Mompreneurs Combine Business and Raising Kids

Denver Business Journal:

Mompreneurs are at the forefront of a new entrepreneurial trend in Colorado — juggling sack lunches and business plans, cleaning up cuts and scrapes while also repairing the bottom line.

Mompreneurs are stay-at-home moms with a twist: They’re also starting their own businesses, usually run out of their home, often via the Internet.

Brooke Wall of Highlands Ranch wanted every­one to know she was going to be a mother when she was pregnant with her first son in 2004. But slender and tall at 6-foot-1, her “baby bump” — to her dismay — didn’t show as much as she wanted.

“So, I said I need to wear things so people would know I was pregnant,” said Wall, 30, and now the mother of two small boys: Ethan, 2½, and Tommy, 17 months.

After a struggle to find the perfect fit, Wall decided she’d make her own shirts to show off her bun in the oven. She got a few shirts, came up with a couple designs with the help of her brother and father (both artists), and took the shirts to a Wheat Ridge printing shop.

The flashy T-shirts brought Wall a lot of attention when she went out, so she came up with the concept of a T-shirt company for pregnant women and mothers. After four years and $10,000 of private capital, her company, Dreem ­– inspired by her dream to be a mom and a business owner — was launched three weeks ago.