When we dreamed up this group at the start of 2023, we were so excited for how it could change the experience of not just moms in the Madison area who own businesses, but the greater community’s ability to easily find and support mom-owned, local businesses. 

Which is why we are excited to announce a new offering to the Madison area to help check off your holiday gift list AND support the local businesses that allow our area to thrive. The 2023 Madison Mompreneur Holiday Shopping Guide is here to help you do just that!

This Holiday Shopping Guide is exactly what we have wished existed for years. It is so easy to just place a delivery or pickup order at the same big box store, hire the first service or experience that pops up in an online search, or rely on generic gift cards for gifts. We wanted it to be easier for ourselves and others to access a comprehensive directory of local businesses that truly need our support. 

We all have the same 24 hours in the day, but there are often very few of those hours that moms can devote to their businesses. Moms are building their businesses slow over time, in the small pockets between breakfast clean up and lunch prep, while we sit at soccer practice, and after bedtime when we have already worked a full day at another job. We don’t always get to go to the networking events to make connections and find potential clients. We know that our dream is worth the effort, but primary parenting responsibilities traditionally fall on us so we work to find the balance.

Investing in a business from the start can be a huge help, but as moms funding isn’t always accessible or a sound business decision. We can’t always hire additional staff or contract someone to help with small tasks. We can’t run lots of paid ads online or around town. We might not have all the pretty business cards and marketing materials.

As mom entrepreneurs, we deeply know the struggles that mothers face as business owners, but we also see the incredible value that working with a mom-owned business brings. No shady sales tactics, no run-around, no games. Our businesses often start out as passion projects, and we can continue that passion when we create products, form LLCs, and move into brick and mortar spaces. Moms are here to take care of the world, and they absolutely take the best care of their clients. 

Supporting a mom-owned business isn’t just a benefit to other moms. It is a benefit to us all, to our community as a whole. When our moms are supported and succeeding, we all do better. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats. 

We won’t make you wait any longer to dive into the 2023 Madison Mompreneur Holiday Shopping Guide. Once downloaded, we encourage you to save this guide somewhere accessible so that you can continue to use it throughout the year, not just the holidays! The next time you find yourself at your regular, convenient shopping destination or searching online for a specialty service, we hope you open this guide and choose to support your local mom-owned business instead! Happy shopping!

A Look into the Lives of Moms who homeschool and run a business

Madison, Alabama is home to a vibrant homeschooling community, and within that community, there are mothers who have successfully combined their entrepreneurial endeavors with educating their children. In this blog post, we will delve into the experiences and insights of local homeschooling moms, exploring how they navigate the challenges of homeschooling while running their businesses.

The Homeschooling Journey

Homeschooling requires careful planning and consideration of various factors. Jennifer Wolverton, the founder of Log Cabin Schoolhouse LLC, shares her experience of creating classes around her children’s interests when she first started with the business, but now she’s developing new classes as her children get older to cater to her interests, such as artificial intelligence. This personalized approach to education allows for both academic growth and entrepreneurial exploration.

Jenni McCarthy, who has over 10 years of homeschooling experience, has found ways to involve her children in her businesses, Five Oaks Farm and Jenni M Photography, allowing them to learn and grow alongside her. Jenni’s commitment to continuous learning and her “figure it out” approach, developed through her homeschooling background, have been vital in her entrepreneurial journey. Her dedication to her family, businesses, and personal growth is truly admirable.

Amanda Newman, owner of Newman Massage and Wellness LLC, shares that her homeschooling journey has fueled her desire to create a space within her business that accommodates busy moms, allowing them to find a balance between motherhood and their careers. Her motivation to start her business stemmed from a desire to contribute to her household financially, pursue her passion for massage therapy, and empower her girls to believe in their ability to achieve it all.

