Babyswags owner and founder, Phyllis Pometta
While everyone, to some degree, has work/life balance issues, as a woman I tend to gravitate towards the female perspective. As part of my research, I've been spending a lot of time on Twitter as late and have gotten to learn a bit more about a Chicagoland local entrepreneur from the western suburbs, Phyllis Pometta.
Phyllis's company, Baby Swags,(www.babyswags.com), is a self-run niche Public Relations firm catering to stay-at-home-moms (SAHM's) who want to start their own businesses bringing a product onto the market, without large PR-firm prices. As both a successful and creative business woman, a wife, AND a mom to 3 kids, I was intrigued by her background and her business, and thought it a unique and interesting way to truly attempt work-life balance. Phyllis was kind enough to let me interview her, and provide some insights into her unique and crazy world:
Q: Describe a little bit about your background, your town, who you are and what you do:
A: My name is Phyllis Pometta and I was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago. I graduated from college with a degree in Marketing and Retail and shortly there after, I got married and started my family. I am a wife (married 14.5 years), mother to three children, 11, 8 & 5 years old, and a business woman. I didn't get into my chosen field, I put it on the back burner so I can stay home with my children. It was when I was pregnant with my third child that I created a bandana business called Bandana Boutique. It did very well. I was invited to participate in a celebrity gift suite, was called to provide products for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and slowly decided that I loved the marketing and PR more than I did actually sewing all the pieces. I had a very difficult decision to make because I couldn't raise a family and work on building two businesses, something had to give.
Q: Where did you get the idea for Baby Swags, and what inspired you to create it?
A: I started Baby Swags in 2006 as a way to gain celebrity exposure for mom-entrepreneurs who had a product or service to share, who didn't want to spent a fortune to do it. I had conceived the idea after my own participation with a gift suite and with in one months time, I came up with my name, developed my website and I had sent out my first gift basket. We started with Jennie Garth and things have been going full force ever since.
Some of the Baby Swags Goodies!
Q: Tell me a little bit about your company's success:
A: Baby Swags has grown by leaps and bounds, offering personalized services as well as group opportunities. Over the course of the three years, I have produced many co-operative print ads for Pregnancy Magazine, have sent well over 400 gifts to various celebrities, charitable organizations, giveaways, and so on. I have networked with many and have a branded Baby Swags to have a strong following. We have had products on many celebrity babies, received thank you notes from them, emails and some phone calls of thanks. I love to help people get one step closer to their business goals by gaining more recognition.
Q: How many hours a day do you devote to your business and how do you schedule your time?
A: I don't really have a set schedule but I try to get as much done as I can in the short amount of time I do have. My youngest child is in Kindergarten and goes to school in the morning. After I drop her off, I come home and work until it is time to pick her up. That is about 2.5 hours a morning. During the day it is touch and go depending on her moods and what other activities we have scheduled. I may be able to squeeze another hour or two before dinner. Once my two older kids come home from school, it is all family time until they go to bed for the night. After everyone is settled in, I start to work again from about 10:30PM until 1ish AM, every night, getting up at 6:30AM the next day to do it all over again. So, in a round about way, I spend a good 40 hours a week. I only have one more year until all my kids are in school all day so then I can devote my daylight hours to work and my night time hours to sleep!
Q: What are some of your business challenges?
A: My biggest work challenge would be the constant need to re-invent or re-create my services. There are so many gifting companies starting now that while I feel I am one of the pioneers in the gifting field (where mom-entrepreneurs are concerned) I have to always be one up on the competition.
Q: What do you do to maintain balance between your work and home life since you operate out of your house?
A: While I am a business woman, I am also a mom. When I am on the phone, I am not afraid to have my kids in the background telling me they want a fruit snack, or that they want to watch a movie, it is who I am, a work at home mom, and I am certainly not offended if I hear your children either. That is the beauty of my business. That is how I connect to my clients. We are all one in the same trying to build our businesses the best way we know how. With every product that I work with, I take pride in it because my company reflects off of their product and their product reflects off of my service. Hand in hand, we can do amazing things! :)
Q: What are some of your biggest work-life challenges?
A: Right now it is scheduling work and home. While I always think I am doing a good job, something is always lacking, whether it be cleaning house, getting work done in a timely manner, playing and spending time with the kids, I've learned that I can't do it all and I have to take each day as it comes.
Q: What is your personal definition of work-life balance?
outside or inside the home. You cannot expect to have dinner on the table at 5:00 every night, you cannot expect to give 100% of yourself to one thing and 0% on another. You have to be able to
let some things go from time to time. So I can't clean every day, but I can laugh and play with my children every day. Sounds odd, but when I die, are people going to remember me for having a clean
(or dirty) home, or as a loving mother, great friend and supporter? With balancing work, I fit that in during any free time I have when I am not with the family, it's as simple as that. I decided to stay home because I wanted to be there to raise my children, working from home was a second thought. When my kids are in school full time, my career can begin. Right now, I like to
think that I am grooming myself for greater things to come while maintaining my original plan for being a stay at home mom.
For more info: Check out Phyllis's website at http://www.babyswags.com for more information about her, her company's offerings, or to make a new business contact!
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