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(Image courtesy Artisan Books)

‘Mother/Founder’: Stories of women balancing business and family

A community of mothers & business owners, each offering you mentorship

Imagine a community of mothers, each one an accomplished business owner and each one offering you their mentorship. What an opportunity! That is what designer Amanda Jane Jones and writer Jennifer Fernandez provide in their book, ā€œMother/Founder: 68 Women on the Trials and Triumphs of Starting a Business and Raising a Family.ā€

When Jones started her own design firm, she discovered she could set flexible hours, earn more than she ever had before, and raise a family on her own terms. So she reached out to mother-entrepreneurs across the country to share their stories and advice for ā€œanyone seeking inspiration as they forge a new path or career for themselves.ā€

Like Jones, many work in creative fields ā€” food, fashion, interior design ā€” but the book doesnā€™t lack diverse examples, featuring an immigration lawyer, a gun safety advocate, a midwife, and Seattleā€™s own Arianne Foulks, the founder of website design and development firm Aeolidia.

The women explain the nitty-gritty of how they built their businesses, opening up about everything from time management, choosing clients, their personal definitions of success, and how they prioritize family time. Most impactful are Jonesā€™ personal essays, where she is startlingly honest about her challenges: burning bridges due to disorganization, failing to ask critical questions that affected her ability to deliver, forgetting to put aside money for taxes.

Her writing is compelling, shared from a place of generosity and wisdom. She demonstrates that relationships can be repaired, taxes paid, lessons learned, and above all, that women can build businesses and raise families with joyful confidence.

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About the Author

Charlene Dy

Charlene Dy writes about kids and the people who love them. A Manila-born Chinese-Canadian, she now lives with her family on the Eastside, where she is definitely that mom chatting you up on the playground.