Your Million Dollar Dream: Regain Control and Be Your Own Boss,
Create a Winning Business Plan, Turn Your Passion into Profit
Tamara Monosoff
Tamara Monosoff is an American mother and businesswoman who knows all about making dreams come true. Tamara made her own dreams come true when she invented and successfully sold her award-winning TP Saver® product in thousands of stores nationwide. She has also made the dreams of thousands of other mothers come true through her company Mom Invented® and her best-selling books The Mom Inventors Handbook: How To Turn Your Great Idea into the Next Big Thing; Secrets of Millionaire Moms: Learn How They Turned Great Ideas into Booming Businesses; and The One Page Business Plan for Women in Business (co-authored with Jim Horan).
Since May 2004, Tamara and her products have been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, The New Yorker, Time, People, US News & World Report, Oprah and Fortune Small Business magazines. Tamara has appeared on many major national television shows, as well as on over 100 local TV media outlets.
Prior to founding Mom Invented®, Tamara worked in Washington D.C. in the Clinton Administration where she served as Senior Communications Associate for the President's Initiative on Race at the White House, Education Director for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, and Chief of Staff for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education.
Tamara then accompanied her husband on an international assignment for a dot-com in Hong Kong. Whilst there, she finished her doctorial dissertation "Women in Leadership: Lessons from the White House," for which she interviewed 20 women who were the highest ranking women to have ever served in their respective roles. She also created a consultancy in Hong Kong to help American businesses enter the local marketplace.
Expat Women's Interview with Tamara |
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Expat Women: Your new book talks about "making money your way" and pursuing the 'right' business. How can someone decide if a business is 'right' for them? |
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Tamara: For too long many of us have settled for careers that, while perhaps lucrative, comfortable and what others think we should do, they are not satisfying or not supportive of our family schedules or desired lifestyles. I cannot claim to have unlocked the secret to answering this question as this is highly personal.
However, there are a number of steps I have identified and outlined that will help aid each person in the process. First, accepting responsibility for making this change is essential. Then, take the time necessary to frame your dream and really listen to your own intuition. There are also a number of more analytical tools that are helpful, such as understanding your own personality type, social style, personal strengths, weaknesses and age. But remember, as important as the effort made to go through this process is the commitment afterwards. This needs to be firm, clear, written and spoken. |
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Expat Women: What types of business options are out there? |
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Tamara: I have found that there are three primary paths that entrepreneurs follow to find the right business for themselves:
1. Do What You Know: Doing what you know often means that you are already connected with the industry and have some strong contacts. One of my favourite examples of this in the book is Sally Saltzbart. She used to manage food services in New York for 27,000 Lehman Brothers employees. When Lehman Brothers closed down, she drew on her knowledge of food services to open her successful Sweet Sally's Bakeshop.
2. Do What Others Do: Namely, franchising. Kelly Strowd was in law enforcement but ready for a change. She knew she loved her five Dachshunds - and dogs in general. So, she researched and found a franchise called Fetch! Pet Care. $225,000 in sales in 2008, 48 employees and three territories under her belt, she is a perfect example of how 'doing what others do', via a proven model and in an established market, can be a good business option to follow to pursue your dream.
3. Solve a Problem: This approach represents a tremendous opportunity for creativity - and the greatest risk. In 1999, Jayne Spiegelman recognized that families needed a place to post and organize their digital photographs. Little did she know that just seven years later her new online company, Shutterfly would go public with a $350 million dollar IPO. With this approach, both the model and the business are generally unproven so it requires the greatest amount of research, planning and often, the thickest skin. But for Jayne, it was worth it!
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Expat Women: Your Million Dollar Dream delivers some excellent information about social media. Which social media channel has your company had the most success with and why? |
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Tamara: To me, social media is an amazing new platform that facilitates something business people have done for generations: network. The reach and efficiency afforded by these tools is truly awesome. More important to me than which medium used is the approach of the user. As with traditional networking, focusing on creating meaningful connections with people, rather than selling to them is critical. In the book I have used the analogy of the hummingbird as she gracefully goes from flower to flower taking a moment to pause at each. In the process she is fulfilled but also serving nature by pollinating each flower.
Each entrepreneur will find the social network most beneficial to her own business. Since some businesses are local, some visual, some professional, others entertaining, the "right" platform will not be the same for everyone. I have written in the book about LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, but also know that there are thousands of other networks and communities that people are using to build their businesses. I personally have found Twitter to be most useful for my business but I also use Facebook and also post on to our own online community. |
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Expat Women: Funding is always a big issue for new entrepreneurs. What types of funding options are out there and what tips can you offer to those in search of new product funding? |
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Tamara: Yes, this is a very common question. There are many great resources but most importantly, I want people to know that they should expect to be their own first investor. This has both psychological and financial advantages. Since the personal financial circumstance of an entrepreneur is inseparable from the business, a careful personal assessment is important. There are a number of steps involved with this process, including a detailed understanding of debt and monthly expenses.
Once this has been completed, a financial budget and forecast for the business is needed. In my book I expand on the "Financial Needs" chart that I created that ranks business type A, B, C, or D based on the financial needs and the most probable source of funding for each. Sources include self-funding, peer-to-peer loans, micro-loans, Angel investment and more. |
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Expat Women: Finally, please share with us some of your favorite stories of dreams coming true for your Mom Invented® clients. |
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Tamara: This is the most difficult question because I am inspired almost everyday by the stories I hear and those I have featured. That said, let me share about Betty and Yamile.
Betty: I recently gave a speech in San Francisco. Afterwards I met a woman named Betty. She shared with me how she hand-makes dolls, has written several books teaching people how to replicate her art and her passion for knitting. The thing that was stunning to me is Betty is 89 years old, has recently lost her husband and when I asked to feature her in an upcoming newsletter she literally jumped a foot off the ground.
Yamile: In 2001, Yamile Jackson gave birth to her son Zachary 12 weeks prematurely. He weighed less than 2 pounds, and when he was 3 weeks old, Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston, shutting down power and water in the hospital. The hospital staff, Yamile and her husband, Larry, had to keep Zachary alive by hand for nine hours until he could be evacuated, and at that time Yamile made a promise to do whatever she could to help all babies - and prayed for the opportunity to do it on Zachary's behalf, not in his memory.
During the 155 nights Zachary spent in the hospital, Yamile spent at least 10 hours a day with him in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had learned from the nurses how to use her hands to comfort him, but she wanted something to continue to comfort Zachary in her absence. So she sewed hand-shaped pillows (which she slept with to give her scent) that she could leave with her son to keep him feeling warm and secure. She could see a difference in Zachary's monitors when he was being cradled by the pillows, and seeing that he was at ease helped Yamile feel more relaxed.
Two weeks after she finally brought Zachary home, Yamile got a call from the development director at the NICU to see if she could make her "little hands" for the other premature babies, and she knew this was how she could keep her promise to help babies and their parents. Yamile spent the next three years refining her hand-sewn design and bringing The Zaky to market. It is now available in many retail and online stores, is used in hospitals nationwide, and has won numerous product awards. |
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Expat Women: Tamara, congratulations on your amazing success to date. Thank you for sharing your entrepreneurial advice with us and all the best for Your Million Dollar Dream! |
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