Work-life balance for mother, three-time business owner

Three is the magic number for Jen Taler. She runs three businesses with her family of three.

Taler, 40, juggles running two businesses, Akin Cooperative and Market in the Alley, and opening up another, The Dustland, a bar coming this year, all with her 5-year-old sidekick, Houston, and her partner Michael Stoll. Hailing from her son’s namesake, Houston, Texas, Taler came to Las Vegas in 2009 with Zappos as a buyer and helped found Fergusons Downtown with former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

From driving her son to school to driving sales, here is how Taler balances it all.

Walk me through a day in your life as a mother also running three businesses.

It starts waking up my child. Get my child ready for school, try to have a little bit of fun with him, to get his day started, and then we take him to school.I usually get back downtown around 8:30, 8:45 (a.m.) depending on the day. I come straight here to Akin, I get prepped for the day and I have meetings.

If not, I’m down by Dustland just because we’re in the part where we’re trying to get open. So, I have a lot of meetings down there, walking the space, making sure everything’s going well.

Around 2 p.m. someone from the team shows up, and I typically go get my son from school during the first part of the week. Then, I try to be present and help him with schoolwork, have fun, like taking him to the park or take him to baseball practice, and try to just kind of finish the day that way. Usually, I’ll jump back on during the evening, if duty calls. During the back half of the week my partner will pick up our child so I can spend longer days working on site.

Was there ever a time where you felt like you didn’t really have the best balance between work and life?

Pre-child: never; I personally, love to learn, love to work, love to do trial and error and grow. So, during that time I never had proper work-life balances because I was just always thinking about work.

I think having a child really puts things in perspective, on time, energy and where you want to give it. I wanted to make sure that I’m always present for my child and showing up the best I can for him. But I would say even that first year after having him, it was a struggle to find that balance, because I didn’t have the boundaries before.

I’ve worked really hard to make sure that I’m prioritizing the right things that you need to focus on to move things forward. Sometimes it’s really easy to focus on the little things that just take up a lot of time, a lot of space, and you never really chomp at the big things and make real progress forward. It fills up time. Where now I really focus on looking at my to-do (list) and what is actually moving the needle forward, and what can sit back on the back burner or wait until there is more time.

I have an awesome team of women around me that I also can call really good friends. They have been so instrumental in giving me a better balance in my life, to be able to be present for my son and be a little bit more present for myself.

What are some boundaries you’ve set up or recommend others set to make sure that balance stays in place?

The biggest thing that I’ve learned over the years is schedules and systems are more freeing than restrictive. Finding a flow that works for you, and, more importantly, creating systems and procedures so you can capture the work that’s repetitive. This way you’re not trying to remember them or do them on the fly.

For me, this was documenting the processes of, say, launching the Market in another city or location. Now, we have all the steps to make that happen written down. Now, we can focus on the fun part, like being creative and making new spaces.

Are there times when you find your work and life meshing? If so, how do you do it in a way that feels good for you and your family?

It’s definitely not separate. I don’t really know the right way to ever express work-life integration, because I think that can be convoluted and misconstrue to then not actually have real balance

My life is my work. I love supporting small businesses, and I have since I was little. I remember growing up being with my mom in whatever businesses she was doing. She had three of us, and so she always brought us along. I feel like that’s in my DNA, so it’s cool to bring him around.

Recently, he said “Mommy, I want to sell at Market.” I’m like, “OK, what do you want to sell? Let’s build you a little brand,” and we made H.I.S. Flowers. He was asking for eight months to sell, so he got to show up and just sell flowers.

The other day, he grabbed a box and grabbed things from around the house. He’s like, “I’m going to set up a shop if you want to come.” So, like, he definitely wants to do that today. But he’s 5, so he has a lot of time to figure out what he wants to do.

Has there ever been a time for you where there’s been a family or business emergency and you had to put one aside? How did you manage that?

I’ve had some personal health issues this year, and recently I had to. It was during the Easter Market. I was able to do the first egg drop but had to leave because I was not doing well. I had to leave one of my friends alone with all the children and I was able to confide in a few of my vendors. They all stepped in, no questions asked.

They helped pass out all the eggs, made sure that the chaos of the 2 p.m. drop was good, and then they continued to check in throughout the weekend to make sure everything was OK.

I think building trust in the team and entrusting them to make the right decision is important. If you don’t give that to people and kind of respect them and honor their work, then I think that makes it harder to make those easy transitions during hard times.

What is one piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur, business owner and mother, like you?

Give yourself grace, especially that first year. You’re just trying to figure out how to keep this tiny human alive and what life looks like. You’re a mom now, it’s a lot and they need a lot from you but find time to take deep breaths and you’ll find the time to manage it all. Some days are easier than others. Sometimes your child is amazing, and sometimes they’re little monsters.

Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.