10 Tips for Moms Who Run Businesses

Being a Mom and running a business is like having two full-time jobs. We asked women who do it for their advice on how to juggle running a family while building a business.

By Tiffany Black | May, 9, 2010
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Inc.com Senior Producer Tiffany Black asked Lewis and other busy MEOs (Mom Executive Officers) to share their advice for balancing family and business.

1. Set aside some time for yourself

More than one Mom offered this piece of advice. When you are running a business and taking care of a family it's easy to forget about taking care of you. "As a psychologist, I know that everyone needs regular rejuvenation," said Lynda Ariella owner of Porch Light Psychology Services in La Mesa, California. "I take one day off every week; on that day, I don't answer the phone, I don't do work, and I try not to worry about things that usually bother me. I suggest that my patients do the same."

2. It's okay to say 'No'

You say no to your kids all the time but you find it harder to say no when it comes to your business. "It's mandatory to say no," said Lewis. "If you said yes to every request or opportunity or avenue of work you would be busy 24-7 with no time for your family." No doesn't always mean no. No could mean not today or not this week but some other time that works for everyone.

3. Outsource household work

"If you can afford it, outsource as much of the household work as possible so you can spend your home and family time focusing on your children and spouse or significant other, or dating life and activities that relax you and enrich your non-worklife," advises Karen Cornelius, mother of two and president of KLC Associates, an organization and management consultant company with offices in Chicago, New York, London, and Köln, Germany.

4. Be present

"Setting up boundaries for work and motherhood to be separate fosters efficiency in both arenas," said Kristin D. O'Connell, co-owner at Mama Goddess Retreats in Nosara, Costa Rica. "When you are working you give your entire focus to your business, and when you are with your children your entire focus is them." Lewis agreed that your kids know when you aren't tuned in to them. "Kids know when you are secretly checking your BlackBerry in the parking lot of their school," said Lewis. "It means something to them when you are 100 percent focused on them."

5. Don't be afraid to delegate

You delegate at work but find it hard to delegate at home. If you have a spouse or significant other talk to them about how to divide the load for household needs and child-caring. "When our children were small and ill a lot, we tried to take turns staying home with them, but also would check with each other to see who had the most critical work-related meetings or events on our calendar," said Cornelius.

6. Create a support network of other working Moms

A search on LinkedIn for "working moms" pulls up over 60 groups for Moms. You can also meet and bond with other Moms through your child's day care or play group. Also, groups devoted to Women's leadership might have resources devoted to supporting Moms.

7. Stay healthy

Moms have to be ready for anything, and you can't take care of your family if you don't take care of yourself. "A regular exercise routines is a lifesaver," said Debbie Kane, public relations consultant and owner of Exeter, New Hampshire-based Kane Communications. "I plan my workouts for early morning before the kids go to school or during my lunch hour so that I have energy to carry me through my day."

8. Treat your home office like a corporate office

When you have to go in to an office every day you have specific goals and come up with a plan to meet those goals. The same rule applies when you work at home. "Set a schedule and goals just like you would if you were reporting to a workplace," said Julia Wright, an independent contractor at The Wright Family in Bellingham, Washington. "If you have errands to do, calendar that in."

9. Be flexible and plan for the unexpected

Kids gets sick unexpectanty but you can plan for when they do. "Each morning I write down the top three things I must accomplish that day," said Lewis. "I tackle them first, because you never know when a call to pick up a sick child might quash the rest of the day's work."

10. Don't feel guilty

Working Moms deal with various types of guilt; the guilt of choosing to work to feeling guilty for taking some time out for themselves and everything in between. "There is nothing wrong with contributing to the financial support and stability of your family – and the college fund," said Lewis. Ariella adds, "It's hard to take time for ourselves without feeling guilty, especially when children need our attention, but a rested parent is more effective than an overwhelmed parent."

Facebook Suit Could Snag Users

By Craig Anderson
Daily Journal Staff Writer
May, 2010
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SAN JOSE - The Electronic Frontier Foundation is stepping into a legal battle between Facebook and aggregator Power Ventures, arguing that Facebook's lawsuit alleging violations of criminal law would leave the social networking site's users vulnerable to prosecution.

Facebook claims San Francisco-based Power Ventures Inc. is violating the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, among other statutes, by allowing users to get onto Facebook through Power Ventures and send unsolicited messages to their "friends" that appear to come from Facebook.

In an amicus brief filed Monday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Facebook is asking the court to "create a massive expansion of the scope of California criminal law" in order to go after Power Ventures. But the EFF argues that such an outcome could put all users of social networking sites, including Facebook, at risk of prosecution.

Cindy Cohn, EFF's San Francisco-based legal director, said a court decision in Facebook's favor would transform violations of a social networking site's terms of use into a violation of the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

"This would be a global rule," Cohn said. "Any violation of the rule would turn the person into a computer criminal." The EFF brief does not address many of Facebook's claims, including allegations that Power Ventures is infringing the company's copyright and trademarks as well as violating the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act and two other federal laws.

EFF civil liberties director Jennifer Granick's brief supports Power Ventures' motion for summary judgment asking for the dismissal of Facebook's claims that accuse the defendant of violating the California penal code.

