| Entrepreneur Mom - Michelle Kedem | |
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| Partnerships are a precarious balance. Tips from a om who made it work. |
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As told to: Michelle Roberts Entrepreneur mom Michelle
Kedem, 34, mother of Ella, 2; partner, On-Ramps, a New York City-based
recruiting and consulting firm specializing in flexible work
arrangements.
Number of employees: Three full-time partners.
My story: I used to be one of
those over-the-top type-A people. You know, the ones who sleep with
their cell phones next to their pillow and check office email from home
every hour. But a workplace reorganization three years ago, coupled
with the birth of my daughter, left me feeling disillusioned. Tired of
bellyaching about the ills of big business, my friend Sarah Grayson and
I decided to start a company that would help people like us: those who
wanted to excel in corporate America but didn't want to surrender their
personal lives. All too often, it seemed like it had to be 9-to-5 or
nothing. We conjured up the idea of starting a recruiting firm that
specialized in finding a fit between companies and workers in search of
flexible work arrangements.
When Sarah's husband heard of our plan, he put us in touch with his
friend Harry Weiner. Previously a search consultant at a major
alternative asset recruiting firm, Harry had just launched his own
business recruiting mothers for full-time, part-time and project-based
work. Because of the similarities between our goals and our backgrounds
(I was a senior financial manager at Time Inc.; Sarah was an engagement
manager at Katzenbach Partners LLC), the three of us decided to get
together.
After some note-taking and brainstorming, we realized we had to extend
our focus beyond mothers. They weren't the only people seeking flexible
job arrangements, after all. The more research we did, the more we knew
we were on to something: Our business could really make a difference.
But we had some nagging questions. Could we work together? Would our
personalities mesh? Could we trust each other? We needed to get to a
point where we felt comfortable with one another and had enough faith
to share all of our ideas and concerns.
We decided to accelerate the trust-building process by spending large
chunks of time together, discussing possible scenarios for the business
and addressing the areas we each felt passionate about—including our
vision for where we wanted the business to be in ten years. We talked
about how and who we would hire and what would make us different from
other recruiting firms. We also studied dozens of business partnerships
to determine what worked.
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