Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Bianca Sprague, Founder of bebo mia inc., located in Grimsby, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
bebo mia inc. is an online training organization that offers education and business mentorship to people around the world who want to work with individuals/families during their fertility, pregnancy, birth, and/or postpartum experiences. We are protectors of the reproductive health space! How do we do this? We offer comprehensive and immersive programs that connect birth workers and changemakers to their intrinsic value and power so that they can become active participants in changing the way everyone experiences pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. We offer skills training as well as business training for our alums that creates opportunities for them to gain financial independence. Social justice work is all about community building and relationships. We show our students how they can create meaningful and impactful relationships with people in their communities so that the impact of our education is not only felt by the student but also by those that they come in contact with.
When you take a bebo mia course, you can expect to receive: evidence-based skills training that is comprehensive & accessible, feminist business training (we will teach you that you can make money, love doing so, and NOT participate in patriarchal models of business), trauma-informed, intersectional community support, lifetime membership and continuing education (that means there are NO re-certification fees & alums receive discounts on all future courses plus tons of perks & their private Peer Support Community Group is left open to staying connected to instructors & peers) and finally when you sign up for a bebo mia course you’re participating in Pay-It-Forward Culture because a portion of every course sold goes right back into our Scholarship Fund for our Maternal Support Practitioner (aka doula training) Program. We have students in over 43 countries currently! We serve women and queer folks who want to educate and protect people in their fertility, pregnancy, or postpartum journeys.
Tell us about yourself
I started bebo mia almost 15 years ago after the birth of my daughter. I was in an unsafe home and partnership, I was under-resourced, and I needed to get into safe housing. I did not know what to do, and I paced my kitchen, trying to think of something that would make me money and where I could keep my daughter with me. I became a birth worker. Then I felt the loneliness of entrepreneurship, so I built a school. Then I wanted to use the gathering space to change policy and support more women and queer folks in gathering financial literacy and security. So I moved online. It continued to grow while solving the next problem I wanted to tackle. The inequitable distribution of power and resources, and time fuels me. It is my why. I want to connect my community to its intrinsic value and power. I want them to say ‘no’ to the things that are draining them. I want them to say ‘hell yes’ to the things that create freedom, safety, and joy.
Do you have daily rituals for work / wellness / fitness / mindfulness?
My work/life rituals:
I plan my week to avoid context-switching so that I can tick things off as a go, which feels so good. I make sure I break up my weekly plan and items into really small bite-sized chunks. I try to do my creative parts early in the day.
I do not open my email until lunchtime to keep my heart rate down. I then allow 1 hour a day at the end of my day to do emails, and I have to get home to my family, so it keeps a hard cut-off for me. I found I discovered 3 to 4 hours a day that I was losing to my email and all the tasks that branched off from that.
Wake up at 6ish naturally because alarms start me off on the wrong foot. I read for pleasure for 15 minutes, then practice my Spanish for 30 minutes so that I will be fluent by the end of 2025. I do not pick up my phone within the first 30-60 minutes of waking up. I journal my work thoughts, struggles, and epiphanies for 15 minutes. The goal is to see what questions are plaguing me and discover blind spots. This practice I went into resisting, kicking, and screaming in 2023, and I am glad I finally took the leap. Game changer!
I play roller derby and step dance (type of tap), so I train at lunchtime if I feel rested enough - I skip this if I am depleted. I let my body tell me what I need.
I drink so much water! I snack all day long. I work at a standing desk, which eliminates my chronic and joy-sucking body pain. I set timers when I know I will spend hours without a boundary - like sourcing images or making social media posts or research. I decide when I am done work daily - sometime between 3-6 pm, depending on the day. And then I am not working. I do not check emails. I turn off notifications. My executive admin would call me if there was a truly urgent emergency. Otherwise, it is recharge, play, flop, my lessons, family, friend, nap, TV, walk, cook, and/or puzzle time. I am really committed to this. It supported my stress so much that I created a limit for my work time and not my work time.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
I built a business with a newborn strapped to my chest with no family support. No community support. No financial support. Zero investments. Just slogging and bootstrapping. Now, I have a global movement that is changing the world. I am watching women and queer folks take our programs, build sustainable businesses and do incredible work in their communities. They are leaving domestic violence and getting their first cars and homes, they are learning to invest, and they are healing their traumas. It is magical.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
We work as folks that identify as women, serving women and queer people in women’s health. Literally, a bucket that policy and funding cares zero about. It can feel lonely seeing the priorities of the world be so incredibly backward. Mothers and carers, and primary parents are not prioritized and are under-resourced. bebo mia is committed to feminist business practices and ethical business, so it means growth is slower. AND it is solid and powerful, and this movement is making waves.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Make sure you have support. Support in all the buckets.
- Ask for loans when you have money in your account, not when you don’t and need it.
- Get really flipping clear on your why and have that be your fuel.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://bebomia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bebomiainc
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bebomiainc/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bebomia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bebo-mia/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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