Welcome to Ignition Law’s ‘Igniting The Spark‘ series, where we spend five minutes with inspiring entrepreneurs, talking about the key moments that defined their careers.
This month we caught up with Jane Johnson – Founder of Careering into Motherhood, which is a website and team of expert coaches offering career advice and support for working mothers.
Jane Johnson – Founder of Careering Into Motherhood
Tell us a little bit about your business and what you do..
My business started as a Facebook group, about 3 years ago, I didn’t even have a Facebook account at the time but I wanted to create a place where women could support one another – we say Careering into Motherhood is where ambition and motherhood exist side-by-side.
We now have a cohort of around 40 Coaches who provide advice and expertise for working mothers. This is freely available on our website to our subscribers, who can also browse the individual profiles of our Coaches and connect directly with them if they want some more bespoke coaching to support them in their careers. We are building an online library of curated career advice for mums.
The moment that ignited the spark in me to start a business was…
I don’t actually think that starting a business is a sudden single moment, it’s more like a continuous evolution until you strike it right, and even then it is still a constant journey of learning and evolving. But I will say that for me the realisation that going back to my role as it was, before my maternity leave would mean I would literally only see my baby at weekends, I’d be leaving before he woke up and getting home after he went to bed. I just didn’t feel that was right for me, and I had the sudden realisation, as so many parents do (and the data show that it is mostly women) that I had to choose between my career and my child. It just felt so wrong – I loved my career. And pretty much everything I have been doing since then has been driving to help make that easier for women.
The toughest challenge I’ve faced in business is…
Taking my business down for 6 weeks, shortly after launch. Our initial cohort of Coaches was not fully representative of the diversity among our online community of 9,000 mums. I got it very wrong and I take full responsibility. I took the decision to immediately take down the site, I was very clear about what I needed to do, so I issued a statement to that effect, and I spent 6 weeks just talking to people and learning an awful lot. We relaunched on 1st March with a bigger and much better offering. I am passionate about ensuring my business is as diverse and accessible as possible. The business has been flying since we relaunched. I continue to learn about DEI all the time, but diversity is not just the right thing to do but it is definitely good for business.
The biggest success has been…
Running the business and looking for investment around family life.
I’m very good at…
Making things happen.
The type of person I look to recruit is…
Trustworthy and fast!
The part of my day I most look forward to is…
Sales calls – I never thought I would say that but I do! I love selling our product because I really believe in it.
If I could give fellow entrepreneurs one piece of advice it would be…
I’d like to give two – Expect to pivot, continuously, and develop a thick skin but listen and respond to feedback.
Outside of work I can be found…
Walking my dog.
My philosophy on life is…
Trust your instinct, it is probably right.
Client story
What was your business challenge?
I had a fairly major defamation issue. I took it very personally and wanted to respond in a particular way.
How did you work with Ignition Law on this? What support did we provide you with?
Ignition provided me with invaluable advice, the best thing was you went beyond “what the law says” and took into consideration a lot of subtle nuances of the situation. The strategy we deployed as a result definitely contributed to saving my business.
What did you enjoy most about working with the team at Ignition?
(Apart from the fact that most of the lawyers I work with at Ignition are fellow working mothers!) I love having one point of contact but being able to plug into everyone else. Working with such a multi-discplinary firm that is also so easy to deal with has been a game changer.
