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The Modern Mother's Day for Moms in Business

By: Shannon Cherry

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Take a couple of kids at home, combine a mom with little business and marketing experience, and add a mother's desire to launch a new business What do you have? The ingredients for potential entrepreneurial failure.

This is exactly the prospect many moms face every day. Opening a new business isn't easy to do.

I know this first-hand as the owner of Be Heard Solutions (www.beheardsolutions.com), a public relations firm for women-led businesses, Cherry Communications (www.cherrycommunications.com), a traditional marketing-communications firm and creator of the Mommy, Inc. blog (www.mommy-inc.com), written for mom entrepreneurs. I'm also the co-author of "Become Your Own Great and Powerful: A Woman's Guide to Living Your Real, Big Life."

But women are becoming entrepreneurs at twice the rate of their male counterparts. They want to nurture a business along with nurturing their children.

I'm a mom of newborn twin girls and run my businesses from home. But I remember that it wasn't so long ago the idea of a mom working at home and raising children seemed farfetched. That's why I think every day is Mother's Day - because we should be celebrating all entrepreneur moms' achievements.

Entrepreneur moms can have success both with raising their kids and bringing home the bacon, but it takes dedication and hard work. It can be the closest thing to the best of both worlds. However, there are several things moms who want to start a business should remember.

Here are some tips, in honor of Mother's Day, to help moms in business:

1. Know that you already have the skills. When you're a mom, you already have the skills needed to run a business. After all, raising kids takes stamina, dedication, organization and love. It's exactly the same needed for running a business.

2. Have a plan. Whether you work inside or outside the home, you need time to get the job done - without the kids around. That means you will need to plan some sort of childcare so you will have time to take care of business.

If affording childcare is an issue, try working within your kids' schedules by utilizing naptimes and when they are in school. Or start a babysitting co-op, where you collaborate with other moms to exchange babysitting services when you need it.

3. Watch out for scams. The ad sounds enticing and making some cash part-time at home would be wonderful. But here's the reality. A business takes work. It's not easy as many scams claim. As the old adage says, "If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is."

Be careful out there. You should NEVER have to pay someone to work for them.

4. Find support. It's not easy to try to do it all. So don't. What you need to find someone to help. It could be your partner, hiring someone to do the things you can't get done or don't have talent to take on, or fining like-minded moms online just to vent and chat with.

Check out organizations like Wild Women Entrepreneurs or eWomanNetwork. Both have many mother-members who are striving to achieve success in business while raising a family. They're available and they care. Whether you have a marketing question, need tips on expanding your business, or advice on how to get your two year old to stop screaming every time your on the phone, these women offer solutions when you need them

5. Take Mommy Time Outs. Sometimes we all just need a break. If you've gotten so wrapped up in work that you're aren't enjoying the reasons you got into business in the first place, it's time for a Mommy Time Out. Mommy time outs are essential in preventing unwarranted outbursts of anger and onsets of depression, while ending the mundane cycle we often put ourselves in.

However is that a mom's job is never done. There's always one more load of laundry, one more set of dishes, another school function to attend, another assignment to complete and a child hollering, "Mom!" That's when you ask a friend, a partner, someone you trust to give you an hour by yourself, while they watch the kids. Take a long bath. Give yourself a pedicure or manicure.

Work-Life Balance Myth
Remember no mom should try for the perfect work-life balance. There's no such thing. This myth gives women the perception that if they do things 'right,' you will spend an equal amount of energy, time, creativity and love on both your work and your family. I'd like to see the Mom who has ever had the scales so evenly balanced... She doesn't exist - or she's lying.

And I am tired of hearing that a mom can 'have it all.' You can't. And getting what you have doesn't come easy.

Just do what needs to be done the best way you can.

Dishes still in the sink? So what.

Laundry still needs to be folded? Big deal.

Can't answer an email right away because you're holding your crying baby? No problem.

What's important is to keep yourself and your children happy.

And if that means starting your own business, I say go for it.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Shannon Cherry, APR, MA helps businesses, entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations to be heard and the blogger of Mommy-Inc.com. Subscribe today for Be Heard! a FREE biweekly ezine and get a FREE special report. Go to: www.beheardsolutions.com/pop.html

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