We Have Always Been Mompreneurs

It is the week before Mother’s Day so I wanted to give a little attention to the subject of women in business. I come from a long line of mompraneurs but we didn’t have a cool name until just recently. My mother just called herself a “Domestic Goddess” and her mother was “Mom C.” Grandma Cerniuk had that on her license plate and ran trophy engraving business out of her basement into her late eighties. We just recently encouraged her to retire so she can spend more time on other things that she is still passionate about. My mother Sarah started out decorating cakes for extra money back in the days when she actually had to cut the shapes out of a baked square. Over the years she has groomed dogs, and other things and now is a successful commission artist. Her paintings and drawings grace the pages of history books and the walls of the Queen’s manor.

Women have always been in business. It surprizes me that some people think it is new. We didn’t always file it with the government because our efforts to keep the chickens laying eggs and the garden producing vegetables didn’t seem to be a big deal. I remember my mom and I painting the interior of houses when I was a teenager. We didn’t think of ourselves as entrepreneurs at the time. We were not even sure it was a good idea. The day we were asked to go to Trapper John’s who shot mice instead of trapping them inside his home we were not that impressed with our profession. Negotiating the price with Trapper John or Old Man Meriniuk was a whole other matter…

Now we look back and laugh and realize that we have been business women all along and often we were running more than one enterprises at a time. It just made sense to do so. By our nature we have to be creatures with the ability to multi-task. Even if we stayed on the farm like my Dad’s mom Fanny did we would have had many careers by today’s standards. I remember her baking the cream puffs and making jams and pies and even today at almost ninety her larder is still full of last season’s triumphs. She worked the farm alongside the men, went home early from the fields to prepare the meals, sewed the quilts for winter warmth and took the slop out to feed the pigs after supper. Her house is still so clean you could eat off the floors and she would not want any fancy name for any of it.

With raising children and surviving the economy women have had to learn how to do many things at once by necessity. As a single mother I did not have a choice. There was no man to bring in the paycheck and I learned early on that the Calvary wasn’t coming to save us. So the only choice was to work hard and figure out what worked and then keep doing that. Life became many tasks with the goal of focusing on the things that would be the most productive.

I used to worry about getting better at the things I was lousy at but somewhere along the way I found out the money is in doing the things you excel at and becoming the best there is at those things. That carves out a place for us that differentiates us from our competitors. We become people of excellent no matter what our gender and the things that might get in the way of our success begin to fade into the unimportant. When I began to live my life with such purpose I never thought about being a mompreneur or even a woman. I never considered it. I am a business person like any other businessperson just focused on my craft and pushing towards my goals.

No matter what you call yourself, or what others call you, I hope you find your way to focus on becoming great at what you are already good at. You will go further than you ever dreamed once you do so.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

Ps. We added a Mompreneur MeetUp group to our growing arsenal of connectivity. We thought it might be a value add for all the other things we do including the Kids In Cowtown site.

 

Here is an awesome video by a woman of passion. Love the work that went into this. Good job Lara Galloway. When I am in New York City I may look you up!