Father's Day Special: Dads in Business Share How They Balance Business and Fatherhood

Father's Day

Muskaan Kapoor

Jun 16, 2024 — 11 min read

Father's Day Special - Dads in Business Share How They Balance Business and Fatherhood

This Father’s Day 2024, StartupTalky connected with some amazing dads in business to understand how they balance the demands of running a business with the responsibilities of fatherhood. We asked them about the strategies or tactics that have proven most effective and how being a dad has influenced their leadership and decision-making.

Their insights reveal practical approaches and personal growth from handling the role of a business leader and parent, providing valuable lessons on balancing professional ambitions with family commitments.

Tarun Joshi, Founder and CEO of IGP.com
Manish Mohta, Director of Learning Spiral
Rajesh Bhura, Co-founder of Chakraview Solutions
Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex
Pulkit Arora, Director of CYK Hospitalities
Vijai Subramaniam, Chairman and Founder of Royaloak Furniture
Anirrud Goswami, Co-Founder of AstroJudge
Gaurav Bhagat, Managing Director and Founder of Consortium Gifts
Pankaj Sharma, President of The Lexicon Group of Institute and Chairman & MD of Pune Times Mirror, Civic Mirror & MultiFit

Tarun Joshi, Founder and CEO of IGP.com

Balancing being a dad and running a business is like wearing many hats. I start my day with a quick run or playing badminton, and I always make time for breakfast with my family. These moments help us bond and make my kids feel loved and supported.

I ensure to make time for important events in my kids' lives, whether it's cheering them on at games or being there when they need me. Spending time doing things they enjoy, like art or sports, makes them see me as their hero.

Remembering special moments with my own dad, like when he taught me to play football, reminds me to create similar memories with my kids. And celebrating occasions like Father's Day is a chance to show my family how much they mean to me.

Fatherhood has profoundly influenced my leadership and decision-making. It has taught me the importance of empathy, patience, and the value of personal connections. These qualities translate into a more compassionate and understanding leadership style at IGP.com. Ultimately, the balance I strive for between my professional and personal life not only enhances my effectiveness as a CEO but also fortifies the foundation of my family life, which in turn, fuels my drive and vision for the future.

Manish Mohta, Director of Learning Spiral

Managing and directing a business while fulfilling fatherhood responsibilities is a delicate balancing act. While managing both roles, I discovered that effective time management, task delegation, open communication, scheduling flexibility, and prioritizing self-care are essential. I've been able to strike a good work-life balance by setting clear boundaries, delegating tasks to capable individuals, keeping open lines of communication, adapting to unexpected circumstances, and ensuring personal well-being. This balancing act has greatly influenced my leadership style and decision-making as a company director.

Fatherhood has instilled in me qualities like patience, empathy, and long-term thinking, which have resulted in a more compassionate and understanding approach to leadership. While understanding the importance of work-life balance, I strive to make decisions that benefit both the business and the well-being of my team members. Being a father has shaped me into a more considerate and thoughtful leader, guiding my decisions with a human-centric perspective alongside strategic business goals.

Rajesh Bhura, Co-founder of Chakraview Solutions

Juggling business ownership and fatherhood can feel like a constant three-ring circus, but I've found a few key strategies that help me balance both. First, it's all about clear priorities and scheduling. I block out dedicated times for work tasks and family activities, allowing me to be fully present in each moment. Building a strong, empowered team has been a game-changer. Delegating tasks and fostering collaboration frees up time for dad duty, and knowing things run smoothly even when I'm not there gives me peace of mind. Open communication is key, both with my team and my family.

Setting expectations and being flexible allows for adjustments, whether it's a late client call or a last-minute school play. But the biggest surprise has been how fatherhood has shaped me as a leader. It's instilled a deep sense of empathy and patience, which helps me understand and motivate my team.

Teaching and nurturing my kids has translated into a more collaborative and supportive leadership approach. Fatherhood has also made me hyper-aware of time, forcing me to be efficient in my decision-making. It's all about prioritizing strategically for both my business and my family.

Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex

Balancing business and fatherhood is challenging but rewarding. I prioritize time management by scheduling dedicated family time, even amidst a busy workday. Adjusting according to the needs of my newborn and spending as much time as I can with him are paramount. My son will be turning one this month and is curious about little things when he looks at light or rain. Nurturing his curiosity is a joy, and my wife and family have been the biggest support system in this journey. Leveraging this strong support system at home and delegating effectively at work helps maintain this balance.

Being a dad has profoundly influenced my leadership, instilling patience, empathy, and a focus on long-term goals. It has also enhanced my decision-making, making me more mindful of the impact on employees' families. Fatherhood reminds me daily of the importance of nurturing growth, whether in my child or my company.

Pulkit Arora, Director of CYK Hospitalities

It's a never-ending struggle, but juggling the demands of running a company and being a father has greatly influenced my style of leadership and decision-making. Setting distinct boundaries between business and family life is essential, as I've discovered over the years. This entails planning a regimented timetable that permits me to spend quality time with my kid; for example, I may set out specific hours for family-only activities and refrain from taking business calls during these periods. This framework guarantees my complete presence in both positions and aids in the maintenance of a healthy work-life balance.

My leadership style has been greatly impacted by being a father. Being a parent instils values such as patience, empathy, and the value of listening—qualities that are as important in the workplace. I've discovered how to put these abilities to use leading my team and creating a compassionate and encouraging work atmosphere. For example, I try to pay equal attention to my employees' worries and recommendations as I do to my child's needs, and this has improved team cohesion and morale.

In addition, the responsibilities that come with becoming a father have highlighted how crucial stability and long-term planning are. I think about my family's and my company's future consequences while making decisions, in addition to their immediate effects. Given that my actions now will have an impact on my child's future, this viewpoint has motivated me to place a high value on ethical behaviour and sustainable progress.

