Get to Know Kim Grisham of KT Naturals

Kim Grisham is the owner of KT Naturals, an all-natural mineral makeup company. Her products have been receiving rave reviews from many who have tried them. Kim took on the company from its creator and has built up a reputation as a great business owner with a quality product. Her enthusiasm and warmth are combined with a great product will carry her far. We are proud to introduce you to her and are excited to continue to see her grow!

Hometown: Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Current Residence: Salt Lake City, Utah

Education: Associate’s degree in Business Graphics.

Professional Background: I was in school for most of my life before becoming a stay-at-home mom and entrepreneur. I went to a community college for graphic design, and online school for medical transcription. I also worked in a classroom with severe mentally and physically disabled children, which I loved.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: A wife, mommy, nurse, teacher, web designer, and entrepreneur.

What you are: A wife, mommy, and entrepreneur.

Brief Summary of your Start Up: I have spent a lot of time with various projects and ideas that would bring in extra income while allowing me to stay home with my child. A few months ago, I came across a woman who had started a business but did not have time to continue with it. I loved her passion for all natural makeup products and the direction she was headed with her business. I was really amazed when I learned that it was possible to create, mix, and sell mineral makeup from your own home! I was blessed to be chosen to own and manage KT Naturals.

Company Website? www.ktnaturals.com

What inspired you? My son. I have always dreamed of being a stay-at-home mom. When we needed extra income, KT Naturals dropped in my lap. I believe there is a reason for everything!

How long have you been in business? KT Naturals was created by Katie McCartney of Maumee, Ohio in 2007. I have been blessed to own the business since June of 2009.

How did you fund it? Purely with sales of the products!

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? I consider Kelly King Anderson and all those involved with StartupPrincess.com great inspirations and mentors, though I have not received any one-on-one guidance.

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? Twitter, Facebook, CreatedByMom.com, among others.

Current Business Challenge? Balancing time among business, family, and housework.

What are you doing about it? Less housework and spending time with family! Business time just falls into place. Who needs a clean house, anyway?!

Favorite motivational quote: “Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.”

Family? I have been married to my best friend, Hank, for 2 years this October 11^th. We have one boy, Eli, who just turned 1!

If so, how do you balance family and business? Nap time for baby is essential to keep up with my business! My husband is very supportive and helps whenever and however he can.

Favorite book? October Sky, a very inspirational story. I love reading memoirs!

What do you do to relax? Spend time with family, watch movies, web design.

What do you want to change most about your world? I want to push for greater acceptance of organic and natural products and remedies. There are too many harsh chemicals and ingredients in things we use and consume. Natural is better for us and our world!

What are you most proud of? First, my son. Second, I am proud to help support my family while watching my son grow and learn each day. I never wanted to miss out on those special moments, and now I don’t have to!

What advice would you like to offer other Start Up Princesses? If you want something, go for it! Never give up! And always, always allow time for yourself! You deserve it!

Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? StartupPrincess.com. I am so glad that I came across Startup Princess. I don’t feel alone anymore! It has led me to bigger and better things for my business. I have loved connecting with women I met through Startup Princess.

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? Diamonds! Not only is it my birthstone, but they are “a girl’s best friend” after all!

Introducing Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elefant and Social Luxe Lounge

I met clever mom, visionary, fashionista, event planner and professional blogger  Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elefant early January 2009 via email.  When decided to meet up for lunch we realized that we lived in the same neighborhood! How fun is that? Quite a rarity to find a cool blogging chick in your backyard.  I’ve enjoyed reading Allison’s blog this past year and getting to know her better. Here’s a few of my favorite recent posts by Allison: her post after Touchpoint about Heather Bailey and running for Blogteam President, her tribute to her Grandpa, eyeshadow post on Design Mom, and about meeting “Nie Nie” Stephanie Nielson.

When I met Allison she impressed me with her ambition to take things up a notch in 2009 and it’s been a joy to see her  over the past year do just that!  This year has been a whirlwind for Allison– lots of conferences, traveling, blogging events (Mom 2.0, Blogher, and TJMaxx event…to name a few).  She spent 3 weeks on the road with her family this Summer sampling wonderful hotels, excursions, restaurants, and more and sharing them with her readers at Petit Elefant and if that weren’t enough she also was one of the masterminds behind the highly successful Social Luxe Lounge at Blogher where they had over 700 attend and attracted top sponsors such as Swiffer, Kodak, Lego and more.  Allison has boundless energy, vision, determination, and is inspiring to watch.  She is super talented forming partnerships with key individuals and companies to make her wishes come true. -Kelly King Anderson, Startup Princess Founder

Enjoy getting to know Allison!

