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Member Spotlight: Juliana Piper of PiperMache Webdesign
Welcome to the first post in our new Member Spotlight series! This series will help you get to know the members of Madison Mompreneur as we ask them questions about their personal and professional life as moms who own businesses in Madison, Alabama. We are kicking off this series with the spotlight on Co-Founder Juliana Piper, Owner of PiperMache. Enjoy!
- What’s your Name
Juliana Piper - What’s your Business Name
Well, grab a chair, I have a few. Webdesign is my main business over at PiperMache Webdesign. I also have a little Digital Shop where I create Printable cards for teachers called Notes on PiperMache (I’m rebranding as I called that business Pipermache Digital Art previously, so it could be either name depending on when you reading this). Lastly, as you probably already know, I am the co-founder of Madison Mompreneur. - How does your business help people?
I help people have a better digital life. Either by creating cards that parents can print at midnight before a major event at school (you know you’ve been there, I certainly have), or by developing visual experience through websites to increase my clients business growth. - How long have you lived in Madison?
Since 2012 - What inspired you to start your business?
Notes was born out of necessity lol.
I started PiperMache just before I turned 40. I had been newly diagnosed (officially) with ADHD and decided to follow my brain’s gift and do what I was passionate about. In 6th grade I fell in love with creating Letter Engineering Drawing. While everyone else thought that was the most boring assignment in middle school, I was having dopamine sparkles and keep doing it on my own just for fun. Unfortunately at the time, I had no idea how one could make a living with a passion for drawing letters. - What sets your business apart from others in the industry?
Besides the fact that I am a business nerd, and have experience working with a variety of industries and business sizes, from Fortune500 Companies Oil Conglomerates to small Homemade jewelry’s business. I am highly empathetic which gives me an advantage to having a keen eye for client’s experiences. - What do you consider to be your biggest success so far?
Having the courage to explore what my biggest gifts are and use that to help others. - How does your business contribute to the local community?
I love helping local businesses grow digitally, specially women owned business. - How do you see your business evolving in the next 5-10 years?
I am currently expanding my webdesign services to e-commerce websites, and I hope to expand to creating website in multiple platforms. - Who are your typical customers, and how do they find you?
My customers are small business owners or managers, and I meet them online or I am refereed to them. - What do you enjoy most about running your business?
I love exploring more efficient ways of doing things, I am often trying new platforms to automate things. That is good and bad, but I guess with my line of work it helps me to know multiple platforms that can help my clients be more efficient online. - How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends and changes?
I’m almost always enrolled in one or two different courses or certifications. - What advice would you give to someone interested in starting a business in your industry?
Just go for it, there are a lot of courses out there that can teach you even if you are not academically trained. We all have something special to offer, and if designing is a passion of yours, you can only go wrong by not trying it. - What product/service would you like for us to highlight at this time?
I just started offering Website Audits, and I am really excited to do a deep dive into many different businesses, I like looking at the data and providing suggestions for improvement. I am excited to see this service grow. I actually offer a Quick Free website audit at the moment so anyone can have at least 3-5 tips on how to improve their website. - Do you involve your kids in your business? If yes, how so?
Yes, to some degree. My daughter is very well versed in Canva as she loves to create digital art. My son likes to make potty jokes’ stickers. I haven’t been able to monetize that one yet. lol - What do you find is the most difficult part of balancing mommyhood and business life?
I run out of time constantly. There’s just isn’t enough time to be a mom with so many requirements, and a business owner. Boundaries have been really key if I want to do my best in either job. - What business in the Madison Area is your favorite?
I have changed my health by attending Barre classes in the past two years, so I would have to vote for Pure Barre. - Do you have a business bestie?
Lauren is definitely my bestie at Mompreneur. I am so thankful she is invested in the idea as much I am. She has been a great partner and I have learned a lot from her. - Anything else you would like for us to highlight?
I want to encourage anyone that having a business doesn’t have to be scary, you just have to be willing to ride the waves. It doesn’t matter how big of a lesson you’ve learned today, you will always have an opportunity to bring that lesson with you and try again the next day. - Where can people find you?
Website: https://pipermache.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piper.mache/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=pipermache
I hope you enjoyed reading about one of our members, please support our local Madison mom-owned businesses.
August 28, 2023
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.”
June 23, 2023
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!
May 3, 2023
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!
April 4, 2023
