Ice Cream with My Mom 🥰
📍 Tampa, Florida, Monday, October 13
This isn’t a “look at me, I can take Mondays off” post.
It’s simply a reminder that our time with the people we love is finite, especially our parents.
If our businesses aren’t designed to make space for moments like this, then what’s the point of it all?
I’m deeply grateful for a team that allows not only me, but everyone on the team, to enjoy these moments.
Every person at Staff4Half has the same freedom and flexibility to design their work around what matters most in life, and that could very well be an ice cream on a Monday afternoon with mom and the nieces.
Three things that help us:
1️⃣ Design for redundancy. Cross-training and clear SOPs ensure that no single person becomes a bottleneck, myself included.
2️⃣ Protect moments that matter. We encourage teammates to block time for important family moments, no questions asked.
3️⃣ Lead with trust and clarity. When I take time off for moments like these, it sends a message that everyone can too.
Business is a vehicle, but the destination is a life you’re proud to live with the people you love. ❤️
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For a long time, I turned a blind eye to this…
I’ve never posted much here, and definitely not personally.Yet I think it’s time I share why I’m doing what I’m doing.I believe it’s relevant to many other business owners around me. For years, I outsourced work to the Philippines.The numbers add up but it never feels quite right when a team member has to work a night shift while I enjoy the light of the day.
I remember one call in particular: It was late afternoon my time and the middle of the night for her.She showed up to our call knowing that her kids would soon wake up, expecting a happy, well rested mom…
And I felt my discomfort.
She was sacrificing the quality of her family life while I was growing my business.Is this what work-life balance and team health are supposed to feel like? We say we care about work-life balance. About being values-driven. About team health. But when our business depends on someone else working shifts we would refuse, I struggle to look myself in the mirror. Aren’t we quietly lying to ourselves?I didn’t like asking that question because for a long time, I didn’t have a better solution.
Until a few years ago, when I flew to Buenos Aires for an EO conference, not expecting much. But something clicked and I realised I might have found a better way:
- US-aligned time zones.
- Cultural chemistry I hadn’t felt elsewhere.
I tested a few placements for my office supply business. It worked better than I expected.
So I built a team.
And now I’ve built a company around it. Staff4Half didn’t start as a business plan. It started as a gut check. I believe there’s a better way to build a company. If you’ve wrestled with this too, I’d love to hear your take.
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Hi, I’m Rosemary. In the past 15 years, I’ve built three businesses in the US, Puerto Rico, and Argentina.
If you believe in leading with trust and building with heart, I invite you to follow me and connect with a community of founders building together.
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Hiring a Business Coach Isn’t Weakness, It’s Wisdom
Is hiring a business coach a sign of weakness?
I don’t think so.
As companies grow, so do the problems, and we at Staff4Half are no exception.
More people means more moving parts, and more decisions to make. And suddenly, it’s not about the ideas of the founder anymore (sadly), it’s about how well we can leverage the knowledge of the whole team.
And that’s where it gets hard. Inside the company, we all carry our own baggage:
preconceived ideas entrenched communication styles blind spots we don’t even noticeI believe that especially when we as founders want to create an extraordinary company culture of support and fostering, being open and honest in the interest of the business can become harder.
And that’s where I see an outside coach brings immense value.
A coach challenges us as a team without politics and can help us see things we’d never catch on our own, so that we can stay friends while also doing what is right for the business.
That is, I believe, the beauty of an outside coach.
And it’s not a weakness, it’s a strength!
P.S.: Did you know that women are more likely to hire a business coach than men? I found some reports that suggest that half of business coaching is done in woman-led companies (when women only lead a minority of businesses).
What’s your observation?
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Episode 6 – Starting your own business
Listen to Rosemary talk about her experience starting her company Gorilla Stationers and what helped her to keep the track until where she is now.