Hometown: Orem, Utah

Current Residence: Spanish Fork, Utah

Education: Bachelors of Science, Behavioral Science/Psychology

Professional Background: Copy writer, odd essayist here and there. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for the past 10 years.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: a marine biologist, or a photographer for National Geographic. It was sevens.

What you are: a writer, editor, fashionista, mama

Brief Summary of your Startup: I’m the founder and editor of an online family lifestyle magazine, which basically means I get to stay home with my kids while I write. I focus a lot on travel, home and garden, crafts & recipes, and style. It’s so much fun it should be illegal.

Company Website? http://www.petitelefant.com (also check out her blogher mega-event  Social Luxe Lounge)

What inspired you? I’ve always wanted to write for a magazine, and this way I get to stay at home and do it in my pajamas. Oh, and I’m the boss.

How long have you been in business? Two years.

How did you fund it? It was free. Started out as just a simple blog, now it’s a business.

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? Nope.

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? Not technically, no, but I attend a lot of networking events including Startup Princess, and travel to blogging conferences where I meet a lot of other people who are successful at writing professionally.

Current Business Challenge? Having enough time in the day to follow all my ideas to fruition.

What are you doing about it? Sleeping less.

Favorite motivational quote: This too shall pass.

Family? Married to the love of my life, two kids, a boy and girl.

If so, how do you balance family and business? I think balance is a farce, I feel like I’m on a flying trapeze at all times.

Favorite book? A separate peace.

What do you do to relax? Take hot baths, go running, listen to great music, get together with girlfriends, read a book, watch a good movie.

What do you want to change most about your world? My world? I’d like to change the perception of stay-at-home moms. If people only knew!

What are you most proud of? Being a parent while managing a successful business; it’s no small task.

What advice would you like to offer other Startup Princesses? Have a very clear mental vision of what you’d like to accomplish with what you’re doing, and hold on tight when things get hard. Oh and get a good lawyer.

Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? Other women in business. Priceless advice.

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? Sapphires, they’re my birthstone.

Thanks Allison, you’re an inspiring Startup Princess!

Meet Abbey Fatica of Living My MoMent

Abbey Fatica always knew she wanted to be a mom. When her first child was born, she searched for a way to stay home, and along the way discovered a passion for helping mom entrepreneurs. With the economy struggling, she wondered how she could help mom entrepreneurs start, run and maintain successful businesses in the midst of it all. She founded Living My MoMent, a site that allows mom entrpreneurs to advertise and promote their businesses for free. In just four short months, Abbey already has over 200 mom-owned businesses advertising on her site and it continues to grow every week. Without further ado, we introduce you to Living My MoMent’s founder, Abbey Fatica.

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Current Residence (City, State): Columbus, Ohio

Education: I have a M.ED in School Counseling and a M.A in Psychology

Professional Background: I was in school for most of my life before becoming a Mommy and really just had internships and worked in restaurants. It wasn’t till I became a Mom that I started working for myself.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: I wanted to be a School Counselor but most importantly a MoM and once my kids are in school I might go back to working in the schools. We’ll see where life takes me.

What you are: I am a Mom, Wife, owner and creator of Living My MoMent, bartender, mom entrepreneur, and friend

Brief Summary of your Start Up: When I became a mom, I knew that I really wanted to be able to stay home with my kids as long as I could and be able to raise them. So after my daughter was born, I began my search for some way to make money at home and I wasn’t coming up with anything that quite piqued my interest.

I really wanted to start my own company making something but again I was at a loss for what to do. I had a lot of different ideas but nothing that came to fruition. Then in April of 2009, I saw Heather from Dooce.com on Oprah talking about how she makes a living writing a blog and I thought it was a great idea.

Now, I just had to come up with an idea that I was passionate about and knew that I would want to do for a long time. With the economy as bad as it has been, I wondered how small businesses were keeping up with the times. That’s when it occurred to me, Wouldn’t it be great to help other moms out that run small businesses?

Living My MoMent was created for mom-owned businesses. I would allow them to advertising their product or business on my website for FREE! This would help expose them to another potential market and hopefully it would grow their business.

Company Website? http://www.livingmymoment.com

What inspired you? I was inspired by other Moms who were running their businesses and still staying afloat even though the country is going through some rough times. Their passion and love for their product is what keeps me going everyday.

How long have you been in business? April 2009

How did you fund it? There weren’t many start up costs for this website.

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? I can’t really think of one person, but many of the mom businesses that I have worked with have given me great advice!

