The document profiles three women - Annalisa Siefken, Naomi Scowcroft, and Renee Dembowski - who started their own businesses after having children. Naomi was inspired to become a swimming instructor after wanting to teach her daughter to swim. She created a mobile swimming lesson business called Aqua Child. Renee started a social media and marketing business called Social Butterfly Marketing after her job moved away from Cairns where her family is. She designs her work to fit her life and priorities as a mother. Both women say being mothers influenced their career choices and business ideas.

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“I can get a lot done in an hour but you have to
pause for breath when you need.”
For Annalisa, it’s important to have a separate
space for work from her family life, and she treats
each day individually, setting a list of priorities
first thing each morning.
Happy to be doing what she wants and what
she believes in, Annalisa says she aims not to take
things personally, to be kind to every person
along the way, and to stay true to her vision.
How she stays calm?
“Meditation, and a good diet, which helps me
through the day - I don’t have time to get sick.”
Motherhood was the inspiration for Naomi
Scowcroft’s boutique swimming lesson business,
Aqua Child.
The mum of two young girls and a teenage son
previously worked as a house removals estimator
and only decided to become a qualified
swimming instructor when she wanted to teach
her first child to swim.
“What happened is I was going through
mum’s diaries and I found a quote that said, if
there’s something you want to do, not to leave it
too long, because as each day passes, your
enthusiasm wanes,” Naomi says.
“After I read that, within a day, I saw a course
to become a swimming teacher.”
Initially, Naomi just taught her child to swim,
but then she thought of how she could bring
swimming lessons to the people of Cairns.
“It makes it a lot easier for people not to have
to juggle small children into a car - sometimes
they come out in their PJs with a cuppa to watch -
so I put the idea out there and got positive
feedback.”
Within an intense six weeks Naomi built her
website, created a Facebook Page, but then she
stalled at the name.
“After four weeks, I woke up at two in the
morning and said what about the name Aqua
Child,” Naomi says. “We are mobile so we go into
people’s homes, but I also wanted it for people
who don’t have pools.”
There might seem then to be no separation
between work and home life but Naomi says her
kids understand when there are other children in
the family pool.
“They seem to know when mummy is doing a
lesson and India likes to help me do things like
get the pool covering off,” Naomi says.
“They like to be involved.”
The secret to her success?
Following her mum’s philosophy of “believe”,
her wonderfully supportive husband, and plenty
of “yoga, meditation and music”.
Would she have her own business if she
weren’t a mum?
“I don’t know,” Naomi says. “It’s like sliding
doors.”
Renee Dembowski is the creator of Social
Butterfly Marketing, inspired by necessity when
her defence force job moved to Townsville after
she returned from maternity leave.
“I love Cairns and all my family is here,”
Renee says, so she had no inclination to move.
Renee also wanted to be able to spend more
time when she needed with her three children,
aged five and under, so she designed work to fit
her life.
“I had to make a job,” Renee says.
“I’m an ideas person and I thought now’s the
time to do it.”
Renee started out by collaborating with her
husband on the Bayview Bulletin and discovered
her abilities with social media and marketing.
“I started doing social media to help people in
their businesses and it expanded by word of
mouth,” she says.
Renee has covered events such as Cairns
Amateurs, the Imperfect Mum Conference, and
entire festivals and gigs, where she has done
everything from interview bands to covering the
type of food served.
One of her latest successes was Virtual
Fashions on the Field at Cairns Amateurs.
“We had three categories; the Virtual Woman,
Sassi Lady of the Day and Gent of the Event,”
Renee says.
She had a massive amount of entries, reached
a quarter of a million people online, and was
invited to do more of the same at regional race
meets. And her ideas just keeping getting bigger
and better.
“The hardest thing for me is to stop myself
thinking about work when I’m not working,”
Renee says.
“I have big crazy ideas and they don’t stop -
even when the job is done, I’m thinking of the
next thing, whether on the beach, or at dinner.”
Yes, Renee says mumpreneurs have specific
challenges, having implied responsibility for
making lunches, drop-offs, and photo days in
school, and having to delegate if not able to do
them, but Renee wouldn’t have her life any other
way and she has a rule to take Fridays off for
family.
“I love to see ideas work, and I have many
things that are beyond exciting happening,” she
says.
“Mum says when I was little I would not
accept no for an answer and would say, but what
if we did this, which must have been the worst
thing as a child, but is probably the best thing as
an adult.”
“You have to believe in yourself.”
I WAS GOING THROUGH
MUM’S DIARIES AND I FOUND
A QUOTE THAT SAID, IF
THERE’S SOMETHING YOU
WANT TO DO, NOT TO LEAVE
IT TOO LONG, BECAUSE AS
EACH DAY PASSES, YOUR
ENTHUSIASM WANES
Naomi Scowcroft (above left) and Renee Dembowski (right) decided to give their
professional lives a makeover after having children. Pictures: STEWART McLEAN
Annalisa Siefken is the owner and founder of ipSEITY Beauty and Hair Studio and the
creative director of Bare Movement chemical free products Picture: BRENDAN RADKE
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