It goes without saying that we mamaprenuers are busy. We’re raising a family while running a business all at the same time, and most weeks there’s not a minute to spare, so using our time wisely is paramount.

This might be one of the reasons why listening to podcasts has become super popular amongst our community. It’s so easy to learn on the go, from the car, while making dinner or for our founder Lianne Kim, while at her daughter’s cheer practice. As she says “I gotta be there anyway, why not make the most of it!”

That's why we decided to compile a list of our favorite business podcasts as shared by our members. Side bonus, many of the podcasters listed are also juggling business and family, so they totally get it!

1. We were thrilled to hear that quite a few of our mamas said they thoroughly enjoyed The Business of Becoming by our Business Bootcamp 2019 keynote speaker Lori Kennedy. While Lori is an expert at helping wellness businesses grow and scale, she shares a lot of
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Hello Mamas!

One of the biggest challenges that we face as mompreneurs is “How can I be a good mom and succeed in business?” We beat ourselves up thinking that we’re not giving enough, doing enough or trying hard enough overall. While we all know that this is par for the course, please take comfort in knowing that you are not alone. Take a deep breath and have a look at these three tips that not only silence those nasty voices but strengthen you as a parent and as a businesswoman. While they aren’t easy fixes, they are definitely worth the effort!

#1 - Practice giving your best self at home

Here’s a funny thing - when we give our best to those that we live with, it tends to overflow into work relationships.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to work as well in reverse. Our kiddos have dependencies and vulnerabilities that our clients don’t, and they need us to prioritize our relationships with them.

When we practice best mom-behaviour at home (examples are practicing kindne...

The value of visual communication has grown exponentially with the advent of digital marketing on social media. As a result, photography has become more crucial than ever before to the promotion of entrepreneurs, their products and services, and their brands.

Images capture the attention, imagination, and curiosity of the viewers.  The goal of posting a great image on social media is to have a viewer linger on it, which dramatically increases the likelihood that they will read the information that accompanies it. Text accompanied by images on social media has been shown to generate more engagement than text without images.  Example: When accompanied by a photograph, Facebook campaigns have 65% more engagement, and tweets, an average of 35% more retweets.

Images contribute visual creativity and style to a business venture. When carefully tailored to you and your professional world, they show the authentic you, you as you are going about the business of running your company. In a...

Instagram is quickly becoming one of the most important social media platforms for small business owners. With approximately 1 billion users worldwide as of 2019, its appeal is largely due to the fact that it has a quick and effortless vibe to it.  
 

But crafting the perfect Instagram feed isn’t always so simple. These 5 expert tips will help you get your Instagram juices flowing, and get your business seen by more people online.  
 

Tip #1: Just start  

If you’re just starting out, it can be easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing. It feels like there is so much to know, and that can feel overwhelming. But the key is to just start somewhere.  

Pick a few “themes” for your Instagram feed, some concepts that you consider yourself an expert on that you like to include as part of your online dialogue. For example, if you are a personal trainer, your themes might include strength training, nutrition, fitness attire, making fitness fun, weight loss etc. Have a few key themes...

If you are a small business owner, there is no doubt that telling your brand story in an authentic way can be challenging. But the fact is storytelling is just as important as any other operation in your business.

Your story is what makes you stand apart from your competition simply because there are likely 100 other businesses that provide the same service or sell a similar product as you.

Storytelling is the way your community is going to connect with you. It’s the way they will get to know who you are and the big WHY behind your product or service.

So how do tell your story? The opportunities are endless. Everything you do and say is a reflection of your business, so choose the storytelling avenues that you can commit to and show up authentically on a consistent basis.

Here are a few examples:

Video on social media (Instagram Stories and Facebook):

You can only hide behind pretty social media posts for so long until your audience starts craving more from you. The...

Do you have big dreams that you’d love to pursue? Research shows that most of us are holding ourselves back from realizing these dreams because we are afraid to fail. Sometimes the worries or excuses are based on external factors, but more often than not they’re internal barriers that we erect to protect ourselves from disappointment. To actually accomplish something, it's not enough to dream up a big vision, you need to get past the internal barriers and take systematic action. Going that next step, putting your dreams for your life and your business out there, and setting goals to make them real, takes bravery and boldness. Being bold and brave goes beyond the words, it’s a mindset. In 2019 it’s time to go from dreaming to doing!

The first step to setting empowering goals that resonate at a deep and meaningful level is to develop a vision. When I was first introduced to this concept back in the ‘90s, a vision was described to me as a picture of what success will be at a particular t...

After 2018, I really do understand the meaning of “when one door closes, another door opens”.  At the beginning of 2018, I had an amazing, successful furniture rental business, which was hitting its second year and was bringing in 6-7 figures annually.  This award-winning furniture rental business that I had spent a lot of blood, sweat and tears building had made a huge name in the staging and real estate industry as one of the top rental houses in Ontario. I was very proud of how far and how fast this company had grown.

However, all that came tumbling down the summer of 2018.  With the end of my marriage, my shares were unhappily sold to my soon to be ex-husband.  It isn’t because I wanted to sell a successful company I had worked so hard to build. It was because I knew as a soon-to-be single parent to two little girls, I had to let that business go if I was going to be the type of single mom I wanted to be for them. 

I left my marriage because I was unhappy for many years. I ...

Wow! What a year 2018 was for the Mamas & Co. community. We saw a lot of change and growth, not only for our community as a whole but for many of our member businesses.  We wanted to share some of the highlights from this past year, as well as give you a sneak peek of what’s in store for 2019.

We started the year off with a bang, as we hosted our largest ever Business Bootcamp conference in April of 2018. We were honored to have keynote speaker Julie Cole of Mabel’s Labels join us and share her inspiring story. We also welcomed member Cynthia Mason, who shared her thoughts on the importance of protecting our intellectual property through trademarking. We had a stellar panel of member experts share their wealth of knowledge on all things Digital Marketing including Holly LaRochelle, Rachel Di Martino of Geek Unicorn and Sara Vartanian. All in all, it was a day full of information and inspiration!

Later in the summer, we announced the inauguration of the Mamapreneur Fund, which i...