Web site offers tips, advice for women to balance motherhood and their own company.

By JULIA K. AGRESTO

When Traci Bisson started a blog to share her trials and tribulations as a mom who also owns her own business, she never could have anticipated the outcome.

Bisson, 39, of Barrington – a mother of two – had initially created her Web site, www.TheMomEntrepreneur.com, as a hobby and to share her experiences.

She became a mom in February 2000 and found herself jobless eight weeks after returning from maternity leave when the company she was with for five years went out of business.

Bisson eventually went on to work for two more companies, both of which went in the same direction. She then decided to give entrepreneurship another shot after an unsuccessful first attempt and got her own business off the ground in August 2000 – a public relations company called Bisson Barcelona.

After having spent eight years searching for a support group for mom entrepreneurs to no avail, Bisson created The Mom Entrepreneur in April 2008. When she sent out a query that same month seeking tips for balancing business and family, the result surprised her.

“I figured I would just get a few e-mails, I’d write a nice blog post, and I’d just go on from there,” she said. “I really didn’t know what to expect. I really didn’t know what was out there.”

Bisson received 400 e-mails in less than 48 hours, containing more than 1,000 tips from mom entrepreneurs all over the world. She realized that not only was there a great need for a support group for mom entrepreneurs – but that there were hundreds of women willing to share their own advice and stories.

At that point, she knew the seed of action needed to be planted – she just wasn’t sure yet how to plant it.

“You know, it was kind of a bittersweet thing,” she said. “I was very, very excited, don’t get me wrong. But I really felt that it was my call, in a sense, to be something for these people, but at that time I didn’t really know what it was.”

The Mom Entrepreneur started out as a blog, then developed into a Web site with “tips, advice and resources for balancing motherhood and balancing a company,” as Bisson put it. It also includes lots of fun tools for busy working moms.

The site includes a co-op shop, with products and gifts for mom entrepreneurs and their families, as well as polls (for example: “How do you spend your ‘me’ time?”), a newsletter and a support group. There is even a “Shout Box,” where visitors to the site can chat with other moms, and a Google group with more than 970 members.

She plans to eventually transition away from Bisson Barcelona entirely and expand the Web site further.
Bisson said Ray, her husband of 14 years, has been very supportive by letting her do what she needs to do and believing in her.

And for any women out there who are still unsure if they can balance being a mom and owning a business, Bisson had one thing to say.

“It can be done. The resources are out there now, the support is out there. I think at this point it’s not that you can’t do it,” Bisson said. “In most cases, you just need to be talked through it so you believe in yourself enough to take that leap of faith.”

Julia K. Agresto is a freelance writer who lives in Dunstable, Mass.