Mom Spotlight - Nikki Pena

Niki Pena

1) Provide an overview of your job/business, how many hours you work.

Outside of being a new mom I’m a new business owner as well.  I guess you can say I have two babies… my daughter Leila and my waiter recruitment/training company DMH Banquet Service Professionals, www.dmhservices.ca .  My business partner Donald Haddad started the company in Summer 2006 and we incorporated in January.  Our client roster includes private members clubs like the Vancouver Club and high end hotels like the Sutton Place and the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Hotel.  We also service the River Rock Casino Resort and Boulevard Casino.  We are banquet service recruiters and trainers.  What sets us apart from other recruitment companies is that we also offer ongoing professional development when it comes to hospitality training.  We think the idea of warm hospitality and quality service has been missing from Vancouver establishments for a long time and that’s something we’d like to see changed.

Owning your own business, watching it expand and nurturing it to grow is like having a child.  It’s 24/7 as we’re constantly recruiting and training new staff, building better working relationships with our staff and clients and connecting with other businesses to fill their needs.  My work day starts at 9am and does not necessarily wrap up in 8 hours as there are dozens of emails and phone calls to get through, clients’ needs to fill and staff to schedule.  There’s also time spent marketing the company and brainstorming ideas to make it grow.

2) Provide an overview of your home life, how many children you have, childcare arrangement, if married your husband’s career and how you share the responsibilities at home.

Life at home is fairly routine… that is to say my husband Amir and I have a good schedule that works for us.  We have one child, a four month old girl, and we do dream of having another.  Our day generally starts at 7am when we wake up and share some morning time together talking about what our day will be like.  By 730 or 8 we wake Leila up and play with her for half an hour and then it’s time to feed her and that’s when my husband gets ready to go to work.  He works as an Infrastructure Architect for an IT company called Softlanding.  By 9am, he’s off to work and in between Leila’s play time and nap time I’m on the computer answering emails or taking phone calls.  I feel fortunate to be able to work from home.  I’m able to get work done and spend time with my daughter.  That’s not to say there aren’t any problems.  There are times when I do feel pulled in both directions… when I do feel a crunch trying to get work done and there are times when I feel guilty for doing work at all and not spending all of my time focused on my daughter. 

I’m lucky though that I have an understanding and extremely supportive husband.  His work is nine to five, Monday to Friday and as soon as he comes home he and Leila are inseparable.  At first I felt badly for him that he didn’t have that special time with our daughter as I do.  Because I’m nursing I have at least half an hour just ‘me and her’ time at least six times a day.  I feel breastfeeding is really a gift (for her and for me) that helps create and solidify such a special bond between us.  It makes me feel important… that her very survival is dependant on me and that it’s so easy for me to do this for her… to be able to physically nuture and grow a life.  That’s something so special that my husband will never get to feel or experience.  Outside of feeding time, Amir shares in all of our responsibilities at home.  We cook together, he cleans up the bathroom and takes out the garbage, I clean up the kitchen and we both do the vacuuming.  I think there is such a mutual admiration and respect for each other that we don’t mind doing household chores because we’re doing it for the other person.  I know he works hard, he knows I work hard and that makes us both want to help each other out as much as we can.

-I don’t want to make it sound as if our home life is perfect… nobody’s is.  We come across challenges, like everybody else, we get tired and frustrated and sometimes lose our patience… but what helps us get through is our respect and love for each other… what helps us get through is the thought that we don’t only serve ourselves but our family as well… that we have a responsibility to our family.

3) Could you discuss 3 tips for women who are managing their careers or their own businesses. 

I feel like I’m so new to this, managing motherhood and a successful business, that I should be asking for your advise!  But that’s not to say I’ve not learned a few things already.

-Don’t second guess yourself, listen to your gut and intuition it’s brought you to where you are so far and that’s a good thing.  There are too many times that we worry about whether we’re making the right decision and often times we waste time wondering should I? or shouldn’t I?  or was that the best way to go?  And if the plan fails, you always have an opportunity to learn from this mistake.  Making mistakes is just another way of learning and growing and becoming a better manager, business owner, etc.

-Don’t be afraid to let go of some control and delegate, surround yourself with positive, like minded people that you can trust.

-Take the time to celebrate your accomplishments

4) Of your female friends with children how many of them continue to work now that they have children.

 All but two of my female friends with kids continue to work.

5) Can you offer any advice for achieving a balance between your family life and your career.

It sounds so cliché but it’s too true:  Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Sometimes you have to step back and really look at a situation and realize that it’s not that important to get all worked up about.  So, the dishes stay in the sink for a few more hours, or that phone call gets put off until the next day.  Those are things that aren’t going to ruin you.  You have to weigh what’s most important to you at that moment with clear vision.

Having a child really changes you and it changes the relationships around you.  My husband and I always try to maintain our relationship by talking to each other, sharing our feelings.  We take the time to reassure each other, cheer for each other and listen to each other.  Like any relationship, business or personal, you have to put the time in and stay committed to doing that.

-I am also very fortunate to have grown up with a family full of positive, strong minded women (my mom, seven aunts on my mom’s side, my older sister and four female cousins.)  Every woman in my family works hard, maintains a household and a career.  I draw on that strength all the time and not just from my family but from the women around me, my girlfriends.  What helps me achieve a balance between family and career is being able to talk things through with girlfriends and family, bounce ideas off them and learn from them… creating a solid support system is also pretty important.