Dani
You know those times when you meet someone new, and he or she is really awesome, and you think to yourself, “How on earth does she do it all?” That’s the way I felt when I first met Shiang-Ling, a real-life supermom.
Shiang-Ling is a military wife, a mother of four children under the age of 7, a visionary and an entrepreneur. She believes that if you want something enough, you can push past your fears and go for it.
For Shiang-Ling, the entrepreneurial spirit has always been a part of her. She first started a photography business seven years ago, covering several niches like wedding and family portraits, before realizing her love for boudoir photography. Her passion is photographing women, empowering them and helping them find themselves again. She recently started a second small business, The Hive & Co., which is a resource blog with marketing and managing services like branding, design, web hosting and social media, specifically for small businesses.
The driving force behind Shiang-Ling is her belief that she is more than just a mother and a wife. While she loves both dearly, she also feels the need to grow personally while teaching her children to aspire for greatness. She enjoys being busy and hopes to teach them that’s how to be successful in life. I don’t see any way she could fail at this with her current track record!
Shiang-Ling is also a strong advocate for the military community. Not only does her business blog offer tips, advice and insight for new small business owners and entrepreneurs, it covers everything from business planning to management. Most of her clients and patrons are current or former military spouses. A plan is also in the works to create a network/referral service that connects business owners to military spouses and work-from-home moms. She and her business partner have many ideas and plans to empower and connect the military community.
After struggling with loneliness when starting her businesses, Shiang-Ling’s advice for other milspouses looking to do the same is to find a network of other spouses that are in the same boat as you, either running a businesses or aspiring to it. If she were doing it all over again, she would have first found a network or community so she didn’t feel like she was trying to maneuver the ins and out of entrepreneurship on her own. She also shares that she would have been more patient, feeling that she was too eager and rushed into purchases, decisions and sharing knowledge that she actually needed more time to develop. Patience really is a virtue!
Her biggest struggle today is balance. She shares, “I am very good at accomplishing many things, but it isn’t a walk in the park trying to do it all. I’ve learned that time management was and is very important to the management and growth of a business and my sanity.”
I can certainly relate to her on this subject! And although she admits it is hard work, and sometimes she does feel overwhelmed, she wouldn’t give it up for almost anything.
Moving forward, Shiang-Ling has a plan. In five years, she sees herself with a leading blog full of information, resources and contributions from other leaders in the business world (especially military spouses and work-from-home moms); with published eBooks, webinars and workshops; as a regular event speaker; managing a small business grant program and most importantly, she will be just as happy (if not more) to do what she loves with the drive to continue to grow and help others. “It’s just a small list,” she teases.