Mompreneur Advice from Alex Yates

All across the country, moms are raising families while running a business so YMC and UPS teamed up to find Canada's Most Inspiring Mompreneurs! Our panel of judges were blown away by the amazing submissions but finally narrowed it down to the six winners. Here's one Runner-up Winner's story and her advice for other Mompreneurs.

I had been brought up trucking around the armpits of Africa with my parents who never seemed to be able to settle down, and managed to inherited a serious travel bug from them. When the boys were nine, I took them on a cruise to Alaska and was immediately hooked on traveling. Over the next few years I took my boys—and my dad—on a several cruises.

By the time the boys were twelve I had found an awesome guy, got married, and was offered to be trained as a travel agent by my very own travel agent. I took her up on the offer and here I am twelve years later, not only an independent travel agent working for myself, but I work a niche market as a specialist in travel for people with disabilities and extra support needs. Each year I escort a group for people disabilities, their families, and friends on a 3-day repositioning cruise and three days at Disneyland. The largest group I ever escorted was 44 people!

Specializing in travel for people with extra support needs has given me the opportunity to help people travel from all over Canada, and some from the US. I have sent a companion dog and her owner on the Queen Mary 2, sent a lady in a wheelchair to Greece for a month (and yes she went to Santorini!), and sent a young man who is wheelchair dependent to Machu Picchu! I have contacts around the world who can help! 

The advice I would give to other Mompreneurs is this: love what you do, but look after yourself. There is only one of you and your kids need you too. Do the best you can and never forget to let your clients know how much you appreciate them. I send handwritten cards to all of my clients to thank them for the business. It's such an easy thing—and you can write cards and watch Grey’s Anatomy at the same time! My clients appreciate the small gesture and pass the word along!

Am I rich and super successful? No. But I put food on the table and provide a roof over our heads and still have time for my family. Seems like a win to me!