Blog Topic Of The Week: Launching Moms

This week's topic is Launching Moms.  Are you a launching mom?   Do you think that being a mother is conducive to entrepreneurship?  Did being a mother inspire your entrepreneurship?  If you are a stay at home mom (SAHM), do you want to go back to work or would you rather launch your business or project?

Comments

[Amanda Bakke]

I work full time and am trying to launch on on-line biz while working on a plan for a brick and mortar store. And...its all about my kiddies. My goal is to own my time, be able to take them home from school, play, do homework, and have my store close at hand. Its a crazy, fun juggle and my fingers are crossed that I can make it work.

[Sarah Auerswald]

I think my entrepenuerial spirit really blossomed when I became a mom. I totally credit my sons -- and the person I became when I had them -- with kick-starting my creativity and my drive to build a business.

[Sarah Zeldman]

I think it would be MUCH better to start becoming an entreprenuer BEFORE you are are a mom, if possible. I meet many new moms who ask "How can I start a business while my baby naps?" -- I ask you -- would Donald Trump worry about the same thing?

Not that we want to be Donald Trump - G-d Forbid! :)

My only point is that starting a new business 'at naptime' is VERY difficult -- especially when you don't have any previous business experience and no one to guide you. There is a learning curve involved. As the saying goes "it takes years to be an overnight success" and those "years" can strech into more like decade when you are trying to do it around your children.

I don't mean to be overly negative, I work-from-home and love it! I just wish that I had started my entrepenuerial journey earlier, so I would have gotten my learning curve out of the way and been more established when the babies came.

[Susannah Furr]

Having children is completely what spurred my entrepreneurial spirit into overdrive. Even though I had started a very small business before having children, it was my desire to stay at home with them that really fueled my desire to start something bigger. My first season of women's clothing is underway (www.pronkstyle.com) and even though there are many moments of sheer frustration, I feel so happy to be fulfilling a personal dream while being there for my 4 small kids at the same time. It is definitely a juggling act and it's easy to feel overwhelmed so it's definitely not for everyone but I would never tell a fellow mom to not go for it because it's totally invigorating and possible.

[Rachel Whalley]

I can see how challenging it must be to start up a business while juggling motherhood, but I want to comment on the flipside. My husband and I plan to start trying for kids in about half a year when I finish grad school. This year, I started my writing coaching business and it's just starting to really pick up steam. Now my quandry is going to be figuring out how to drop out of the business world for a few months to a year while I "start up" my role as mother. I don't know if it'll be any easier to let go of my growing business for a while than it would be to start a business after having a child. Is there anyone out there who has walked the path I'm planning on walking?

[Hope Coulter]

Being from a corporate/marketing sales backround. I got caught up in the crazy freight train many of you may know who are in the field. I decided one day I was hopping off that train. I have a daughter who is 11 now and 9-10 at the time. I remember coming home from working 10-12 hr days and seeing no joy in anything and the worst was seeing no joy in her my daughter and my love my lover my husband. That's when I had to take a step back and breathe. I started to look around me at women who were doing the daily grind and who had forgotten themselves. Hearing women around me speak of sex with ther husbands as a chore and coming home and just being so tired so not full of the zest we had not so long ago. I decided I felt so passionately about this I wanted to coach these women back to where they used to be at one time. Remember when?????

[monica kermani]

I know this is old, but I wanted to comment because I think it's interesting. I want to run my own business and at the very least be a stay at home mom for my two-year old son. I'd like to buy a business instead of starting one from scratch, but I haven't been able to find any that truly interest me. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!