You can also find Mom, Incorporated on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Thank you for your interest in Mom, Incorporated!

The influential publishing world magazine and website Foreword has selected our book – Mom, Incorporated – as the Gold Book of the Year Award (BOTYA) winner for 2011 in the category of Career. We’re over the moon thrilled. This recognition was unexpected and incredibly validating of the long, hard work we put into the book content. We are grateful.

Ask any serious author and they will tell you that they pour their hearts and souls into each book they write, and for us, Mom, Incorporated was just that – filled with our own stories and the stories of many other women, all from the heart, honest and revealing. We worked hard to make sure that the more technical chapters – like the ones about finances and taxation for new businesses – had personality and soul so they were more compelling to read. (No easy task!)

We’ve heard from many of our readers that our book is not only inspiring them but that they keep it right at their desk and refer to it frequently. This is incredible for us to hear because it is what we set out to do and only dreamed would happen. We wanted to create a holistic, realistic guide to starting and growing a business from home with a baby or kids in your midst that would become an indispensable resource for women. And by adding the stories of dozens and dozens of moms across the country with thriving home-based businesses, we also set out to make our book more timeless and lasting.

We’d love your support getting the word about about Mom, Incorporated. We want to help more women with their dreams of starting a business from home. Here’s how you can help: Click here to tweet out a message. Or share our Facebook Page or posts with your friends. And if you haven’t picked up our book yet, you can do that here!

Thank you to everyone who has supported our book so far! We look forward to meeting more of you in the near future.

Here are some of our favorite tips for getting started with marketing your home-based business.

1. Spread the Word: Send an e-mail to your entire list of contacts, letting them know about your new business and offer a referral discount. (We use MailChimp.)

2. Be Social: Create a presence in popular social networks for your new company and invite your personal and professional contacts to connect with you there. (We’re on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest)

3. Go to Print: Develop printed collateral such as business cards, postcards, and fliers to promote your company. (Have you checked out TinyPrints?)

4. Network, Network, Network: Attend business networking events to distribute marketing materials and talk about your business with prospective customers who could also refer customers to you. (And don’t forget about getting a free account on LinkedIn!)

5. Get Listed: List your company in business directories, including Web-based ones. (Examples: Google Places for Business, LinkedIn Company Directory)

6. Get Published: Submit prewritten articles or blog posts with great tips and information based on your expertise. Try a trade or chamber newsletter or a blog that reaches your target market, or even your local newspaper. (Also publish online on sites like Squidoo and Gather.)

7. Youtube It! Create a fun, short video to demo your product or promote your services and upload it to YouTube. You can capture screenshots and your voice, easily making a screencast on Screenr.com or add audio to a slideshow on Slideshare.net or even use cute cartoon characters to “read” your script at Xtranormal.com.

What cool ways are you marketing your company?

excerpted from the book Mom, Incorporated…

Kathy Zucker

Over the past six years, I have been a managing partner in three companies. In the past year, I have written two business plans and raised a million dollars in investor capital commitments. In the past 16 months, I established a beverage company’s online and social media presence, redesigning the look and wording of all its marketing materials. The result of those efforts? The company has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon.com, shot to No. 1 in nationwide sales in the Amazon grocery section, and is now being sold at the Ritz Carlton, at the hotel’s request. And I accomplished all this while working from home.

When I launched my marketing consulting business six years ago, I never expected any of this to happen. But the biggest surprise of all? The fact that I am home at all. I never, in a million years, intended to stay home when I became a parent. I thought I would be your typical Manhattan marketing director, taking 12 weeks of maternity leave before putting my child into day care or hiring a nanny.

Life has a way of moving in unexpected directions. I found parenting to be much harder and more gut-wrenching than I ever expected. You don’t truly know what sleep deprivation is like until you have parented a newborn; it’s like walking around drunk all the time. And I found that I couldn’t stand being away from my daughter. Watching her little face pull away from me in a car window is one of my most emotionally searing memories of early motherhood. Also, my husband’s career started ramping up; I had been the primary breadwinner until then, but I agreed to scale back so he could go for the big time. Two parents working 60-hour weeks — we would never see our kid.

Struggling to balance parenting with your career?

