So it’s 10pm, and I’m doing laundry because, frankly, FEMA could designate my laundry room as a disaster area. Who has time for laundry when my business and “life” (defined today as a well child visit for my five year old, a trip to the store for a Webkinz and a chiropractor appointment for my oldest son) beckons all day long? Besides, what’s more fun, being a Capitalist or folding underwear?  

I know what the answer is for me and that’s why I am doing laundry at 10pm. I find laundry can become a form of meditation if you allow your mind to drift aimlessly. I am usually so focused it’s nice to “let go” sometimes.

I was in the moment right up to the point when I started pulling Airsoft pellets out of the dryer. For the uninitiated, Airsoft pellets are used in Airsoft guns that all the boys on the street are really into right now. We are surrounded by woods, which lends itself to this activity. It is similar to paint ball—just not as messy. There are clearly established and enforced safety rules. My middle son loves playing it, and it’s fun watching the boys in goggles, bike helmets, backpacks and rubber boots (so mom doesn’t have to deal with muddy shoes) tramp up and down the creek trying to hide from each other.   

As a new mom, I remember purposely deciding I was going to raise “Renaissance Men” and not heathen boys, so that someday my future daughter-in-laws would thank me for the obvious effort I put into their husbands. I gave my second son a baby doll to nurture while I was pregnant with my third son. No sooner had he taken this life like doll upstairs then I heard “Kowabunga!” and a thud. He had tossed the baby doll off the loft upstairs into the family room below. I remember thinking “Note to self, never leave him alone with the baby”.

Another time I decided “no weapons of mass destruction allowed.” My boys were going to be pacifists if I had anything to do with it. Make love not war, right? I got rid of anything that could remotely be considered a weapon. The next week I caught all three of them using sticks to play war and magnolia tree seeds as grenades.

The Airsoft pellets made me think of this experience and smile. The ammo (which by the way is made out of plastic in case you are wondering) found in the dryer was a reminder to me that—no matter how I think a situation should be—the innate personality of the other individual ultimately decides the outcome. You can spin a situation to fall in line with your thoughts, values and expectations. But if your target audience doesn’t buy into it, then you haven’t effectively communicated the message.

I try to remember that with all people I interact with… and especially with my customers. Ask your customers what they want. Don’t try to mold them into the image you have for them. Their answer can make the difference between profit and failure!  

One quality that sets a successful person apart–whether male or female, entrepreneur (like our millionairemom.com members) or employees–is the ability to take action. If you do not execute you do not create. It is that simple. Fortunately as moms, we possess this gift that is translatable to business. 

Think of all the skills you already have that apply to running your own business:

Raising a Family / Building a Business

Getting the kids to school on time / Meeting deadlines

Breaking up sibling fights / Managing employees

Setting up play dates / Working with outside corporations

Teaching household chores / Outsourcing

Paying allowance for work done / Accounts payable

In short, you already have everything you need to become a successful millionaire mom.

You might be thinking “I don’t want to build a business that big. I just want to earn a little extra income for my family’s needs.” That is a fantastic goal to set. We use the term “millionaire mom” around here as a metaphor of who you will become in the journey of entrepreneurialism. As a millionaire mom, you’re going to feel like a million bucks—whether you’re earning a million dollars a year, or cooking a “million dollar” dinner!

Conducting business takes on a completely different spin once you become a mother. Children change every aspect of your life, including running your own business. I recall realizing, “Hey, this isn’t about me anymore” in the very first moments of becoming a mom. I had just given birth to my oldest son. I won’t go into the details, but I will give you the overview. He weighed 10 lbs. 9 oz., and my epidural didn’t take effect. Enough said. After he was born he needed the ICU. The entire room–and I do mean the entire room–left with the baby. 

I was lying there–bruised and battered, scared, happy, relieved and totally alone. In those first thirty minutes, I was transformed from “the pregnant Princess” and “It’s all about me” to being “the mom.” 

Being responsible for children is very much like running a business. You serve others. You must have a lot of patience and take lots of action in order to produce a positive outcome. The most successful businesses realize it is not about them– it is about the customer. Sound familiar? You must fall in love with your customers like you do your children. The customers (and extending that out, your children) are the reason you exist.

A servant’s heart is the keystone of a successful business and a successful mom. While it’s great to have a vision of what you ultimately want to achieve, it is the focus on your customers needs, wants and desires that will get you there.

Patience was a tough one for me to learn as a mom. We all know the definition of patience but let’s take a closer look at what the dictionary has to say about it: The quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like. Learning to be patient-and yes it can be learned-is a gift we give as mothers to our children and as entrepreneurs to our employees and customers. Business like raising children is not for the faint of heart.