Homeschool Moms Share Their Top 3 Tips for Balancing Business and Homeschooling

Finding a balance between homeschooling and running a business is undoubtedly challenging, but these moms have discovered strategies that work for them. By incorporating lists, leveraging technology, and embracing compromise, they have successfully pursued their entrepreneurial dreams while providing quality education for their children;

1. Lists: Making lists and working off of them allows moms to efficiently manage their tasks. Even when away from their workstations, having access to everything through their phones enables them to take care of small tasks on the go, ensuring that nothing gets overlooked.
2. Compromise: Balancing multiple businesses, homeschooling, and family life requires compromise. Moms understand that they can’t have a perfectly clean house while pursuing their goals. By prioritizing and letting go of certain tasks, they create more time to focus on what truly matters.
3. Leveraging Technology: Embracing technology has been a game-changer for homeschooling moms. With a reliable homeschool planner, a supportive spouse, and a self-sufficient website and course design, moms have been able to navigate the challenges of managing their businesses while also advocating for children and education. Taking advantage of “travel tech,” they can even teach virtual classes while on the go, making learning a unique and exciting experience for their students.

According to Jenni McCarthy, keeping up with multiple responsibilities would be impossible without her phone to help her remember everything.

Jennifer Wolverton, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of her planner, which she carries with her everywhere and relies on to stay organized throughout the day.

Amanda attributes her ability to keep up with both her business and homeschooling to effective time management, the energizing power of coffee, and the involvement of her whole family.

Are you a Homeschool mom trying to start a business?

Our local entrepreneurial homeschool moms have some words of advice:

Jennifer Wolverton says: “One day at a time. Homeschooling is a one- or two-decade adventure and so is a homeschool business. It actually doesn’t have to be a get rich fast scheme. It can be a slow simmer. It’s such a wonderful labor of love that no matter what comes of it, as long as the family is enjoying its fruits, it’s worth all the time spent.”

Jenni McCarthy offers encouragement: “You can absolutely do it, although choosing a curriculum format that allows for you to not have to teach all of the information is super helpful. I am here to make sure the work gets done, and available for any questions or sticking spots if needed. It allows me to work on my work while the kids are working on theirs.”

Amanda Newman provides some inspiration; “I would say make sure you can align your time and priorities and go for it. You are capable of so much more than you think. The beauty of homeschooling is how flexible it is. It’s truly ok to do math while cooking dinner, recite verbs in the car, and all the things in between. It’s a lot of hard work but very rewarding.”

Get inspired by How Jennifer Wolverton started her business

”I had been teaching my kids’ friends algebra and then I wrote an algebra curriculum. Then when the pandemic hit and we moved to Alabama from Pennsylvania I incorporated, and we went online like everyone else at the time. All of a sudden, I had students in every time zone. The next summer I had an Australian cohort in my Algebra Club! It truly was like dominoes. I didn’t plan it. It just happened.”

Finding Support and Resources for Homeschooling in Alabama

Homeschooling moms often face challenges when seeking entrepreneurial support specifically tailored to homeschooling. However, determined to find the help they need, some moms have taken matters into their own hands. For instance, Jenni McCarthy established the Rocket City Homeschooling info Facebook Group, a valuable platform where moms can ask questions, seek support, and discover educational resources in the North Alabama area.

Jennifer Wolverton found support from the Homeschool Trade Association, which played a crucial role in expanding her network and overcoming various business challenges. Additionally, the FPEA, the Florida homeschool convention, was highlighted as an excellent resource for networking with other entrepreneurial homeschooling moms. Jennifer Wolverton expresses her hope that Alabama will host its own homeschool convention in the future, as her experience in three different states leads her to believe it is the best state for homeschooling.

Overcoming Challenges and Celebrating Milestones

Starting a business as a homeschooling mom comes with its own set of challenges. From maintaining a steady income to accommodating different schedules, these moms have encountered obstacles along the way.

Jenni McCarty reports that “The other piece that I feel like I miss out on is focused time. I don’t get a block of time to “go to work” and focus on work, and then come home and “focus on the kids” because I have been gone all day. My day, morning till night, is a lot of multitasking. I have to be really intentional about putting work messages away, and being present.”

Jenni continues “you can easily write a blog post in the amount of time it takes to match all of the socks in the laundry. The kids may have clean mismatched socks on, but the blog post will be there forever. lol. You have to find the areas you can let go of that won’t make you crazy, but will give you a bit more time to move the needle towards your goals.”

