The Grey Area: How Mimi Chan Turned a Hobby Into a Business
Mimi Chan
The Grey Area
The ‘grey area’ is the liminal space between career and family life—where ambition and possibility meet the sweet slowness of motherhood. In this series, we hand the mic to women we admire, asking them for details on how they mix creative pursuits with parenting.
Mimi Chan’s career is a lesson in reinvention. A venture capitalist-backed entrepreneur two times over, Mimi made the decision to downshift in her profession to focus on life with her young daughters for a while. After a season of flexing her creative muscle in the PTA at her children’s school, she felt the itch to jump back into business–this time, at a pace that feels right with family life. We caught up with Mimi to chat about turning a passion project into a business, and fitting work alongside motherhood.
Where I Am in the Grey
Joining the PTA: One of my goals during my pause was to be more involved with my children’s everyday school life. I am now part of the PTA. What started out as a simple inquiry into PTA membership ended up with me becoming the Auction Chair. That has felt very much like a full-time job which I’m navigating as my days are becoming filled.
A flexible career: I turned something I enjoyed into a “while I pause” career. Now, I offer a concierge interior design service on a pay-per-room rate for those looking to refresh a room or start in a new home. At a flat room rate, I present a shopping list after I create a room design with furnishings and layout.
Starting something new: I’m not classically trained in interior design (my business partner by trade is a fashion designer and creative director) but I have always been a creative at heart. My business partner and I have built a reputation of great taste and it’s a strength that we can pull from our diverse experiences designing business brands, marketing campaigns, clothing lines, accessories, office spaces, retail stores, wineries, and of course, our own homes.
Leaning into slowness: With the new business, I have decided to take it slow, keep it small, and do everything on an opposite timeline to launching a tech startup. I am only thinking about the current project I’m working on.
How I Balance a Fledgling Business With Family Life:
Any work I do outside of our family has to be flexible—meaning on my time when I have time
Our neighbors share school drop-off and pick-up
Amazon Prime for the essentials
Google (Mail, Calendar, Drive, Docs) to keep organized
Household help and childcare on Saturdays
Daily Rituals That Inspire & Simplify
How I hit ‘refresh’ after a tough day with kids
After I drop the kids off at school, I listen to music in my car parked with my morning coffee, and do pilates at home with Melissa Wood Health. It’s a form of meditation for me.
How I wind down at the end of the day
The most luxurious night routine I have is applying my five-step skincare routine before bedtime. (You can shop it below!)
The routines and tricks I swear by for helping our home run smoothly
I cook with enough leftovers to make lunch the next day. I also cook modular–separate and simple dishes so that they keep and I can remix them for other things. I mostly lean on dumplings and pasta.
I love a simple pasta dish and so do my kids. I put broccoli in my pasta which gets those greens in. This recipe is mess-free (no sauce), so it's easy to pack the next day too! One of the changes I make is adding cheese to tomorrow’s leftovers.
My go-to inspiration for overcoming a creative slump
Instagram is the quickest dose of inspiration or browsing online fashion editorials. I also turn to stories and interviews with people I’m fascinated by. When I have an idea, I research on Google to put it all together.
FAVORITE IG ACCOUNTS:
and then searching for "travel"
and tapping “top accounts”
FAVORITE FASHION SITES:
The Shopping List That Elevates My Day-to-Day:
My instant Starbucks coffee packs, fresh flowers, Pique green tea powder, an electric stirrer, my Stagg electric kettle, dried strawberries, Angelina’s Paris no.226 tea, utility object coffee mugs, current skincare line I’m trying out and loving so far: Naked and Thriving + a serum for dark spots, my collection of athleisure from Sporty&Rich, Nike, Varley, and Alala, and a stylish baseball cap that hides everything I need to hide.