It is surprisingly easy to start working for yourself. The most basic level of being in business is a sole proprietorship. You come up with a business name, register it with the state you live in, and get a federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). It can all be done online; it should take about an hour to establish your business. And the cost? Under $100.

Why do you need an EIN as a sole proprietor? Privacy is huge; do you want to give your Social Security number to every client? Having an EIN also enables you to partner with other people; I often put together marketing plans that involve multiple vendors (interns, a web developer, etc.) At the end of the year, I issue them 1099s since they are independent contractors; no tax liability for me.

Having an EIN makes you look legitimate. Many clients request my EIN before they will do business with me. It doesn’t change my income tax filing status; I file one set of personal returns and all my business activity goes on schedule C.

Useful links:

• New Jersey Online Business Filing & Registration Service: https://www.state.nj.us/treasury/revenue/dcr/filing/leadpg.htm
  If you live in a different state, google “online business filing [insert state name] sole proprietorship.” Searching under those terms for Maryland turned up the Maryland Checklist for New Businesses (http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdatweb/checklist.html)
• Online EIN application: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html

Kathy Zucker, serial entrepreneur and mother of two toddlers, writes about juggling career and family in an urban setting. See what Kathy is up to at her blog and on Twitter.

 This article originally appeared on Metromoms.net on Jan. 9, 2012.

Darla DeMorrow

Darla DeMorrow wrote The Pregnant Entrepreneur because she couldn’t find a book to help her through her pregnancy while running her small business. A professional organizer who owns Heartwork Organizing,  Darla helps people find their desktops, their keys, useful time in their calendar, money and their sanity. (Still, she admits, her kids leave their toys on the floor.)

Through her book and accompanying website, PregnantEntrepreneur.com, she also helps moms-to-be through the special challenges facing child-bearing entrepreneurs. Darla loves crock pots, public radio and cats, all of which she describes as things that make life calmer.

MomIncorporated: How did The Pregnant Entrepreneur come about?
Darla: I went looking for this book — twice. When it was clear that it didn’t exist, I wrote it. I figured there must be others like me, women who are running a business, then get pregnant and think, “Now, how am I going to get through this new state of affairs?”

There are a million books that tell you how to work for someone else while you are pregnant, but none that address the special challenges of a being an entrepreneur, like how to pay for maternity leave, how to build a team that can carry your business through your maternity, and how to credibly sign new clients when you can’t see your feet.

MomIncorporated: What are the most valuable lessons you learned about being pregnant and running an at-home business?
Darla: Get as much sleep as you can. OK, maybe getting more sleep wasn’t the actual lesson, but there was a lesson there. Before pregnancy, I had very few distractions from my business. Working at a breakneck pace to build the business was normal. I was wired that way, and I had been trained that way at my previous corporate jobs.

However, I really wanted a more sustainable life to enjoy my growing family. So the lesson was really about purposefully designing an enjoyable day, week and year. Pregnancy was the time to ratchet back activity a bit, but also to focus more on activities worth doing, and to cut out things I didn’t want to continue doing after the baby was born.

MomIncorporated: What kind of challenges does a pregnant woman with a home-based business face — challenges that are different than those faced by an employee?
Darla: The pregnant entrepreneur faces many differences compared with being pregnant in corporate life. The biggest challenge is financial. There is no paid maternity leave, no Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for companies with less than 50 employees, no unemployment compensation or paid time off of any kind in most cases. I get paid only if I’m working. So I created a tool to help women calculate how long they can afford to take time off from running their business without incurring debt or going out of business. This Super Simple Pregnancy Profit and Loss Snapshot for Maternity Leave is available in the book and for free in the downloads section of PregnantEntrepreneur.com.

Other challenges include not having a human resources department to advise or assist you in modifying your work activities, if needed. For instance, I work on a ladder, but that becomes questionable as soon as the third month in some pregnancies. And if bed rest is prescribed, your physical activities can be curtailed altogether. It is up to you — and only you — to find ways to replace your income.

Although discrimination against pregnant employees is outlawed under The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, amended in the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an entrepreneur who is trying to sign new business may not receive the same opportunities she would have prior to her pregnancy. Clients and potential clients may get skittish about her abilities or her commitment to continue the business. Even so, confirming and responding to discrimination is usually costly and impractical.

