WAHM Business Opportunities Weblog
Ledger-Enquirer.com:
Heather Schoenrock, a Duluth mother of three, had been making organic baby food for her children for years - steaming, pureeing and freezing fresh fruit and vegetable recipes at home.
The personal endeavor took an unexpected turn when Schoenrock brought some food for her third child, Jack, to a play date with friend Connie Pope and her son, Avery.
“For me, the light bulb was the peas,” said Pope, a Norcross mother of two. “When she pulled out the peas she had made for Jack, they were green. They smelled like peas. They tasted good.”
Two years later, Pope and Schoenrock have turned Schoenrock’s frozen organic baby food into a business called Jack’s Harvest. After building a customer base through home delivery and Internet sales, the company recently crossed a major threshold, gaining shelf space at metro Atlanta Whole Foods Market grocery stores.
Jack’s Harvest faces competition as distribution broadens. It will be going up against major brands, such as Gerber Organic and Earth’s Best, which sell organic baby food in jars or plastic packages at room temperatures.
A host of smaller companies also are popping up that make frozen organic baby food. Like Jack’s Harvest, these companies tout freezing as a way to retain vitamins, flavor and color.
Jack’s Harvest sells its food in 12-ounce bags of frozen heart-shaped servings at $7.49 a bag. They come in 10 flavors, including Yummy Bunny Carrots, Tango with Mango and Lip-smacking Sweet Potatoes.
Image from Jack’s Harvest.
MSNBC:
Most mom entrepreneurs start a business to help support their families. So why not get your family to help support your business? You’re in business for yourself, not by yourself. Let your family be part of your growing business. Not only can family members provide support and assistance, they can also learn about business during your journey.
Obviously, each business is unique. However, I believe that all businesses have hidden opportunities for an owner’s kids and spouse to get involved. Maybe your kids can stamp envelopes, hand out fliers or alphabetize folders; think about how much they would learn. Even if your husband has his own job he can still be an integral part of your success. He may have ideas that complement yours or can help run errands or support you at trade shows. The idea is to get your family involved so it truly is a family business.
When I started Stroller Strides, my son Jacob was in charge of giving out stickers to classmates after school. When he got older, he helped tape my fliers shut. My franchisees tell me stories of their kids handing fliers to passersby and having their kids work trade show booths with them. I believe we’re teaching them from a young age how family and business can work together. My husband, Jason, has always been essential to my business’s success. Although he has a full-time job, he’s still my sounding board when things get tough. He asks where he can help and is happy to run small errands or help more with the kids if that helps me with the business. In my company, entirely staffed by women, it’s nice to have a bit of testosterone to balance us out.
Photo by ninahale.
The Wichita Eagle:
When her only child left for college this fall, Wichita mom Juliann Mathews wanted to stay a busy homemaker.
But now she gets paid to do it.
She recently launched Modern-Day June Homemaking Services — a private concierge service with a decidedly old-fashioned twist.
“‘Concierge’ sounds so pretentious,” says Mathews, 45. “I’m not a concierge. I’m just a mom.”
For $25 an hour — more for evenings, weekends or particularly heinous tasks — Mathews will cook, bake, shop, wrap, clean, iron, mail packages, decorate, help with party preparations, put up the Christmas tree and even walk the dog –”all those things busy moms do,” she said.
“Let’s be honest: Moms make the holidays,” she said. “But so many women get so exhausted that there’s nothing left to give to the kids. There’s no time to sit down and really enjoy your family.”
Photo by midnightcomm.
Seacoastonline.com:
Sadly, there just isn’t a Mary Poppins around the corner, waiting to come to you and care for your kiddies.
Do not overly fret. There is help. Yes, you can have a “date night” with your husband, even if you don’t have helpful family members nearby just dying to babysit. You can go out for a few hours during the week to run errands and do things just for you.
Help comes the way via Moms and Sitters Connect, a business that began just over a year ago and is going strong. The need is there, the sitters are ready.
This past Sunday night, owner of Moms and Sitters Connect, Sarah Wollheim, held a meet and greet potential sitters for moms at Choozy Shooz/Le Club Boutique in downtown Portsmouth. And yes, there were some delectable chocolates on hand as well as being able to roam the clothes and shoes in the host store.
Twenty-two sitters were on hand to introduce themselves and meet the 15 moms. All were experienced, vetted, and eager for some work as babysitters.
Why were no dads present? This is probably another story in the works. Some 15 moms were present, having paid the registration fee of $50. They got their money’s worth in being able to met the sitters in person and arrange schedules, ask questions and get to know each other.
Screenshot from Moms and Sitters Connect, LLC.
freep.com:
Pam Klumpp, a Traverse City mom of three, brainstormed a new business when she wondered out loud how to reuse scrap material from a family friend’s banner-making company.
