What’s Your Purpose for Being a Mompreneur?

March 7, 2011 By 3 Comments

What’s your purpose in being a mompreneur? It’s important to take a step back and remember what’s driving you to do what you do, what gives meaning to how you spend your time. With a clear sense of purpose, you’re much more likely to enjoy your work and build a business that thrives.

But do you remember what drove you to start your business?

Since you’re a mompreneur, I know it involved more than just a desire to make money. Let’s face it: running a start-up company is usually not a big money-making endeavor for the first few years. It’s easy to think that if your goal is to make money, you could more easily do that (on a consistent basis, no less) working for someone else.

Most of the mom entrepreneurs I talk with tell me it’s not about the money (although we have nothing against making lots of money). Instead, we decide to start a business based on our passion, our talents, our expertise and our purpose.

Part of my purpose as the Mom Biz Coach is to help other women solve a problem I struggled with myself: how to do work I love without compromising my commitment to my family.

Tune in to the podcast below to hear more about purpose and how it fits with and ultimately shapes successful mompreneur businesses.

 

What’s your purpose in being a mompreneur? It’s important to take a step back and remember what’s driving you to do what you do, what gives meaning to how you spend your time. With a clear sense of purpose, you’re much more likely to enjoy your work and build a business that thrives. What’s your purpose in being a mompreneur? It’s important to take a step back and remember what’s driving you to do what you do, what gives meaning to how you spend your time. With a clear sense of purpose, you’re much more likely to enjoy your work and build a business that thrives.What’s your purpose in being a mompreneur? It’s important to take a step back and remember what’s driving you to do what you do, what gives meaning to how you spend your time. With a clear sense of purpose, you’re much more likely to enjoy your work and build a business that thrives.

Listen to internet radio with Lara Galloway on Blog Talk Radio

So what’s your purpose? Please share your comments below.

Filed Under: mom entrepreneur coach, motherhood, small business, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tech to Save Mompreneurs Time

January 28, 2011 By 3 Comments
carley knobloch digitwirl

The top challenge for a mompreneur is always time. How can we find more of it, how can we spend less of it, how can we save it up for something else we want or choose to spend it on?

Here at Mom Biz Coach, I’m always looking for time-saving strategies to help the mom entrepreneurs I coach find ways to be more effective so they can work less and make more. And I have to say, Ladies, that we are so lucky to be entrepreneurs in this techno-happy age.

I’m pleased to announce I’ve partnered with Carley Knobloch of digitwirl.com to bring us tech-savvy tips that help mom entrepreneurs save time. Each Friday, Carley will provide us a short video teaching us moms who to use the tech we love to make our lives easier.

Read (and watch!) below to learn all about an online grocery service called Alice.com. I just placed my first order with Alice.com this week! Thrilled to save the time it takes to buy all the household essentials at the regular store.

Guest post by Carley Knobloch, digitwirl.com

Bring the Grocery Store to Your Door

Tired of running out of toilet paper and finding your pantry a little paltry? Alice.com (www.alice.com) is the grocery delivery service that offers the perfect solution. With Alice you’ll never face another empty roll again. Alice buys straight from the manufacturer and automatically applies any discount coupons to your order, then delivers everything from shampoo to cereal right to your door for free! Oh, and Alice is like a personal shopper that will even send you a reminder when it’s time to re-order your groceries. How great is that? What’s better than a service that delivers to your door and saves you time and money? Watch the video to see exactly why Alice.com is going to rock your world!

Filed Under: business how-tos, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Women and Power

January 19, 2011 By 1 Comment

I just finished interviewing a very smart, inspiring and POWERFUL woman for my WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need Teleseminar Series today. Marlynn Schotland, of www.ThePowerMOB.com and www.UrbanBlissLife.com was my guest, and I really enjoyed hearing her take on the topic of powerful women.

Power is a very subjective term, full of positive and negative connotations. What’s more, being powerful means different things when applied to men vs. women.

Here are some of the takeaways from our conversation today:

  • Women often have trouble accepting our strengths, our power and our success. Instead, we tend to downplay them.
  • Women (and especially mompreneurs) define terms like “power” and “success” differently than their male counterparts, AND those definitions are likely to change over time (for instance: when we start a family).
  • Some definitions of a “powerful woman” include: the ability and commitment to help others, being responsible for our choices, owning our happiness, and a woman who is vulnerable and inspiring.
  • The first step to empowering ourselves is self-acceptance.

There were some great comments from the listeners and mompreneurs joining in the discussion on Twitter and Facebook. I’d love to hear your definition of power and how you feel about being a powerful woman.

