Charlestown’s Lauren Haskins is a mum on the go.
In 2016, the speech pathologist opened her own clinic while juggling two children and her job as an early intervention clinical specialist in speech pathology for New South Wales Health.
“Initially it was just me working part time on a Saturday when my husband was at home to look after the children and on Monday when they were in childcare,” she said.
“It was a secure and stable job, but there was nowhere left for me to go in government, so moving into private practice was new and exciting, it was a new challenge for me.”
From there her business ‘A Growing Understanding Speech Pathology’ grew so popular she was able to take on a full-time role and even hired staff to help her manage demand.
“I needed to take on other Speech Pathologists to share the load and I hired two at the beginning of 2017,” she said.
“From that point we started to build as a company and wider speech pathology service, and now I’ve grown my team to 11 Speech Pathologists and three Client Experience Officers across three locations, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Port Stephens.”
Haskins now works three school hour days a week so she can spend more time with her family, while her business is still expanding.
It’s the art of managing the balance of business director and mother that’s seen her named as a finalist in the National AusMumpreneur Awards.
The awards celebrate Australian Mums in business who are achieving success in a range of areas.
“It’s great because I’m really passionate about women and mums in business and because we work closely with families it’s nice to acknowledge families in this award,” she said.
“There is so much to being in business and being present as a mum so to have acknowledgement of these roles I’m doing is awesome and it recognises the hard work that’s gone into the back end of my business.”
She says the secret to her success, is trusting others to help her out.
“I have good people who can support me with what I can do, like accounting, marketing all those bits and pieces don’t come with speech degree, so getting people who do those jobs well and support me has been the biggest help.”
But above all, it’s her love of the job that drives her to strive for more.
“I love seeing the growth in the children and the impact that has on families,” she said.
“When a child is having difficulty communicating it can be hard for families, so to see communicative skills grow with what we are doing, it can have flow on effect for the family and that’s incredibly rewarding.
“The thing I like about working in private practice is seeing the growth and development of our speech pathologists’ skills and the growth of the industry,” she said.
The winner of the AusMumpreneur Awards will be announced on September 7.
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