“Mompreneurs” Find Profits While Parenting

McClatchy Newspapers:

The mompreneur movement, in which women have drawn inspiration from their jobs as mothers to create their own businesses, isn’t new.

Sheryl Leach of Allen, Texas, became one 20 years ago, when she developed Barney. Now, the purple dinosaur is a multimillion-dollar entertainment dynasty. But you never know who’s going to hit it big next.

“Technology makes it so much easier to run a business from home than it was even five years ago,” Cobe says by e-mail from Scarsdale, N.Y. “It’s easy and inexpensive to set up your own Web site, do e-mail blasts to attract clients and customers, and run a business on the go.”

And young mothers today want something a little different from the previous generation of moms, Cobe says.

“This generation of women who are in their 20s and 30s grew up when a lot of moms went into the work force and had to work in offices away from home,” she says. “They do not want the same thing for their kids. They want to be around them more. Plus, they are well-educated and have worked before they had kids, so they have skills and talents that can be applied to a home business.”

What to consider before you leave your 9-to-5:

1. Tap your skills and talents to find a home-business idea.

2. Write a business plan.

3. Set up “office hours.”

4. Have a nest egg of six months’ savings to get your business up and running.

5. Network, network, network!

Photo by Adam Traum.

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