Mompreneur Special: Here Is How You Can START Thinking Of Starting-up

There’s entrepreneur and then there’s mompreneur.

Momprenuers belong to those category of working women professionals who are proud mothers happily juggling their entrepreneurial ventures too, no matter how big or small.

Like they often say, the first step is the most difficult, but once you ACT – things fall into place.

Rachna, a young Arts graduate got married relatively young. She always toyed with the idea of “starting something” of her own; but that’s all she did – toy with the idea.

One would be surprised at the number of women who either “want to work” or want to “start something” but spend years in the “thinking” stage without doing anything much about it.

Primarily, the reasons attributed to this inaction could revolve around low support from a spouse, lack of industry know-how, no ability to network and meet the right people, no out-of-the-box thinking, etc.

If you are a new mom or upcoming mompreneur, what will it take for you to get that final push to start something of your own?

What do you WANT to do?
When my grandfather passed away recently, the funny thing is, everyone started making plans for my grandmother. But not many of us asked my grandmother what SHE wanted to do.

Thankfully, we live in an age where that doesn’t need to happen to us. If you’ve been a stay-at-home mom and have been thinking of starting a small business (home based to begin with), jot down WHAT it is you want to do.

A small-home based woman entrepreneur from Pune who set up her own little content creation firm says that, when she first thought of starting something; she listed down the things she could turn into a business keeping in mind what she was good at.

“I made a list of things I liked doing and things I would be good at. For example, I jotted down activities like painting, reading, writing, teaching. In the beginning, I actually played around with the idea of starting an art school – and then over time, with more list-making and scratching things off the list, I realized starting a small writing business is better for me.”

Some tips:

When making a list, don’t restrict yourself

Jot down everything you want

It is easier to start striking things off once you have a clearer idea of which direction you may want to take

Many famous businesses have started-off this way. They start from scratch with one concept in mind and then eventually expand and grow over the years. Remember how Flipkart was just an e-company that sold books earlier? As of now, there is almost nothing you can’t find on the Flipkart app!

Get a Mentor

Here is a useful article on "Why women should look for mentors."

Why do you need a mentor? It is always advisable to have someone experienced to guide you in the initial stages of starting up. Starting-up is not the same thing as taking up a job.

Starting up is about getting a business idea off the ground and turning it into a success.

A practical mentor with relevant industry experience will be able to help you strategize better, give advice regarding initial funding and capital, a good mentor will help you prevent making some common mistakes that several small entrepreneurs wished they were saved from.

Network (even if you have to do it from home)

Can’t step out because your child is too young? Get a 4g internet connection and network-from-home!

Start talking to professionals on social networking sites. Meet mentors online. Meet like-minded businesswomen who have started businesses on their own. You can find one of every kind online.

The worst mistake you can make when you have an idea, is to sit on the idea without taking action.

The second worst mistake you can make is not networking right.

Richa, a young PR professional who wanted to start a small communication agency from home says, “I thought I could do everything on my own, but I was wrong. At some point, I realized that if I had networked, spoken to other professionals, shared my concerns and ideas, some of the initial challenges would have been avoided easily.”

Participate in community events

SHEROES.in as a resource hosts community events across cities. The objective is to share interesting conversations and have a common platform for working women professionals, women leaders, entrepreneurs and mompreneurs to share ideas and thoughts.

Find any such interesting kind of community event in your city and be part of it, you’ll be surprised by what you can learn from there.

A young 26 year old woman – Sakshi, once attended a community event in Pune. Her main aim was to find more professionals to network with and to talk about her upcoming T-shirt venture, she also wanted to find a co-founder at the event.

How did the event help?

Well, she got to meet and talk to at least 10 different professionals from diverse fields of work. It helped broaden her horizon. Not only did she find an interesting co-founder to partner with, from a t-shirt business it turned into a thriving “funky wear for women” business. 

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