Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Entrepreneurship North America Montreal "Patty" 12/07/08 (in progress)
Family context: "Patty" is a 47-year-old mother of two teenagers, Jack (18) and Jill (15). Patty's husband, Pierre, works as a project manager in the aviation industry. The family lives in a split-level house in a suburb of Montreal. Jill, who is profoundly deaf and has a cochlear implant, attends the local high school. Jack is in junior college.
Patty has arranged her work life around her children's schedules. She drives them around as needed, and is at home when they get home from school. Although she does have outside projets, June often works out of her home office. This sunlight-filled, converted bedroom has clean lines and a minimalist feel. She explained that she bought a glass desk because she thought it would keep her from piling things up on it. She spends most of time using her desktop PC. She does not have a laptop or Wifi.
Brief summary of establishing questions for domain:
Patty likes to keep busy with a variety of endeavours; she refers to herself as a solo "explorer" rather than entrepreneur. She draws on her training as a social worker for a number of her current projects. She has a life coaching practice with a few private clients. Although she has the option of subletting traditional office space from
colleagues, she prefers to meet in her clients' homes, or consults with
them by phone.
Patty's earlier emphasis had been on providing consulting services to solopreneurs, but she has shifted her services as necessary to meet demand. She has changed her website (www.ignitus.ca) as needed to target her message, but continues to offer products for solopreneurs (such as an e-book she made called "55 Soaring Strategies to Make Your Solo Business Fly").
Patty's has also tried to market employee development workshops to employers, but has met with limited success. She would like to do more group coaching, using teleconferences and eventually webinars, but right now there is not enough demand.
Patty gets out of her house a couple of times a week to run
lunchtime workshops for middle-school-aged kids at a local private
school on topics like "how to get along." She is also asked on occasion to facilitate a community group meeting.
Patty spends most of her time on her computer, writing, preparing presentations, etc. She is also online a lot, researching opportunities and
content related to the website she hopes to launch--a portal for Canadian late-edge or tail-end women boomers. She thinks the site will probably offer information and communities around health, travel, and relationships. She believes that over the long term, this project will be a solid source of passive income.
Patty sees herself moving away from making money as a "helper" (relying on her social work skills) to generating income via business opportunities like the portal or real estate investments. She belongs to a Wealth Building Club and looks for opportunities to learn more in this area.
General insights:
A part-time, flexible work schedule--especially one that is spent primarily working on the home computer--allows mompreneurs to be available for their children. By creating a work life that leaves her constantly accessible to her kids, a mother like Patty may even given them the impression that mom doesn't work.
Technology that some may perceive as near ubiquitous--wifi or smartphones, for example--has not yet been adopted by others because they do not have a need for it in their daily lives.
Online platforms that facilitate in-person networking opportunities--such as MeetUp.com--can be valuable tools for entrepreneurs, but it is the nature and quality of the face-to-face encounters that really make the difference. Patty joined a business networking group for women called MIB Connections (the acronym originally stood for "Moms in Business" but the founder changed it to "Motivate Inspire Believe"). Patty initially thought it would provide her with new learning opportunities, but she found that this "tupperware group" was "too self-serving."