Entrepreneur Journal: Felicity Chapman, CEO Cubes & Crayons

(Reuters) - Felicity Chapman had a newborn, a design business in its infancy and a problem. They did not get along. After the birth of her first daughter, Chapman decided she would only work part-time, but found it all but impossible to juggle both her clients and childcare. Chapman knew she needed to find some flexible childcare that would allow her to accommodate her clients' needs, without shortchanging her daughter. The following is a personal 5-day journal written by Chapman exclusively for Reuters.com on her work and life:

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By Felicity Chapman

3.25.09

It's 10:30 a.m. PST and both kids are finally to bed. It has been an energizing and exhausting day at the same time. My youngest fell out of bed and so the day started at 5 a.m., spending an hour reading books and getting her back to sleep. Then my big girl was up and the routine started. I took a short run and then caught up on e-mail via phone. Our numbers looked good for the day which is reassuring. The early part of March had some unexpected slow days and I am feeling the pressure to kick us into high gear. Oh when will that waiting list come? Three outfits later I am ready to rock and roll. I read a book with each daughter and then it's already time to get them dressed and hair brushed and out the door. Fifteen minutes later, with just my littlest with me, I am at Cubes & Crayons. I spend the first hour in childcare going over new classes and playing. Of course my littlest is fussy from lack of sleep, so into the car for nap on the way to marketing presentation to new moms' group at Day One. It went well, but only three moms so I hope we get at least one new member out of it.

2:30 p.m. and time to shut down until 6 - kid time. Playtime in the yard; I picked weeds and the girls made weed soup. A good time was had by all. I made fresh pesto and tossed hubby's homemade pizza dough. By 6 I had the pizza made and was working on getting assembled for wine and biz night. I organized, but definitely was not motivated to go. It didn't help that S (my youngest daughter) was getting grumpy from lack of sleep. Definitely feeling overextended at the moment. Ready for bed, but off to C&C to strategize with other small biz owners. It was definitely worth the effort. The brainstorming was energizing and reminded me that nothing beats live interaction. I feel renewed with ideas for growing C&C and can't wait until tomorrow, but for now sleep calls.

3.27.09

Started the day with an ambitious to-do list, but it's a good way to help me focus my energy. Would love to have finished even half of it, but didn't so it will spill into the weekend a bit. I ended up without a car so that slowed me down a bit. We got dropped off at C&C around 9 a.m. I played with S for a bit and checked in with Ashley (employee) for upcoming events. She's doing a great job in the director position. I will be sad to lose her when she goes for her credential this fall. I updated the blog with new calendar listings and worked on our first print ad. I am a little wary to do a print ad, but I'm told they get good ROI (return on investment) so I'm going to try it. Maybe we will be able to extend our customer base? Did several small tasks such as follow up emails and proactive asks with investors. We have Bern building relationships for awhile, but now with San Francisco launch getting closer I feel the need to push harder. With the Recess partnerships our start-up costs are significantly lower. I am contemplating a small business loan if we could get one instead of investors. Not sure if it will work in the timeline? Paul called to say space we want in SF isn't available, but landlord would be willing to build out our second choice to our specifications. Not sure that's the choice, but I'm going to think on it. We also are looking at the positive feedback from existing customers in the area that are ready to sign up. Heard from Las Madres parents' group, regarding a recruiting event for them. This really hits our target (audience), so we set up two for April. Took a break to walk and pick up K from school. The weather is summery warm and I would love to spend the afternoon playing outside with the kids, but that isn't in the cards I am just drained from a very long week. I did another presentation at DayOne to a much larger group. It went well I think. As a treat I rewarded myself with a facial. Some days I am way better at this work-life balance thing than others. I'm hoping to take at lease 24 hours off this weekend so I can rejuvenate mentally.

3.30.09

Took a good percentage of the weekend off. As a result I'm a bit overwhelmed, but also much more refreshed for the busy week ahead. I heard from two investors who are out for the moment, although they would still like the opportunity to get in later on. Due to job and other start-up issues they are not willing to take the risk. I get that. And they may come back or make introductions elsewhere. You never know. I have learned the true value of building relationships in the past year. In fact in hindsight I should have become the work-life balance advocate first and then built the brick and mortar version. Have several big events for the kids today, so I will have to put most of work to the end (of the day). I was able to get the April newsletter out over the weekend, which was rewarding because I can see that it was well received. Hopefully it will get increased hours or members bringing friends for new events. I am battling a nasty cold/sore throat and it's taking its toll. I got through the emails and followed up on the most crucial. I had a great follow up conversation with potential partner/investor today - she found me! It's quite the balance between marketing current location and working on investors. We absolutely will expand this year with a minimum of two more and maximum of four more sites, so we are pushing hard. We had an unexpected call from a local magazine to cover us. They ran a piece on us last year, so I was fairly surprised. They are doing the ‘mompreneur' angle with three profiles of local businesswomen. It's hard to say what kind of impact it will have. The call reminded me that we need to do a new press release and also update our media page on our website. We had so much coverage last year that we just stopped posting toward the end of the year. Going to bed and hoping to be more energized tomorrow.

