- Nicola Prentiss is a single mother who runs her own business teaching personal finance courses.
- The limited hours forced her to adjust her eating habits and timings and work odd hours.
- She even involves her kids in brainstorming sessions to get fresh ideas.
This isn't a “How I Became a Millionaire Single Mom” type of story. Inspirational stories they may be, but most of us are much closer to the beginning of that road than the end.
As a single parent running a business, you juggle clients, deadlines, school pick-ups and drop-offs, endless laundry, and meal prep. With three slices of bread, a can of beans, and last week's carrots, you can whip up a meal that even your pickiest kids will eat.
Using the same ingenuity, I was able to stretch my work hours to be as productive and earn as I would be in a full-time job.
Eating it changes
Adopting the 16:8 pattern allowed me to eat a later breakfast after my morning school drop-off and pick-up, but what really made a difference was my 3pm lunch, which kept me full past my kids' 7pm dinnertime — one less meal to plan, shop and prepare.
This certainly helps, since where I live in Spain, lunch is traditionally the main meal and dinner is a lighter (and often later) snack, but it also feels like it suits my body.
I changed what I eat
I rarely batch cook. The problem with batch cooking is that you still end up cooking, and cooking is a waste of time. I opt for no-cook or slow-cook options — things that can be prepared in just a few minutes, like pre-made soups and salads or stir-fried noodles or gnocchi.
But I buy in bulk: I calculate how many perishables I will consume in a week and how many non-perishables I will consume in a month, and buy enough at one time.
This is easily done by eating the same meals for as many weeks as I can. So far, my limit is five weeks of salmorejo, a cold Spanish soup similar to gazpacho. This soup is served with croutons, chopped vegetables, jamon, and crumbled boiled eggs, so it hits all the major food groups.
I do admin work at the playground.
I spend nearly two hours a day after school watching my two boys at their playground. That time was wasted time until I brought my little Chromebook and started working there. I specifically assign certain tasks to those magically free times in my day, like admin and email correspondence. When my boys are having fun playing with their friends, I often have enough time to write marketing content.
Or, on the way home from dropping off the kids at school, you can send yourself a voice note that can be transcribed later by AI. It's also a great time to listen to a podcast related to your business.
Walking has another benefit: it can boost creativity, according to a 2014 study by Stanford University researchers published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Participants who went for walks saw an 81% increase in scores on tests measuring divergent thinking, a thought process associated with creativity.
Make the most of sleepless nights
My kids, ages 6 and 9, often wake me up in the middle of the night, from going to the bathroom to throwing up. Before, when I couldn't fall asleep, I'd lie awake, restless, until my alarm went off. Now I'm up and working. Waking up before dawn has helped me build a website, launch a business, and regularly meet deadlines.
Don't get me wrong, I don't purposely wake up that early, but I make the most of it and am productive. I have to go to bed early to make up for it, so I usually get a good night's sleep the next day. But I'm not sacrificing it just because I don't have a social life at night because I'm a single mom.
I use my kids as inspiration
I gave them ideas and our logo, company name, etc. evolved with their input because kids are unique and have amazing insights. My son, who was 8 at the time, suggested a pricing strategy I later learned about from a business coach: raise your price until people stop buying, then raise it back down to the previous number.
Kids have helped me in other ways too. For example, I teach personal finance courses and it's been helpful to explain stock market concepts to a 9-year-old. Listening to him explain it back to me has resulted in a successful social media post, from the perspective of “if a kid can get it, anyone can do it.”
I may not be a millionaire entrepreneur yet, but when I do, this is how I'll get there.
Do you have a personal essay about life as a single mother and would like to share it? Contact our editors: Akalplus@businessinsider.com.