Homeschooling has influenced their entrepreneurial journey and helped shape their business in many ways. Jennifer Wolverton reports “ I find that once I found homeschooling was a part of my life, that was the first time I realized what “freedom” truly was. I don’t know if I ever would’ve started my own business if it weren’t for being a homeschool mom first. It transformed how I looked at the world I lived in. I own my day and my kids’ lives in a way I didn’t before we homeschooled. I didn’t even question the idea that you should go to school, then to college, then to work for someone else. But now I love that I’m so independent and I decide what I do each day and who I get to help. Having an LLC is an amazing thing.” and Jennifer adds “I think growing up as a homeschooler, and then also homeschooling my own kids, has forced the “figure it out” approach to everything.”

Every day holds a challenge honestly. My biggest one is setting boundaries with my time. Devoting a certain amount to my family and school and then a certain amount to the business. Amanda Newman

Nurturing Self-Care and Personal Growth

While juggling homeschooling and running a business, they have learned to carve out time for themselves. Whether it’s through diligent time management, embracing learning opportunities, or seeking moments of relaxation, these moms try and make it all work. Jennifer reports “Every morning I get up and go through the same routine and that helps.”

Amanda Newman “I’m not always the best at this but I just try to remember that I can’t care for others if I’m not taken care of. Sometimes it’s going without the extra hour of sleep so I can workout, or skipping out on a movie to make sure I get my devotion in. It’s just finding little ways to sneak it in through the day.”

Learn more about some of our local homeschooling entrepreneurial moms

You can learn more about Jennifer Wolverton on the Log Cabin Schoolhouse website. I also keep a page on FB for my advocacy work “Alabama School Choice”. I also work with the “K12 Policy Alliance and Jamie Buckland” in West Virginia – working towards education freedom.

You can visit Jenni McCarty, Five Oaks Farm website (website: Five Oaks Farm) to learn more, or book her photography sessions at, Jenni M Photography (website: Jenni M Photography). Additionally, she is involved in Five Oaks Restorations, a home renovation business that she started in 2021.

Amanda Newman, the owner of Newman Massage and Wellness LLC can be found on Facebook. Inspired by her own homeschooling journey, Amanda empowers her girls to believe in their ability to achieve both personal and professional success.

Are you a homeschooling mom in Madison with dreams of running your own business? The stories and insights shared by these remarkable moms serve as inspiration and guidance. Remember, with determination, adaptability, and a supportive community, you can successfully navigate the beautiful journey of homeschooling while running a business.

Homeschooling Mompreneur Support

For homeschooling moms in the Madison area, Madison Mompreneur offers an opportunity to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs. While attending coworking sessions may not always be feasible, the networking and marketing efforts of Madison Mompreneur can still benefit these moms. Madison Mompreneur aims to create a supportive community for homeschooling mom entrepreneurs.

If you want to learn more about these extraordinary homeschooling mom entrepreneurs or join Madison Mompreneur, visit our website here.

How do you balance the demands of solo entrepreneurship and motherhood? We asked some of our members at Madison Mompreneur for their tips working at home with kids during summer break!

It’s the age old question. How do I mom like I have no business and run a business like I’m not a mom? The answer is you don’t. But until cloning is invented, we still need to figure out how to balance the demands of solo entrepreneurship and motherhood. And the perennial challenge only increases in the summer months.

Maybe your kids are at a full-time day camp or a summer activity for a couple hours each day/week, or maybe you are the Head Counselor at Camp Home. However your summer looks, it is likely different from the rhythm of the school year. Which means you are faced with figuring out how to keep your business running, your income coming in, the kids entertained, and the house not in complete shambles. We asked a few of our members what their biggest challenges are when it comes to working at home with kids?

“The most difficult thing is not having focused time,” says Heather White of Heather Leigh Art. “It can be a lot of starting and stopping and then there’s mom guilt, of course.”

Carolyn Kimbro, Owner of Peachtree Interior Design echoed this sentiment in regards to splitting time between entrepreneurial responsibilities and caretaking. “[The most difficult thing is] dividing my attention. Everyone seems to need something the minute I hop on a phone call or say I need to focus.”

Divided attention due to frequent interactions and the pull to spend time doing all the summer activities topped the list of biggest challenges during the summers at home with kids AND a business. Luckily, our members also have a few tricks up their sleeve for how to fit in work around childcare.

