Some moms choose to work full time. Others become full-time moms.
Lately, a category in between is gaining popularity, even inspiring a new term: mompreneur.
Mompreneurs are women who run their own businesses — usually out of their homes — while juggling the duties of motherhood, said Ellen Parlapiano, who trademarked the term and is co-author of several books on the subject.
“The No. 1 reason that they start businesses is for family flexibility — the flexibility to go to the preschool in the middle of the day without having to ask a boss for permission,” she said.
Exact numbers of mompreneurs aren’t available. But millions of women run businesses by themselves and are the sole employee, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Women’s Business Research. The number of such firms grew at twice the rate of all single-person businesses since 1992, the center said.
And with the state of the current economy, Parlapiano is expecting more.
“People are losing their jobs,” she said. “They’re turning to home employment and starting their own ventures.”
Laura Gendron of Clovis, Calif., is a mother of three and the owner of Petite Fleur Designs, an online boutique that sells the hair accessories, hats and children’s clothing she creates. She also supplies 20 other Web sites and local shops with her goods.
Her factory is a small bedroom in the family’s suburban home, and she works when the kids are at preschool, after they go to bed and occasionally while they play quietly at the desk next to her.
She estimated she earns the same amount of money as she did working part-time in pharmaceutical sales, her pre-baby career.
Balancing business and family is a big challenge, but Gendron said she always puts family first.
Tim Stearns, executive director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, Fresno, said many people have probably pondered entrepreneurship before they had children, back when they were working a full-time corporate job.
Now that they’ve left that job, they’re in a better position to start the business, he said.
“A woman who’s married who’s trying to raise a kid — it’s a perfect model for someone who now needs to be at home but would like to generate some income,” he said.
For public relations consultant Suzanne Crosina-Sahm, the move from full-time worker to business-owning mother happened accidentally. Her job ended when a grant ran out, and that same day, one of the clients she served in that job asked her whether she would continue to work for it from home.
That client was a large bank, and Crosina-Sahm eventually added other prominent clients.
Her office is in a corner in her bedroom, and she works when her 3- and 7-year-old sons are at school and still has time to volunteer in their classrooms, she said.
Her clients know she has young children at home, but she said the two worlds can collide at times.
“It’s not very professional — a toddler having a tantrum in the background,” she said.
Parlapiano said presenting a professional image is important. “Luckily, technology allows so much to be done by e-mail now.”
Jaime Dillmore of Fresno launched her business after realizing she missed interacting with adults.
She left a job in sales and marketing at a cable company to care full-time for her sons, who are now 5 and 8. She became involved in photography and found being with children all day had changed her.
“I almost forgot how to be an adult. I’d say, ‘Oh, I have to go pee pee,'” Dillmore said.
But, she said photography “just sparked something in me. There was no stopping at that point.”
Now she runs Dillmore Portraits, specializing in photos of newborns and children. The business brings in 30 percent of her household’s income. She shoots on location and invites customers to her studio. The studio is her living room — her furniture is pushed into the dining room and replaced with backdrops.
Advances in technology also have made it easier for women to start such businesses from their homes.
Gendron gave up selling her wares at craft fairs in favor of marketing them online.
Dillmore doesn’t have to spend time dropping off negatives to be developed. Customers also pick which proofs they want hard copies of through her Web site.
Men are in on the trend, too. There are “dadpreneurs” out there as well, said Craig Scharton, chief executive of the Central Valley Business Incubator in Fresno, Calif., where Crosina-Sahm worked before starting her home business.
And for the mompreneur, dads also often are key to their wives’ success, particularly when it comes to presenting a professional front. Dillmore’s husband, Ronald often takes the children to the park when customers come to her studio.
“The only reason that this is working is because I have the best husband on the face of the planet,” she said.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com.)
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