Achieving a balance between job and fatherhood requires leading by example. I want to set an example of diligence, morality, and tenacity for my child. She is too little to participate right now, but eventually, she will have ambition and a sense of accountability if she is involved in my commercial endeavours.

Vijai Subramaniam, Chairman and Founder of Royaloak Furniture

As a founder of Royaloak Furniture, I constantly feel under pressure to be innovative and drive growth. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. But when I step into my house and see my children’s faces light up, it is like a moment of reckoning. It reminds me that success is more than just numbers on a balance sheet; it is about the legacy I leave behind for my children.

Entrepreneurship takes dedication but being a dad is way stronger than that. It means being there even amidst business turbulence. Those stolen moments of playing in forts with them, reading them bedtime stories, and showing them why hard work never ends, are true happiness.

Fatherhood has actually made me a better entrepreneur. Patience, resilience, and thinking outside the box are some of the things that fatherhood has taught me. My kids push me into taking calculated risks and teach me resourcefulness, enabling me to build something they will proudly claim as theirs in future.

There isn’t any perfect formula for balancing everything out. However, for me, it’s all about setting limits. My team understands how much my family time means to me. And my phone stays hidden whenever I’m around my kids for they deserve my total attention just as much as my company does.

The balance is not always easy to find, but it is the most rewarding challenge I have ever faced. Therefore, this Father’s Day I urge all dads out there to take both sides of this coin. Chase your dreams with all the passion you can muster, but don’t let go of the happiness that comes with being a father. Believe me when I say, the returns are infinite.

Anirrud Goswami, Co-Founder of AstroJudge

Work is meant to be fun and joyful. That's what my Co-Founder Pushpanjali and I firmly believe in and we have established this as one of our core values at our startup AstroJudge, right from the get-go. Even in our parenthood journey, we have always shared duties and responsibilities equally amongst the both of us so we don't compromise on the quality of time we spend with our toddler at home. If you focus on the quality of time spent - both at work and at home - it ceases to be a challenge.

As a father, I'm also deeply empathetic to the needs of young parents who order their children's astro reports from us. Each prediction we provide in the astro reports is written to help parents cherish their children and this impacts their parenthood journey positively. All this stems from a personal family life where I am content. Work and family time have to go hand-in-hand in my humble view. Keeping reasonable work hours, scheduling work meetings effectively within the work-day and keeping the weekends mandatorily off for all team members - are some of the small but effective strategies that we follow at our startup.

Gaurav Bhagat, Managing Director and Founder of Consortium Gifts

Being a father and managing a business together is challenging but extremely rewarding. Two events in my past come to mind when I think back: launching my own company in my late teens and becoming a father in my early thirties. I had to reevaluate my priorities in order to manage the demands of both my new fatherhood responsibilities and the difficulties of being an entrepreneur.

Setting aside meaningful time for my family is one tactic that works well for me. Research indicates, such as that published in the Harvard Business Review, that children do best when they have deep and meaningful relationships with their parents. When I go back to my own early years, I cherish the memories of family vacations and bedtime stories. I now make it a point to plan regular family time and to give myself complete attention during these times, avoiding social media and other distractions.

Preserving a solid rapport with my partner is equally important. According to research published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, having children often causes stress in marriages. I make it a point to spend quality time with my spouse and encourage them through difficult times in order to maintain our relationship.

Our journey has been greatly simplified by the assistance of our grandparents. In the modern era of nuclear families, grandparents are extremely important to our kids. Research demonstrates that children who have engaged grandparents typically have improved emotional well-being (e.g., University of Oxford studies). With their help, I'm able to better balance my professional obligations and make sure my kids get more love and attention.

I find that outsourcing mundane chores, such as hiring a part-time cleaner or a babysitter for date evenings, makes it easier for me to manage my work and personal life.

In conclusion, these techniques improve my leadership and decision-making abilities in addition to assisting me in navigating the challenges of managing a company and being a father. I'm setting the stage for a better, more rewarding future for my family and my company by devoting time and energy to these areas today.

Pankaj Sharma, President of The Lexicon Group of Institute and Chairman & MD of Pune Times Mirror, Civic Mirror & MultiFit

The birth of Lexicon happened when my children were 6-8 years old, marking the onset of a profound journey where fatherhood and entrepreneurship seamlessly intertwined, shaping me into the person and leader I am today.

As a father, my approach has always been rooted in the belief of embracing my children as individuals, respecting their autonomy, and fostering an environment where they feel heard and valued. This philosophy of trust, encouragement and guidance has not only defined my parenting style but has also become the cornerstone of my leadership at Lexicon.

In both roles, persistence and patience have been my allies. Whether it's nurturing my children's dreams and doubts or supporting my team's innovative ideas, I have learned that unwavering belief and consistent support can pave the way for growth and success.

At Lexicon, I have instilled a culture of inclusivity where every opinion is respected, and every idea is given a platform to flourish. Just as I have trusted my children's judgments and encouraged them to explore their passions, I have extended the same trust and encouragement to my team, allowing them the freedom to innovate and excel.

Watching my children evolve into capable leaders within Lexicon has been my greatest pride. Seeing them take charge of new verticals with their unique perspectives and dynamism reaffirms that I have instilled in them the values and skills necessary to thrive in both business and life.

As I reflect on this journey of fatherhood and entrepreneurship, I'm filled with gratitude for the invaluable lessons learned from my children and the experiences gained through building Lexicon. Together, they have shaped me into a leader defined by empathy, clarity of judgment, and a shared vision for success. And as I witness the next generation of leaders emerge within my own family and company, I know that I have succeeded in creating something truly meaningful.