A long time ago, when I had just two little ones.
Raising them is teaching me, and has taught me, so many things about communication, love, the value of different personalities, and the fact that you can’t ever really be perfect: but you CAN do your best.
Instead of making this post, and this Mother’s Day, all about ME ME ME, I want to make it about US.
I am going to showcase every mom entrepreneur who leaves a comment here, or is nominated in a comment here.
Depending on how many there are, it could be a series of podcasts, a blog post, an ebook, or something else awesome and appropriate.
So, moms in business and those who love them: start your engines! I mean, leave comments!
If you’re leaving a comment for yourself: tell me what your business is, and if you want to, tell me how being a mother has affected you as a businessperson.
If you’re leaving a comment for someone else: tell me what makes them so damn awesome. Because it’s Mother’s Day soon, and we’re sharing the love.
I can’t wait to hear what you have to say.
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m a momtrepreneur! I started my website design company when my first son Noah was just about 6 months old, now he was 6.5 years old and my other son is just a tad over 2 years.
Being a mom and a business owner has been a challenge and a privilege and I mean that in every sense of the word. I know how incredibly lucky I am to be able to be home with my two year old and at the same time do a job that I love and pay the bills with it. Sometimes it’s difficult to juggle it all (Noah had to come home from school early today with a fever and this has pushed a few things into next week that I had hoped to complete sooner), it’s definitely a balancing act to give enough attention to the kids, the clients, and of course my man who feels unloved if I don’t take time away from everything else to spend with him.
What else is there to say? It’s more than worth it :)
My sister!!! I’m so glad you left a comment. Hooray!
You’re my inspiration. :)
I used to joke last fall that I was giving birth to a baby AND a business in 2010. I co-own the Hopscotch Distillery, where we help people make a business out of doing what they love–in a way that sustains them and isn’t crazymaking ;)
Being a mother has changed how I approach my biz in so many ways but I think the top 2 would be…1) I am totally focused during the extremely limited time I have to work, whereas before I used to meander around the Internet and procrastinated and get anxious, and now I don’t have time for that, I just have to get it done, and 2) I realized am capable of waaaay more than I thought, like whoa. Crazy amazing.
Thanks Rachael! :)
Wow, Eileen – a new baby and a new business in the same year! You are so brave and awesome. :)
For me: My business is the Connection Revolution – helping create positive world change through connection.
Being a mother changes everything. My “baby” turned 13 this year – everything I do is for him. I own my own business because I want him to know that following your dreams isn’t just possible – it’s the highest, most important goal one can have. I want him to see that it can work. I model for him the ups and the downs; I don’t shield him from the scary parts. Instead, we ride the rapids together.
I want him to see me succeed, so he can understand success.
I want him to see me fail, so he can understand failure.
I want him to see me persist, so he can understand persistence.
I want him to see me dream, so he will honor his own dreams.
I want him to see me live, so he will one day live his own life, as fully as possible.
Kyeli´s last blog ..Announcing the WCWW2 Scholarship Winners!
Ahh, Kyeli. You have such amazing and wonderful reasons for doing what you do. Your son is blessed beyond measure.
Hey there-
I’m a mom. I work as an intuitive lifeshifter, helping people go from status quo to awesome in their personal and professional lives by aligning their spiritual energy with their goals, dreams etc.
Being a mother has affected me considerably. All my kids are boys (there’s 3 of them, 13, 20 plus a 23-year-old stepson). I work to help them understand what a woman who is a powerful professional looks like, and also how hard it is to balance work with family. I want them to see my struggles, too, so that they know that family is important.
Bridget´s last blog ..Putting a Ring on It
Bridget, I’m so happy you’re here with us. I have so much love for women who rock motherhood AND business. You are such a shining light!
Dropping by to thank you and introduce you to Karen Clark (http://www.fb.com/karenmarieclark)
I call her my “Online Guardian” as she has always been a great help in bringing up my business and is the one who is always besides me to keep up my spirit!
