For many women, the titles add up quickly: mother, wife, daughter, employee and entrepreneur. Between caring for family, building a career and managing everyday responsibilities, it can be easy to lose sight of the woman behind those roles.

For Cherie Jones, founder of Poise & Paper, that realization helped inspire a business centered on helping women reconnect with themselves.

“I literally forgot about Cherie, that I existed,” Jones shared during an interview on the Moms Unfiltered edition of the Operations Unfiltered podcast. “I put Cherie on the back burner.”

Jones launched Poise & Paper while working full time as a federal government employee, a career she held for 16 years before being impacted by a reduction in force. Entrepreneurship gave her an opportunity to build something of her own while encouraging other women to prioritize their goals.

Through journals, notepads, planners and products featuring affirmations such as “Dream Big” and “Get It Done,” Poise & Paper serves as a reminder that women can pursue their own dreams alongside the many roles they carry.

“I wanted to start Poise & Paper to give women a voice,” Jones said, adding that she wants women to remember “who they are and who they can even be, past being a mother, wife and all those other titles.”

As a mother of a 13-year-old son, Jones understands the challenge of balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. Her approach includes planning, setting boundaries, communicating her needs and accepting that everything on the to-do list may not get done.

“It’s okay to say no to your spouse, to your parents, to your kids,” she said.

Jones has also experienced the mom guilt that often accompanies pursuing professional goals. She recalled missing her son’s soccer playoffs while traveling to Chicago for a business event, one of the rare times she had been unable to attend one of his games.

That experience reinforced one of the biggest lessons she has learned in motherhood: forgiveness.

“Forgive yourself for the things that you miss and for the things that you may possibly miss,” Jones said. “We are too hard on ourselves.”

Her message to other women considering entrepreneurship is equally simple: stop waiting for the perfect moment.

“There is no perfect time,” Jones said. “Just go. Just do it.”

Poise & Paper products are available at www.poiseandpaper.com and at Boyd Cru Wines at Savage Mill.