Original post by Brittany Haas via Women2.0
I am miserable since I’m missing out on the #wefestival going on right now. I was accepted…and elated! What a wonderful opportunity to learn from my idols and meet with other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately, I’m heading off to Paris on Friday with my full-time company for market. We’ve been swamped here (…we’re talking 9am-1am days swamped) and it would be totally irresponsible of me to take off a day, just two days before we jump on a plane and have 2 full on crazy, busy weeks.
Enter the boo/hisses here… I know… nobody feels bad for me. I’ll be in Paris for 2 weeks! I assure you, I’ll be working non-stop and I won’t be skipping down streets with a crepe in hand and a beret on my head. (well…maybe I’ll do that on my one day off)
This whole ordeal made me think about “the juggle.” I was fortunate enough to attend Arianna Huffington’s keynote address last night for the event and was able to mingle with some entrepreneurs for the night. The number one question I was asked was:
“How do you do it? Juggle both a FT job and your business?”
The short answer is INTENSE organization and little sleep. I’ll elaborate.
When I first started working on “SBNY” I was bored at my current job. I found that weeks one and two of the month were busy and for the remainder of the month, I was left twiddling my thumbs. The idea for Something Borrowed NY was conceptualized in 2009 when my 2nd oldest sister was married.
However, it was now 2011 and I needed a project. OK – let’s get SUPER real. I had just gone through an AWFUL break-up (we lived together…so that creates a mess), and I knew I needed something to get my mind off of my depressing romantic state. So I researched, I read, I took classes at General Assembly, I enlisted my best friend and we started. I coded the site myself, I took frequent long lunches or personal days to have meetings with designers, entrepreneurs and investors, and we launched.
I took a deep breath. Once the site was up and running – maintaining and juggling both became much easier…but not for long.
Social media is KEY to building a business. I was spending my days tweeting non-stop. That’s when I started to hire interns. They were creating blog posts, tweeting & Facebook(ing) for us.
And then…I was offered my current job.