What Single Parenting Taught Me About Entrepreneurship.

I woke up today, and my daughter is 15. Fifteen! How did that happen? Where did the years go? For context, I’ve been a single parent since she was three. And I want to be clear about what I mean: I’m not co-parenting. I have raised her on my own as a single parent.

That means I have spent twelve years doing the school runs, making the decisions, paying the bills, showing up for the celebrations and figuring out what to do when things go wrong. Some seasons have been beautiful. Others have been held together by prayer, a tight calendar and the last bit of energy I had.

Somewhere along the way, I realised how much of what I know about entrepreneurship I learned at home. Both have asked me to take responsibility for something I love, even when I don’t have all the answers. Here are ten ways single parenting and building a business have felt remarkably similar to me.

1. You make decisions before you feel ready.

A child needs an answer. A client needs a decision. The school form has a deadline. Payroll has a deadline. You can seek advice, but eventually you have to choose a direction and live with it. I have learned to gather what I know, make the best decision I can and adjust when new information comes.

2. The budget has to stretch further than it should.

Single parents know the calculation: school costs, groceries, transport, an unexpected pair of shoes. Entrepreneurs know it too: salaries, suppliers, tax, and the invoice that still hasn’t been paid. A budget is not just numbers on a page when someone depends on you. It is a series of choices about what must happen now and what will have to wait.

3. Being responsible doesn’t mean you can do everything yourself.

I have needed family, friends, teachers, au pairs, and people who could step in when I could not be in two places at once. The business has needed a team, mentors, specialists and people willing to tell me the truth. Asking for help has sometimes been harder than doing the work, but it has also made both my daughter’s life and my work richer.

4. You have to be present for what is in front of you.

There have been times when work needed my attention while my daughter needed me. There have also been times when I was with her but my mind was busy solving a business problem. I have not always got that balance right. What I keep coming back to is this: attention is something we give, not something we merely intend to give. Give attention to what needs it at that time.

5. A difficult day does not mean you are failing.

A hard conversation with your child can leave you questioning yourself. So can a lost client, a cash flow squeeze or a plan that falls apart. On those days, it is tempting to judge the whole journey by what happened in one afternoon. But tomorrow still needs breakfast. The business still needs a decision. You deal with what happened, repair what you can and keep going.

6. What worked last year may not work now.

The little girl I parented at three is not the young woman turning 15. She needs different conversations, different boundaries and more room to make choices. Businesses change too. A system that worked when it was just you may frustrate a growing team. Growth asks you to notice what has changed and change your approach with it.

7. You cannot confuse providing with connecting.

Paying for what a child needs matters, but so does listening to her. In business, delivering the service matters, but so does understanding the person receiving it and the people helping you deliver it. I can tick every box and still miss what someone is trying to tell me. Both parenting and leadership require me to slow down enough to hear.

8. You will make mistakes in front of people who depend on you.

I have got things wrong as a parent. I have got things wrong as a leader. Sometimes I have had to say, “I should have handled that differently.” I want my daughter to know that taking responsibility includes apologising and changing your behaviour. I want my team to see that from me too.

9. The small, repeated things do most of the work.

A birthday is a beautiful milestone, but a childhood is built in ordinary moments: checking in, being there, keeping a promise, making supper. A business is built much the same way: following up, paying attention to the numbers, treating people well and doing what you said you would do. Consistency rarely makes for a dramatic story. Its results, over time, are enormous.

10. You are building something that must grow beyond you.

At three, my daughter needed me to hold her hand. At 15, part of loving her is helping her trust her own judgment. In business, I also have to share what I know, give others responsibility and allow them to grow. That can feel uncomfortable when you have spent years being the person who makes everything happen. But growth is the point.

As my daughter turns 15, I am proud of the young woman she is becoming. I am also thinking about the twelve years that brought us here: the early mornings, the difficult choices, the laughter, the help we received, and the days we made it through without knowing quite how.

Single parenting has taught me to be resourceful, to ask for help, to apologise, to plan and to keep showing up. Entrepreneurship asks those things of me too. I am still learning in both roles, and I suspect I always will be.

Happy 15th birthday to my daughter. Growing alongside you has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.

Yours in growing while we build,

The Business Doctor Keitumetse Lekaba