for the kids and doing what’s right for us as a family and a couple while sustaining a viable financial future for our family.
That being said I think the most positive thing I have learned through this journey is that I am a great motivator and inspiration to other women. I do truly believe that you can go after your dreams and make a success of it – it’s a matter of acting on those dreams at the right time in your life. I love coaching and mentoring other women to do what they want to do; acting as a reality check for them and often giving them the kick start to their career. My mantra is “why can’t it be me?” and I strive to instill this in other people as well. No one is going to do it for you so you might as well get out there and grab the skinny branches of the tree and take a leap of faith!
Visit http://nhughes.homestead.com/ and http://www.themenucompanion.com/ to learn more.
