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Mompreneurs are women who start home businesses while also parenting their children. The movement is growing in the US, with many moms selling on eBay, inventing products, freelancing, or starting their own firms. Balancing work and family is a challenge, but many find success and income without sacrificing time with their children. Advice and resources are available for aspiring mompreneurs.
A mompreneur is a newly coined term for women who start home businesses while also acting as full-time parents to their children. The mompreneur movement is steadily growing in the United States as mothers try to find ways to make money, express their creativity or business acumen, and also to parent their children. It’s hard to find precise figures on the exact number of mompreneurs that make up the business world today, but there are some statistics on the growth of home-based businesses.
One of them is the impressive list of independent sellers on eBay – nearly 500,000 people are independent sellers for the company. Many of these are moms who just garage sell or grab free items and then resell them on the eBay site. It is possible to make profits on the actual items, but most of the profits from this style of mompreneur are made by evaluating the shipping and handling charges for the items. “Handle” can mean a charge in excess of the shipping cost that the mompreneur can keep as part of his profit.
The mompreneur may also start by inventing something, often an item that other moms will like. Susan Dunk, who was recently featured in Costco’s magazine, The Costco Connection, invented the Toddler Coddler, a padded device that prevents toddlers from falling forward in car seats. Her product sold very well at trade shows and soon Dunk was able to increase her production value of the product. You can now find Toddler Coddlers in toy and baby stores.
Other types of moms may be doing the same kind of work they did before having kids. Instead of working at a large accounting firm, a mompreneur might start her own firm to accommodate her changing schedules. Mompreneur jobs vary enormously, but many of them are quite lucrative. People may run daycare centers, create products, design jewelry, freelance write, or sell products from home (Mary Kay, Avon). Not all mompreneurs make a product to sell, but they all reinvent how they can do business, and many make a steady profit while doing it. The most successful mompreneurs can earn outstanding salaries, although not all mompreneurs succeed.
To this end there are now books and many websites dedicated to giving advice to the aspiring mompreneur. This advice on how to get finance to start a business, how to create a business plan and also serves as an excellent meeting place. Talking to other moms is a great way to make business contacts for the mom thinking of running her own business.
One of the main problems mom faces is learning how to balance the needs of her children with the demands of her business. This is why many sites advise people who are new to running a business to set small realistic expectations that don’t cause too much burden especially to young children. The savvy businesswoman learns to work at those times when her children require the least supervision, and she also quickly learns how to say “no” to business obligations that will take away her family’s time. She might work around the kids’ school schedules or nap times to maximize time spent with family.
The mompreneur movement is interesting, as it expresses the change in attitudes towards stay-at-home mothers. Creative mothers who wish to stay at home are now finding many ways to do so, without necessarily sacrificing income. It cannot be said that all mompreneurs are always able to balance work and family demands perfectly, but they are more likely to be able to provide this balance by being their own boss.
