Birthing a Business
I sat down with a friend many months ago to chat with her about this vision. I didn’t have a ton of direction. I didn’t have a name yet for the business. I wasn’t even thinking that it could be a business! I just knew that I loved birth and I loved helping families in this process. I had spent the last three years working with pregnant refugees in the Middle East and had been back in the states now for 6 months or so. I was itching to get back into this world.
I started processing the ins and outs with my friend. I think I knew that establishing a business would be a process, but sister, I was NOT ready for just how long. I was thinking I could whip something up in a couple months and then we’d be ready to do the thing. I read the magical resource The Doula Business Guide by Patty Brennan, gifted to me by my mother in law (gotta love that family support!!) and was clearly informed of just how much work it would take. This would be a process.
I explained to my friend that although I wanted to get started right away, I had to give it time. I was giving myself a longer season of time to slowly create this thing! I was going to give myself time to mold and form this passion of mine into a practice that I could offer to old and new friends. I was choosing to take the next season of time to educate myself more on how I could establish a sustainable business and how I could care for it well.
My friend in reply said “how long are you giving yourself?”. To which I replied, “I’d like to have it ready by January 1st of 2022.” “So that’s about 9 months away?”. My friend and I laughed. She looked at me in the irony of it all and said “you’re birthing a business”. And I was! Looking back on this year I can see how the Lord molded this process into being the largest metaphor for me.
I was in the first trimester and there were some realities about it that were kind of sucky (the morning sickness of logistics), but I made it through. I was thinking about this business, but it was so far off. Surely I had time. Second trimester came along and I am feeling great!! I got the logistics down. I got organized. I figured out a name. I got my logo made. It was like the nursery was painted and the crib was made and I was just so excited to fill it up. Then the third trimester came along and I was thinking how did we get here?! January was creeping closer and closer and it just seemed as though there were so many logistics to manage.
But then you gain perspective. Third trimester! I am so close to this new exciting thing in front of me. As the weeks draw closer, I am getting nervous about how people could respond to all of this. Will people be drawn to my story?
Something beautiful in the birth process is the submission to what is coming and what is happening to your body. Sometimes in life, we need to choose to submit to the great plans God has for us. The logistics are real. The worries are definitely there. But there is new life! There is expectation.
So here I am birthing a business. Pushing through to hold this new exciting thing. And now I get to start pursuing this passion in the West Michigan area.
