Featured Solopreneur Jill Salzman: “I Refuse to Make Fear-Based Choices”

This is “Featured Solopreneur,” an ongoing series that gives all of us a glimpse at how other solopreneurs operate their small businesses. Click Here to read more Solopreneur Success Stories.

Name of solopreneur:
Jill Salzman

Name of business and city:
UPDATE: Jill’s business has been rebranded as The Founding Moms, Oak Park, Illinois

Web site address:
FoundingMoms.com

Type of business:
Collective of Momtrepreneur Exchanges nationwide (meetups for momtrepreneurs to get together)

When did you officially go into business:
2005

What was the best thing you did when you were starting up your business:
Oddly enough, the best thing I did was to pick a company name that was vague and allowed me to grow. If I had called it Paperwork Management, doing booking and publicity for clients would not have been as successful. But with Paperwork Media there was much room for growth…and I did grow into different areas.

What is a mistake that you made that you have learned from:
Which one? From this week or the last several weeks? Every day brings a new bump in the road. And I learn from every single one (don’t you?).

What is your biggest current challenge in the business and what are doing to try to solve it:
My latest business, The Momtrepreneur Maven, is a site where I organize a collective of Momtrepreneur Exchanges—meetups all over the country where momtrepreneurs can gather to exchange, learn and network with one another. I am trying to figure out how to find as many co-organizers around the country as I can, and I don’t have a winning way to do it just yet.

What are your goals for 2010:
Build The Momtrepreneur Exchanges into a huge network of momtrepreneurs who meet up live and in person.

Where do you want to be with the business in five years:
Continuing to grow…possibly around the world?

What are your main software programs:
Firefox. Tweetdeck. Indie Band Manager.

What lifestyle choices have you had to make to stay in business?
Having an office at home, which is not so great with little kiddos ripping the place apart every day.

What are your strategies for staying competitive?
Constantly educating myself by reading as much as I possibly can, from everywhere that I trust will give me great information to keep me abreast of what’s going on in the world.

If your business should fail, what is your fallback position?
Failure is not an option. If I make it so, it becomes a possibility and I refuse to make fear-based choices.

If you could start your career all over again, with what you know now, what might you have done differently? Why?
Eat less chocolate.

What’s your advice for aspiring solopreneurs:
Meet up with fellow solopreneurs and talk about your issues in realtime, not online.

Are you glad you became a solopreneur? Why or why not?:
ABSOLUTELY. I find that explaining the joys of solopreneurship are akin to trying to explain why one likes chocolate. Because.