WAHM'spirations! Profiling successful work at home moms

Tell us a little about your business and how you started it?
My oldest daughter Leah was born profoundly deaf. By the time she was 4 years old I was frustrated with how few people in our lives could communicate with her. We had seen all of the resources for learning sign language. My husband Aaron and I had purchased many tapes and kept sending reminders about community ASL instruction and yet Leah's community could not keep up with her signing skills. People who knew her and loved her could not seem to make the time to learn sign language to communicate with her. There were a number of moments where this became clear to me; I could see it in our family, friends and neighbourhood. Pretty soon Mom and Dad were going to be Leah's permanent interpreters, which isn't a terrible thing, but consider that all of her information came from us! That's a very narrow slice of a very big world. I started doing a sign language story time at some local preschools and was thrilled to find that when children are armed with a few signs; they are excited to communicate with a deaf child. With no exposure to sign, these children felt awkward and scared. The final piece came into place when my sister Emilie called me one day to see if I would be interested in making a video for children. I immediately said, "Yes! AND it has to be about sign language!" I could visualize the impact already, even if we only made one hundred videotapes and gave them away to people who know and love Leah, THAT could change her experience as a deaf child. It took us more than a year to create the first volume of Signing Time. We leaned heavily on favours, family talents and credit cards. We set up a web-site www.signingtime.com and they started selling!

Your story is so inspirational, how did you manage to turn adversity into something so positive?
Many people say, "Wow, Rachel, you took lemons and made lemonade!" Not my favourite way to put it, especially when talking about my kids. Other people say, "It happened to you for a reason!" or "You got those children because you could handle it!" I am not convinced that any of that is true. Believe me sometimes I am not sure I can handle it, but it is my life and I wanted a family and chose to have children and here I am!

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Tell us a little about your business and how you started it?
Stroller Strides was on of those "ah ha moments" in your life. I was a new mom on maternity leave and every moment was precious to me. I loved working in the fitness industry but did not want to go back to work full time in a traditional capacity. Unfortunately, I could not afford to be a stay at home mom. So while working out with my son, I realized that I could help other moms get back in to shape if I put a class together. This would help me too because I did not know any new moms and was looking for a way to connect. I came up with the name on that very walk. I started with just a few moms in my local neighbourhood and word soon spread and we grew quickly from there.

Stroller Strides has grown so quickly in just a few years. Tell us how you took it from a home business to a national franchise? Just after starting that first class, we started getting requests for classes all over San diego, so we kept adding more. By the end of the first year, we had over 12 classes and 1000 moms participating in san diego. During that first year, we got requests for classes all over the country. I had no idea at the time how I would accomplish that one. Then one of my instructors said that she was moving and wanted to start classes in her new town. I agreed and gave her all of the plans to run her own classes. She was a hit. We then decided to release 10 "beta" locations across the country to see how it would work in other cities. We learned a lot, tweaked a few things and then they were a hit. We hired attorneys, worked with consultants and joined the International Franchise Association. We are now franchised across the country and have nearly 200 franchisees.

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Tell us a little about your business and how you started it?
We provide weekly meal planning for families. You can see a complete list of our sites at www.themenumom.com We started a couple years ago. The idea came to me as I was planning my own menu plans one day.

One of the main issues mom's have with the dinner hour is coming up with things to make. How do you come up with new menus and idea on a weekly basis for your clients?
I have always been a big recipe collector. I have a large arsenal.

You have a few joint ventures you're involved with, tell us a little about those and how did you come about cultivating those partnerships?
Yes, my main one is www.healthymenumailer.com with Susanne Myers. We met on Mom Masterminds, and she contacted me. We have been great friends since. We both have skills that compliment each other, it works out perfectly.

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Tell us a little about your business and why your started it.
I feel head over heels in love with internet audio and the work at home community. I wanted to serve the community in a new way and internet radio was almost unheard of at the time so providing content through audio was fresh and exciting.

What are some ways you market your business? What method has worked best for you?
Strategic partnerships have been the best method. Making friends with others who reach my target market and finding a way to work together. I've also done quite a lot of article and special report marketing.

What has been most rewarding about working for yourself?
Getting debt free and being able to quit my day job so that I could become a full time stay at home mom rates right up there. But also, I just love what I do. I'm thrilled to have the chance to help other moms break free from a J O B and have the freedom to stay home with their kids.

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