Want to listen for yourself? No problem. You can listen here or download it to your mp3 player to take with you!

Listen to internet radio with Lara Galloway on Blog Talk Radio
Filed Under: motherhood, work/family balance Tagged With: , , ,

New Year, New Home

January 3, 2011 By 25 Comments
Lara Galloway Mom Biz Coach

Hey there, Women!

I apologize for my fall from the face of the earth this last month, but I needed a break from all my work to manage our family’s move back to Michigan from Canada. It was a fairly big deal. Not only did we move from one country to another, but then the holidays hit. We moved out of our house in Windsor on Dec. 16th, into our new house in Michigan on Dec. 17th, I turned 40 on Dec. 18th, and we left for a 10-day visit with family in Minnesota for the holidays on Dec. 21st.

Today my three children attended their first day of school at their new schools. They were brave troopers and handled it well, despite the fact that our house is still upside down from the move, and finding backpacks, lunch bags and snow bibs was quite a challenge this morning.

After my husband and I dropped them all off this morning, I had a little  mommy meltdown. I cried because I’ve been carrying a ton of weight around with all the decisions I’ve been making for our family for the last two months. I cried because I’m a sap and felt a tiny bit sorry for my kids having to be newbies, even though I know they’ll be fine. I cried because I’ve been sprinting towards January 3rd and all that had to happen by then to make the day successful for so long. I cried because I’m hormonal. I cried because as a mompreneur, a whole lot of people depend on me, and it’s hard to do it all sometimes.

When my meltdown was over (thank goodness it only lasted about 10 minutes), I pulled my sappy self together and got back to business. I turned the computer on, found a notebook among the piles of papers surrounding my new desk/office space, picked up the phone and called a prospect. I am delighted she hired me. I think that meltdown helped clear out the mental clutter that’s been in my head for a while now.

I have so many new things to share with you this year–big plans to help mompreneurs be their best in business and life. I’ll be posting a lot of those changes over the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

What’s new with you this year? Please share below or tweet me: @mombizcoach.

Happy New Year!

Filed Under: motherhood, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , ,

Featured Mobile Mompreneur: Dixie Lee

November 15, 2010 By 2 Comments
dixie lee

It’s my pleasure to announce the winner of the HP ProBook 4425s that I partnered with HP to give away last week.

Congratulations goes to Dixie Lee of BackroadsSolutions.com!

I asked Dixie to tell us a little bit about herself and the difference the HP ProBook will make for her and her family.

From Dixie:

My husband and I have been married almost 15 years. Together, we have a blended family with 4 children ranging in age from 13 to 30.  He is now disabled which requires a number of doctor appointments. Because of this, I decided to take my 25+ years of providing administrative support for middle and senior executives to launch Backroads Business Solutions in May of this year.

My office is set up in a room in the basement and I typically work there until my daughter gets home from school.  Since she nabbed my laptop for school, I have been spending more evening time down there away from my family. I’m so excited to win the HP ProBook because it means I can spend more time with my family and still work on client projects.

As a mom, business owner and grad student, I’m constantly faced with challenges; however, the biggest is time.  It can be a struggle finding enough hours in the day to meet the demands of family, business and school. The key to keeping things running smoothly is planning. Despite the challenges, I love what I do. I’m here for my family, my clients and my friends.

Thanks once again to HP for helping small business owners like Dixie  get the resources they need to be successful at work and at home!

Dixie Lee is the founder of Backroads Business Solutions, a full support virtual administration company. She can be reached at dixie@backroadssolutions.com or on twitter at www.twitter.com/backrdsbiz.

Filed Under: reasons to work, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mompreneur Mobility HP ProBook Giveaway!

November 8, 2010 By 50 Comments
coffee shop

Are you a mobile mompreneur?

I don’t know about you, but I tend to have a “work anywhere” policy as a mompreneur. With my three computers, cell phone, land line phone, Flip camcorder and webcam, I can be coaching clients in Calgary while sitting at my kitchen table. Or I can load up my next email campaign that blasts to England, Jamaica and all across the US when I’m using the free WiFi at the local coffee shop. And sometimes I shoot a quick video for a vlog while I’m on vacation, wherever that may be.

One of the biggest reasons I decided to quit working for IBM (and then later decided to start my own business) was because I wanted the freedom and flexibility that being a mom entrepreneur affords me. I love being able to work from home, wearing my yoga pants one day and dressing to the nines for a speaking gig the next.

I rely heavily on technology to make my business possible. Most days, I’m singing the praises of my laptop, my Skype account, and Twitter, since they truly make my “working on the fly” lifestyle a reality. And then there are those dreaded days (I’m told it’s when Mercury is in retrograde, which I don’t understand but I have learned that I suffer just the same) when my technology all fails me, leaving me nearly unable to work at all.

