Way back at the start of This is Milk our founders sat down with the task of choosing the colours that would represent our brand in a traditionally corporate landscape of blues, greys, blacks...dull... boring... yawn .. .. .. .. .. .. sorry, we nodded off for a second there! Now come on, why does corporate have to mean boring?

​Well it doesn't and we relished at the opportunity to buck the trend, stand out, and more importantly create a brand that represents who we were as people as well as professionals.

If you would like to dive deeper into the world of colour, here is a fantastic blog taking you through the psychological meaning of the colour Pink. 

It's a colour of compassion,  understanding and insight. It's empathetic and hopeful. It is a positive colour inspiring warm and comforting feelings and a sense that everything will be okay.

Sounds exactly like This is Milk!

This is Milk are proud to lead the way in gender parity, with a business that treats everyone as equals, as humans and will continue to strive for change in the workplace. 

For more on This is Milk and the above topic we recommend you check out these two blogs:
​
​Raising a baby and a business 
​How to kick-start your dream business
​How to build a string brand strategy 


Thanks for reading and be sure to comment or even share.

Running a business is hard, there's no doubt about that. So when I was asked to share some tips for a recent eBook 'The Habits of Successful Female Entrepreneurs' I was delighted and honoured to take part because it's not easy; and I still drink in any advice I can get on this constant learning curve!

​Although the authors of these tips are all female entrepreneurs I would say all of their advice is transferable to anyone - male or female. We all face similar challenges as entrepreneurs and here I've picked out 12 of my favourite tips for success - enjoy!
- Angela

If you enjoyed these we also share daily business tips on Instagram

Interested to learn more about us? Click on the button!

Michelle shares how she came to be This is Milk’s HR wing woman
Michelle Botia

I met Angela six months ago; she was friendly, outgoing, sincere and capable, and I liked her immediately.

She was inspirational, had big ideas and most importantly realised that like-minded, able people would be key to bringing her business ideas to life. It soon became apparent that we were on the same page about lots of things, not least our passion for doing things better and simpler in business.

We had a similar approach and values, which was important to me, we both:

• consider ourselves to be approachable
• care about doing a great job
• listen to our customers and colleagues
• use the full capabilities of teams to help businesses perform better.

We decided that we could help each other by combining our skills and expertise in our respective areas of experience - well in small business collaboration is key after all!

I also identified with Angela, having raised my family and balanced their needs while working. I knew exactly how hard that was!

So I agreed to work as part of her team and together we gave ourselves the challenge of creating a company where people felt valued, needed, wanted and rewarded – we would listen to what employees really craved from work and try to make that happen.

All the simple things that sound like common sense but, like so many common sense things, seem to get lost or diluted along the way.

As a result, I’m now This is Milk’s ‘HR wingwoman’ and we will continue to work hard during 2016 to make our ideas a reality!

In creating This is Milk Angela recognised, like me, that it's not always easy to manage competing priorities and demands in the workplace, or to manage these smoothly so that the benefits are realised by all. I think that there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between personal life and business life. Lessons can always be learned from things that have worked well and things that haven't. I look forward to sharing some of these in my next blog posts.

Thanks for reading my first ever post! 

Michelle

​Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn

Learn more about us here!

Why I chose to start a business and have a baby in the same year
Angela Prentner-Smith

Between March 2014 and March 2015, three major life milestones happened.  I had a baby, passed my driving test and started a business – in that order. Ironically, passing my driving test took the longest – but that’s another story.

On the one hand, I look back and think, gosh what an achievement, and on the other I think, like many others, I must be mad! But in many ways this has just been a natural next chapter in my particular story. I was ready and willing to take it all on. 

What I wasn’t prepared for was the pressure of competing expectations on me,  not only as a woman, but suddenly as a mother. I wasn’t ready for how hard it would be to lose the mental and social activity of a workplace. I wasn’t ready to lose all the spontaneity in life, and I certainly wasn’t ready for the guilt and judgement I would feel when I decided to start a business.