How about pay inequities that women have always dealt with? During pregnancy, the woman is more likely to be impacted by lost work and income due to medical appointments and health issues. Later, child-care duties and expenses usually fall to the woman.  Even in a two-earner family, women often feel as if they are better off leaving the work force rather than paying the high cost of child care outside the home. This can lead to lower earnings over a lifetime.

Then there are the simpler issues, like how to dress and when to disclose your news. An entrepreneur might need to be a bit more strategic than an employee would on both of these fronts, as she works to deal with potential and real concerns of her clients and employees.

The first three months with her new baby is also challenging for an entrepreneur. Although corporate employees on maternity leave might feel pestered by calls from the office, the entrepreneur needs to be concerned about building her business back up, potentially from a standstill. She may feel more stressed and compelled to be plugged into technology in order to not miss out on opportunities. If she doesn’t like marketing, that re-entry phase can be particularly painful.

None of these challenges are insurmountable, but a small-business owner may have fewer resources at her command than her counterpart at an established company. My goal is to help women who want to continue to run or start a business do so with grace and success. Thinking about these issues before they become crises can improve a business owner’s chance of having her business survive her baby.

MomIncorporated: How did your organizing business come about, and what kind of background did you have that facilitated your starting that business?
Darla: I was a corporate refugee.  After a dozen years selling and managing a technical line of business, I was laid off. It came at a great time for my husband and me, since we had been saving like crazy. We figured that if we ever got the chance to change course professionally, we wanted to be financially secure enough to take advantage of it. I had been a project manager at work and a home-improvement enthusiast at home. Those two passions morphed into a business that offers professional organizing, home decorating and home staging.

I pursued training and certifications each year, and continue to do so, to become an expert in my field. I love being a valued resource for my wonderful clients. And I enjoy seeing a project from start to finish and having a visible, tangible result.

MomIncorporated: How does your ability to organize help you juggle being a mom, a wife and an entrepreneur?
Darla: I might get a teensy bit more accomplished because I am organized and type-A.  But really, I’m not that special. Many, many women are working, raising families, volunteering and generally keeping the world spinning.

Probably the two things that set me apart are my dislike of multitasking and my focus on income and profit. As a mother, I know my best days are when I don’t try to return calls and emails when my kids are with me. In fact, I don’t even respond to emails or phone calls until after noon, when my kids are napping. Sure, there are times when I try to get something done for work, but I know there will be consequences at home.

As a business owner, my work activities have to contribute to a healthy bottom line, so the time I spend at work is really benefiting my whole family financially. After all, the reason I run my own business is to be able to spend time with my family. So when I’m with my family, I try to really be with them. Few days are perfect, but most days I play with my kids, get some work done, walk my daughter to and from school, eat a healthy home-cooked meal with my entire family, and generally fall into bed knowing I’ve had a decent day. If I could custom design my days, they would be pretty close to my current reality.

MomIncorporated: You’ve made a conscious decision to keep your business small while your kids are small. What has factored into that decision — and do you plan to grow the business when the kids are older?
Darla: That is the biggest struggle for me right now. There’s so much chatter in the market about experts and regular people making it big. But there is a price to be paid for a larger operation. I would love to bring on full-time employees, but that means changing my business model, spending more time in my office, opening my business up to inconsistent quality, and having less personal satisfaction at the end of each job. I’m not willing to go there just now.

But the opportunity definitely exists to grow the business. The same opportunity should still be there in about five years when both kids are in school full time. I have great faith and a history that proves that the right opportunities will be there at the right time.

MomIncorporated: What do you do for yourself apart from your business and your family?
Darla: Writing The Pregnant Entrepreneur was a milestone, and that feeds my need for achievement. I also spend time with really fabulous, smart, funny women. I belong to the local Mothers and More chapter, and the women I have become friends with amaze me with their accomplishments, friendship and hospitality.

It is so good to know that there are other women who aren’t doing what they thought they’d be doing at this point in their lives and yet love it so much more than they thought they would. I also have attended a weekly Bible study for the past three years. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do that until closer to retirement, but it has really become a priority for me.

