Mompreneurs Mean Business

Take Amy Ballon, as an example. In 2001, Ballon was working as a management consultant on Bay Street in Toronto when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. She took a leave of absence to spend more time with her mother and realized, “I didn’t want to be downtown, working a zillion hours a week.”

Recently married and planning to start a family, Ballon began to reconsider her career path. Her friend Danielle Botterell, who had recently graduated with an MBA, was in the same position, and the two decided to purchase a personalized baby blanket business in 2002 and rename it Admiral Road Designs.

Ballon and Botterell are typical of many moms who are opting out of the corporate world and starting their own business. There were 876,600 self-employed women in 2006, according to Statistics Canada. Many of those are moms. Why?

“Too many organizations do far too little to help women maintain a connection with career during times when they have heavy family responsibilities,” says Alison Konrad, professor of organizational behaviour at the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.

In a 2004-05 survey of Canadian companies she conducted, only 43% of respondents offered flexible work scheduling to employees, even fewer (35%) offered reduced work hours, and a mere 19% allowed for working at home.

Feeling torn between work and home, some moms choose to get out of the rat race altogether, but many educated and motivated moms still want to have a career. And, many families need the income.

“We just didn’t have the financial resources to be a one-income family,” explains Calgary-based Kathryn Bechthold, publisher/owner of The Mompreneur magazine.

Making the Transition

Moms start all kinds of businesses, everything from organic baby food to life coaching. For those in the 9-to-5 grind, the idea of running your own business and spending more time with your child sounds idyllic, but it can be tough going, especially in the first few years.

You’ll still be putting in long hours. Bechthold regularly works evenings and weekends. Similarly Crystal Dallner, president and founder of Outright Communications, an Edmonton-based marketing and design firm, admits that she has difficulty cutting off.