Like many people in her community, Pam recycles plastic, glass and paper and has tried to live a green life. Her husband, Brian, works in a green industry, selling electric cars and scooters. Now, they’ve gone green again with priorLIFE, which recycles old banners into statement-making totes and bags. “I thought there was an opportunity to create something new,” says Pam. “And the beauty of it was that it was out of something old. It just felt right.”
Logo from priorLIFE.
Pegasus News:
Inside what used to be a tuxedo shop is a store with pink walls, a pink chandelier and two white rocking chairs .
This place offers mothers, daughters and grandmothers a place to shop together.
Teri and Crissy Camp, a mother-daughter pair, are co-owners of Emma’s Boutique on Brinker Road in Denton.
Crissy Camp, a UNT alumna, said she decided to open the store after about a year of going from job to job trying to find something she liked, lacking passion for anything she did.
She started as a business major, then changed to education and graduated in May 2007 with a general studies degree.
“I finally decided to go out on a limb and open my own boutique here in town,” Crissy Camp said. “Most people assume with my mom being a part of it that she paid my way in, but we are business partners with a 50-50 split when we are at work, and then mom and daughter outside of work.”
Logo from Emma’s Boutique.
Today is a wonderful reminder of why we should be thankful. Although not everyone will celebrate this holiday, hopefully we can all agree on at least one thing that we can appreciate within our lives. Every stepping stone and road block we’ve reached will lead us to something new. Maybe you’re celebrating with a huge holiday feast, or you’re going to have a small microwave meal. What are you thankful for?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Photo by CarbonNYC.
newsday.com:
When Bay Shore resident Kimberly Seals-Allers was pregnant with her first child in 2000, she needed straightforward advice geared toward modern, professional, sophisticated African-American moms-to-be.
She says she couldn’t find what she craved anywhere.
Her own mother’s experiences were geared to a different generation, Seals-Allers says. “She was just appalled that I wanted to exercise. To my mom, when you’re pregnant you sit still and put your feet up.” Seals-Allers calls that “Granny advice.” She says she wanted experts and voices of her peers. “We like our sister network. We liked to feel we’re getting our advice from a panel of girlfriend experts,” Seals-Allers says.
Being a journalist, Seals-Allers decided to write the hip book she longed for herself. So began “The Mocha Manual” series, which she launched after returning to the United States and settling in Bay Shore. “When I did ‘The Mocha Manual’ I had a vision to do a series of books like the ‘Dummies’ series,” Seals-Allers says.
She’s on her way. Seals-Allers published “The Mocha Manual to a Fabulous Pregnancy” in December 2005 (Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, $14.95); a DVD version came out in April this year and is on sale at Wal-Mart stores. A second “Mocha Manual” - this one called “The Mocha Manual to Turning Your Passion into Profit” - is scheduled for publication in January. A third - “The Mocha Manual to Military Life” is scheduled for release in June. For that one, Seals-Allers teamed up with Pamela McBride, an Army wife from Georgia, to advise military service members, their fiances or fiancees, spouses and parents of color.
A revamped mochamanual.com Web site debuted Friday, and one goal for the coming year is to bring together moms of color on Long Island through its message board section, Seals-Allers says. “We’re actually creating more of a community,” she says.
Logo from The Mocha Manual.
WTOL.com:
What’s a tailgate for the big game without buckeyes — Marsha’s homemade buckeyes?
The Perrysburg woman who built a business on the sweet treats is busier than ever and says you can start a successful business, too, if you’re just patient.
Dip, dip, dip. “I’ve been making buckeyes 24 years,” Smith tell us. Many of them for the Ohio State vs. Michigan game.
With enough butter and batter to grease the way, what started as a little side money for Smith turned into a business with two dozen employees that produces hundreds of thousands of buckeyes each year. “My youngest was three-months old, and I wanted money to buy my husband a Christmas present without asking him for the money,” she says.
So how did this stay-at-home mom turn an icon into an income? “I took it one day at a time. I didn’t go big really fast.”
That’s the same advice she’s giving Barb Pinkelman, a 7-year employee starting her own cupcake business. She got the idea three years ago making cupcakes for an event at her daughter’s school. “I’ve always loved to bake, and I thought it might be a concept people would like and it just kind of took off,” she tells us.
Photo by stu_spivack.
Daily Herald:
Kathy McGuire’s son had a tough time understanding that he couldn’t wear shorts when the weather turned cool.
Getting strong-willed 4-year-old Ryan ready for preschool in the morning turned into a daily battle.
McGuire, a stay-at-home mom with an engineering degree, knew there had to be an easier way. After a great deal of research, trial and error and making prototypes in her laundry room, the Downers Grove mom invented a thermometer that not only reads the outside temperature, but also shows kids how to dress.
Using recent tax refunds and money earned through playing guitar at a local restaurant on the weekends, McGuire created and patented My Little Weatherbuddy, “a kid’s first thermometer.”
Logo from My Little Weatherbuddy.
