Moms in general wear many hats. But here at metromom we know that mom entrepreneurs take it further yet. They juggle household, family, and business responsibilities leaving little time for themselves. Because of so many demands on their energy, time, and resources, moms have to be very careful about how they spend each one. And they deserve a lot of credit for what they do.

If your business has moms as your ideal clients, here are some facts you should consider:

• According to statistics published in June 2001 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many families will spend over $165,000 on a child from birth to eighteen years of age. Just imagine if there are several children? That’s a significant amount of income.
• In the U.S., moms spend over 3.7 trillion dollars a year on consumer goods according to BSM Media. This includes shopping for kids, husbands or significant others, older parents, adult children and themselves. They exercise tremendous responsibility with their buying power as they take the time to carefully think through a purchasing decision before actually making the purchase.
• According to Whirlpool (1995), 88 percent of women are responsible for caring for their families. These moms are married and single. For single parents, the responsibility increases because they are the sole provider. Every decision from health insurance to home loans to buying groceries falls on them.
• As a result of being the provider (sole or in partnership), moms are actively seeking out information on various topics so they can make an intelligent decision and use their buying power effectively.
• As a caregiver, moms are responsible for everything from vaccinations to summer camps. Their choices shape the next generation. Making the best decisions possible involved stepping up and finding out the best way to give their families what they need.
• Older moms also have to consider the best way to care for their aged parents. As people live longer, there are a greater number of middle age parents who are trading the care of their now grown children for senior parents. They are left with making the decisions about insurance, living accommodations and managing health concerns which is not easy.
• Moms have an extraordinary buying power resulting from their roles as caregiver and provider for the ones they love. They are stepping up to meet their responsibility with intelligence and strength.

Taking all of these things into consideration when you formulate you online marketing strategies will help you figure out the problems your ideal client faces, as well as how you can be a solution to those problems. As you can see, moms at different stages of their lives have vastly different roles and needs. The more you know about your ideal client the better able you are to tailor your products and services toward those needs.

Everyone, but moms especially want to feel like there’s a real connection with the people they do business with. Listen to my free teleclass Art of Connection – Networking with Soul, Intention & Purpose. You’ll learn how to get BEYOND networking and truly connect with potential customers. Click here to listen.

The world is full of opportunities for women entrepreneurs to grow a prosperous business. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance. More often than not, however, success depends on how you react to opportunities that present themselves.

The truth is that success for entrepreneurs depends on whether you see and are open to new opportunities.

A key to making the most of new opportunities is not to restrict your relationships to people inside your industry or field. It’s important to develop relationships outside your field or industry for two reasons: (more…)

I love the entrepreneurial women who come to Metromom. You’re driven, evolving, interesting, and interested. You are all great women who are very committed to having a business but also very committed to being the parent who’s involved with your family.

Success is something you very much want to create on your own terms. Being an entrepreneurial woman gives you the best of both worlds.

Having been a mom and a serial entrepreneur for over a decade, here are three great benefits I see in the mom entrepreneur lifestyle: (more…)

It’s proven that eating food high in empty calories and fat will create fatty deposits in your arteries that reduce the flow of blood to your heart. It also creates fat deposits on your body that makes you sluggish and feeling unattractive.

But how does this translate to your life as a mom entrepreneur?

When you’re not eating health that translates into a lack of energy you have to conduct your business. If you’re not feeling at your best it’s going to hold you back from being out there as fully as you want to be, especially as a woman.

I love what I do – it has so much potential. But there have been times in the past when I just wasn’t putting myself out there as fully as I wanted even though I know I’m meant to be out there speaking in a public arena in a very big way.
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Work-at-home entrepreneurs have full lives. You have your work, your family and friends, your home, and yourself to take care of all in the same day. Because of all these demands, do you notice that your business gets put on the back burner and week after week goes by without anything meaningful getting accomplished?

I want to share some tips to help work-at-home entrepreneurs fit it all in: (more…)

Many mom entrepreneurs who are part of the Metromom community are doing their businesses in a part-time capacity. That means if you’ve only got five, 10 or 15 hours a week to put into your business, you need to be smart and put that into revenue-generating activities. To make that happen a mom entrepreneur needs to be organized.

I recently blogged about how making changes in your life and business is rooted in your positive thinking. Since it takes 21 days to make or break a habit, you can’t expect to make changes overnight.  But, if you can just create a few new habits, such as labeling and designating places, limiting the amount of space things take up, you won’t spend so much time looking for things.

Have you ever thought about using the Law of Attraction to organize your office?

The Law of Attraction means: what you think about is what you bring about. There are a lot of ways that comes into organizing your mom entrepreneur office. (more…)

By nature, as entrepreneurs we are very creative. I’m sure you’ve got lists upon lists of different things you’d like to do. Possibly an ideas folder, or a journal, or maybe it’s just all in your head. But, when it comes to following through with all your ideas, do you find yourself getting stuck?

Maybe you don’t know HOW to get it done or your own perfectionism is holding you back. Or it could be that juggling all the details of running a business is too overwhelming? (more…)

I work with entrepreneurs every day who are stuck.  They have all kinds of ideas and goals for their business but they’re stuck on how to get them done.

An important shift for any solopreneur to make in their business is to acknowledge that you are the CEO of your own corporation which means that you don’t do EVERYTHING.

I read Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited many years ago and the key message that’s stuck with me is that we get into business because of a passion, not to do all the “other stuff”. He uses the example of the lady who loves baking great apple pies and therefore starts a bakery. Truth is she loves to bake but she doesn’t like (nor is she particularly good at) running the bakery, ordering supplies, and managing her books. (more…)

The days I’m most efficient are the days I plan my day before I sit down at my computer.

Here’s a story of two twins – Silly and Sally.

• Silly’s Day: Silly gets up, grabs a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk. She thinks “Hmm… I wonder what I should work on today?” and then wanders off to check email and Twitter while she continues to decide what to work on. Several hours later, it’s time for her to get off the computer and she thinks “I didn’t get anything productive done! There’s never enough time in the day. I just don’t understand. I was busy all day!”

• Sally’s Day: Sally gets up, grabs a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk. She picks up her action list of 6 items that she wants to get done for the day, and determines which one to tackle first. She then spends some focused time and finishes 5 of the items on her list. After that she decides that she’s almost out of time for the day, so she quickly checks email and Twitter. Then, she makes her list for the next day, making sure to transfer the item that didn’t get done to the new list.

Which one of those days looks more productive to you? It doesn’t take an efficiency expert to see that Sally is much more productive and gets more done (and probably makes a heck of a lot more money than Silly does.)

It’s very easy as women to think we’re being productive when in fact we’re just doing busy things.

Some ideas on how to be more like Sally:

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When comes to information do you sip or slurp? Do you dive in, submerging yourself in as much learning as possible or do you take it one step at a time?

For the last year, I’ve been teaching groups my get it done programs and I’ve noticed a difference between the sippers and the slurpers.  The challenge for me has been how to accommodate both.

How do I go fast enough for the slurpers who want to soak it all in and slow enough for the sippers who want to understand each piece before they move on to the next? (more…)