We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alyson Caffrey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alyson below.

Alyson, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

I worked with a mompreneur to help her plan her second maternity leave. When we were in her very first discovery session, she shared with me that during her first pregnancy, her small design agency was about half the size. She was the sole breadwinner in her home and she was petrified to let her clients know she was pregnant. Afraid that they would all cancel their design retainers and she’d lose all her business. Preparing for a meeting with a prospect, she confided that she chose the baggiest shirt she owned to wear to the meeting. Afraid that this prospect wouldn’t do business with her because she was expecting a child in just a few months. The shrinking access to maternity leave and support welcoming a new child is shrinking for employees and abysmal for moms running their own shops. They’re afraid that clients will cancel, they feel they have to work to the bone while they’re expecting to save up enough money to take some time off. Even if they get a little time to be with baby, they feel pulled back into the business too early without enough time to bond. Or if they want to go back, they feel the guilt from their communities, friends, other moms. It’s time to empower mompreneurs to kidproof their business and take the maternity leave of their dreams. Becoming a mother is the most natural form of leadership training. Powerful moms can grow powerful businesses and change lives if they can feel supported through this transition.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Alyson Caffrey. I’m an Operations Strategist by experience and I help mompreneurs plan the maternity leave of their dreams. Over the last six years running Operations Agency, I’ve worked with franchises, brick-and-mortar businesses, medical facilities, digital marketing agencies, contractors, and so many more. The one thing they all have in common: their businesses DEPEND on them to run.

We help create the operational structure to allow small businesses to thrive independently of any one person. Including the founder.

I took two maternity leaves from my business in two years (yikes) and experienced two of the largest growth years in my business to that point. Removing yourself from your business as a mom is critical to your success. Everyone says “my business is my baby”, but it’s time for your business to become a thriving adult.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I had my first son, Frank, my whole world changed. They say you have no idea what birth and becoming a mom is like until you actually go through it; they’re right. We were still in the hospital and had just been moved to the permanent room we’d be spending the night in. Frank was born in the middle of the night and when we got into our room it was just before sunrise two days before my 29th birthday. My husband snapped this wonderful picture of us: mom and baby. For the very first time. My hair was wild and crazy from birth and my son was sleeping. The next frame, the one that wasn’t captured, was me placing my baby in the bassinet to pick up my phone and answer Slack messages from clients and team members. There aren’t many opportunities where you’re shown so literally what your priorities are. I was literally choosing my business over my baby. At first, I wore it like a badge of honor. I told myself that I was so committed to my business that I was answering emails in the hospital. The reality was, that no one could make key decisions in my business without my input.

When I got back from the hospital, I took 2 weeks off (barely) before I realized my own business could not function without me. Committed to the time with my son, I created new systems for my team to be able to manage and thrive without my input. The coolest thing– they came up with amazing ideas and were able to expand on the current services we were providing. Adding more value to clients and driving more repeat business for us. To this day, I think my businesses wouldn’t be where they are had I not gone through the experience of welcoming my new son.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

When I first started I was the sweaty generalist of operations. I worked fractionally for a handful of businesses and I was up to my eyeballs in tasks and meetings. Quickly my plate was overflowing and it was clear I needed to hire someone. It was a really confronting experience to try to train someone to support me with client work. It forced me to crystallize my frameworks for operations, grow to a new level of leadership and redesign our offers that helped our clients win.

I was full time with an employee within one year and at year 2.5 I became the sole provider for my family just 3 months after welcoming our first son.

Today we have 8 people on our core team who work with our clients day in and day out. We’re always growing, streamlining and helping our clients win.

I’ve also had the wonderful opportunity to work myself out of a lof of the core delivery functions of how we work at operations agency so I can focus on creating value and working with mompreneurs preparing for maternity leave.

x   

Contact Info:

• Website: http://alysoncaffrey.com/
• Instagram: @alycaffrey
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010484251872
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyson-caffrey-26723990/