For some women, their goal in life is to be a wife and a mum, but I was never one of those women. That said - I love being married and being a mum. My little family is what motivates me, supports me, and where I get all the security I never had in my early life and don’t have in my chosen career path. My home is the place where I have nothing to prove, no deadlines or pressures, and where I have solace. It’s a happy place – most of the time, bar the odd (ever-increasing) toddler tantrum…. enough said.

My struggle as a new mum

Saying I love having a child, is true, but it certainly isn’t easy. Not because having a baby is mentally taxing - quite the opposite. When you’ve had a baby after building a career, an education and a busy social life – it can be a massive change to lose the buzz and sense of achievement you get from those parts of your life. Getting stakeholder buy-in or solving a complex business problem is worlds apart from the achievements you get as a new mum. Having a shower, sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time or eating a hot meal – that’s your new milestones for the day. How about getting through the day without crying? Or getting dressed – maybe?

Then your partner goes to work, and you’re jealous. He got to sleep all night, and then go and do something he knows how to do. He gets to talk to adults, to shower, put on clothes, eat lunch at the usual time. And you have no effing clue what you are doing with this tiny creature that is totally dependent on you. You’re literally left holding the baby.

The first 9 or 10 months of my maternity leave were a blur of getting through days. I loved watching my little boy learn new things, and have his personality develop – these are the achievements that can never be matched. I loved not having the constraints of an office work place. I loved meeting other mums and developing new friendships, but honestly I was bored, tired, frustrated, and really felt like a failure most days.

Staying on top of the housework, getting dinner on the table and looking presentable became daily battles. I struggled with all of the things that were sold to me as being the most essential female qualities, the things that make a happy family. Not only could I not keep up with them, I didn’t love them. Coupled with the guilt I felt for not loving being at home with my baby - it became a constant mental struggle.

I got asked by well-meaning individuals whether I loved home life. I couldn’t even fake an answer that would please them. When I would respond – no – I would watch their faces fall, as if how could you not love being a homemaker and a mum to that beautiful baby?
​
To work or not to work?

Some stay-at-home mums seemed to be insulted when I would say that being a full-time mum wasn’t for me. Then there were the questions from my working friends, “When are you going back to work?”. That question equally burned, because going back to work felt like I was abandoning my baby - leaving him with strangers, the dreaded nursery, and missing all the moments that I would never get back with him.  Going back to work meant giving up both my vision of starting my own business, and the pleasures of being a mum and watching my little boy grow up. I was unhappy at work, yet being a stay-at-home mum was equally uninspiring. It was the wrong choice for me personally, from both angles.

It’s worth mentioning that the concept for This is Milk, was already born and underway before I fell pregnant, however due to various life happenings it had been shelved, its future undecided, but never far from my mind. I’d also grown tired of the inflexibility of 9-5 office life.

Finding my balance

For many parents, choosing self-employment is a way to achieve more balance between parenting and work. In some respects this was a motivation for me. The truth is, for the moment it hasn’t worked out that way - I’m building a business, working onsite with a client, plus being a mum and maintaining a social life.  However, instead of feeling like a failure, I feel like I’m achieving again, at being a mum, a wife, and an entrepreneur.

What I am building is a life of balance that works for me – a happy place where I can build a future for my family and the team I work with.

I’ve started to ignore the negativity from those who doubt my ability or judge me for wanting a career outside of my family. I now focus on the looks of pride from my family and friends at what I have achieved in a short space of time.
​ 
For me, choosing to start a business and have a baby in the same year was the right decision.  There have been sacrifices of course but I certainly haven’t had to choose between a career and a family. I’ve made the choices I have in order to build both.
​
Most importantly what is right for one woman, isn't always right for the next. My choices, whilst unconventional, were the right ones for me. What I hope for is that we all judge less, and have more belief in our ability to create the futures we desire.