Kudos to Mompreneurs

I have often compared starting a business with motherhood.  In both instances, you can do all the homework before hand – the classes, the books, talking to others – but nothing really prepares you for the reality.

Truth is when I was pregnant with my first child, I was so focused on getting through childbirth that I didn’t give much thought to life after birth. So having had a busy career, the isolation of being home with a baby had not even crossed my mind.  Likewise when you work from home, you can miss the camaraderie of your peers.

It was that sense of isolation that led me to help start our local family resource centre, and later when I had my consulting practice, launch Company of Women. Bringing women together helps you realize you are not alone and that others feel the same way too – if they are honest and choose to remove the masks of perfection.

And as for the emotional rollercoaster, it is pretty similar too, as you can switch in seconds from excitement and joy to total fear and tears because you believe that you are not up to the job in hand – be it parenting or running a business.

So to throw motherhood and business together and run a business while you are home with your children takes an even greater leap of faith and courage. I am in awe at the organization, energy and determination it must take to juggle both roles – mother and business owner -  successfully.

As I witnessed at the recent blogging session put on by Women in Biz Network, more and more young mothers are doing this. The energy in the room was electric as the women chatted to one another, comparing notes on business and family life.

Take heart, you are the new pioneers, showing that women do have a head for business, and role modeling for your children, especially your daughters, that with determination and persistence, you can carve out a life for yourself and follow your dreams.

I didn’t start my business until I was 50, so I applaud you.  You go girl.

Mompreneur

Mompreneur. What does that make you think of?

Last night, along with several Company of Women members, we had the opportunity to screen the taping of the new Fortune Hunters TV Show on CBC. This particular episode focused on the growing trend of mothers at home who are starting their own business as a way to achieve work-life balance – hence the new term mompreneur.

After hearing Dianne Buckner talk about current trends in business, particularly women and business, and viewing the show, the audience made up of women from Company of Women and Women in a Home Office entered into an interesting discussion about the term, mompreneur.

While some loved it feeling it captured the dual roles, not everyone felt the same way. Others were opposed feeling it detracted for the business aspects of what the women were doing, making it sound like they were just “playing” at their business.

Certainly much depends on what the mompreneur is doing. To my mind, if they have launched a business building on an idea or need they have identified through their own experiences as a mom – then mompreneur may be appropriate. But if they’re offering say graphic design services from home, I suspect that nametag could have a detrimental affect on their business growth, as it conjures up pictures of a woman at the computer, with a babe attached at the hip.

In the show last night, they also highlighted some ideas that have been developed by mothers around the world which was fascinating. But as for the bottled Mom’s Spit, available in different flavours – somehow you can’t imagine it taking off – whether it’s been developed by an entrepreneur or a mompreneur.

Watch the show for yourself – see what you think. It airs February 16 at 6.30 ET and repeats on Sundays at 1.30pm and 4.30pm. ET on CBC Newsworld.