Karen is an Online Presence Speaker-Trainer at http://mybusinesspresence.com and has 12 years of experience.
She is a mom to 3 kids and her jolly nature is what I like the most :)
I would be greatly obliged if you could include her name in the list.This would be a gift to her on this “Mother’s Day” :)
Thanks!
Puneet, what a beautiful gesture! Thank you for nominating Karen. :) She sounds amazing!
For someone else: I nominate two people.
1) Goddess Leonie of Goddess Guidebook. She has shared her journey through pregnancy, childbirth, and running a business and a household and having a newborn from the moment her daughter sparkled in her eye. It’s one of the most amazing journeys I’ve ever shared in.
2) Rachael Acklin of caffeinatedelf.com. (;
You homeschool your kids. You love your kids. You run your own business, and you love that too. You feel the fear and the pain and the love and the excitement, and you share it all with us – and you’re one of my heroesses. When I feel like I can’t make it on a hard day with my son and my work, I think of you and get back up and keep going. <3
Kyeli´s last blog ..Announcing the WCWW2 Scholarship Winners!
Aww, man. My link is brokened. Bumms. I’m sorry ’bout that.
Kyeli´s last blog ..Announcing the WCWW2 Scholarship Winners!
I fixed it for youuu :)
Yes, yes YES, I am so glad you nominated Goddess Leonie. She’s been such an inspiration to mothers all over the place, and brings so much joy to her work.
And I am totally blushing that you nominated me too. :) :)
Hi there fellow rockin’ moms! I’m a homeschooling mom of 4 and an independence coach for BrainyFeet.com. My son is 20, my oldest daughter is 17. Then, 4 yrs ago, I had twin girls. We stay pretty busy.
I teach people how to create an income that will allow them to take their whole family off the exhausting hamster wheel and live a simple, fulfilling, independent, home-based life.
Being a mom is…geez…how in the hell can you sum that up in a comment?
My kids shaped me. They’ve taught me how to set priorities that feed my soul and the importance of living in the moment. I’ve made every effort to live the life lessons I want my kids to learn. So, thanks to them, I’ve had conscious practice at things like following your curiosity and being a self-directed critical thinker.
I love my life so much that I created a business around teaching other people how to get it! Yes, my parents & in-laws think I’ve gone off the deep end. But, then I think, what kind of example would I be setting for my kids if I didn’t follow my heart? And, with that question, I get my answer. Every time.
Laura White-Ritchie´s last blog ..9 simple words that will rock your world and put you in control of your time and money
Laura! I am SO GLAD to call you friend. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself with me and with your community. We’re all better for it.
I’m a work at home mom/office nomad with two kids by birth and one adopted by affection. Financially, it’s not necessary for me to work. We’ve made deliberate lifestyle choices so we can live on one income. In fact, sometimes my work costs us money! But I feel so strongly called to being a life coach and spiritual director to creative, spiritual misfits, that I can’t NOT work!
One thing I love about working from home is that my children get to really see what I do. They watch me teach via video. They borrow my podcasting mic to record the songs they are composing on the piano. And they make their own snacks while I talk to a client on Skype. It’s a joy to model values-based work to them from my office-between-the-bedrooms.
Rachelle´s last blog ..Relig-ish- From Scripture to Song Lyrics- a New Kind of Sacred Text
Rachelle, I am ridiculously happy that your work in the world is done entirely by choice. It takes on so much more meaning for those of us that see you doing it. :)
I’m a creativity coach for quietly rebellious writers and artists. I have two children, age 5 and 3.
One of the ways that being a mother has changed me is that I now have a very low tolerance for doing anything I don’t really like. Time has become even more precious, and I want to spend it with my kids or doing something that I LOVE. So I have launched into entrepreneurship so I can have complete control over my work life.
On the flip side, my patience and tolerance for discomfort have gone up a lot. So I have more grit when it comes to building my business. Write a sales page? Sure! That’s nothing compared to spending half the night with a sick kid or getting two whining, kicking children fed and dressed.
