Twitter Moms

Looking for a site that gives great advice for budding entrepreneur as well as a chance to reach out to your potential market?  Twitter Moms can be an amazing resource.  Started just a few months ago, as way for Moms to build their Twitter followers it has really developed a life of its own.

I find it is a great way to keep up with what is going on in the blogosphere in the field I am working in.  Through Travel Moms on Twitter Moms I have connected with some of the top bloggers on family travel.  I even have a book review scheduled as a result of this amazing resource.  Other boards for WAHMs, bloggers, and entrepreneurs have provided me with useful marketing advice.

Twitter Moms has also served its stated purpose of helping me to optimize Twitter.  Now I follow many family travel bloggers and have a consistent source of new materials and places to post comments.  It is a lot easier than subscribing to a bunch of RSS feeds or constantly surfing the net or using bookmarks.

I would recommmend joining Twitter and Twitter Moms for any budding entrepreneur.  It’s fun.  It’s addictive.  It also makes life easier.  What more can you ask for?

-Bridget

The Kindness of Strangers

This week I was reminded of all the rich and wonderful connections I have made because of my blog.  I had the chance to visit the Sea Life Aquarium with Deb a.k.a. San Diego Momma .  Her blog is a must: read bold, irreverent, and often thought provoking.  We “met” when something she had written on her blog touched me, and I sent her an e-mail to share my own experience. 

Last week was the first time we had spent time together face to face, but it felt like we were already old friends.  Our older daughters adore each other.  Deb and I have some of the same favorite authors and passion for writing.  I always enjoy meeting moms who don’t mind talking about kids and their work…sometimes in the same breath.  Although she had only known me for about a day (plus several months of blog correspondence and one brief  Mom’s Night meeting) she offered to secure me an invitation to the Elephant Odyssey exhibit  press preview at the zoo and to refer me to Knudsen who is sponsoring some kind of great state park contest and was looking for local blogs to host it.  Knudsen never called…bummer State Park passes would have given me plenty to blog about.  Still, I did secure an Elephant Odessy invite, and the kids had a wonderful time.

While at the Zoo, Charity who runs the PR firm Virtue IMC came up to me and offered to introduce me to the PR person .  A mad hunt for this woman ensued which ended with Destiny hugging her in the zoo parking lot, but that’s a story for another time.  I was overwhelmed by Charity’s gesture.  It was amazing that she went out of her way to help a person that she had only met casually at a Mom’s Night Out.  That parking lot meeting may open alot of doors for me, and I am very grateful for it.

Anyway, the moral of this little tale is that if you are going into a business that serves other moms, be sure to start a blog and actively participate in the blogging community.  In addition to meeting some great friends you could  also find some unexpected opportunities.

Book Review: Secrets of Millionaire Moms

Although I love blogging and social media, I will always be a book person.  Earlier this year when I decided to take my entrepreneurial journey more seriously I started haunting the business section of the library.  There are some really great books out there about  the great juggling act of being an entrepreneur and mom .  One book that provided a great combination of inspiration and practical advice on this subject was Secrets of Millionaire Moms by Tamara Monosoff founder of Mom Inventors Inc.

In her book she profiles a number of famous entrepreneurs including Victoria Knight McDowell, founder of Airborne Health and Maxine Clark founder and chief executive of the Build a Bear Workshop.    My favorite anecedote is that Victoria Knight McDowell, who was still a school teacher when she was first developing her Airborne product enlisted the help of school staff, students, and even parents when she needed to attach 44,000 samples by hand to preprinted post cards! 

This book is well organized and contains a wealth of good information.   It gives you ideas on how to get started, market your business,  deal with finances, as well as balance work and mothering. 

I’ve been feeling in kind of a slump lately,  so I plan to take this book on vacation with me next week and give it a second look.  I don’t know if I will ever be a millonaire mom, but I find it inspirational to read about fascinating  and confident  women who have “made it” in business.  Hopefuly in a few years I will have my own business stories to tell.

If you own your own business and/or are a mom inventor check out Tamara’s Website http://www.mominventors.com/ .  You can purchase Secrets of Millionaire Moms and Monosoff’s other  book  The Mom Inventors Handbook on Amazon.com .