Shannon Carothers, a Habits Coach and Host of The Successful Mama Podcast utilized special toys to distract her boys when they were toddlers. 

“I had a bin full of special things that they could do by themselves. Because they weren’t the same toys they played with daily, it held their attention just long enough for me to complete a task or two.”

As children grow into older elementary school, they can begin to understand the demands of work and can even be a part of how you plan your day. Rebecca Guntharp, owner of FIT4MOM Rocket City utilizes a whiteboard and daily meetings at the start of the day with her kids.

“[Together] we talk through the day, add in activities that they can do independently while I’m working and activities we can do together in our free time. This really helps set the expectations for the day and gives them a sense of ownership over our schedule.”

If you are sharing your home with pre-teens and teenagers sometimes it’s just about setting boundaries. 

“I schedule all of my phone calls for the same time of day every day. The kids know if my door is closed and locked, and it is during that time, I’m on a call,” says Tracy Abney, owner of Rocket City Doulas.

Sometimes you just need to lean on your village so you can get things done. Lauren Hooper of The Minimalist Wallet (and Co-Founder of Madison Mompreneur) remarks, “I may be a solo entrepreneur, but I’m a co-parent so I make it clear with my husband that a work-from-home day is not a clean/cook/entertain the kids-at home day; I will need all the reinforcements when he gets home from work.”

Ultimately, we must all make some tough decisions about what we can and cannot do during the summer. Expectations change along with our circumstances. We get to test our flexibility, ingenuity, patience, and perseverance as moms and business owners. Being clear about what you will prioritize is really the key to not feeling like you are failing in all areas. 

Juliana Piper of PiperMâché (and Co-Founder of Madison Mompreneur) makes a drastic shift once school lets out for summer. “I perform at a bare minimum in my business during the Summer, as my goal all along was to develop a business that allowed me to spend a carefree summer with my kids.”

While that’s not the case for everyone, a life that is designed for those ebbs and flows means your business isn’t completely sidelined during school breaks. It’s business as usual at Rocket City Doulas for Tracy Abney, “[however] personal/home things definitely lose some priority…With 4 kids home more often, we have more mess and eat more food…It’s ok if the laundry waits a bit longer because I’m taking my kids to swim.”

Are you looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift? Look no further than Madison’s local Mompreneur businesses! These incredible women-owned businesses offer unique and thoughtful gifts that any mom would love.

Madison is home to several women-owned businesses that offer a wide range of products, from customized websites to hand-poured candles.

Mother’s Day is a special occasion to celebrate the love and care that moms give to their families. It is also a time to show appreciation for all that they do and to make them feel special. Here are some of our top picks for Mother’s Day gifts from a diverse range of businesses run by talented and dedicated moms.

• PiperMache: This local web design studio specializes in creating beautiful and functional websites for small businesses. Their team of skilled designers and developers can help you create a website that showcases your business and reaches your target audience. Visit them at: https://pipermache.com/template-shop
• RocketCity Doulas: This Doula services agency provides support and care to expectant and new mothers throughout their pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum period. Their team of experienced and compassionate doulas will work with you to create a personalized birth plan and provide emotional and practical support every step of the way. Visit them at: www.rocketcitydoulas.com/services
• The Keen Hart: This hand-poured candle business creates unique and beautiful candles that are perfect for any occasion. Their candles are made with natural ingredients and come in a variety of scents and sizes. They also offer custom candle-making workshops for those who want to learn how to make their own candles. Visit them at: www.thekeenhart.com
• Fit4Mom Rocket City: This fitness program is designed specifically for moms who want to stay active and healthy while also taking care of their children. Their classes include stroller-based workouts, bodyweight exercises, and yoga, and are perfect for moms of all fitness levels. Visit them at: https://rocketcity.fit4mom.com
• The Minimalist Wallet: The Minimalist Wallet provides 1:1 coaching to help individuals live a more intentional, ethical, and sustainable life by aligning their money with their values. They will work with you to create a customized plan that addresses your specific financial goals and challenges. Visit them at theminimalistwallet.com

No matter which business you choose, you’ll be supporting a local mompreneur and giving your mom a gift she’ll cherish. So go ahead and make this Mother’s Day extra special by shopping local and supporting women-owned businesses in Madison. Happy Mother’s Day!

