The Playground is the New Golf Course: Business Development for Working Parents

“I don’t have time for business development anymore. Happy hours just don’t work for me.  And a trip to a sports game or the golf course? Forget it. I barely make it through the week without collapsing. Simply keeping my kids alive and not getting fired feels like success these days.”

If any of that sentiment rings true, I hear you, friend. I’ve been in your shoes.  At one point, I was a Partner at a global AmLaw100 law firm, trying to build a health care practice and do double-drop-off and double-pick up for two little redheaded boys (while also running the company I founded, Mindful Return).  The stereotypical “business development” activities just weren’t even in the realm of possibility for me. 

Rather than writing off business growth as a lost cause until our kiddos head off to college, though, I’m here to share a handful of strategies that can help you not lose hope on the idea that business development and working parenthood are not mutually exclusive. Hear me out.

Start Viewing the Playground (and Your Working Parent ERG or Affinity Group) as the New Golf Course

Just because I wasn’t hanging out at bars or on golf courses in early parenthood didn’t mean I didn’t care about growing my legal practice or my career. I just had to find other ways of doing it. Ways that were aligned with both my schedule and my values.

“The playground is the new golf course, you know,” one of my leadership coaches, Susan Dunlap, told me one day. I’ve read that women—stereotypically at least—try to avoid mixing business and career with friendships and social time. We tell ourselves a story that we don’t want people to think we are somehow “using” our relationship with them. But guess who doesn’t tell themselves that story: the guys. Their friends help them with businesses, and their business colleagues become their friends. I am firmly convinced that we can do the same without ruining the integrity of the relationships with our beloveds. 

One of the alums of the Mindful Return program I run for new moms, reported back gleefully to me this past summer that she had gotten business from her kid’s birthday party. She and another parent got to talking, and they simply asked one another what type of work they did. Turns out she had a legal expertise that other parent was in the market for!

Working parent groups at our offices can be equally powerful. I’m a serial founder of these groups (here are some tips on how to get one off the ground), including having started one at the law firm I mentioned above. In the beginning, we had no budget but gathered for monthly lunches in a conference room. One of the dads who attended the lunches got to know the type of work I did, and he referred work over from a client in his practice group to mine.   

Use Conference-Going and Work-Travel for the Win

I’m a big believer in the power of consolidating effort (and chaos!) into defined periods of time. One amazing way to grow business opportunities—while also getting a chance to sleep through the night and have a reprieve from sippy-cup washing—is to attend a conference in another city. A few consolidated days away on a regular basis is one of my prescriptions for working mom sanity and also rediscovery of my own professional identity.

Even if you’re not the conference-going type, visiting a client in person can really strengthen your business development and career growth efforts. There’s a well-known marketing strategy that says your current clients are the best place to look for more work. Saying yes to a client visit, even if you’re scared to take the plunge away from your kiddos, can be good for everyone involved.

Yes, there are the logistical and emotional challenges to work travel. I definitely battled all of them!  But in my book, they are worth working through. (More here.) One of the best things about the work trips I took when my kids were little was watching my partner grow in his parenting confidence, and watching the bonds grow between him and our boys.

Please Challenge Stereotypes as to What “Counts” as Business Development

Finally, let’s be loud about what gets to “count” as business development. I was recently speaking on a panel at a Legal Marketing Association conference in Washington, DC, that was all about business development for working parents.  One of my co-panelists shared a story about getting pushback on signing off on a pedicure with a client as a marketing expense. “Really?” the manager apparently told her. “You’re allowing someone to get reimbursed for a pedicure?” “Do you know how close that lawyer and her client got to be by sitting in chairs next to one another at the nail salon?!” she argued. Fortunately, the person questioning the expense came around. But really, if golf or alcohol or sports are okay, why not a spa day with a client or prospect?!

Here’s to wild growth and success for you in 2026. Will you try out any of these strategies? If yes, reach out to me at lori@mindfulreturn.com with any questions or your own stories—I’d love to hear how it goes!