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

Meet Holly Reisem Hanna of The Work At Home Woman

We are pleased to introduce you to Holly Reisem Hanna, founder of The Work At Home Woman. Holly has a passion for helping women who want to work at home, and that comes through not only in this interview, but especially on her website. She provides great content that can help not only women who want to start their own business, but also women looking for companies and ways to work from home. She also features women who share their success stories in working from home, providing inspiration to those just starting out. Her interview is a great read, as she describes how she got the idea for The Work At Home Woman and the support she received from other women along the way.

Hometown: St. Paul, Minnesota

Current Residence (City, State): Austin, Texas

Education: Associate Degree in Nursing (RN) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Professional Background: I have worked in various nursing roles from a pediatric floor nurse to a RN clinical research coordinator. When my daughter was born in 2007 I decided to quit my full-time job become a full-time stay at home mom. During this time I started working part-time from home as a joint venture and social network liaison for a small publishing company that a friend worked for. I became fascinated with the work at home realm and decided to create The Work at Home Woman.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: Nurse, Teacher & Airline Attendant.

What you are: Nurse, Entrepreneur, Social Network Liaison and Work at Home Mom.

Brief Summary of your Start Up: After 16 months of research and writing content I was able to launch The Work at Home Woman, an online business resource for women and mothers who wish to work from home or become self-employed.

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

What inspired you? My daughter was my inspiration.

How long have you been in business? 3 months

How did you fund it? I saved money from my part time job as a social network liaison.

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? There are so many great women that have helped me along the way. From friends to women in my business group, to women that I have reached out to and they’ve been more than willing to provide advice and recommendations.

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? Yes, I belong to the Business + Balance Austin group for entrepreneurial moms and I can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Current Business Challenge? Continuing to grow the number of readers that I have and balancing my work and family responsibilities.

What are you doing about it? I do a little bit of marketing everyday so that it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. I also create a daily schedule to help me balance all of my daily activities.

Favorite motivational quote: The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams – Eleanor Roosevelt.

Family? Yes, I have a terrific husband, an adorable daughter and a feisty cat.

If so, how do you balance family and business? I work in the mornings before my daughter wakes up then again in the afternoon while she is napping. Occasionally I have to work at night or on the weekends, but my husband is able to watch our two year old.

Favorite book? For business books, I like the Chic Entrepreneur by Elizabeth Gordon, as well as Tory Johnson’s, Will Work from Home. My favorite fun read is the Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding.

What do you do to relax? I love to travel, read and spend time on the lake.

What do you want to change most about your world? I’m pretty happy at where I’m at. Of course I want The Work at Home Woman to grow into something bigger, but that will take time and for right now I’m just enjoying the journey and the people I meet along the way.

What are you most proud of? I had always dreamed of being my own boss, but I was afraid to take the plunge. So I am most proud of the fact that I took the plunge and I am now following my dreams. I feel very fortunate to have a very supportive husband.

What advice would you like to offer other Start Up Princesses? Take your time and do your research. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other entrepreneurs for their advice and support, most of them are more than willing to help you out.

Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? I currently use site analytics from my website’s hosting company, and this is a fantastic tool that let’s you know where your marketing efforts are paying off.

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? Diamonds.

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?
Working at Home, Social Networking and Marketing.