Designing a Business That Bends Around Your Kids, Not the Other Way Round
The Biskery founders Saskia & Lisa
If you are a mum at the start line of a business idea, you do not need to wait for a quieter season or a neater calendar. You need permission, from yourself, to build in a way that honours both your ambition and your reality. The shape of your business might look different from the traditional blueprint, but different is exactly where new, better models begin.Some of the bravest builders are the ones doing it with a toddler on their hip and school emails pinging in the background.You can build. But differently.
Motherhood does not cancel your ambition. It reshapes it. It pulls your time, energy and identity in new directions, and that can make the idea of starting or growing a business feel impossible at times. Yet the truth many women discover is this: the very things that make motherhood demanding are the same things that can make you an extraordinary founder.You might not be building like the founders you see in the headlines. You might be building in school hours, in nap time sprints, on your phone in the car outside football lessons. That does not make your business less serious, less worthy or less powerful. It simply means you are designing it around a different centre of gravity: your family.Starting a business as new mums
When The Biskery began we (Saskia & Lisa) were brand-new mothers who still wanted work that gave us purpose and identity outside of motherhood, but not at the expense of actually being present for our children. That tension (wanting both) was not a flaw in our character; it was the brief for the business we would go on to build.Instead of squeezing our children around a traditional career, we asked: what if the work flexed around the family? That single question became the seed for a biscuit bakery that runs on one core value: kindness – to customers, to the team, and crucially, to ourselves as working mums.
Building a business that works for motherhood
The Biskery did not grow through all-nighters and 80-hour weeks. It grew slowly, sustainably, and very intentionally, in a way that allowed us to do school drop-offs and pick-ups and still send thousands of biscuits all over the UK. We chose an organic, sustainable approach – in production, packaging and pace – even when it meant saying no to opportunities that would have demanded more than our families could give.As we started hiring, we chose to see what many employers call “risks” – maternity leave, childcare juggle, school holidays – as reality, not a problem to be minimised. We designed school-hour only contracts, listened to each parent’s unique situation, and treated flexibility as a strategic advantage, not a favour.No single “right” way to be a mum in business
At The Biskery, you find all kinds of mums: those with teenagers, those just taking their first tentative step back into paid work, and single mums shouldering the financial responsibility. Each version as valid as the other. They coexist, side by side, each one skilful, each one enough.The common thread is not a perfect work–life balance. It is honest conversations about needs, limits and goals, and a willingness to build roles around real people instead of outdated ideals. There is no one-size-fits-all contract for motherhood, so there is no one-size-fits-all version of success either.Purpose, profit and permission to do it your way
From day one, The Biskery was set up as a for‑profit company because we believed that mothers’ skills should be properly compensated for, not treated as a hobby on the side. Our biscuits carry kind messages, but our business model carries another: your contribution to the economy has value, and you deserve to be compensated for it.Working mums often work harder than anyone else in the room because they know exactly what their time away from their children costs. That is not a reason to burn out. It is a reason to build smarter, slower, and more on your own terms – in partnership with your family life, not in competition with it.
The MOB are delighted to be partnering with The Biskery at our MOB App Launch Party on 29 January with Helpbnk, Rewired Careers and Tradestars. Come and Join us!
“What if you could go out-out and still be in bed by 10.30pm?
What if a night out didn’t drain you, but energise you?
What if a night out reminded you of who you really are?
Yes, that bright, ambitious woman underneath the film of smeared banana. This is it. This is the night you to stop winging it, and start building the money-strong motherhood that you know is ahead of you.
We’re celebrating the launch of the MOB App with a secret, invite-only night.
Powered by HelpBnk, TradeStars and Rewired Careers — the ultimate collaboration supporting ambition, opportunity and what’s next for women building on their own terms.
Come with a friend.
Leave clearer, braver, and energised for what you are building next.
