Meg | Meg Hirshberg

About Meg

Meg grew up outside New York City and graduated from Brown University with a degree in Comparative Literature. After college she moved to California to work on an organic farm. For three years she ran a science education garden for elementary school children. Her interest in organic growing led her to get a Master’s degree from Cornell Agriculture School, after which she was hired to manage a large organic vegetable operation in New Jersey. Eventually Meg moved to New Hampshire and married Gary Hirshberg, founder and current President and CEO of Stonyfield Yogurt, whom she’d met at an organic farming conference. Meg worked in the business for several years, in sales and yogurt production. Stonyfield took nine painful years to reach profitability, and now, with about $350 million in sales, it is the largest organic yogurt company in the world. After Meg stopped working in the business, she wrote two yogurt cookbooks, and launched a career in freelance nonfiction feature writing for magazines, including Yankee, New Hampshire Magazine, and The Boston Globe Magazine. Currently Meg is a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine. Her column, “Balancing Acts”, focuses on work/life balance issues in an entrepreneurial setting, a subject she also addresses in speaking appearances. Meg enjoys gardening, going for long walks and teaching nonfiction writing at a community college. Meg and Gary have three children.

Interview with John Bradberry

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Meg

John Bradberry of Charlotte, North Carolina, has a background in psychology and works with both early stage and mature companies on organizational development. His book, 6 Secrets to Startup Success, helps founders and investors evaluate and improve their readiness to launch, and grow, a company.

John Bradberry on falling in love with your business; on why founders need to assess their own physical and emotional health; and why passion is not always a great thing when you’re launching a company.

Q: You speak and write a lot about passion.

A: It’s impossible to understand a business and what makes it successful without understanding that it is a personal and emotional process for the founder. It can be both wrenching and glorious.

Q: How do family and personal relationships factor in to your assessments of an entrepreneur’s “readiness”?

A: I come at the topics you write about from another direction. What’s good for the business aligns with what’s good for the personal side of the entrepreneur’s life. You can’t extricate the two and deal with them separately. When we assess the strengths of a business, one of the “assets” we assess is the founder—how much gas does he have in the tank? Is he physically and emotionally healthy? Enough to stay in the game for the long haul? A lot of businesses blow up because the entrepreneur’s personal life is not working.

Q: How do you go about making this kind of personal assessment?

A: We ask founders to think it through. If they are pre-launch, we tell them to take a good hard look not only at their path to profitability, but also at what sacrifices the business will require of their families. The typical founder drastically underestimates Continue reading →

Interview with Nicole Dawes, CEO of Late July Organic Snacks

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Meg

Nicole Dawes is the Co-founder and CEO of Late July Organic Snacks, located in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Late July makes certified organic cookies, crackers, and chips. Nicole and her husband Peter (who is the company’s Co-president and COO) have two children, Stephen and Benji, who are 9 and 5, respectively. Nicole’s father, Stephen Bernard, founded Cape Cod Potato Chips, and co-founded Late July with Nicole.

Nicole Dawes on working with her husband; and on why: kids should be raised at the office, anxiety is an indulgent emotion, and work/life balance is a sham.

Q: Your life is a crazy Venn diagram of overlapping work and life spheres: Your father was an entrepreneur, you work with your husband, and you are raising two children. Which aspect of this overlap is toughest to manage?

A: Leaving the kids just doesn’t get easier. I’ve been traveling a lot. It’s heartbreaking every time. I keep waiting for that to end. Skype helps.

Q: When do you feel most stretched?

A: When we have more than one problem—which is very often. From the outside, we look like a well-oiled machine of magic work-life balance. We can handle one setback pretty well. But if someone gets sick, and a new product launch gets pushed up or pushed back, and I suddenly find I have to leave town on business—that’s when we run into difficulty. Oddly, though, when Peter and I are in those situations, we’re not that tense. We just do it. We triage. Tension and anxiety are indulgent emotions. We can’t afford them. We get externally focused on how to solve our problems. We don’t stop and wonder, How is this affecting us?

Q: What’s it like working with your husband?

A: A lot of people are scared to work with their spouse. They hear the horror stories. But for us, sharing in the whole experience together is what makes it work. Continue reading →

Book Announcement!

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Meg

My new book, For Better or For Work: A Survival Guide for Entrepreneurs and Their Families, is now for sale.

For Better or For Work substantially expands on my “Balancing Acts” column topics in Inc. magazine. The chapter-length format allowed me to go into greater depth about the major areas where entrepreneurial business and family life intersect. (To learn more, please click on “Meg’s Book”.)

Early reviews have been gratifying: CNBC.com selected my book as one of their “12 Most Anticipated Business Books of 2012”; Publishers Weekly labeled it “an indispensable guide”; and Kirkus Reviews declared the book “immensely beneficial.” The Financial Times recommended the book to “help to navigate the dangerous pitfalls of allowing a business to come and squat in the midst of a family.”

Please spread the word to friends and family, and on social media. Once you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear any insights and feedback. And I’d be grateful if you’d consider submitting a review on Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com—online reviews are hugely helpful.

Thank you!

Gary Hirshberg Finally Gets His Say

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Meg

: Heidi Temple/Courtesy Subject

He’s the frequent subject of my columns. Now, the founder of Stonyfield Farm gets to speak up about what he’s learned from being my favorite recurring character. Read the Inc. Magazine article here.

Interview with Andrew and Kathy Abraham

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Meg

Thirty-year-old Andrew Abraham was trained as a physician. In his first year of residency, Andrew started his company, Orgain, which manufactures a certified organic fluid nutritional supplement—an organic “Ensure”. Founded in 2009, Orgain is now profitable, and its revenues exceed $6 million and growing rapidly. The company has no full time employees. Andrew and his wife Kathy live in Orange County, California, with their two young sons.

Andrew and Kathy Abraham on the advantages and disadvantages of leaving a professional career to start a business, and why Andrew hung up his stethoscope to gamble everything on a drink.

Q: The first year of medical residency is an unlikely time to start a business.

A: I was working hundred hour weeks, and Kathy was pregnant with our first child. Kathy used to joke that she slept more in a night than I did in a week.

Q: What were you thinking?

A: The idea for this business grew from my own personal story. In 1999, when I was a senior in high school, I was diagnosed with a rare cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma. I was treated with surgery, chemo, and radiation. I lost a lot of weight, and couldn’t tolerate food. I completed my senior year from my hospital bed. My treatment was effective, but at the time I had to sustain myself on these “healthy” drinks that tasted horrible. I started reading the labels—it was all terrible stuff. The first ingredient was GMO corn syrup, then artificial Continue reading →