Mompreneur Next Door

Some times you meet people, and they tell you your story and you can hardly believe it. How can they be real people, people you actually are speaking with, not someone in the movies. This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing that someone - Sunday Burquest, a survivor in many ways. Sunday's story starts well before she survived two truly life-changing experiences. She was a busy mom of four working alongside her husband in his ministry work. That all changed when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. This came shortly after her husband almost died and several close family members had passed away, so it was a very dark time for her and led to depression and anxiety. Her son encouraged her to do her own thing and move forward, something which she had thought about for years. But it had never been the right time, she was worried about money and frankly if she could succeed. Sound familiar? I think many of us wanting to go out on our own grapple with similar inner voices. So aft...

One of the biggest reasons that moms want to start their own businesses is for the flexibility to be home with their kids. One of the biggest reasons that moms don't start their own businesses is because of excuses, reasons why they can't do it. Claire Yoh could have had huge reasons for not starting a business, moving to different continents every few years. Instead, she looked at those moves as reasons to reevaluate the business she was doing. And instead of saying why she couldn't start yet another business, she learned from past mistakes, grew, and started a new business every time she moved. Claire is a beautiful woman I met through a social media connection in this fantastic network of women empowering women community that is growing by leaps and bounds on the Mompreneur Next Door platform. I had the pleasure of speaking with her recently, and when asking why she chose entrepreneurship, she said it is her life's purpose to create something from her soul that w...

What will people think? What will people say? Those were my main fears when I started my mompreneur gig seven years ago. I was working full time, going to school at night and married with three small children, but having enough time wasn't a fear. I figured that I would make time for what I wanted to do. But the fear of judgement, the fear of alienation, the fear of my family and friends avoiding me and talking about me - that was terrifying to me. So why did I start my business and move through the fear? For three main reasons: 1. I reminded myself that the people I was so afraid were going to judge me were not paying my bills. They were not raising my children, living my life, or taking care of me. So why was I so concerned with what they thought? Truly. 2. If people did judge or criticize me, maybe that was more telling of them than of me. Not everyone needed to join my team or become my customer, but at the very least, people could support me by being kind. If someone was n...

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Cyndi Walter on the Mompreneur Next Door Platform, an abundant leader and mom who I initially connected with via LinkedIn. Cyndi has been involved in four work-from-home opportunities, so she has a unique viewpoint and shared benefits and challenges of different direct sales/network marketing business models. Cyndi first learned about direct sales while putting herself through college, and it opened her eyes to the power of what the business can offer. When she became a mom, a friend introduced her to another home-based business, and she realized that it was a great way to earn money and still be with her kids. She was part of a party-plan business for a while and loved it because it was a great way to socialize and get out of the house while earning money. She switched to another party-plan business that gave her more earning potential and soon became one of the tops in the company. As her kids got older and had more evening activities,...