Mompreneur label can be confusing

Can labeling hurt long-range business opportunities for entrepreneurial women? It did for many years because the term "entrepreneur" has always been associated predominantly with men, to the exclusion of women.

Another problem is that despite advancements in education and financial and business savvy, for women, the clock never stops ticking at the end of the business day. Even the best attempts to balance family and work still leave the lion's share of child care, home care and senior care to women.

One result is an unrealistic expectation of what a working mother should be. Partially based on childhood myths, unrealistic expectations lead to unattainable goals and the accompanying guilt for not being able to achieve it all. A resulting so-called "opt-out revolt" thus led many women to leave work environments to become stay-at-home moms during their children's preschool years. But this did not alter their drive for creativity, the imperative to make money or the need to measure self-worth by work-related objectives.

For women, business ownership can be a progressive step, a strategic window of opportunity or a programmed stage in an evolving career. In my research, I identified eight distinct paths. Seven of these involve work outside the home: corporatepreneurs, intrapreneurs, entrepreneurs, boundarypreneurs (women who move back and forth from entrepreneurship to corporate life), globalpreneurs, technopreneurs (women involved predominantly in fields of technical expertise), and gazellepreneurs (fast-growth, high-volume, capital-intense, multifaceted business owners).

The eighth group consists of women who own home-based businesses. In the pop culture, they have become known as mompreneurs, and here is where the labeling problem comes in. The name contradicts the struggle women have faced for credibility.

MarketWatch has just released a statement on what the average annual pay for stay-at-home moms would be if they were actually paid for their work at home: $117,856. For working moms, add $71,186 to the salary they make elsewhere.

But women's work at home is not salaried, and that often creates the perception it has less value. Just one illustration: Suppose you are a member of Mothers and More, a support group for stay-at-home mothers, and have a home-based business that markets products useful to the average consumer. Would a strategy of calling yourself a "mompreneur" lead to capturing the largest market share? What might the label mean for your company growth and development down the road?

Consider also the variance in the definitions. One well understood definition of "mompreneur" is "a female business owner who is actively balancing the role of mom and entrepreneur" (Entrepreneur.com). But MompreneursOnline.com defines the "mompreneurs" as work-at-home mothers.

There is a world of difference between the two definitions. The first includes all those entrepreneurial women who are balancing their business needs and responsibilities at home. The second includes those who operate their businesses from home. Some, according to statistics on these businesses, are managing home-based firms that gross the stunning total of more than a million dollars a year.

Aliza Sherman, creator of "Cybergrrl" and an international organization for women in new media called "Webgrrls," whom I interviewed at a focus session at the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship at New York University, suggests that the labeling of "mompreneurs" may critically interfere with one's ability to be taken seriously as a successful entrepreneurial woman. The title, she says, "diminishes the very real accomplishments of a woman with kids who works at home on her home-based business ... and especially the extremely successful women whose home-based businesses gross over $1 million US per year." As a stay-at-home mother who runs an extremely successful marketing business, she is an authority.

Terms can be confusing, and inferences can be misleading. The first definition of "mompreneurs" includes all those who seek the illusive work-life balance. In fact, as most women business owners with family responsibilities will tell you, it is a real struggle to find balance and achieve all the goals. Says one, "I find I can't reach 100 percent in either area, so somehow 85 percent has to be OK -- which is not easy. However, at the end of the day I realize how fortunate to have success in both career and family. Sometimes I need to step back from the minutia to see it."

The point is that in categorizing female entrepreneurs, only the term "mompreneurs" locates (creates an image that positions) them outside the paid work force. This may become a negative for the entrepreneurial woman.

In the business world, "entrepreneur" or "business owner" provides the leverage needed to advance a professional business strategy. So it is always important to be cognizant of the desired long-range outcome you are after in marketing your business or working image.

Dorothy Perrin Moore, Ph.D., is professor emerita of business and entrepreneurship at The Citadel.

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