I recently blogged about my desire to help as many fellow mompreneurs as possible be more successful in their businesses. I think I found a slam dunk for one of you :) .

I’m thrilled to partner with HP to give away a new HP ProBook 4425s, powered by AMD!

If you could use a sleek, new notebook computer to help you handle email, surf the web and keep up with your Social Media contacts wherever you are, make sure you register to win (below)!

Click here to enter the Mompreneur Mobility HP ProBook Giveaway!

Read all about the HP ProBook here.

What about you? What technology do you rely on to make your business possible? What are you using for “mobile computing”–such as an iPhone, Blackberry, iTouch, netbook, laptop, cell phone, etc.? How do you use it? What value does this mobility bring to your business? What compromises do you make in order to be mobile? Where’s your favorite place to work?

To register to win the HP ProBook 4425s, powered by AMD, here’s all you need to do:

  • Leave a comment on the blog below answering some of the questions I asked above.
  • Fill in the sign up form below (which will also allow you to receive some tips and advice from me about how to get it all done as a mom entrepreneur).
  • Winners will be announced here on the blog on Friday, November 12th. We’ll enter all the qualified entries into Random.org to help us pick a winner.
  • That’s it!

Click here to enter the Mompreneur Mobility HP ProBook Giveaway!

I am grateful to HP for being willing to share some powerful resources with mom entrepreneurs. A big hearty thanks to HP for making this giveaway possible!

* photo courtesy jeneyepher of flickr creative commons
Filed Under: business coach, business how-tos, mom entrepreneur coach, small business, work/family balance Tagged With: , , ,

Top Mompreneur Challenges–and two winners!

November 5, 2010 By 8 Comments
hands joined

Last week, I sent out a survey asking mompreneurs what their top challenges were, how they were handling them, and what’s in the way of them solving their challenges.

The findings were not terribly surprising, but they are clear: Mom entrepreneurs need lots of help!

Every entrepreneur needs advice, resources, and help of one sort or another. Running a family while running a business presents a unique set of circumstances for mompreneurs. And it can be difficult to get the help they need due to a mindset that puts the needs of the family above all else.

I’ll share the highlights from the survey here with you, and I’ll announce the two mompreneurs who won a private business coaching session with me to help them achieve the success they deserve!

Most of the moms surveyed (44%) have been in business for 1-3 years. This is the critical start-up phase for a company when help is most needed, yet finances are limited. Many reported that the upside of running their own company is the freedom and flexibility it gives them to be there for drop-off and pick-up, as well as after school with their kids. They also love the fulfillment they get from the work they do and the clients they serve.

With regards to the tough parts of the job, their answers were fairly consistent. I asked: “What areas of your business are challenging for you?”

Here are the top three responses:

  • managing my time
  • finding more clients
  • marketing my business

These moms also say they are struggling to make enough money to justify help with their business or for childcare, and that they don’t know how to balance doing both well. And it’s not for lack of trying to solve these problems that they persist. Most moms report having tried to solve them by researching, reading and signing up for programs to address them. Many wish they could hire a mentor or a coach to help them work through their particular set of circumstances and to teach them how to do the parts of their business (and their life)  they don’t know how to successfully manage.

The biggest hindrance to getting the right support?

  • 75% I can’t afford to spend the money to get the help they need.
  • 64% say they just don’t have enough time to get help.
  • 39% report not knowing where to find the help they need.
  • and 32% say they’re just too burned out to deal with it.

I know how hard it is to focus on your needs as a mompreneur when you’re also the full-time problem-solver for your family. I was in the same boat when I started my business over five years ago, and it has been my mission to help women like myself get what they need to run successful families and businesses.

To that extent, I am thrilled to announce that, as promised, two of the 50 women who answered the survey have been chosen to receive a private, 60-minute business coaching session with me to get them the help they need.

And the winners are…

Charmin Calamaris, of www.TheMomiverse.com and

Helen Coronato, of www.TheWeekendPublicist.com

I am grateful to all the moms who took the time to answer the survey! Please know that I am working hard to find ways to help as many of you as I can, at a price you can afford. I’ll be using the findings from this survey to create the coaching offerings that you’ve said are most important to you, including one-on-one coaching, coaching groups, and short teleclasses that provide a solution to a specific issue.

I welcome your comments and requests in the comments section below.

* Photo courtesy of silentsymphony.net
How long have you run your current mompreneur business?

44% 1-3 years
23% more than 3 years
21% just launched
13% I don’t have a formal business established yet, but I hope to soon!