Alison, I love that you brought up how much easier it is to deal with annoying work stuff when you’ve dealt with raising a child. Right on. :D
rachael, this is a very cool thing! i have loved reading all of the comments from all these amazing mums!
i was a teacher before i had my kids and i started my little photography biz from home, when my second was born, so that i could continue being a stay at home mum but still have something to do that was ‘all mine’. about 2.5 years later i started my blog ‘build a little biz’ because i loved chatting with other mums about starting and improving their own little biz. i had no idea there would be so many mums out there that needed that! that blog is almost one year old and i am blown away every single day by the support and following that i have. this little world of mums in biz is amazing!!
thanks for all that you do for little biz builders and mums in biz – i have certainly appreciated your support of my site and the help you have provided my readers. =)
Karen, your cheerfulness simply radiates out of everything you do and say. Thank you for being such a blessing. :)
Hi Rachael! I stumbled across your website (today actually) via dasbecca.com and I am loving it!
I am a mother of two boys, ages 5 and 2. I began running a small photography business shortly before my first son was born. I’ve been lucky enough to photograph some amazing and beautiful people over the past few years. I make my own hours and work at my own pace and it is great. I’ve wanted to be a photographer since I was in middle school. I also had dreams of becoming a famous ice skater, a gymnast and driver of a super cool ice cream truck. I dream big, haha. I’m not sure why I waited so long to pursue a career in the photography field, but I am here now so that is all that matters. I am also a part-time university student and my husband is in grad school, so to say that we are busy would be an understatement.
I learn new things from my kids every day, such as how to bandage and clean scraped knees while simultaneously folding laundry without getting blood from said scraped knee on any of the clean clothes, while also emailing clients their gallery passwords. Before I had kids I was a total spaz. Okay, I am still a total spaz, but having my kids has taught me how to control it and having that control works its way into every aspect of my life, including the running of my business.
Thank you for giving us moms this cool opportunity! I hope you have a relaxing and wonderful Mother’s Day!
Hi Carissa! It’s awesome to have new people here – hooray!
I totally agree that learning to control yourself in the context of parenthood REALLY comes in handy in business. :)
Carissa, you are SO incredibly gifted, and such a wonderful woman and mother… I just can’t speak highly enough of you– so excited you chose to showcase yourself! And yes, Rachael, what an awesome opportunity! :-D You’re full of good ideas, heh.
becca´s last blog ..Day One Hundred and Twenty Six
It’s true, I am full of good ideas! And then some of them are actually awesome enough to share! :D
Hi Rachael–
I’m a psychotherapist with a brick and mortar, and a baby blog which has been growing slowly but surely over the past 13 months. I’m hoping to add products by mid-summer.
Being a momprenuer has informed practically every decision I make. I know how hard it is to juggle the job, the child-rearing, and the pressures and overwhelm of all that goes into a fledging biz.
Oh, but it’s so worth it…
Today my son brought home a Mother’s Day project from school. It was a booklet, where the kids had to fill in the blanks. He answered the sentence: I love my mom because she works hard at “her job.” I feel proud (and sometimes guilty) for modeling my work ethic.
Would I love to stay home and not work on some days. You bet. But at the end of the day, I work hard for my child’s future, and for the futures of the children and their families that I counsel.
After all, children have one shot at childhood.
‘Make it count’ is what I remind myself when the going gets rough…
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there:).
Linda´s last blog ..Would Freud Buy An iPad
Linda, you are so right that it’s worth it. And look what brave people we are teaching them to be – even in the face of things they’ll one day realize were scary enough to make us lay down and stop trying.
Thank you for sharing. :)
It’s thanks to Karen (above) of Build a Little Biz that I found you today.
I’m a Mum to 2 girls, 9 & 12, both of whom offer me extraordinary challenges being ASD, (among other things). It’s impossible for me to work outside the home, and I have had some really interesting work in the field of art & craft. I am a teacher and designer, and consider myself fortunate to work from home.
