60: Stop Calling It a Side Hustle and Start Building a Real Business with Beth Heyer

Beth Heyer is a single mum who launched Babysitting Connection from her kitchen table in Texas in January 2020, six weeks before the world shut down. By 2022 she had scaled to over 700 families across six locations and been named Austin Businesswoman Employer of the Year. She has since expanded her vision with Petsitting Connection and now dedicates a significant part of her time to empowering other women to step into entrepreneurship with the same audacity and commitment she brought to her own business from day one. In this episode, Beth shares the full story of how Babysitting Connection was born, how COVID transformed it within weeks of launch and what it has taken to build a well-oiled, data-driven business that supports her life as a single mother rather than competing with it. It is a conversation about delegation, abundance, going all in and why no man has ever called his business a side hustle. 💡 "*No man has ever called his business a side hustle. Women don't give themselves the courage to say, this is it. This is going to be what pays my bills. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but in five years, this is it.*" - Beth Heyer In this conversation, we explore: ✨ How Beth launched Babysitting Connection six weeks before COVID hit and why the pandemic, rather than derailing her, accelerated the business in ways she could never have planned for ✨ Why she hired a social media manager and a sitter onboarding specialist before she ever paid herself, and what that decision reveals about investing in your zone of genius from the very beginning ✨ The power of delegating the tasks you hate or are not good at and why thinking carefully about what your time is worth changes everything ✨ Why Beth went all in on Babysitting Connection from day one with no other eggs in any other baskets and why she believes women in particular struggle to give themselves the audacity to do the same ✨ The word she hates almost as much as mum boss and mamapreneur — side hustle — and why no man has ever used it to describe his business ✨ How the membership model creates predictable recurring revenue that takes the anxiety out of the ebbs and flows of running a service-based business and allows you to plan, staff and scale with confidence ✨ Why you should validate your business idea with real customers first before perfecting your brand, building an app or fine-tuning your business plan ✨ How five years of data has allowed Beth's team to predict seasonal trends, staff accordingly and run a business that fills 99.9% of its sits every month ✨ The abundance mindset that has defined Beth's approach to her industry — sharing openly with competitors because when the waters rise all the ships rise ✨ Why Beth is building a business she intends to keep until her kids tell her they don't want it and what that vision reveals about a more feminine, purposeful approach to entrepreneurship About the Guest: Beth Heyer is the founder of Babysitting Connection and Petsitting Connection, membership-based childcare and pet care agencies operating across six locations in Texas. A single mum of two, she built her business from a kitchen table investment and grew it to serve over 700 families while maintaining clear boundaries for her children and herself. She now works with other women in the childcare industry to help them launch, streamline and scale their own agencies. Beth is a passionate advocate for the membership business model, the abundance mindset and women backing themselves with the same boldness they would encourage in everyone else. You can find Beth at bethheyer.com, babysittingconnection.com and petsittingconnection.com. About The Host: I’m Victoria Phipps – a Mum of two, analogue family photographer, personal brand photographer, educator, charity co-founder, marketer and now podcaster! 🎙️ I was raised by a nurturing Mother and an entrepreneurial Father and have inherited traits from both, so the tension between ambition and motherhood is one I grapple with on a daily basis! I’m fascinated to hear the stories of other women on a similar path, who are striving to build thriving businesses whilst being present for their children. It's a tough juggle, but I hope the conversations shared on this podcast help Mums in business feel less alone and inspired to keep going in pursuit of their dreams. Head to the Mum Means Business Podcast website for full show notes. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topics discussed in this conversation, so please do let me know on Instagram where I'm @victoriaphippsmbe or @mummeansbusinesspodcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a 5* rating and review!