In what areas of your business do you feel successful?

-just starting this new direction….so need to learn new habits
-All of you what its mentioned above, especially need tweak and improvement on
website. Cashflow is a quiet struggle. But the rest is a lot of support and kids goes to
school plus household support..
-The work itself. What I actually create.
-confident about my ability to provide value

What areas of your business are challenging for you?

- getting new clients
- time delegating
- Finding clients, developing products to purchase, and not just “coaching”
- marketing, branding, social media
- Marketing, creating biz plans.

What’s your biggest question about running a business while running…

- how to balance it all
- I feel like I can’t justify childcare expenses, and sometimes feel i can only
work “part-time”
- How can I make more $
- Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed that it would be helpful to have someone look at
my schedule and help me outline a system or process for fitting everything in!
- How can I feel like I do them both well?

How have you tried to solve these questions?

-coach, reading, scheduling
-calendar/schedule
-Coach, running my own programs that address this, and reading

What is keeping you from getting your problems solve?

75% I can’t afford to spend the money to get the help

64% Don’t have enough time
39% I don’t know where to find the answers
32% I’m just burned out
If you are considering getting training, coaching and/or mentoring support to help
you succeed in your business, what type of offering appeals to you? (Please check all
that apply.)

73% One-on-one coaching/consulting or mentoring
56% Short teleclasses or teleseminars on a specific topic (marketing, list-building,
work/family balance, Social Media, product creation, branding, etc.)
40% Mompreneur retreat/bootcamp
38% Group coaching programs
36% Online community/forum where you can interact with your peers and/or a
coach

How do you prefer to learn?

79% Hands-on
69% Read
63% Watch
60% Listen

How important is it to you to have a community of your peers?

48% Extremely important
27% Very important
19% Important
6% Not very important

If you could wave your magic wand and get EXACTLY what you need and want
regarding training and coaching for mompreneurs, what would that look like?

-a group of women that really support and share their knowledge with you to avoid
the same mistakes
-help with marketing and overall business direction
-I’d like someone to help me develop products that people can purchase from me
without needing me
-I’d have someone who could show me the ropes in establishing my business and
help me create goals and be accountable for them.
-really great ideas in one place, one website to go to for all of my answers

What would you be willing to pay to get that training and support in your life?

-For the above, I would want to pay about $1000/yr for four retreats that included
room, board, meals, supplies, etc
-Not sure, I’m really bad at budgeting!
-it is hard to justify spending a lot of $$ on coaching without knowing exactly
how it would benefit me.
-Several hundred, less than $1000
-I don’t have any idea :( How long have you run your current mompreneur business?

44% 1-3 years

23% more than 3 years

21% just launched

13% I don’t have a formal business established yet, but I hope to soon!

In what areas of your business do you feel successful?

-just starting this new direction….so need to learn new habits

-All of you what its mentioned above, especially need tweak and improvement on

website. Cashflow is a quiet struggle. But the rest is a lot of support and kids goes to

school plus household support..

-The work itself. What I actually create.

-confident about my ability to provide value

What areas of your business are challenging for you?

- getting new clients

- time delegating

- Finding clients, developing products to purchase, and not just “coaching”

- marketing, branding, social media

- Marketing, creating biz plans.

What’s your biggest question about running a business while running…

- how to balance it all

- I feel like I can’t justify childcare expenses, and sometimes feel i can only

work “part-time”

- How can I make more $

- Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed that it would be helpful to have someone look at

my schedule and help me outline a system or process for fitting everything in!

- How can I feel like I do them both well?

How have you tried to solve these questions?

-coach, reading, scheduling

-calendar/schedule

-Coach, running my own programs that address this, and reading

What is keeping you from getting your problems solve?

75% I can’t afford to spend the money to get the help

64% Don’t have enough time

39% I don’t know where to find the answers

32% I’m just burned out

If you are considering getting training, coaching and/or mentoring support to help

you succeed in your business, what type of offering appeals to you? (Please check all

that apply.)

73% One-on-one coaching/consulting or mentoring

56% Short teleclasses or teleseminars on a specific topic (marketing, list-building,

work/family balance, Social Media, product creation, branding, etc.)

40% Mompreneur retreat/bootcamp

38% Group coaching programs

36% Online community/forum where you can interact with your peers and/or a

coach

How do you prefer to learn?

79% Hands-on

69% Read

63% Watch

60% Listen

How important is it to you to have a community of your peers?

48% Extremely important

27% Very important

19% Important

6% Not very important

If you could wave your magic wand and get EXACTLY what you need and want

regarding training and coaching for mompreneurs, what would that look like?

