Jill Salzman-The Founding Moms

Jill's Story

1. Tell us the story of your journey. Include details about what inspired you to go into business, was this a life long dream or a newer desire. Share as many details as you are comfortable sharing.

My journey has too many starting points, but I chalk my entrepreneurial endeavors up to the New York City Marathon.  Really. 

My mom used to watch the NYC Marathon every year on a tiny TV in our kitchen.  She would cry.  She was awestruck.  She impressed upon me that these people had solid determination, patience and an incredibly high threshold for pain.  They impressed my mom, so I wanted to be one of them too.  If you’ve met me, you know that I don’t have a runner’s body…so fortunately for my knees, I did not endeavor to become a professional athlete. 

Instead, I turned the qualities I so desired to have (and the ones that made my mom so happy) and put them into launching a business in the arena I knew more about:  the music business.  After college I worked at a record label for several years watching what happened – the good, the bad, the extremely drug-and-alcohol-afflicted ugly – and I knew after grad school that I wanted to help artists succeed.  So, in 2005, I launched Paperwork Media, a management firm wherein the artists would focus on what they do best and I’d take care of the rest (paperwork, phone calls, etc).  And I loved it.  I woke up every morning raring to go, excited about what opportunities I could create for myself.  It was a freedom I didn’t experience beforehand.  I loved it so much that in 2007, after my daughter received a baby anklet as a gift from family inThailand, I thought I could sell them in theUSand launched a baby jewelry company, The Bumble Brand.  You’d think 1 kid and 2 companies would tie a girl down, but I was ever more productive after having my little girl.  So much so that in 2009, pregnant with baby #2, I launched what was originally “The Momtrepreneur Exchange,” a meetup here in Chicagothat welcomed anyone who self-identified as a mom and entrepreneur to come hang out.  The meetup was so fantastic that I decided to do it monthly.  Six months in, we had 200 members online.  It kept growing…so I decided to open another meetup in a nearby city.  Then I opened one inLos Angeles.  Then New York City.  Lo and behold, 2 years later we’re in 30+ cities around the world, including cities in Canada and Australia. 

I shut down my music management company at the end of 2010 and sold my baby jewelry business last August.  I’m now a full-time Founding Mom and love every second of it.  I speak a lot on small business, entrepreneurship and social media, and this year I came out with a book, Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs which has been a blast.  Oh!  I did end up running 2 marathons – long before the kids arrived – but those darn knees have stopped me from doing theNew York City marathon.  I’ll leave that accomplishment to others because I’ve found my niche – knee-pain free!

2. Did you go into business before or after you had children? How do/did your children affect your decision to go into business.

            I went into business before I had my first child, but knowing that I wanted to have kids and making sure I build any business in a home office so I could be available for my future children.  I always knew I wanted to be around my kids while working and I’d just figure out a way to work them into my schedule somehow.

 

3.Share your trials and triumphs. We want to hear about your highs and lows. Did you have any low points or worries as well as high points and huge shining moments?

 Highs and lows?  I have at least 4 of each within each day.  They’re always about different things.  Some days I am on a high because I heard back from a producer of a national network television show about having me on as an expert.  The next day I go into a major low because I discover that the show has been canceled.  The next day could be a website mishap, followed by nasty comments on a blog post, followed by three new members and one Founding Moms’ Exchange (our meetup) who are so inspiring that I’m tickled pink to be doing what I do.  I worry each and every day that I’m not doing enough, and I also have moments each and every day where I realize that I’ve been doing so much, I should slow down.  It is the entrepreneur’s affliction to be on a constant roller-coaster ride, but it’s what makes me tick, too.  And I love it all, or I wouldn’t be doing what I do.

4.Do you have any encouraging words to share with mom entrepreneurs that may help to keep their spirits up on a trying day. Not necessarily trade secrets that pertain to business but more directed toward encouraging another mom not to give up and/or to keep following a dream.

I do!  I have seen too many moms talk themselves right out of launching a business, whether it be a kernel of an idea or a full-fledged dream of theirs.  There are myriad fears:  that there’s no time, that there will be too much guilt about the kids, that they don’t know enough or are not smart enough or don’t have experience enough to do what they really want to do.  And then they sit down and write a business plan that is obviously all theory but again, pushes them right off the edge and convinces them that FOR SURE it would take a miracle to bring in profits so they just shouldn’t bother.  To them I say:  nonsense.  I’ve built 3 successful businesses from scratch and without business plans.  I have two kids (currently ages 2 and 4) who are physically and emotionally demanding but I make it work.  It beats the heck out of working a corporate job where you’re making money for someone else and having to pay for full-time daycare when part-time daycare and flexible hours are king (or queen?) for moms.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and the only way to succeed is to remember that failure is not an option.  Get out there and do it.  Now.

                        Jill's website is www.Foundingmoms.com