A Winning Story

It’s a dream-like story of an expectant mother who was filled with creative ideas. (Not your typical pregnancy.) Add lots of hard work, a supportive family, a commitment to spreading the word about her nomination and maybe a little bit of luck, and at the end, our heroine becomes the winner of the 2009 SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Whose story, you ask? It’s the story of Shirley Broback, founder of Laughing Belly Productions, the producer of the Vancouver Island Baby Fair shows. (Shirley’s had a big week because the Victoria show just took place this weekend.) If the number of votes Shirley received for this award is any indication, the Vancouver Island Baby Fair, which sets out to celebrate the growing family, must be a much-loved institution for those interested in pregnancy, birth, babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and beyond. And since many of the exhibitors at Shirley’s shows are mom entrepreneurs too, she’s created a way for lots of Vancouver Island mom-run businesses to showcase themselves to their target audience and grow their businesses too.

Taking advantage of her background in event planning, sales and the perinatal field, Shirley established the company as a way to be able to work from home and be closer to her two children. With the success of her first shows came growth, and she had to hire an assistant producer—her husband! So now she’s really living the dream of being at the helm of a successful family-operated company, with all the flexibility she needs to be able to help out at her children’s school when she wants to. And we say congratulations to her—the 2009 SavvyMom Mom Entrepreneur of the Year.

While we’re celebrating Shirley’s success this week, we also want to celebrate the successes of all the Canadian mom entrepreneurs. So grab a cup of tea and take some time to browse the gallery of nominees from this year’s award. You’ll find 317 fantastic stories about moms taking matters into their own hands to create employment opportunities for themselves, and an incredible range of innovative products and services.

Seriously innovative, we must say. Here’s a sampling of a few of the other nominees who caught our eye this year:

• If you’re off to Calgary or Edmonton and need to rent some baby gear, you’ll want to visit Stacey Corbett’s Onetinysuitcase.ca, where you’ll find everything you need.
• Looking for a new bag? Make it an ecofriendly and stylish one with creations by Laura Jennekens, who developed her business, Echoes in the Attic with a focus on responsible consumption, using ‘rescued remnants’ from manufacturers and designers.
• Candace Derickx & Laurie St-Julien cracked the code on one of moms’ worst jobs—shopping for school supplies with their kinder, gentler (faster, online) way at Best Tools for Schools.
• Hockey mom at heart? You will definitely want to visit www.sock-cessories.com to check out unique accessories—mitts, wine totes, pencil cases and more—fashioned from hockey socks and jerseys by moms Linda Dunda, Esther Brooks and Laura Ke.
• Bet you didn’t think there was innovation needed in the girls’ underwear space? Turns out there was and Rebecca Winterhalt’s the mom who’s bringing us Girl Gotch…no more riding up!

So hats off to all our mom entrepreneurs. They’re not just dreaming the dream, they’re living it.

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