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Expert advice and support for the work-at-home mom
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MaryPat Kavanagh could be considered a Mompreneur Extraordinaire. She’s a mother of 4 girls, runs several businesses, .jpg)
and is an advocate for home-based business moms. She does admit that it hasn’t always been easy. Kavanagh, who has extensive experience in marketing and small business, has owned retail companies, restaurants and consulting practices since 1989. She also married, divorced, remarried and started a family.
and is an advocate for home-based business moms. She does admit that it hasn’t always been easy. Kavanagh, who has extensive experience in marketing and small business, has owned retail companies, restaurants and consulting practices since 1989. She also married, divorced, remarried and started a family. In 1999, she opened Strategic Results Marketing LLC, an expert marketing firm that specializes in entrepreneurial strategizing and planning. She admits that in the beginning, she did not market her company to the mompreneur. “I hadn’t even considered that particular segment of the workforce. I sort of fell into the old-fashioned way of thinking that my target population should be men or women without kids,” she says.
For many years, she continued to raise her family while running and developing her business. Her specialty became social media marketing. Then something changed. “In October of 2008, I was working with my business coach, and I began to realize that as a business woman and mom, I had different values and goals than most men and single women entrepreneurs. We aren’t looking for the fancy cars or exotic vacations as much as we are looking to benefit our children. There was virtually no support for us at the time,” she remembers. “It was then that I decided that I needed to step up to the plate and help to empower other mompreneurs.”
Shortly thereafter, she attended a conference in Los Angeles, where she stood up at one point and asked if anyone in the audience could offer support and/or advice to the mompreneur, that she was collecting information. To her amazement, a line of at least 25 people, including men, were waiting to speak with her later. “One male therapist, in particular, told me that many of his female clients suffered great guilt and hardship trying to be both mother and business woman”
Kavanagh discovered that mompreneurs need a very specialized kind of support system. “It’s not something we can get from our husbands,” she states. “Most of the time they say things like, ‘great honey, go do your business thing, as long as it doesn’t affect me.’ We can’t always go to our parents or siblings, because they might not understand our situation either. I found that the best support we can get is from our peers.”
Consequently, Kavanagh has established several online forums in which mompreneurs can connect and find support. In addition to a “very active” Facebook group, she has set up Savvymompreneurs.com, which will officially launch in April. “Those women who sign up will have access 24/7 to live chat groups, support and resources. I don’t think there’s anything else like it out there,” she exclaims.
In advance of the launch, Kavanagh is hosting an on-going telesummit throughout the month of March. She’s lined up some of the most successful mompreneurs in the community to speak online and give advice. Sign-ups are still available at SavvyMompreneursTelesummit.com for a fee.
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