What Running a Baby Business Taught Me About Being a Better Mom

By Angie  |  Co-Founder, Little Zi

April 2026  ·  5 min read

I used to think that building Little Zi meant time away from my kids. I was wrong. Here’s what happened when I stopped separating the two.

The Zoom Call Days

When I was still in banking, working from home with Sophia — she was one, almost two — the thing that stressed me out the most wasn’t the workload. It was the interruptions I knew were coming.

I’d be on a Zoom call, presenting to a room full of colleagues, and Sophia would toddle up to me asking for water. For a cookie. For one more minute of my attention. She was a sweet, easy toddler — much easier to put on a routine than my second daughter would turn out to be — and I’d sit her next to me to color or play. And I’d manage. I always managed.

But I was always tense. Always bracing. Always aware of the line between “work Angie” and “mom Angie,” and terrified one was going to spill into the other.

I remember thinking, over and over: how am I going to do this?

Then I Left the Bank

When I finally decided to leave banking and go all in on Little Zi, the worry shifted — but it didn’t go away. Now the question was: how am I going to separate the two?

How do I draw a clean line between running a business and raising my girls when they’re both happening under the same roof, in the same hours, with the same pair of hands?

Let me tell you something I didn’t see coming.

It all just melted into one thing. It wasn’t “work” or “motherhood” anymore. It was just my day.

What My Day Actually Looks Like

Sophia is in school now. I still have Checa, my two-year-old, at home with me. No nanny, no separate office across town, no clean lines. Here’s the honest version.

I wake up early. I have an espresso. I work for about two hours on the things I can do quietly — the emails I need my brain fully online for, the strategy work, anything that takes real focus. Then I prep breakfast. I pack Sophia’s lunch. I wake her up, get her ready, and drop her at school.

When I come back, I take a beat. I get ready for my day — properly, not rushed — and then I start working again. I’m flexible on where. Some mornings I’m in my office. By late morning I might move to the kitchen, because that’s where Checa and I end up. She wakes around 9 or 10 and I make her breakfast, and we have our own little rhythm.

At 3, I pick up Sophia. If she has an activity, we go. If not, she gets a real break, then homework. Then bath. Then bedtime.

I used to work 9 to 6. Now I work 6 to 3. The hours didn’t shrink — they just moved. And honestly, AI has changed the math in a big way. I can delegate so many things now and spend my hours being the person who looks over it all and makes sure everything is aligned with what Little Zi is supposed to be.

What Sophia Sees

Here’s the part I think about the most.

Sophia is five. She sees all of this. She sees me working at the kitchen counter. She sees me packing her lunch and then opening the laptop. She sees me commit to something every single day, whether I feel like it or not.

I grew up with a full-time working mom, and watching her work shaped me in ways I didn’t fully appreciate until I became a founder myself. I want Sophia and Checa to have that same thing. I want them to see that anything is possible — not because someone told them so, but because they watched their mother build it.

The Part I Don’t Usually Say Out Loud

I’m not going to pretend this is easy. It isn’t.

There are days — plenty of them — where I wish I’d taken a break. Where I think, why did I put this much responsibility on myself? Where the grind feels like too much and I just want a quiet morning.

If you’re a mama reading this and thinking about taking a break — take one. Please. There is no prize for how hard this is.

The reason I keep going is something bigger than the business. I want Little Zi to be successful, yes — but not just in the numbers sense. I want to see babies wearing it. I want to build something my daughters can look at one day and know their mom and their grandmother made it with their hands and their hearts.

(There’s a secret in the name, too. The “Zi” comes from Zizzi, my mom. And quietly, I hope every baby who wears Little Zi carries a little bit of her tenacity into the world. But that’s a story for another post.)

If You’re Building Something Too

If you’re a mama building something right now — a business, a creative project, a second act of your life — tell me in the comments. I want to hear it. I’m a huge cheerleader for every mom trying to build something while also raising little people. It is not easy. It is a daily grind. And it is one of the most important things you will ever do.

Be kind to yourself today.

Until next time 💛

— Angie

Co-Founder, Little Zi

littlezi.com