This maven helps moms realize their entrepreneurial potential

Many of us (yes, I'm talking about me) wouldn't be where we are in our business without the help of fellow mompreneurs. One woman "helping moms get down to business" is Jill Salzman, a.k.a. The Momtrepreneur Maven.

Jill's first startup company was a lemonade stand at age six. Since then she's started various media companies including two magazines and music media company Paperwork Media. That was all before Jill's "biggest professional achievement to date: giving birth to a baby girl." Not surprisingly it wasn't long (only two months) before she started her next business, The Bumble Brand. That in turn led to the creation of other successful ventures. During this time of motherhood and mompreneurship Jill discovered many moms who had fabulous ideas of their own but didn't have the resources (time, help, experience) to launch their businesses.

That is when Jill became The Momtrepreneur Maven, a mom business owner with a mission of "helping other Mommies realize their full potential." Her blog features posts about successful mompreneur-owned businesses and all kinds of wonderful business-related advice. But it's not all work and no play; she also features recipes, craft ideas and a variety of less-business-more-mom posts.

But Jill doesn't just write about what you can do to get your business off the ground. She also wants to help! She offers one-on-one consulting, publicity and promotional services, product research, help with branding and social media and even a "Momtrepreneur Motivation Pacakge," which includes "legal logistics, business basics, web appearance, blogging, graphic design, photography and other aspects that every business needs." Now THAT is the mother of all mompreneur consulting services!

Some of The Momtrepreneur Maven is still a work in progress, but overall it's a very impressive site considering it's only been up and running since December 2008. Of course, having learned more about Jill, I'm not surprised. I can't wait to see what this maven does in the mompreneur world! --Emily

More boutiques & more press--we're feelin' the love!

Even though Valentine's Day has come and gone (and so has the chocolate), we are still feeling the love here at georgie tees. We've added a few new online boutiques to our list of locations and had some great press. We kind of think all this love makes for a great that's hot! thursday post so check out the new boutiques and latest press coverage below. And if you don't think it's a great that's hot! thursday post, we have our fingers are in our ears while loudly saying "la la la la la la la" (i.e., we're not listening).

"Fresh" boutiques

"Hot" press

"Can you imagine being pregnant when maternity clothes consisted of bows, giant polka dots and oh....the mumu dress?! GAH! Thankfully, maternity clothes have come a long way since then, and georgie tees makes maternity clothing hip with their cheeky t-shirts."


"georgie tees specializes in 'freshly baked style for bellies and babies,' which translates to super cute maternity and infant t-shirts, and is owned by friends Emily & LeShan."


"Tired of the same uninteresting tee shirts? Are your maternity clothes giving you the blues? Add some humor to your wardrobe and your baby’s too with numerous entertaining fashion and selection from georgie tees. ..."


EA: "What has been the greatest success you’ve had so far in your business?"
Emily: "For us it is when we hear complete strangers comment on our tees–or complete strangers wearing our tees!"

To view our entire list of locations you can visit our locations page on our website. For past press coverage or to view our press kit (it still needs a little updating so give us a few days), visit our press page. Thanks for letting us toot our own horn once again. We promise not to do it too often! --Emily

mom blogs can make money? really?!?

According to"Mom Blogs and Making Money," a recent post by Trisha from MomDot, yes they can, which is great news for a lot of blogging moms. On one hand you have the moms who've been blogging for a while, still waiting for their first AdSense payment. On the other you have moms toying with the idea of starting a blog, wondering if it could really pay for their child's college tuition. (By the way, unless you're super famous that probably won't happen.)

But blogger beware. Starting or even continuing to blog with the sole purpose of making money is quite possibly the biggest mistake you can make:

If you totally encompass your blog with making money, when your adsense rolls in to be about 1 penny a month, you’re going to cry yourself to sleep at night. That leads to poor morale and you will quit before you started. Right? Right.

The article goes on to talk about three very important steps a mom blogger must take in order to achieve achieve a measure of financial success with her blog:

1. Have a goal
2. Build good content, build a following and market your blog
3. Market yourself, not your blog

The first step sounds simple, but it's not as simple as it looks. What really is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish with your blog? And steps two and three require a lot of work on your part. Fortunately Trisha goes into detail about the different ways you can market your blog and get the word out about you and your content. "Mom Blogs and Making Money" is a must-read for all bloggers regardless if you have offspring or not. I'd even suggest reading through it two or three times. I've read through it once and still have much to learn from Trisha's post.

