Name: Sarah Schupp
Location: Colorado
Company: UniversityParent
Professional Industry: Advertising
Job Title: CEO & Founder
WIXII-ISM™ FROM SARAH SCHUPP:
“My husband and I both work full-time, but both have a lot of flexibility.”
SARAH’S STORY:
Meet our featured Wixii™, Sarah Schupp. She is in her early 30s and mother to a 21-month old little girl and expecting baby #2 in April 2014. She received her B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is the CEO & Founder of UniversityParent, a resource for college parents to quickly find important dates, housing, and campus resources. Among many other accolades and recognitions, Sarah has been named one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 in 2012, and the Boulder County Business Report named UniversityParent the fifth fasted growing private company in Boulder in 2011.
SARAH’S CAREER PATH:
I started UniversityParent because of my experience at the University of Colorado. I noticed some trends that led me to start the company – (1) suddenly everyone had a cell phone & called their parents frequently compared to 1x/week (at CU from 2000-2004), (2) tuition was rising, jobs were scarce, and state funding was shrinking. Schools needed a new revenue source and started asking parents for more donations. Parents wanted to be involved and not just asked for money, but the school didn’t have a structure in place to meaningfully involve them. I suggested that the school create a guide for parents that would answer any question they might have as a starter. The school liked the idea, but didn’t have the money to create a guide. I decided to take it on as a project and find advertisers to fund the guide. Nearly 10 years later, our team creates guides for almost 200 colleges across the US and runs the #1 site for college parents, UniversityParent.com. We have 16 employees and our office is located just a few miles from campus in Boulder.
SARAH’S MINDSET AND WORK-LIFE MIX:
My current attitude towards life is that I feel really grateful. I get to work on solving a really difficult problem with a team of really smart people everyday and feel loved and supported by my family. I can’t imagine something different I’d rather be working on.
My husband and I both work full-time, but both have a lot of flexibility. If we need to run home or swap staying home if Jenna’s sick, we can typically work it out. But, we’re usually at our respective offices from 8ish-5ish. We share a Monday-Friday daytime nanny with two other families. I try to work out during lunch. We share household responsibilities pretty equally. Josh helps out by doing a lot of cooking and cleanup.
What specific actions, choices, steps and/or decisions have you made (or would you like to make) to better manage your work-life mix?
I think the decision that has helped me the most is just deciding to be flexible and not feel like I’m stuck in a schedule or stuck in certain responsibilities. I try to “play it by ear” rather than commit to something permanently. This gives me permission to be able to take opportunities day by day, whether it is a big work trip or if I’m missing Jenna and want to stay home an extra day to hang out with her.
Please share your favorite efficiencies and timesavers.
Finding a lunch workout really helped me stay in shape and get a nice break during the day. It was too hard to go before work and after work I felt like I already didn’t have enough time at home. Going at lunch was the perfect balance. My biggest food time saver is planning meals on Sunday for the week, ordering groceries online, and using the Crock Pot as much as possible. This helps us to eat healthily but have something ready when we get home. Trying to start cooking after a long day of work is frustrating because I end up just wanting to relax and hang out with Jenna & Josh.