Have you ever sat down at your desk, the dining table, or the sofa to answer emails, update a website, or work on an advertisement for your business, and then, all of sudden, you are cleaning out your personal inbox, placing a grocery order for pick up, or (gasp!) scrolling Instagram?

You are not alone. Being a solo entrepreneur with a home-based business and a mom who serves as Chief Operating Officer (or the entire C-suite) of her household means that you are constantly being pulled in multiple directions. And working from home can sometimes lead us to use that flexibility to accomplish personal and household-related tasks during the quiet hours when the kids are at school. And while there is nothing inherently wrong with throwing a load of laundry in the washer before you sit down to work, melding the physical realms of the personal and professional means that, if you aren’t incredibly disciplined, the personal tasks will overtake the professional tasks. The next thing you know, it’s 3pm, the kids are running up the driveway from the bus, and you are no closer to having completed the meaningful work that keeps your bills paid and your purpose fulfilled.

We’ve all been there. Enter co-working. If you have never heard of co-working, it is described as “the use of an office or other working environment by people who are self-employed or working for different employers, typically so as to share equipment, ideas, and knowledge.”

A typical coworking environment could be a shared office space (raise your hand if you watched the WeWork movie on Apple TV+), a coffee shop, or a virtual space like Zoom or WebEx. Individuals will meet to work alongside each other, sometimes in complete silence, in lively conversation, or somewhere in between. The best co-working settings meet the specific needs of the overall group by providing support, accountability, and/or counsel. 

Co-working could be the key to a successful business as a mom because the support, accountability, and counsel of your fellow mom entrepreneurs helps fill the gaps you can not meet on your own. 

Have a packed schedule and are trying to do everything at once? Instead of multitasking through your day, you get to focus on one single task at a time during weekly meetings which allows for more focused work completed quicker and better than if you were trying to do it all at once.

Get distracted easily by all the household management tasks while at home? A coffee shop takes you out of that distraction environment and allows you to focus solely on your work.

Want to create a routine? Weekly meetings are scheduled months in advance allowing you to get into the habit of working during specific days & times each week.

Need accountability to show up in your business? Having fellow mom + business owners who look forward to seeing you at each meeting provides motivation to show up when we can’t do it just for ourselves.

If you see yourself in these questions, know that you are not alone. There is a whole group of business-minded mothers experiencing the same thing, ready to help support you and being your community. 

If Madison Mompreneur sounds like what is missing from your experience as an aspiring or current business owner, click the JOIN button in the navigation to apply to join our co-working group. Because we’re strong together and together is more productive and fun!

Welcome to Madison Mompreneur, your one-stop shop for co-working, networking, and supporting matriarchal business owners in Madison, Alabama. We are so excited that you are here in support of the amazing mom entrepreneurs that call Madison, the fastest growing city in Alabama (as of April 2023) home. Whether you come from a long line of Alabamians or just re-located to the area, you know this is a stellar place to live and an even better place to raise a family and start a business. With the #1 Public School District in the state and a top-notch Chamber of Commerce, Madison has a strong foundation for your personal and professional life.

With that in mind, our goal at Madison Mompreneur is to build upon that support by giving moms the space and accountability to grow their businesses alongside other women facing the same struggles.

Madison Mompreneur (MM) was born when Juliana Piper, a web designer for solo entrepreneurs, felt a longing in her heart to have a community that could share a working space, experiences, and support. At one very long school chess tournament, Juliana shared with fellow mom and entrepreneur, Lauren Hooper, her dream – Madison Mompreneur was born.

Lauren, an ethical & sustainable finance coach, brought the missing piece to make Juliana’s idea a reality. Together, they organize and host co-working sessions for moms in Madison, Alabama who own businesses or are working on starting new businesses, providing the group accountability and quiet time needed to flourish along with their fellow mom entrepreneurs.

If Madison Mompreneur sounds like what is missing from your experience as an aspiring or current business owner, click the JOIN button in the navigation to apply to join our co-working group. Because we’re strong together and together is more productive and fun!