Being the mother of 2 special needs kids has taught me more than any TAFE course or degree ever could. I have learned about patience, flexibility and am starting to learn how to say no (which is hard for a possilibities person!). I am showing my kids that you can be a full time mother, follow your dreams and live a creative life all at the same time. My work changes a lot, and at the moment I’m all about dolls for my market business. I’ve also discovered that Facebook is a very valuable tool for WAHM’s.
Kia ora from New Zealand :-)
I’m a mum to an almost 4 year old boy, and an 8 month old boy, and wife to incredible husband Layton. I’m an artist, interior designer, entreprenuer, wannabe masterchef, and lover of all things beautiful, natural, original, and vintage.
I started my business “Hapene Flax NZ Ltd” 12 years ago when I was studying Interior Architecture at University, when I discovered a new method of processing NZ flax leaves, which I then patented, and from which time it’s been all go! I always envisaged that this would be the kind of business that I could run from home, with a house full of kids who were so well behaved and even very helpful! Well….the reality is – quite the opposite! Sometimes I feel like I’m running around like a headless chook! But I love what I do, I think I would go crazy if I wasn’t creating something, and I love my family to bits. Somehow, it all works out, amidst the mayhem, children get played with, flax gets picked, paintings get painted, designs get constructed, meals get cooked and lots of coffee gets drunk! I love the support and advice I get from websites such as this, as it makes me feel like I’m a little bit normal :-)
Here’s to all the mum’s out there, Happy Mothers Day
Hi gang,
Ainslie here from Courses THat Matter – I work full time and run my online education business at night after my spirited 3 year old daughter is asleep.
I am the woman I am today because my mum was a successful entrepreneur. And I want to be the same role model for my daughter.
Ainslie Hunter´s last blog ..Lifetime Access – Smart marketing but terrible teaching
My wife, the mother of my two gorgeous girls, 6 and 5, is so damn awesome on so many levels.
She manages to write, blog, judge writing competitions, be a full time Mum. She also manages to fit in, visiting her 95 year old grandfather, being a wife to her currently unemployed husband (which can hardly be easy) and cooking the best cakes in the world! (investigate her blog for more on those cakes)
She has thrown herself into social media which comes from the need to market yourself in the writing world we live in today. So even after the day getting the kids ready for school, driving them there, picking them up, afternoon tea, cooking dinner and writing the work never stops.
The clock also never stops as she follows the sun talking to people all over the world.
All this to follow her passion of story telling.
The fact that we have a warm and loving home home is a tribute to her drive and commitment. So a very very big Happy Mothers day to her and all the other Mums out there in the Ethernet.
Her blog is ‘www.caitlynnicholas.com’ and she writes under the same name, Caitlyn Nicholas.
To all Mothers and entrepreneurs I wish you the best of luck and ‘just keep on swimming’.
Hi there Rachael,
this is such a great initiative on your part! I’m a graphic designer and have recently launched my range of witty designs aimed particularly for mums, just to add some humor to the 24×7 (mostly) thankless job we are doing as mothers!
you can check it out at
http://teezers.mahjabeenumar.com
my home page is http://www.mahjabeenumar.com
I’ve been running Murdering The Text since 1997, writing murder mystery scripts for amateur theatre groups, school, local charities and general fundraisers. For the first few years, I ran the business alongside working as a PA for someone else. My first child came along in 2002 and suddenly everything changed. Here was this creative little soul who created her own worlds with whatever came to hand, with no thought for bills or must-do’s. Two years later my second muse arrived and very soon, Murdering The Text was my sole job.
Being a mompreneur hasn’t always been easy but what I have learnt from my children is that there is no shame in letting my imagination rule and enjoying what I do for a living. The other great lesson of motherhood has been to develop flexibility and an aptitude for juggling (routines, money, children – oops!).