MomIncorporated: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs — especially pregnant ones.
Darla: Being an entrepreneur means that you are in charge. If you’ve been in charge of your own company for a while, you know that most critical and strategic decisions are ones that only you can make. If you are just starting out in entrepreneurship, you can stop asking how you should do things and keep researching the best options for you at this particular point in your life. Always keep moving forward. There is no “should,” just the best answers for you.

Any answer that is legal and good for your family can lead to a successful business model. There are so many advantages to having your own business, especially when baby arrives. There are financial benefits like business and the home-office tax deductions, deductible travel, and the option of offering insurance to your spouse through your company.There is the flexibility that you can probably build into your business to accommodate things like play dates and summer breaks. There is the fact that you need not rely on your spouse for financial support or credit approval.

There is the fact that you can have continuous employment and not be concerned about the gaps in your resume. There is the possibility of portability of your business should you want to or need to move. And there is the pure satisfaction that you are building something unique, valuable and, possibly, long-lived.

You will teach your children by example.  Don’t get overwhelmed.  Read, plan, and enjoy your family.

In this podcast, Sarah talks about :

• her entrepreneurial kids
• writing a book with her husband
• running a business from home while considering your family
• how to delegate for greater business success

If you’re a mom with a home-based business and you’d like to be featured on an upcoming podcast, please get in touch!

We’d be remiss if we didn’t suggest our book, Mom, Incorporated, as the perfect gift for a mom or mom-to-be in your life. Whether you get the actual book or gift the Kindle version, you’ll be giving a gift of empowerment, inspiration, motivation and information.

In the spirit of giving, here are some more gift ideas for the mom entrepreneur or inspiring mom entrepreneur in your life.

Plug Bug Charger - Every home office needs a Plug Bug Charger that lets you charge both your Macbook and iOS device or any other device with a USB charger.

Rollup Travel Charger - Stylish, versatile, and not totally Mac-specific, this multi-charging unit is super compact with a lovely cover that rolls everything up compactly. Perfect for tossing in your bag when out and about or working from the road.

PowerCurl – Another Mac-lover’s dream product (yes, we love Macs). Nest your Macbook cord within this handy, colorful contraption, an innovative creation on the Quirky.com site. Finally, the power cord is tamed!

Pivot Power – If you have a power strip, you know how clunky they can be. Why not give the gift of a pivotable power surge protecting power strip? With home offices often cramped into small spaces, being able to curve your power strip around corners could be just the thing!

Cordies – So many cords, so much frustration! Cordies comes in vibrant colors with five grips and four slots to look great while holding cords in place on a desk or flat surface. (As you can tell: Love Quirky.com!)

Office Supplies Container - What a beautiful white glazed porcelain holder for small office supplies like paperclips or push pins. While lovely and function, this probably goes under the category “keep out of reach of tiny little hands.”

Chalk Wall Calendar – This clever vinyl wall decal calendar gives you space to write down what’s coming up during the month as well as provides a space for additional reminder notes. The erasable Chalk Ink Marker comes separate (oooh, stocking stuffer!)

What great home office finds are you finding online?

Debra Cohen

Debra Cohen, one of the moms featured in Mom, Incorporated, initially wanted to contribute a few hundred dollars a month to her household income so she could afford to stay at home full-time with her infant daughter. Today, she not only owns Home Remedies of NY, Inc., but she’s created a nationwide network of independent referral companies using her business model. We asked her to tell us more about her company.

MomIncorporated: Provide a quick synopsis of the steps you took to get the business going.
Debra: First, I informally interviewed a few contractors and homeowners in my area to see if they’d be interested in using this type of service.  Once I felt confident about my idea, I brainstormed a business name. Once I came up with the name “Home Remedies,” I knew there was no turning back. Naming my business somehow gave it an identity of its own.

I interviewed lawyers, accountants, insurance agents and contractors to get their input on liability issues and the best way to structure my company. I also asked them if they’d be willing to be a part of my Board of Advisors so that I could turn to them with questions as I launched my business.

With a $5,000 loan from my husband’s retirement savings plan, I created my legal structure, bought a computer and set up my home office in my basement (adjacent to my daughter’s playroom).

