A Tri-Cities mothers’ movement hopes to reinvent the mom next door.
That’s the motto of Mom Inc. Movement, an initiative created by two enterprising at-home business moms.
Julie Nowell and Meghan Simington recently joined forces to launch an event for moms interested in business opportunities.
Nowell, regional owner of momcafé and co-owner of Starfish Kidz Apparel, said she often hears from women who want to work from home but don’t know how to begin.
“We meet a lot of moms who are in transition – those who are either on mat leave or they’re going back to work or they’re in a career and they wish they could work from home. They look at the lifestyle that we’ve created in our at-home businesses, balancing our families and finding success in that,” Nowell said.
“We hear over and over again, ‘I wish I could work from home. I wish I could design a product. I wish I had a great idea.’ They didn’t know where to go to find the information on what businesses were viable, what were easy to set up in terms of network marketing.”
To demystify at-home employment, Nowell and Simington have organized a one-day trade show and conference for next month, bringing together as many local business opportunities as possible.
“It’s a smorgasbord and a buffet of all the opportunities,” Nowell said.
“They can pick and choose and ask questions and feel comfortable walking into this trade show with the goal of finding a business.”
The event will feature vendors from Small Business B.C., Be the Boss, Vitamoor and more. There will also be representatives from the small business service field, including accountants, web designers, graphic artists and business coaches.
In addition, attendees can learn how to manage a business and a family, how to market to moms, and how to choose the right franchise through a series of three-hour workshops.
Simington, founder of CoquitlamMommy.ca and regional director of Mommy Connections TriCities, said the event will reduce the fear factor for moms who are considering new business endeavours.
“A lot of them are looking at websites or talking amongst themselves, and they’re not getting clear information. So if they can come in and see all the options, it’s a huge difference,” Simington said.
“The big thing is offering moms another option, inspiring them with a new option that isn’t the nineto-five. I know a lot of moms who’ve gone back to work doing an eight-hour shift. Then they’re commuting downtown for an hour there and an hour back, so they’re not with their children for 10 hours a day.”
Many of these mothers have already developed strong business skills, she added.
“A lot of us have been high up management in large corporations and taken on a lot of responsibility. So how do you now take that beyond just exercising and just cooking dinner?” Simington asked.
“There’s friends of mine who are accountants and working for huge companies and they don’t want to do that anymore. They want to be an accountant from home, but how do they do that? A lot of these moms have awesome ideas. It’s just taking them to the next step and seeing what programs are out there to facilitate that.”
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