"MOMMY MILLIONAIRES" Who wants to be one? I know I do!

Okay it's no secret that most people want to be rich and maybe even famous. For me, I could do without the famous. I'm a private person and to have paparazzi following me and my kids around while I shop for personal hygiene products just doesn't appeal to me. I love my anonymonity and prefer to keep it that way. Hence the reason I don't use my "real" name on HubPages. Not that I expect any big publicity from my hubs, but a certain amount of anonymonity is necessary I think in this day and age. All though I admit if Ellen or Oprah was knocking down my door for an appearance I would probably have to reconsider the whole anonymonity bit.

Well these women may seem like ordinary women, but their ideas have been created into "million dollar" ideas, and most of them started with next to nothing. I'm intrigued by these women as I hope to become a "Mompreneur" someday soon. I've always had as strong drive to have something of my own and have tried and failed at many things, but my dream is still alive and I plan on keeping it that way.

Manicurist Rosie Herman, a stay-at-home Mom had gone into debt from fertility treatments. All though she succeeded in giving birth to twins, she realized she couldn't take care of her preemies using the manicure products out on the market because of the harmful chemicals they contained. Determined for a solution she came up with One Minute Manicure. She passed out her product all over town and convinced her friends and neighbors to help her get on her feet. In just five years she has topped over $20 million in sales!

Rebecca Matthias realized that maternity clothes for the professional working woman was nearly unheard of. Using her own savings she created a catalogue of maternity clothes that didn't do well. She continued to work hard and after many failures her hard work paid off. Her company MothersWork is now a $500 million industry! She has three major stores for maternity clothes: "A Pea in the Pod", "Mimi Maternity", and "Motherhood Maternity", you can view all of her products at Motherswork.

Kim Lavine's story is perhaps my favorite. She took a kitchen table idea and is now worth $20 million!! She needed to make some Christmas gifts for her kids teachers and saw that her husband left a bag of corn feed next to her sewing machine. So she came up with "wuvit" a microwaveable therapeutic moist heat bag. She got requests for more and the next thing you know her business took off. She also authored the book profiled at the top called "Mommy Millionaire". You can be sure that's my next book purchase on Amazon.com!

Here's a breakdown of what these "Mommy Millionaires" recommend to become a "Mompreneur":

• Remember one great idea can turn into a million dollar idea making you a "Mommy Millionaire"! Odds are if its something you love somebody else will too. Turn a need or a want into a business.

• Protect your idea by patenting it through the U.S. Patent & Trade office by purchasing a provisional patent application good for up to two years and than you can change to a non-provisional application after that. Patents are not as expensive as you think so check it out.
• Create a business plan for free using score.org link above.
• Having trouble raising money? Try these suggestions:
  • Use your credit card (consider it good debt if it generates revenue-USE WITH CAUTION)
  • Acquire a home equity loan-use wisely
  • Find private equity money through angel investors- **I think this is the best way to go myself
  • Small business loan
  • Government grants-Supposedly there out there just a lot of work sifting through them. Be leary of offers that want you to pay for a list. The ones I've seen are not worth the money.

• Advertising-network through trade shows and market your product through a prototype (check link above). Make cold calls to retailers.
• Look up manufacturers in the U.S. through thomasnet (see link above).
• Design your own website on sites like godaddy.com (link above) or Yahoo Small Business
• Learn to post your own press release see prweb.com (link above)
• Most of all don't listen to the naysayers and be passionate!