"Mom Blogs and Making Money" is a wonderful guide even if you've been blogging for years. It's also a great action plan and source of hope for those of us still wondering if our writing will ever do more than take up space on a page! --Emily

Monkey-Toes on Oprah...and your little one's toes!

I love it when a mom-owned business receives good press and in the case of Monkey-Toes, it's really, really, really awesome press. (All mom-owned businesses should be so lucky!)

A while back Oprah interviewed Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in Telluride. This was actually one of the few episodes of Oprah I saw this year and somehow I missed the fact that in the first part of the interview, Oprah noticed Monkey-Toes' Little Lady Mary Janes in the mudroom of Tom and Katie's home. She even picked them up and commented about how cute they were. Now THAT is great press!

And if the first time around wasn't sweet enough, the interview is airing again so those of us who missed Suri's sweet little ladybug Monkey-Toes can keep our eyes peeled for Oprah's ooohs and aaahs this time around. Want to catch Oprah's interview with Tom and Katie? Click here for local listings.

Jenny Ford, the mom behind Monkey-Toes, had a little help from another mompreneur, Katja Presnal from Ladybug Landings. Katja had put together a basket full of unique gift items for the Cruise/Holmes family and Monkey-Toes' Little Lady ladybug shoes appeared on Oprah a few months later. Since then her shoes have been seen on other celebrity children including Tori Spelling’s son Liam. As a side note, you really should subscribe to Katja's blog, Ladybug Landings. She has so much info on PR and marketing, your head will spin...but in a good way!

I love this post on Classy Mommy about Monkey-Toes on Oprah. It features a great Q&A with Katja about the experience.

To celebrate a second round of great press Monkey-Toes is offering our readers $5 off so you can get your own pair of Monkey-Toes just in time for the holidays. Simply use code "OSURI08" (without the quotes) when checking out at Monkey-Toes.com.

Now all LeShan and I need to do besides watch Oprah tomorrow is figure out how to get someone like Minnie Driver's son Henry to wear our "i wasn't born yesterday shirt" while his mom is interviewed by Oprah...and his shirt is in full view! --Emily

PitchEngine: social media releases at their best

When I first learned of PitchEngine--again, another great find via Twitter--I knew it was a cool PR concept but I didn't fully understand it. I had a couple questions. One, what exactly is social media; and two, what makes PitchEngine so nifty? Today's mompreneur monday will hopefully answer those questions and introduce you to the PitchEngine phenomenon.

Wikipedia defines social media as "primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information. ... The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction ... depends on the varied perspectives and 'building' of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences." The term "social media" is exactly what it says--media shared via social groups and networks. (Wikipedia actually has quite an in-depth page on social media and it's worth a few minutes of your time to learn more about the ins and outs of this fairly new type of media.) Now for question two... why all the hype about PitchEngine?

PitchEngine is an online tool that helps PR professionals, brands and agencies to share digital, social media releases with media contacts for free. Their PitchEngine SMR (social media release) eliminates the need for those often time-consuming (often left out) extras like email attachments, Word docs, and image CDs. And because PitchEngine believes "the conversation is as important as the message," they're committed to connecting PR and media in innovative ways.

The result? The social media world is abuzz with the PitchEngine phenomenon. And how could it not be? PitchEngine has made it super simple to create and share your company's press releases with your media contacts...for FREE! There are only three steps to the process:

1. Create: Create your account, upload logos, boilerplates and contact info.
2. Build: Build a media release by adding images, video and networking links.
3. Share: Share your SMR with your media contacts for free!

Want to see how it all works? PitchEngine has a great video tutorial to help you get SMR feet wet--and I promise you're going to want to get them wet. If you want to get the word out about new products, new distributors or any other newsworthy item, PitchEngine has offered you a fantastic--and affordable--way to do it.

Social media isn't going away any time soon and it's sure to give traditional media a run for its money. When it does you can bet PitchEngine will be keeping pace. --Emily