To build my initial contractor base, I networked with real estate and home-improvement-related professionals in my community to find reliable contractors. I screened each one of them based on the feedback I’d received from my Board of Advisors and my own research.

To create my marketing materials, I hired a retired senior citizen (who used to work as a graphic artist) to help design my logo. A colleague from my job in corporate America helped me write and design my direct-mail campaign. I did some research to find a mailing list that would target my prospective customers and, within three months, I was in business.

MomIncorporated: What were the biggest challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them? 
Debra: My biggest challenges were that 1) my husband and I had just moved and were new to the community and 2) I love to decorate and renovate, but I didn’t have any technical home-improvement experience at all.

In hindsight, these were actually my biggest assets:

1. Not knowing anyone forced me to get out and network.
2. I realized that my area of expertise wasn’t in the technical aspects of home improvement. My contractors are the experts in their field and really don’t like third-party interference when it comes to their trade. My expertise is in sales and marketing, which is where most contractors fall short.

MomIncorporated: You’ve been in business 15 years. What has changed – and what remains the same?
Debra: Ironically, the core of my business has remained the same. This is still a people business, built on relationships with both my contractors and my homeowners.

Also, over the course of 15 years, I’ve worked through quite a few changes in the economy, and this business has remained recession-proof.  People will always invest in their homes but, in a down economy, they take on more moderate projects and are a lot more careful where they spend their renovating dollars.

Also, homeowners who once thought they would upgrade to a larger home are staying put and renovating instead.

Mom Incorporated: Which is now your primary business – the referral business, or the business opportunity for others starting their own business?
Debra: I would say it’s a 60/40 split. I spend approximately 60 percent of my time consulting with new HRN owners.

MomIncorporated: What’s the difference between running the business on your own – and helping others start and run their own businesses?
Debra: Both are gratifying because I get to help people in two different ways, but I do have a passion for business and really enjoy the consulting side.  Also, each HRN owner brings a unique personality to his or her business, and I find that I learn new things from them as well.

MomIncorporated: What questions are the most frequent from those who buy your startup packages?

• What happens if a contractor does a bad job? If a homeowner isn’t happy with a job, then the HRN owner’s role is to facilitate communication between the contractor and the homeowner so that the job is completed to the homeowner’s satisfaction.
• Is it hard to get contractors on board? Since there are no upfront fees, contractors are pretty open to working with my HRN.
• What size commissions should I charge? Commissions can range from 6 percent to 20 percent, depending on the size of the job.  In some cases, I take a flat finder’s fee.
• How large of a market should I plan to cover? This is really a local business.  Contractors don’t want to travel too far outside their immediate area for a job.  The quality of the market is more important than the size, and it’s better to start local so you can keep tabs on your contractors and their jobs’ status.
• What are the operating expenses in the first year? This is a very big word-of-mouth business, and operating expenses are minimal.  Basic month-to-month expenses include a phone, computer, mailing list and postage.  On average, I spend about $250 to $300 per month.

MomIncorporated: What are you top tips for a mom who wants to start a home-based business?

1. Chose a business that allows you to do something you love on a day-to-day basis, and you’ll have a much greater chance of success.
2. Working from home can be challenging, especially if you have small children.  To work efficiently and maintain a balance, try and break your day into blocks of time devoted exclusively to your business, your family and (most important) yourself.
3. Owning and operating your own business requires you to wear a lot of different hats (in addition to being a mom), and it’s impossible to be an expert at everything.  Outsource the tasks that don’t fall within your area of expertise, and focus on the money-making aspects of your business.

It has been a beautiful experience to hear how women have been moved by something within the 192 pages…. to start something of their very own, to push past a current challenge, to make it through the ‘hard stuff’ like accounting and business licensing – or even, to embrace the idea of a family/business juggle, instead of that elusive balance.

But for us – the notion that Mom, Incorporatedcan go even beyond that to ‘give back’ is even more special.  In November, on one specific day, we committed a portion of all sales of our book on Amazon to an organization we both

First Lady, Michelle Obama, Martha Stewart and Dr. Jill Biden at Operation Shower at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina

find inspiring: Operation Shower.  You buy Mom, Incorporated, we donate to Operation Shower.

