Meet the Mompreneurs
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But Morgan has only 25 titles in publication and doesn't plan a major expansion. Ladies Who Launch's Colligan says mothers often tell her they don't want their businesses to grow too fast. "Men would want it to be a $10 million company tomorrow," she says. "Moms have small children. They want to be with them. A steady pace is fine with them right now."
Reese Li couldn't agree more. A former Army officer who longed for a diaper bag with as many pockets as her trusty military knapsack, she decided to make one. Then she sold one on eBay. After hand sewing 500 bags, she decided last year to find a manufacturer and sell wholesale to baby boutiques. She garnered celebrity clients like Cate Blanchett, Gwyneth Paltrow and Courteney Cox, and she projects $100,000 in sales this year. "I seriously don't want it to get too large," she says. "I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I didn't want to go back to work and travel all over the place."
Li, 32, describes being a mompreneur as a juggling act with different kinds of balls. "Some, like family, are glass balls that will break if dropped," she says. "Others, like work, are rubber and will bounce back up. I just try to juggle as best I can and make sure I don't drop any of the glass balls." Although she puts in up to 30 hours a week running Reese Li Baby, Li still has time to volunteer at school, chaperone field trips and gossip with other moms at the playground. "I've learned that I can't be superwoman, so we eat more take-out dinners and the laundry piles up." But laundry, she points out, "is not a glass ball." --With reporting by Cathy Booth Thomas/Dallas
With reporting by Cathy Booth Thomas/Dallas
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