Work-at-home moms are one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs in the country
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There's a new breed of business people in "Your City": Moms. A growing group of women have given up seeking childcare, and instead have found business success at home. Your City's Shelley Swirski with the story of mom-preneurs.
The phone is constantly ringing at Jessica Jacobs' home.
"Can you hang on half a sec for me please... Good morning, Jess speaking..."
"Mommy! Mommy!" her daughter calls from another room. And Jacobs says this is a slow day. She's a member of one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs in Canada - women. A survey done by Mompreneur magazine in Calgary says home-based businesses are skyrocketing. The owners are women who are at home with preschoolers.
"They're not just selling cosmetics door to door for a few hundred extra bucks at the end of the month. They're secure businesses with long term focuses and long term plans," said Kathryn Bechthold of Mompreneur magazine. For some of these women, a home based business was the only choice.
"If you don't put your name on a wait list when you're six or eight weeks pregnant, you're not going to get a full-time spot when that child is one year old," said Bechthold of the problems of finding childcare.
Another reason a lot of women choose to be mompreneurs is so they can stay home and be the primary caregiver for their children. They're little for such a short time.
"I usually try to devote my afternoon to the kids. Thank God they still both go down for quiet time," said Bechthold.
But the mornings can still be pretty crazy for Jacobs, who is a shoe salesman. She started Little Soles a year ago from home, selling unique shoes strictly to retailers. Little Soles has taken off like mad. Jacobs now sells to 30 retailers across Western Canada in between working on new designs and manufacturing, and of course, being a mom.
"I'm thinking of applying for the circus as a professional juggler," said Jacobs.
