Mompreneur Advice from Karyn Climans

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.

Fresh out of university I envisioned a future for myself that might involve creative challenge, success, personal satisfaction, and ultimate happiness.

And then life set in…

I have now achieved all of those goals but in a far different way than I had originally pictured. I have survived many challenges, the most serious of which was being a stay-at-home mom to two beautiful sons with special needs. 

Eight years ago I was involved in a serious accident. Fortunately, I was wearing my ski helmet and it saved my life. It awoke in me a passion to promote safety awareness but I needed to create a job that allowed me the flexibility to continue looking after my children. I created Tail Wags Helmet Covers, a company that designs and manufactures whimsical helmet covers for every type of safety helmet. I make it fun for kids and adults to wear their helmets for every type of sport and by doing so I have found a way to help prevent unnecessary head injuries.

The learning curve has been huge. I’m working more hours than ever before but I love what I do. The key is maintaining a sense of humour. I willingly gave up my good housekeeping award several years ago. Running a home-based business has meant learning to live with the chaos!

I am proud to say Tail Wags are now sold throughout North America, and overseas. I maintain a blog, a Facebook page, Twitter account, and a wonderful web site and I am in constant touch with my customers all over the world.  My latest initiative is the “Mothers Against Naked Riding” (M.A.N.R.) campaign, launched in January 2012. Naked, of course, means “We don’t care what you wear, just put a helmet on!"

Utilizing social media is the best way to connect with my customer base and to promote my corporate message: “Play It Safe.” Social media has changed how business works. My advice to any entrepreneur is to build relationships with your target market via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and your blog site. Although it can take time to build a following on these sites, the results can be astonishing and the cost of these sites is generally free.

I am proud that I have become a successful businesswoman, and am blessed to earn a living doing something about which I am so passionate!