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? I belong to social networking groups such as Facebook, Twitter, Work it! Mom, Mom Entrepreneur, Mompreneur Café, Twitter Moms and Mommy Millionaire

Current Business Challenge? My current challenge is figuring out how to build my website and bring in more traffic to website through marketing in different venues. I am still very new at this and am learning something new everyday.

What are you doing about it? Through networking with other moms, I have learned many different sites that I can market at, do interviews through, and improve my SEOs. I love hearing what other people are doing to market their product to others

Favorite motivational quote: I don’t really have a motivational quote, but something that I have been living by throughout this whole process is: if you love what you do the money and financial gain will eventually come. Have a passion for your company and others will want to come and see what you are up to.

Family? My loving and supportive husband, John and I have been together for 10 years and married for 3 of those 10. We have a 18 month old spunky daughter named Luci and are expecting our 2nd in December. We also have a 5 year old neurotic Sheltie named Shelly.

If so, how do you balance family and business? My daughter is a great sleeper and still takes a 2.5-3 hour nap during the day, so 5 days a week I can work while she is napping. Sometimes, if I still have projects that I need to accomplish I can do then when she goes to bed. I make sure that Saturdays and Sundays are family days and resting days. I love what I do and I have learned from past jobs that you can’t focus completely on your business because then you will get burned out. Having a weekend off can refuel me for the upcoming week.

Favorite book? I am huge Harry Potter fan, but right now I’m into reading pregnancy books again!

What do you do to relax? I love watching reality tv, especially shows on the Food Network and HGTV. I also read to relax and play with my daughter.

What do you want to change most about your world?

I’m very happy with what is going on with my world at the moment. I would love to continue to get the word out about Living My MoMent so that it can grow into something big. I want to be able to help as many mom-owned businesses I can and it can all start with me.

What are you most proud of?

I am so proud that I am able to stay at home and be my own boss. I love that I don’t have to deal with the daily grind and can watch my daughter evolve in to such a great little person. Even though, I went to college and got two degrees, I always knew that being a mom and raising my children was my ultimate goal and now I’m able to do it.

What advice would you like to offer other Start Up Princesses?

Remember to figure out a way to balance your life. You don’t want your business or your family to struggle without you. Make sure you save some time for yourself and Love what you do!

Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)?

My new favorite resource is actually one of the mom businesses that I advertise for and that is The Work at Home Woman by Holly Hanna. She has given me great advice for starting up my own businesses and actually I would have never thought about doing interviews for sites if it weren’t for her suggestions.

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? Diamonds are definitely a girls best friend, but I would also use the birth stones of the months of each of my family members.

Would you be interested in being a Fairy Godmother and writing articles or speaking at Startup Princess events? Yes

What business subjects would you feel comfortable mentoring in? Advertising your small business, balancing life and family, and blogging

Mom Entrepreneur Success Strategies

A recent article we ran across at the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur featured suggestions from mom entrepreneurs on how they make it all work – clients, kids and everything in between. There are 107 tips in all, including:

‘Mom entrepreneurs who are busy juggling the priority of a family and the intrigue of growing a business will balance both better with clear boundaries. Read more

Sharifah Hardie’s Radio Interview of Startup Princess Founder Kelly King Anderson

Sharifah Hardie interviewed Kelly King Anderson, the Founder of Startup Princess on her Blog Talk radio show Ask Sharifah on June 29th. Enjoy listening to the one hour interview about how Startup Princess was started and what’s next on the horizon. Please note that half way through the show there was a technical difficulty, so there is a pause for a few minutes, but hang on because we resume our conversation.  Sharifah Hardie is a new Fairy Godmother for Startup Princess and we’re excited to have her! Follow Sharifah on Twitter @asksharifah

Startup Princess Featured in BusinessQ

The Summer BusinessQ magazine for Utah County features an article on Startup Princess, read it here! What a fun piece that recounts the first 2 years of our experience on the web and locally. Many thanks to Briana Stewart who wrote the article, Jeanette Bennett, editor and Kenneth Linge, talented photographer!!

Becoming Sincerely Happy for Someone Else

Have you ever competed for something you really wanted to win? Over the years I’ve competed for many things when there was a clear “winner” such as business plan competitions, elections, sports, media opportunities, Read more

Why Do Mom-Made Products Seem to Cost So Much?

If you are like me you are a bargain shopper. You love to find good deals and save money. But if you are like me you also prefer to support the little guy (or in my case “mom”) rather Read more

How to Manage Mom Envy

I admit it. I have mom envy–sometimes! I wish I could be more calm driving Read more

Why Did You Startup Your Business?

A lot of people ask me how and why we started this business. What were the events that led up to it? What was that moment like? Read more

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