Operation Shower provides beautiful baby showers for military moms-to-be who have husbands serving overseas.  This amazing non-profit is based in St. Louis as I am, so I am delighted to say, I’ve had the pleasure of working with them for the past few years.  Their showers have grown from ‘showers-in-a-box’ delivered to the new mom to full scale events held on military bases all over the country.  I most recently attended one late this summer at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina attended by a few dozen expectant Marine Corps wives, as well as the First Lady, Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden and Martha Stewart.  The gratitude on the faces of these new moms as they were gifted their ‘showers in a box’ and ‘showered’ with love was beyond compare.

With Aliza’s dad being former military – the decision to support Operation Shower was an easy one.  We both feel strongly about the good they are doing on a daily basis.

Aliza and I are thrilled to announce, based on your purchases of our book that special day in November, we will be giving Operation Shower a check for $400.

Thank you for supporting us, for supporting Mom, Incorporated and for supporting Operation Shower.  We are so very grateful.

Vicky Scesa is a photographer, graphic designer and teacher by inclination and training. She’s also a mom, and when Safina Stella was born, Scesa’s focus shifted a bit. She loves taking photos of her darling daughter, and she wants to teach other moms to take better pictures, too. That’s the genesis of her business, Mamatography Photo Workshops, 

MomIncorporated: How did you get started in photography, and what do you love about it?
Scesa: I started shooting in high school and got very serious about it in college. I was a graphic design major and always in need of photography for my work. Some of my peers thought in terms of typography or illustration but I always thought in photo frames. I loved that I could capture a moment that would otherwise just be a memory. I could give life to my ideas, that’s the best feeling of all.

MomIncorporated: How’d you get the idea of teaching photography to moms? What kind of teaching had you done previously?
Scesa: Teaching moms was an evolution of years of teaching all walks of life. I started out after college teaching digital photo and camera lessons to a doctor on a weekly basis, and something just clicked, so to speak. Years later, I taught a mom’s group as a single young person. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my daughter that it occurred to me what the true purpose was for these ladies, to take better shots of their kids. Since, so much more has opened up. I’m meeting moms in business for themselves who need professional-quality photos on a budget. So they’re learning to take photos themselves instead of hiring a photographer, which can be costly.

MomIncorporated: How have you marketed your online photography courses?
Scesa: I use social networking such as Facebook, and I’m new to Twitter. I have an Etsy shop, which is so fun for me and has brought me some webinar business due to the fact that their photo quality standards are so high. I just launched my blog a couple of weeks ago, mamatographylessons.blogspot.com. Here, moms will have the ability to view free photo tips. I’m also working on video tutorials that will be featured throughout the web.

MomIncorporated: What were some of the initial challenges in setting up your courses, and how did you overcome them?
Scesa: I’m still overcoming challenges all the time. Online, I’m working out the kinks of teaching to individuals vs groups. Simple issues such as the internet speed in my area have thrown a wrench into the works the past. Locally, I know that I need to target a broad audience, so I’m working on mass marketing plans.

MomIncorporated: How do you balance motherhood, your regular photography work and your teaching activities?
Scesa: Well, that list is a little longer because I’m still a designer, too. The balance is tricky and, being that my daughter’s under a year old, I’m still getting the hang of it. I try to make a habit of marking all my projects and personal activities on my iCal. I recently hired a sitter to come to my home to read to and play with my daughter a few days a week. Prior to that, I thought I could be a playmate, a housekeeper, a photographer, teacher, etc., etc. I also know that I have to sort my time evenly: work, baby, self, home. The best part of this juggle is that I’ve realized just how valuable my time is, so I’m more particular about the jobs I take on.

MomIncorporated: What tips do you have for an online entrepreneur — or, for that matter, a professional photographer?
Scesa: They both go hand and hand these days. One leg is only as strong as the other! Plus, persistence and knowing your skill. And when you don’t know something, that’s okay, own it! Strive to learn more and be humble about it. And of course, shoot, shoot, shoot. Baby/kid in one hand, camera in the other!

MomIncorporated: How do you market your business, and what do you find works out the best for you when it comes to marketing?
Scesa: I send out eblasts as often as time allows. I post on social networks throughout the day.  The best marketing is getting to know other moms; this is also the most rewarding.