m+work : Why Marking Business Milestones Matters
At Mother+, we believe celebration is part of the work, it is a way of honouring progress, pausing for perspective, and remembering why we do it all in the first place.
In this essay, Caroline Marshall, founder of Upsource, shares why making space for small rituals and marking milestones has become essential in both her life and her business.
This summer, my team and I marked five years of my business with an afternoon tea. It was a beautiful afternoon that brought together people who had worked virtually for years but never met in person — a milestone for the business, but also a deeply personal one for me.
It marked five years since I thought my career was over and five years since I almost lost my second child.
In 2020, as the world went into lockdown, I found out I was pregnant. I was immediately furloughed, my ambitions (already fragile after redundancy following my first maternity leave) pushed further out of reach.
Traditional employment felt incompatible with life as a mother, so I took control and launched my own Virtual Assistant agency.
Six months later, I went on maternity leave. Shortly after birth, my son suffered a Sudden Unexpected Postnatal Collapse and HIE. For a while, we didn’t know if he would survive, or what his future might look like.
He’s now a healthy five-year-old, but at the time my coping mechanism was my business.
Upsource became not just a career pivot, but a lifeline and something that helped me grow professionally while also carrying me through personally.
Why celebration matters
As mothers, time races. We jump from one goal to the next without stopping to take in how much we’ve already achieved. For those of us working from home or running our own businesses, there’s no colleague to say well done. We must create those moments ourselves.
Celebrating might feel frivolous, but it’s a vital pause - a breath to acknowledge the juggling, the late nights, the resilience it takes to get here. It builds pride, and it sets a powerful example to your team, and to your children, that hard work deserves to be recognised.
Redefining milestones
Motherhood has completely rewritten my definition of success. Yes, I still care about financial independence, but my markers are different: paying for swimming lessons, being at the school gate, building my business around my family so I can take ‘mummy days’. My ambition hasn’t dimmed, it’s just shifted. It feels more intentional, sustainable, and rewarding.
How to mark your wins
Celebrations don’t need to be grand. Small, regular rituals are often the most grounding:
Daily micro-celebrations — taking the scenic route to school pick-up, or journaling not just gratitude but achievements too.
Team-wide moments — shared lunches, virtual toasts, or thanking people personally after a launch.
Treats for the win — sometimes it’s an Oliver Bonas splurge, sometimes it’s simply giving yourself an hour off.
Time in lieu — if you’ve poured extra hours into your business, give yourself a guilt-free day off.
These rituals anchor us. They remind us that work isn’t only about the next thing — it’s about honouring how far we’ve already come.
Caroline Marshall is founder of the award-winning Virtual Assistant agency Upsource and host of the Bump to Business Owner podcast.
Image credit: Helen Lynch Photography