Mrs. Smith Assist is a fractional business operations team for mom-owned online businesses. Founded by Jade Smith, a Certified Dubsado Specialist and mom of four, MSA handles systems, marketing, admin, and tech so mom entrepreneurs can lead their business without carrying the heaviness of implementation alone.
There is a weight that comes with running a business as a mom that has nothing to do with how many hours you work. It is the never-quite-off feeling. The mental tab that stays open even when you step away from your desk, even when you are physically present with your kids, even when you are technically done for the day.
I call it the heaviness. And I built an entire agency around getting rid of it.
We are a homeschool family. I have four kids — I homeschool two of them, and the other two are younger. The idea that I could run a business and be present for all of it seemed like a contradiction until I figured out the one thing that made both possible: I stopped being the one carrying the implementation.
The real story starts before that, though. Before the team, before the agency model, before any of this worked.
Where the Heaviness Comes From
I had the vision for an agency from the beginning. I just could not start there. I did not have the budget to build a team upfront and I did not have steady enough lead flow to justify it, so I went out and found clients one by one and did the work myself. All of it. I was managing implementation on almost 15 accounts before I hired my first team member.
When I was in the thickest part of that, I had two kids under two. My youngest was between six and eight months old. My husband had to step back from his own work so we could piece together enough schedule for me to work anything close to full time. And I was still doing a ton of implementation even after I started hiring. It was not a clean handoff. It was a long, slow process of bringing people in, building systems tight enough that someone else could follow them, and gradually moving out of execution and into leading.
According to a March 2026 report in Women’s Business Daily, 63% of women founders name burnout as their single biggest challenge. But burnout is just the visible symptom. The thing underneath it — the constant low-grade weight of knowing there are things only you can handle — that is what actually drains you. That is what I was carrying. And that is what I see in almost every mom CEO who comes to us.
What finally lifted it was not a better system or a new framework. It was genuinely letting go of the implementation. Not outsourcing a task here and there. Letting go of being the person responsible for the execution of my business.
Now? Ninety percent of the week I am not thinking about the agency. I am homeschooling. I am with my younger kids. I am present. The income is still coming in. The clients are still being served. The team is handling it. That did not happen because I got better at time management. It happened because I built the right infrastructure around the business I was trying to lead.
The heaviness most mom CEOs carry has nothing to do with how many hours they work. It is what happens when the business can only run if they are the ones running it.
What a Fractional Operations Team Actually Means
When most people hear “outsource your operations,” they picture hiring a virtual assistant to answer emails. That’s not what this is.
A fractional operations team means you get an entire team — a project manager, a tech specialist, a marketing specialist, a copywriter, admin support — without hiring a full-time staff. You’re not paying for 40 hours a week per person. You’re paying for outcomes, scoped to exactly what your business needs in the next 90 days.
According to Clutch data cited by DigitalMindsBPO, more than half of small US businesses now outsource at least one key function. The shift from “I’ll do it myself” to “I’ll build a team around what I actually need” is already well underway. The question is whether you’re directing that shift intentionally or stumbling into it reactively.
At MSA, every engagement starts with a 90-day plan. Before a single task is assigned, we do a full business audit — a deep look at how you operate, where things are dropping, and what needs to happen first. That plan becomes the foundation. The team knows what to do on day one because everything is already mapped.
How Being a Homeschool Mom and Running an Agency Actually Works
People ask me this a lot. The honest answer is that it works because the business does not depend on me being in it every day.
I am a visionary. I care about the end result, the experience, the feeling of how something runs. What I realized, later than I would have liked, is that I do not actually care about the implementation. I thought I did. People told me I was detail-oriented and I believed them. My husband would eventually joke that I am selectively detail-oriented — and he is not wrong. What I care about is that the day-to-day matches the vision. Getting there just does not require me to be the one executing it.
When I found people who were genuinely wired for operational thinking — who did not need to be told how to create structure because it came naturally to them — everything shifted. The systems got tighter. The handoffs got cleaner. And I was able to move fully into the role I was actually built for.
Now I can go be present with my kids, homeschool, be in those moments, and then step back into the business as the visionary without the work having piled up waiting for me. The team runs it. I lead it. That distinction is the whole thing.
According to Deloitte’s 2025 Women at Work global survey of 7,500 women, work-life balance and flexibility rank among the top drivers of whether women stay in their current path. The data suggests women are not looking for less ambition. They are looking for a structure that does not require them to sacrifice presence to sustain it. That is the problem a fractional operations team is built to solve.
What Has to Be in Place Before Delegation Works
This is the part most business owners skip, and it’s why delegation fails them.
You cannot hand off work that hasn’t been defined. If the only version of your process exists inside your head, your team will execute it differently every time — or come back to you with questions that defeat the entire purpose of having help.
Before MSA takes on a client, we do the audit specifically to surface this. What does the business actually run on? Where are the SOPs? What tools are in use, and are they being used well? What has been promised to clients and what is actually being delivered?
That diagnostic step is what separates an operations team from a VA you hired hoping things would click. The plan comes from the audit. The tasks come from the plan. The team executes against clear outcomes, not vague to-do lists.
The three things that have to exist before delegation works:
Defined scope. Your team needs to know what they are and are not responsible for. Without this, everything is up for interpretation and nothing gets owned.
The right tool structure. We use ClickUp for task management, Slack for communication, and Dubsado for client workflows. The tools matter less than the consistency. Pick a stack and use it the same way every time.
A team that matches the work. A marketing specialist and a tech specialist are not interchangeable. One of the most common mistakes I see is assigning tasks to whoever is available rather than whoever is right. That costs more time to fix than it would have taken to assign correctly the first time.
Ready to Put Down the Heaviness?
If what you just read sounds familiar, the first step is a 15-minute discovery call. No pressure, no hard sell. We find out what you need, tell you honestly whether MSA is the right fit, and if it is, show you what it actually looks like to have a team that owns the implementation while you lead the business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a fractional business operations team?
A fractional operations team gives you access to a full team — project management, tech support, marketing, copywriting, and admin — without hiring full-time staff. You pay a monthly retainer scoped to your 90-day plan, and the team handles implementation while you focus on leading your business.
How is Mrs. Smith Assist different from hiring a virtual assistant?
A VA is one person doing one kind of work. MSA is a full team with specialists across tech, marketing, copywriting, and admin. Every client gets a dedicated account manager plus the right specialists for their scope — not a generalist trying to cover everything.
What does it cost to work with Mrs. Smith Assist?
Retainer packages start at $895 per month and are scoped to your 90-day plan. Every engagement begins with a Strategic Setup ($1,125), which includes a business audit and a fully customized 90-day plan. If you have a specific budget, the scope is built around it.
Can I work with MSA if I am just getting started?
MSA is designed for established online business owners who have hit a ceiling — not early-stage businesses still finding product-market fit. If you have clients, a process (even a messy one), and revenue coming in, you are likely a good fit for a conversation.
What happens during the Strategic Setup?
The Strategic Setup is two 60-minute calls. The first is a business audit — a deep dive into how you operate. The second is a plan presentation where MSA delivers a fully customized 90-day plan for your business. You keep the plan whether or not you move forward with a retainer.
Does MSA require a long-term contract?
No. Clients are invoiced every 30 days on a rolling basis. There is no fixed term. If you need to pause or stop, 30 days notice is all that is required.