-a group of women that really support and share their knowledge with you to avoid

the same mistakes

-help with marketing and overall business direction

-I’d like someone to help me develop products that people can purchase from me

without needing me

-I’d have someone who could show me the ropes in establishing my business and

help me create goals and be accountable for them.

-really great ideas in one place, one website to go to for all of my answers

What would you be willing to pay to get that training and support in your life?

-For the above, I would want to pay about $1000/yr for four retreats that included

room, board, meals, supplies, etc

-Not sure, I’m really bad at budgeting!

-it is hard to justify spending a lot of $$ on coaching without knowing exactly

how it would benefit me.

-Several hundred, less than $1000

-I don’t have any idea :(

Filed Under: business coach, business how-tos, mom entrepreneur coach, small business, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , ,

The Road to Success for Mompreneurs

September 19, 2010 By 1 Comment
canstockphoto0342472(3)

I am honored to be featured on the blog of one of my dearest supporters online. Genevieve Lachance, of VASimpleServices.com, has put together a fantastic interview series called “The Everyday Entrepreneur.” Genevieve has her fingers on the pulse of mompreneurhood and asks all the right questions about what it takes to be successful as a mompreneur.

She created a video of my interview, and I’ve included it below. Just click the link to listen. It’s 15 minutes long.

Road to Success With Mom Biz Coach Lara Galloway

To read more of the lovely interviews Genevieve has collected, please visit her website.

Filed Under: business coach, business how-tos, mom entrepreneur coach, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to Monetize Your Passion

August 9, 2010 By 1 Comment

I just love talking to mom entrepreneurs about passion, work and money all in the same sentence :) .

So tomorrow, I’ll be doing just that. As part of the WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need Teleseminar Series, I’m going to interview Rich German, author of “Monetize Your Passion: Follow Your Heart and Create Life’s Ultimate Win-Win-Win.” And Rich knows how to do just that.

We want to share with you how to do the same. Join us for the call tomorrow to learn:

  • Rich’s own story about how he turned his passion into a lucrative business
  • The top three hurdles that stop most people
  • The #1 key to turning your passion into a successful business
  • One baby step you can take to get started turning your own passion into a business

Make sure you hurry and click here to register for the call so I can get you the details before the teleseminar starts tomorrow at 12p ET. (Can’t make it live? Still register and I’ll email you the replay.)

Wondering if it’s really possible to make money with YOUR passion? Leave a question or comment below, and Rich and I will do our best to address it during tomorrow’s call.

Filed Under: business coach, business how-tos, reasons to work, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to Work With Passion

August 3, 2010 By 3 Comments
Layout 1

I spent a fantastic hour today interviewing Nancy Anderson, a wife, mother, counselor and author of Work With Passion in Midlife and Beyond: Reach Your Full Potential and Make the Money You Need. What a breath of fresh air!

There were so many nuggets of wisdom that Nancy shared with me and my audience on the WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need Teleseminar Series. I thought I’d share some of them here with you. In no particular order, here they are:

The difference between hobby and passion: a hobby is you doing for yourself. Passion converts you to an evangelist of something you love for others.

In this economy, following your passion IS practical! How logical is it to suffer thru doing work you hate?

Discovering your passion can unleash your fears–What if you’re not good enough? What if you fail? This happens because your passion is so important to you.

We often get in touch with our passions when we’re young, but then they get covered up by so many things as we get older: fear, inhibitions, others telling us we don’t deserve what we want, etc.

For most of us, it’s actually difficult to articulate what we most want to do. Nancy recommends writing an autobiography so you can learn for yourself where your motivations and interests came from, as well as how you learned to cover them up or let them go.

It was a fantastic hour. I am grateful to have had the chance to talk to a woman who really has her head on straight and is willing to help all of us love what we’re doing with our lives. Mompreneurs especially need to make sure they spend their time doing purposeful work if it’s going to take them away from their families. I spend the first month of the Mom Biz Makeover Program helping my mompreneurs figure out their strengths, skills, their style and what motivates them to do the work they do.

By the way, if you haven’t already registered for my f*ree teleseminar series, the WoMEN: What Mom Entrepreneurs Need calls can all be heard via phone or webcast every Tuesday at Noon ET. Just click here to see the list of upcoming topics and speakers and fill in your name and email address. You get access to all the upcoming live calls and a replay of the last week’s call!

We’ll continue our discussion of working with your passion and making money at it when I interview Rich German as my special guest on the series next week. Don’t miss it!

Filed Under: business how-tos, inspiration, leadership, reasons to work, work/family balance Tagged With: , , , ,
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