Being a woman, there is always a stigma that holds you back from diving into the business world with your spouse, family and friends.
However, by doing business, you will discover that open communication reduces resentment, either about your partner or the business. Growing a business with your spouse can enhance your relationship. It’s a venture which requires open-minded thinking, clear communication, passion for the business and love for each other.
There are tough times between spouses but offering a helping hand by learning the company operations before eventually heading it and leading a team of her own is what Zoey Sin did.
Here at Mamahood, we had the opportunity to dive deeper into Zoey Sin’s role as a business owner helping alongside her husband and mom to her one-year-old daughter.
1. Mamahood: First of all, as Head of Operations at Ascend Marketing, what kind of challenges do you face on a daily basis? And how do you overcome that?
On a daily basis, it’s my responsibility to keep the company’s operations running smoothly with minimal hiccups.
The challenges often come in the forms of communication and company processes.
I have to make sure that everything that the team has doubts about are being clarified and addressed, so they can move on without being a bottleneck and making sure that we are constantly updating our processes by identifying redundancy to be the most efficient in our output with the least effort.
2. Mamahood: As a wife and a mother, how do you divide your time as a businesswoman? Do you need a timetable to keep yourself organised and to avoid overlapping issues in your schedule?
I have to purposefully make time for each area of my life. I need to schedule it instead of waiting for it to happen.
For example, during the day, I set aside time in the morning and evening to spend quality time with my daughter. I work during the noontime and I spend time with my husband at night.
I also remind myself to be fully present with the person I spend time with. It might be short but it’s a quality one.
In a week, I also set a day to love myself by doing what I love (can be working out, going for a massage, shopping trip, girl’s night out etc), a day when the whole family hangs out together with fun activities and a date night that my husband and I will do anything that we love as a couple.
3. Mamahood: Since you have experienced financial limitations, what do you advise other people to do while struggling financially? Should they come out with a plan or start a business?
It can be stressful to constantly have to worry about the bills to pay and the next meal.
I would encourage people to get a stable income and make sure basic needs are being met first so they can have a sound mind to make decisions if they were to plan or start a business.
I believe that our business is a reflection of our personal life.
4. Mamahood: It might be difficult to stay positive while struggling financially. How to achieve and maintain a positive attitude despite financial limitations at the start of a business?
I believe that positivity is a mindset and perspective of life, not determined by the situation.
If I take on the mindset of “everything is AGAINST me”, no matter how good of a place I might be in life, I might not even appreciate or see it.
If I tell myself that “everything happens FOR me”, I might be struggling, but I’d ask myself “What can I be grateful for NOW? What can I learn from this? How can I start doing it differently so I don’t come back to where I am now?”.
5. Mamahood: Mental health is a serious topic and various people struggle with it. How do you juggle motherhood and maintaining a good work-life balance from a mental health perspective?
My husband and I believe in work-life integration, that work and life happen concurrently.
For example, it’s almost impossible to balance both because there are just times that we are on our way home from work and our mind is still at work or we are at work and we think about family issues.
If we impose that we always need to strive for balance (which often doesn’t happen), we start to feel miserable when we don’t achieve it. We just set ourselves up for failure there!
Coming from a post-natal depression experience, I realized that it’s important that I spend time loving myself, doing what I love and making myself happy.
If I didn’t fill up my tank, it would lead to a negative withdrawal in the other areas of my life and ultimately a mental health spiral.
6. Mamahood: What is your life mantra that keeps you going with everyday life – as both leader and a mother.
“I can do everything through Christ who strengthens me.” is a verse I hold closely.
Admitting that not everything has to come from me and therefore not imposing any demands personally.
7. Mamahood: Between your business and your household, how do you as a couple, describe yourselves as a powerful team?
We believe that since we chose each other as the best partner to do the rest of our lives with, we would make the best partner in anything else we do as well.
Simply because we trust that we always have the best interest of each other.
8. Mamahood: From experience, how important it is to be aware of scammers these days? What are the red flags that everyone should look out for?
With the advancement of technology, comes a new avenue of scammers reaching out.
Do not believe what was said and portrayed but do your due diligence in researching online! If anything is too good to be true, it usually is.
9. Mamahood: What’s next for Ascend Marketing? And what do you want to achieve next in your life?
We are on a mission to impact 1 million business owners to equip them with proven tools and strategies for them to reach out and impact the market with their product.
It’s always a vision for my husband and I to inspire couples to break boundaries and the stigma of marriage, being a parent or even working together as a couple.
10. Mamahood: Lastly, what advice would you tell other mums that are interested in starting up their own business?
It is possible! Find something that interests you, test the market for interests then get started!