3.31.09

Up at 6 a.m. and putting text in our first print ad. Our graphic designer whipped it out last night and I want to get it sent out to the newspaper to run next week. I am nervous about spending our marketing dollars on a print ad. I don't believe in ads as I completely ignore them, but my friend at a local spa swears by her ads in this paper. It's a local free paper that is widely read by our target audience.

My littlest woke up very early and interrupted me while I was putting the finishing touches on the ad, so no run for me. I e-mailed the ad out and then took her for a long walk. My cold is still taking its toll, so I treated us to hot cocoa at the local café.

The work morning was spent following up with interview with local media for the magazine article and calling schools for my oldest. It's always a juggle to create this balance. My littlest was very tired early, so everything cut short to bring her home to nap and then back to work while she slept. I feel much less focused than last week. I can't decide if it's the head cold or what, but having trouble moving at my usual efficient pace. I put on TweetDeck, but feel I have nothing to post at the moment. I know that ‘tweeting' is good for traffic, although we are still trying to figure out if it will translate into actual customers/revenue. We haven't been tweeting long enough to tell. Instead, I blogged for a local site on a parenting topic. The posts there are not for any direct revenue, but the site is very well-read nationally - especially in our area - so Cubes & Crayons benefits with the extra local attention. We are adding more of a community feel everywhere on our blog. I wrote a quick review of a book recommendation for "Alphabet Under Construction," a favorite and different alphabet book.

While a busy week for me personally with media, photo shoot, and speaking and several school related events for my oldest, it feels quiet at C&C without any open houses or major events. Tomorrow is our member social. I whipped up macadamia-nut shortbread brownies, a crowd favorite. Members take a couple of minutes to hang out and meet each other. They all have funny and interesting stories to share about their kids and their lives.

This afternoon was with the girls and so not productive, but spent the evening refocusing my attention and getting my to-do list ready for tomorrow. Took a moment to review my notes on the viral marketing talk I am giving tomorrow night at a women's networking dinner. I took a moment to read blogs "The Juggle" and "SV(Silicon Valle)Moms" and made comments as well as tweeted. I greatly prefer the in-person to the online interactions, but it's the reality these days. I am looking forward to the many events we have planned in April. I am finishing up e-mails to staff and then going to call it a night. I should write for my personal blog, but I don't have anything to say and being phony gets you nowhere. Is it the weekend yet?

4.1.09

For my exercise time I ran over to Cubes & Crayons to drop off brownies for member social and paychecks and then headed to the local drug store for some tacks to hang posters in our daycare. Two months in our new space and we are still putting in the finishing touches, especially in the office area. Fortunately parents are more adaptable for themselves than they are for their kids. The child development center looks great.

K wanted to walk to school, so I tossed on my mommy hat, got the girls ready and headed out the door. I took the morning off to spend with S. It was great to get out and just be a mom. The weather is gorgeous and we took full advantage with a walk on the trail and swing time in the park. Then home for nap for her and work for me. I had one of those completely focused periods coupled with S taking a long nap. I did invoices, which made me feel good, because I know new money is coming in. We did okay last month, but not as well as I would like. We are still aiming for that waiting list. We have four open houses scheduled in April, plus more visits to new mom groups and coupons going out with compostable-diaper company. I have two speaking engagements as well.

Returned from speaking to women's networking group tonight, to wide-awake kids; K says their daddy riles them up. I spent an hour reading and telling stories until they passed out from exhaustion. The event was interesting and I learned lots. First, I have way more to say than the 20 allotted minutes on marketing. This is a definite possibility for a small series of workshops and/or a book There are lots of small business owners out there that we are not yet connected to and should be. I wish we had been able to speak at the Palo Alto chapter instead of Santa Clara, as apparently most of the people there last night are too far south for us. Despite being business owners, this wasn't our target. They were much older and more the Mary Kay sales person, than the start-up entrepreneur we get. Still every experience is a learning opportunity. The most important thing I learned was that I need to stop spending energy on events besides open houses and focus on getting out there and speaking. I have my network of people but we need to connect beyond our network. The best way to do that is to go out and speak to other networks.