The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Mompreneur

By: Brad Krause

For many moms, the choice between continuing your career and spending as much time as possible with your little ones can feel like an impossible one. You may want to give your child all the one-on-one time you can manage but worry about losing your footing in the career you’ve worked so hard to build. Moreover, there’s the simple fact that, when you’re working, you bring in more money and make life financially easier for your family as a whole. 

It’s far from simple. However, there may be a solution you haven’t yet considered: Becoming a mompreneur. When you run your own business, you’re in charge of your workload and schedule. This is just one of the many benefits of this career path. Courtesy of Journey of an Avon Mom, here are some tips on how to figure out if this is the next step in your career and, if it is, how to nail it.  

Sign #1: You’ve Dreamt of Owning a Business 

The first – and perhaps, most obvious – sign that you have what it takes to be a mompreneur is that owning a business has always appealed to you. Starting a company – even a small at-home business – is a big step. It helps if you’ve spent some time thinking about the possibility before you dive in. 

This isn’t to say it’s a bad fit if you’ve never considered it before. However, if this is the first time you’ve thought about it, consider doing some research on business ownership. This way, you can start to get a feel for whether this move is right for you. 

For example, you might spend some time looking up LLC laws in your state. This business structure is extremely valuable in many industries, since it helps protect your personal assets from litigation and other business debts. However, the process to form an LLC – and what protections it offers – vary by state. Investigating the rules in your area can help you get a sense for some of what goes into business ownership so you can truly gauge your interest. 

Sign #2: You Can Identify Your Most Marketable Skills 

Running your own business requires learning how to identify and make good use of your most marketable skills. If you have always had an easy time noticing your own strengths and seeing how you bring value to the businesses you’ve worked for, then you’re already on the right track for figuring out how to become a mompreneur. 

Not sure what your most marketable skills are? The good news is, there are several ways to figure it out. For example, you can reach out to former employers and peers and ask. Often, your coworkers will have extremely useful insight, since they’ll be able to let you know exactly how your work had an impact on theirs. 

Another approach for figuring out your strengths is to contact a career coach. They can help go through your job history and identify the roles and jobs in which you thrived. This process is excellent for helping you figure out which aspects of your experience you can bring forward into your own at-home business. 

Sign #3: You Crave Flexible Control 

Finally, the best sign that mompreneurship might be right for you is if you’re looking for flexible control of your own schedule. This is usually extremely important to parents who want to work and spend as much time with their children as possible. When you have flexible control over your own schedule, you can define how much you work over a given period, as well as what times of day you work. 

For example, you might decide to work in the mornings before your little ones get up, or in the evenings after they go to bed. Nap times can also be a good time to dive into your workload, especially if your children are at a stage where they take one or two nice, long naps a day. As your kiddos get older, you can start to work on developing independent play time. Not only will this give you additional opportunities to dive into your work schedule, but it will also help them to learn independence and other valuable skills. 

Mompreneur Tips and Tricks: Scalability 

Now that we’ve gone over some of the signs that you might be ready to start a business, let’s look at some of the tools you can use to actually do it. The first technique we want to introduce is thinking of your business in terms of scalability. By this, we mean figuring out how to make a business that can grow with your family. 

When your kiddos are small and at home full time, you may only be able to put a few hours a week toward your business. During this window, it may make the best sense to run your business as a freelancer. This way you can take on as much – or as little – work as you like, without necessarily investing much in the way of your own capital. This also gives you a chance to effectively “practice” being self-employed. 

Part-time freelance work is a great opportunity to build the self-discipline and time-management skills you’ll need to grow your business down the line. It also helps you lay a valuable foundation. As a freelancer, you’ll develop contacts and relationships with clients that can benefit your business for years to come. If you decide to expand your business later on, these relationships can really come in handy. 

More Tips and Tricks: Marketing Your Business 

No matter what kind of business you decide to start, you’ll need to figure out your best approach to marketing your business. There are a few basics that most businesses should consider these days. For example, you should plan to have some kind of digital presence. This could mean your own website, social media profiles or, ideally, both. 

Digital marketing has a ton of benefits to offer small business owners. First and foremost, you can suit your digital marketing efforts to fit nearly any budget. Early on, you can take a DIY approach to social media and blog writing, using your own voice and expertise to build a following and boost your rank on various search engines. As you establish your business and start making a profit, however, you can look into hiring marketing pros who can help you figure out targeted ads, an SEO strategy, and a structured social media approach that will help you get the most out of your marketing approach. 

A Final Note: Financial Management 

The last aspect of becoming a mompreneur we’d like to discuss is financial management. When you’re self-employed, you have to pay your own taxes. Generally speaking, you should set aside 30 percent of what you make in order to be sure you have enough to pay your taxes come tax season. It may also be wise – or, depending on how much you make, required – to pay your taxes quarterly. This helps prevent accidentally spending what you’d set aside for taxes, which can leave you in a tricky position when tax season rolls around. 

You should also take care to make sure that any money you invest in your business – for example, hiring a marketing expert – pays off. Measuring your return on investment, or ROI, helps you figure out what moves are – and aren’t – working for your business. If you’re not sure how to do this, working with a financial advisor may be a wise move. 

Running your own business can be a great way to keep your career moving forward without sacrificing time with your kiddos. Focus on creating a business model that can grow as your kids get more independent and, eventually, head out of the home for school. This way, if you’re interested, you can eventually turn your part-time business into a full-time career! 

Photo Credit: Pexels

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for checking out above article & I hope you found it helpful. Being a mompreneur myself, I understand how overwhelming it can become when deciding what to do & how to get started. I hope this article gives you inspiration & help you get started. Know you can do it!

Thank you Brad for this inspiring article!

If you’d like to check out more blogs from Brad, you can do so at selfcaring.info/ and to connect with you, you can email him at brad@selfcaring.info.

Thank you & hope you have a wonderful day!

Jen Antunes

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