“Mompreneurs” : Europe’s new Entrepreneurs

“Mompreneurs”, Mothers, who are leading a company, often have little time and little capital. Still, they run successful businesses and show how the job market of the future could look like.

The European Enterprise Promotion Award, which was awarded during the european SME Week in Napels, was given to a “Mompreneur”. Ágnes Vida, the founder of the blog “Gazdagmami” is mother of two children an one successful enterprise. On her blog, other Mompreneurs find help in creating and running their own businesses. Gazdagmami’s network now contains 70.000 Facebook follower, 45.000 newsletter subscriptions, events throughout the country and e-learning programs.

Gazdagmami fills a gap in the present labour market policy of the European Union. Europe tries to improve access to full time or part-time employment for women but self-employment, especially for mothers, plays only a minor part. Even though preconditions for self-employment would be very good, says Esther Eisenhardt who leads a similar project to Gazdagmami in Germany. Her Blog “MOMpreneurs.de” exists since July 2014 and is growing – by her own account – ever since. “I’m an advocate of Work 2.0”, says Eisenhardt. “Because I want flexible working hours myself. I have two kids and I therefore need a set-up where I can decide where and when I work. I think this is a trend of the job market in general.”

Mothers which seek advice at “MOMpreneurs.de” need practical help in the first place. “Mompreneurs don’t have time at all”, says Eisenhardt. “The problem is, that the internet provides you with millions of options to do this or that. I want to sort this mess by saying ‘You don’t need to read all this. These are the three most important things to know if you want to – for example – start with social media’. We provide them with the equipment for their businesses.”

Eisenhardts network now contains Café-Owners, Designers, one Publisher or a Developer for sustainable products. But it is not always about “big numbers”. SME contribute 99 percent of Europes enterprises. What many don’t know: nine out of ten are micro-enterprises with one to ten employees. But women make of only 30 percent of all self-employed people in the EU.

Eisenhardt wants to change this: “I want to make things easier and I want to raise mompreneurs’ spirits. If somebody wants to start an online shop nowadays, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are tools for that. And that is the knowledge I want to spread with my initiative.”

More sites on Mompreneurs-Networks:
France:            mompreneurs.fr
les-mompreneurs
UK:                   mumpreneuruk
london.themompreneur
Ireland:           mompreneursirelandmlog
Austria:           KindundJob
Switzerland:   Lolabrause

Foto Title: Katja Harbi