With Mother’s Day this Sunday, we thought it was perfect to have our friend, Holly Hurd of Venture Mom, share tips and stories on how busy moms can turn their passions into successful businesses.

Give Yourself a Business Venture for Mother’s Day, Five Strategic Tips to Get Started

Guest Blogger: Holly Hurd, founder of VentureMom.com, a website that covers moms and their business ideas.

1. Do Something You Love – Figure out what you really enjoy. What do others complement you on? What are you most comfortable doing? What you are passionate about? Kelsey Banfield, one of the moms I’ve written about, is a self-professed “foodie”. With a newborn baby she lost time to cook so she created a plan to prep while the baby napped and finish dinner when her husband got home. Her friends dubbed her the Naptime Chef. She started sharing her recipes with other moms and started a blog, then got picked up by a larger blog and now has her own cookbook and can be seen on several food channels.
2. Get Help from Friends and Family – Tell everyone in your life what you are pursuing and watch the connections and support pour in. Sarina Galu’s son was having nightmares—because she loved to sew, Sarina fashioned a pillow with a pocket for a dream catcher journal to write his fears and dreams and called it TuckaDream. Friends and family loved the idea and were her first customers. As interest grew, a neighbor helped with the creative side of her business along with her husband, who happened to work for a pillow manufacturer. The two families became partners. Sarina says her venture never would have happened if friends and family hadn’t encouraged her and helped her build her business.
3. Do Your Research – Figure out the costs, time, and market associated with your venture. Although, sometimes, you just have to take a leap of faith if you feel strongly about your idea. Leslie Pearlman couldn’t find the ringing phone in her diaper bag, which was attached to her stroller. She wanted a holder for her phone on the stroller handle. Through friends and family Leslie met someone in plastics manufacturing. Leslie figured out the cost of a prototype, filed for a temporary patent, trademarked the name, TextHook, and made a prototype. Taking it around, her first orders came from small stores and she grew from there.
4. Own Your Mistakes – Everyone starting a new venture makes mistakes. Don’t let them slow you down. Learn from them and correct accordingly. Lindsay Cain started designing her own jewelry, but many of her clients wanted to make their own pieces. So she opened a make-it-yourself store called FemmeGems. Hosting women’s parties at night, her clients wanted kid’s birthday parties too. Kid parties in her store proved to be a disaster, but rather than give up on the idea, she opened a new location just for kids called Little Sparklers.
5. Get Organized – Come up with a creative name, create a logo, select brand colors, and print business cards. Give yourself a deadline or you won’t ever move forward. Suzy McCarthy loved making her own granola. When her son urged her to sell it, she got organized with a home kitchen license, packaging, a name, a logo, and colors. Her daughter created a logo based on the company name, ByHand Granola.

Fulfillment is the best gift for this Mother’s Day and what better way to find it than in a new business venture!