Parent Time

The 2008 SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winners

Often the toils of motherhood go unrecognized…but not here. For the second year, SavvyMom has awarded thousands of dollars in cash, prizes and business-boosting services to help one grand prize winner and four regional winners take their mom-powered businesses to the next level. (For full details, go to momentrepreneuraward.ca.) As the contest’s media sponsor, Today’s Parent is proud to introduce this year’s deserving recipients:

Grand Prize Winner
Martha Scully, mom to nine-year-old Sophie and six-year-old Charlotte

Former life Worked as an infant therapist, providing parenting support to families with special needs.

Business CanadianNanny.ca, CanadianSitter.ca and CanadianAdultCare.ca, online portals that help families find care for their loved ones. The sites make money by charging users monthly membership fees. Scully also operates ChildcareAdvantage.ca, a job site for early childhood educators.

Why she chose mom entrepreneurship While on maternity leave with her second daughter, Scully began looking for child care, but couldn’t find an affordable and reliable resource. “I contacted nanny and babysitting agencies, but they were expensive and I didn’t feel important with them,” she recalls. Inspired by dating websites such as match.com, and job sites such as workopolis.com, she came up with the idea to match caregivers with families.

Hardest thing about being her own boss “The work never goes away in your mind,” she says. “When I was an employee, I could put it away — as I drove home from work, it was gone.”

Biggest challenge Balancing work and family. “It’s a bit of an art,” says Scully. To ensure she has enough time for both the business and her children, she hired qualified staff as soon as she could afford it.

She knew her business was going to make it when... “We did some calculations and realized that 60 percent of our new customers were coming in via referrals. That means our customers are satisfied.”

Best advice for wannabe mom entrepreneurs “You’re investing in something that will take you and finances away from your family. So make sure, through whatever means possible, that the product or service is going to fly.”

Regional winners

Annemarie Tempelman-Kluit
mom of two
yoyomama, Vancouver
yoyomama.ca

Sundi Hoffman
mom of two
Bugalug Inc., Calgary
bugalugbaby.com

Laura Berg
mom of one
My Smart Hands, Toronto
mysmarthands.ca

April MacKinnon
mom of two
Nurtured Products for Parenting Inc.,
Dartmouth, NS
nurtured.ca

Originally published in Today's Parent, January 2009