Three Years in Business: I’m Still Here - and I’m Ready to Build the “We”

On October 1, Jessica Hart Consulting turns three.

Six days earlier, my oldest turned five.

Those birthdays sit that close together for a reason.

I built this business because I wanted meaningful, challenging work. I wanted to work with companies where I could actually make an impact. And I wanted a career that could exist alongside being the kind of mom I wanted to be.

Three years later, I haven't missed a school drop-off.

That sounds lovely written neatly on a website.

Year 3 was not neat.

Year 3 was a juggle

My husband traveled for work more than 50% of this year. There were stretches when he was in Virginia for two weeks at a time, weekends included. The hardest came in February, when he was in Europe for three weeks.

At the time, our baby was eight months old. Our oldest was four. And my solo business was booming.

There wasn't another parent coming home at 5:30. There wasn't another Jessica at JHC who could take the client call, finish the deliverable or present instead of me. There were mornings when I needed to present labor compliance information to teams across multiple countries, cultures, languages and time zones at 6 a.m.

So I packed up the kids and spent the night at my parents' house.

They helped with the baby. I got up and presented.

Sometimes the baby hadn't slept through the night.

Sometimes I had to tell a client that.

Sometimes the presentation was being recorded.

And then I did it anyway.

That may have been the hardest lesson of Year 3.

When you own the business, sometimes life hits you directly in the face — and you can't just randomly take the day off.

You promised a deliverable. The client paid. You have a responsibility to show up.

So you communicate. You adjust. You ask for help. And you show up.

My clients were incredible about that. They understood that I was a human being with a family while still expecting me to deliver great work.

My parents gave me somewhere to land when I needed another set of hands.

I didn't do this year alone.

But I'm really freaking proud that I did it.

The KPI I'm proudest of isn't revenue

I like numbers.

I like measuring growth. I like knowing whether something is working. And yes, I absolutely look at the financial side of this business.

But my favorite KPI from Year 3 isn't revenue.

It's this: 15 of the 18 clients I served this year came through referrals.

And all eight of my new clients came through referrals.

People are saying my name in rooms I'm not in.

Someone is sitting across from a business owner, executive, colleague or friend who has an HR problem and saying:

"You should talk to Jessica."

That's huge to me.

Because a referral isn't just a lead.

Someone is attaching a little piece of their own reputation to mine when they make that introduction.

I don't take that lightly.

Every time someone forwards my information, sends an introduction, comments on something I've written, shares one of my posts or tells someone what it was like to work with me, they're helping build this business.

Three years in, that's probably the business metric that means the most.

The business grew up this year, too

Year 3 wasn't only about growing the client list.

Some of the milestones were considerably less glamorous.

I made the S-Corp election.

I put myself on payroll.

For the first time, instead of paying myself here and there as money came into the business, I became an actual employee of my own company with a consistent pay cycle.

And something funny happened:

I behaved differently.

There was something about predictable payroll that changed how I thought about the company, cash and my own role inside of it.

I spend a lot of time talking to employers about employee experience, predictability and building systems that support their people.

Then I became my own employee.

Turns out, some of that stuff works. 😉

It was one of those decidedly unsexy founder milestones that made me realize JHC isn't really a startup experiment anymore.

It's a business.

I also stopped working 9-to-5

Maybe the biggest operational change this year had nothing to do with HR, taxes or corporate structure.

I stopped trying to make entrepreneurship look like a traditional workday.

I'm a morning person.

When my husband was traveling, there were nights I went to bed with the kids at 8 p.m., woke up at 5 a.m. and knocked out a client deliverable before switching into mom mode.

Other times, I worked from 9–11 p.m. and "slept in" until 7.

I stopped expecting myself to cook a completely different dinner every night.

Sunday became: What can I make now that we can mix, match, reheat and turn into something else until Friday?

I stopped asking whether I had achieved the perfect version of "work-life balance."

I don't think that's what I'm building.

I'm building work-life fluidity.

There are times when work needs more of me.

There are times when my kids need more of me.

There are early mornings, late nights, preschool illnesses, client emergencies, speaking engagements, meal-prepped dinners and weeks when everyone's schedule looks slightly ridiculous.

The flexibility is the point.

I can work when the work works for me.

I can be incredibly disciplined in those pockets of time.

And I can still be at school drop-off.

A few other Year 3 numbers

Because it wouldn't be an anniversary post from me without a few KPIs:

18 clients served.

15 of 18 came through referrals.

All eight new clients came through referrals.

Three podcast conversations recorded — two published and one on the way.

Two industry speaking engagements completed, with another conference already booked.

One S-Corp election.

Zero missed school drop-offs.

Sunscreen was remembered most days.

The dog still got walked.

I'll take it.

Year 4 is about going from “me” to “we”

Last year, I started talking about shifting this company from "me" to "we."

This year made something very clear:

The demand is here.

Now I need to build the next version of the company around it.

Year 4 is about adding W-2 employees.

I want to share what I know.

I want to train people.

I want to take the practical judgment, direct communication and get-shit-done approach that built this business and teach other people how to do this work really, really well.

That's a different challenge.

For three years, I've been proving that I can do the work.

Now I need to prove that I can teach it, duplicate it and build something that doesn't require me to personally touch every single thing.

As an HR person, becoming an employer myself feels both completely natural and mildly terrifying.

I'm here for it.

Three years later

Today my kids are five and 15 months.

JHC is three.

And I'm still here.

Still growing.

Still learning.

Still figuring out which dinner can become tomorrow's lunch.

Still grateful every time someone trusts me with their business, their employees or their reputation.

And incredibly grateful to the people who helped make this possible.

My husband. My parents. My clients. My mentors. My industry friends. My referral partners. The people who read something I post and hit "like." The people who leave a comment. The people who send the introduction.

Every like, comment, conversation and referral has helped get me here.

It has been a sprint.

And life happens really freaking fast.

So, if it's been a while, let's reconnect in 2027.

I genuinely want to know what you're up to.

How's the family?

What are you building?

What's changed?

What are you excited about next?

Because one of the greatest gifts people gave me during these first three years was saying my name in rooms I wasn't in.

I'd love the opportunity to say yours, too.

Cheers to Year 4.

Let's freaking go.