Cathy Reay left her job as Director of Human Resources and Risk Management when she had her daughter. Shortly after becoming a SAHM she decided to launch MommysClub.com to provide parents a parenting resource site. She also continues to work in her field as a Human Resources Consultant and Virtual Assistant. Cathy loves having the opportunity to continue working while seeing her little girl grow.

1. What businesses do you and/or your family run?

I currently own www.mommysclub.com.


2. What made you decide to work from home?

After the birth of my daughter, my husband and I decided I would stay home and raise our little girl. I continued working for my employer as a consultant. The position wrapped up shortly after the holidays, and I became a full-time stay-at-home-mom. However, I started receiving calls from previous business contacts that needed help in their HR departments.   I also started working as a Virtual Assistant / Project Manager.
At the same time, MommysClub.com was launched in November 2007. I wanted to create a site that parents would utilize as a parenting resource.  Providing parenting tips, information, fun crafts, quick recipes, personalized holiday letters and most recently giveaways. The giveaway section was added to provide parents the opportunity to get their products in front of other parents for free.


3. What kind of support have you gotten from your community?

The support received from the community both online and offline has been tremendous. I have joined several networking sites and have made some lasting friendships. MommysClub.com has allowed me to partner with some exceptional parenting sites and the opportunity to meet exciting new people. I believe networking and relationship building are keys to becoming successful.


4. What sort of things does being self-employed allow you to do, for example, being involved in your child's life, school projects...etc?

Working from home provides me the chance to raise my little girl. It also allows for flexibility to work when she is napping and being able to devote time just to my family which is such a gift. I enjoy spending time with her playing and learning new things.  I am looking forward to watching her grow – but not too fast.

 
5. How do you feel your children see you as an entrepreneur?  What things are they learning by watching you work?

I hope I am teaching her the importance of going after what she wants and never give up. She is still too young to understand what mommy does, but she does like to imitate mommy. Especially when no one is looking she will grab her cell phone (an old one she has now claimed) and act like she is working on my laptop.

 
6. How is being a self-employed parent difficult? What sort of things (if any) would make your job easier?

Since I am still new and growing, I spend a lot of free time on the computer building relationships and trying to learn new things. I would love more time in a day. Sometimes I am working to meet deadlines, and have to juggle some plans to fit it in to the day.

 
7. What would you most like for consumers to know about you and the business that you run?

MommysClub.com was started to help parents who are seeking resources or information about parenting. It has grown to include not only parenting information and parenting resources, but to offer fun crafts for kids, quick recipes for the busy parent and much more. MommysClub.com offers personalized holiday letters for kids. In keeping the holiday spirit alive we provide letters from Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and a Birthday letter from Santa (these are not form letters.) The customer feedback on these letters has been outstanding. 

We recently introduced a giveaway section to the site. This will be two fold, one to provide business owners the opportunity to get their product(s) in front of parents for free and secondly the chance for parents to become familiar with new products provided by parents.
 
Finally, MommysClub.com offers a wide range of advertising opportunities for other business owners ranging from free to inexpensive pricing.

 
8. What are you most proud of as a parent?

I am so proud of my little girl and how she is growing into an amazing toddler. 


9. Do you have any advice for other parents who are running their own businesses or want to?

If you want something go for it, don’t put it off. It is hard to take the first step and a lot of work, but you do not need a huge budget to get started. There are many free sites out there to help with everything from advertising to web site building. 

Don’t lose sight of what is most important - family.