I also run an accompanying blog – http://murderingthetext.blogspot.com
Thanks,
Fi
I’m a mom-preneur and proud of it! :)
Working at home writing copy & editing allows me to HOMESCHOOL and be with my 3 kids 24/7. My oldest daughter has Aspergers and my middle daughter was born with a genetic disease that requires constant therapy & doctor visits. Thank God I am able to do this and work to bring in some income.
Best thing about being a mompreneur is that my girls are learning this is a REAL way of life and can be a good income if they choose to follow suit.
Thanks for doing this, Rachael – what a wonderful Mother’s Day gift!
My two sons were grown-up before I started this business but I’d love to be counted as a mom-preneur too. And I hope that they will someday see the possibilities and freedom of doing this too.
Hi Rachael!
This is awesome! Thanks for doing this. I am a lawyer/entrepreneur with an online based law practice (and some other biz ideas in the works) and I am pregnant with my first child. Reading these comments has been really inspiring and comforting for me! I have been thinking about how I will make it all work and am pretty convinced that I just will; that I will rise to the occasion because that’s what’s required. And furthermore, that I will love every minute of it. Thanks to all the moms who commented and confirmed my suspicions! :)
PS- You guys rock!
Rachel Rodgers´s last blog ..My Lawyer’s Name Is Rachel
Hello Rachael.
I’m a copywriter and marketing consultant, and I’m launching something new soon.
My business was born around the time my youngest son was born. But I’d been reading business books and learning web stuff for long before that.
I finally decided to join the world of entrepreneurial women and have made incredible friendships and learned so much.
I’ve achieved a fair amount from the limited amount of time I’ve put in–helping move over 1 million dollars worth of products and services with my copy, being called an inspirational speaker, guest lecturing at a university, being valued as a consultant–what’s great is that the positive energy I get from my work also fires up my time with my kids.
It’s been very rewarding and I’m excited to move it ahead.
Being a mother keeps me grounded and also makes me focus my work time. It also teaches me things like holding my ground, creative problem solving, and the importance of asking questions.
Rebecca Kellogg´s last blog ..My first press release
Hi Rachael
What a fantastic way to support other mums! Thank you.
As much as I have admired small-business owners in the past, I never thought that I would become one. Having my kids (Alannah, 3, and Hamish, 1) has driven it completely, because, like so many mums, I wanted to find a more flexible alternative to a “proper” job.
I have only just starting selling my fabric cubby houses which fit over your dining table. So far it has been tremendously challenging and time-consuming, but the flexibility it gives me to be with my kids when they need me is amazing. And I love that my daughter only started to play at “going to work” after I started working.
I will keep putting one foot in front of the other and see where it leads me.
Kirralee
Kirralee Baker´s last blog ..What a cosy little cubby!
Hello, I’m Katie Heim from Austin, TX and I am the bookkeeper for the revolution. I support small businesses with my accounting and consulting expertise, as well as raising two beautiful kids. My partner runs a small chiropractic practice as well, so we are both passionate about the entrepreneur inside of each of us. I call myself a revolutionary because I approach small business as the driving force of our economy. It’s my dream that my kids will grow up knowing that this country is made proud, strong and financially diverse by each and every one of us small business owners.
After getting laid off I decided not to wait to get “rescued” (ie. get a job with another huge corporation) and within the month had set up not one, but two companies. With a new mortgage and two kids to support, I knew I needed to create a viable income source. Hence KLFG Communications and PickSomewhere.com were born.
As a communications consultant, I decided to take the 10+ years experience I had in the communications/media/marketing industry and help start-ups create branding and launch strategies
The other business is even more exciting! I teamed up with my friend and her husband and started the web’s newest restaurant finder and review site. By taking the best of what’s already out there, we hope to offer people a great alternative when trying to “PickSomewhere” to eat. We launch in June.
And of course, because I’m not busy enough I help coach my daughter’s volleyball team, am the team manager for my son’s lacrosse team and sit on the board for two professional associations.
We women have to keep busy and use all our amazing talents, otherwise the world would just get boring!
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