U.S. District Judge James Ware will consider Facebook's motion for a judgment on the pleadings and Power Ventures' motion for summary judgment next month. Facebook Inc. v. Power Ventures Inc., C-08-05780.

Facebook fired back at the EFF on Tuesday. Company spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a prepared statement that the privacy rights group "fundamentally misunderstands what this case is about."

The lawsuit does not target any individual users, and Schnitt said Facebook has "no intention to criminalize users' access to their data through automated means."

The company instead portrays itself as a protector of its users' privacy against a defendant that is using Facebook users' login information to gain unauthorized access to its network and to send unsolicited messages to other users.

But Cohn, who is most concerned about setting a dangerous precedent that would apply to all social networking sites, regards Facebook's stance as a protector of users' privacy as "funny."

"What Facebook is really saying is that we can sell your information," she said. "You can't."

Cohn said Power Ventures is simply providing a tool that allows people to view all information from their social networking sites in one place without having to access each of them one by one. "Power is offering a service to users that Facebook doesn't provide," she said.

Facebook's attorneys at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, led by Menlo Park-based Neel Chatterjee, argue in court papers that Power Ventures knowingly accesses Facebook's computer servers without authorization. "This means of 'accessing' and 'obtaining information' is commonly known as 'scraping,' a well-recognized form of cyber attack on the Internet involving the trespass of a computer server," the Orrick attorneys write.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel rejected Power Ventures' motion to dismiss the case.

Scott Bursor, a New York attorney who represents Power Ventures, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

O'Melveny Is Accused Of Aiding Deceptive Deals

By Anna Scott and Kari Hamanaka
Daily Journal Staff Writers
May, 2010
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The trustee of a bankrupt real estate development company has accused O'Melveny & Myers and one of its top partners of helping the company engage in deceptive financial transactions that ultimately led to $35 million in losses for its creditors, according to a new federal lawsuit.

The transactions were designed to help the chairman and chief executive of the company, Empire Land, remove a clause from a loan agreement with now-defunct lender IndyMac Bank in which he personally guaranteed half of an $89 million loan, the lawsuit said. The O'Melveny partner was on the company's board of directors.

The complaint, filed April 23 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside, called the acts by the firm and the partner, Peter T. Healy, "malicious" and "outrageous." It was filed by lawyers for Richard K. Diamond, the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee for Empire Land and seven of its affiliated companies. In addition to O'Melveny and Healy, the complaint named as defendants Empire Land's chairman and CEO, James P. Previti, along with three other former Empire officials and the developer's management company, Empire Partners Inc.

The complaint, filed by the Century City-based Landau Gottfried & Berger, seeks $80 million in economic damages plus punitive damages from O'Melveny for claims including professional negligence and breach of fiduciary duty to the debtors.

Healy, who is based in San Francisco, is co-chair of O'Melveny's corporate finance and capital markets practice and leads the office's transactions practice. The lawsuit said he joined the firm in 1989; his firm biography said he specializes in capital market transactions, ranging from public offerings to private placements, and has advised boards on mergers and acquisitions.

In a statement, an O'Melveny spokeswoman said the allegations in the lawsuit are "baseless and without merit" but declined to comment on them specifically or in detail. Healy did not respond to several requests for an interview.

Previti could not be reached for comment. Larry R. Day, former in-house counsel for Empire Land and a defendant, declined comment.

The complaint targets Healy for his role in the financial transfers as an Empire Partners director. It also charges that, because he was acting as an agent of O'Melveny for Empire at the time, the firm is liable for his conduct and guilty of professional negligence.

Lawyers say trustee-filed lawsuits are not unusual in large bankruptcy cases. Trustees often analyze the behavior of the bankrupt entity's principals prior to their filing and look for any culpability as part of the normal due diligence process.

"The trustee certainly took very seriously filing action against O'Melveny as a firm and understands it's a large institution," said Michael Gottfried, a partner at Landau Gottfried. "It was considered very, very seriously."

Previti, a veteran homebuilder, founded the Ontario-based Empire Land in the early part of the decade. The company made its mark building master-planned communities in California, mostly in the Inland Empire, and Arizona. Empire Land listed assets of about $106 million and liabilities of about $500 million when it filed for bankruptcy, according to published reports.

Healy, the O'Melveny partner, had a business relationship with Empire that pre-dated his joining the law firm, and he brought the company in as a client, according to the lawsuit. Healy served as a director of Empire Land Inc. from 2002 until 2008 and as the general partner for four of its real estate projects, according to Diamond's complaint. Meanwhile, O'Melveny served as Empire Land's outside corporate counsel on various matters during the same time period.

The lawsuit stems from dealings involving a Palmdale master-planned residential development, Anaverde, for which Healy provided legal services. The IndyMac loan on the project was coming due in August 2007, and the company did not have the funds to repay it, the complaint said.

Rather than going into default, the executives sought to extend the loan term. To do so, Empire Land had to prove it had $10 million in ready cash. So Previti and the other defendants allegedly infused Empire Land with money from several of its 100 affiliated companies to temporarily give the appearance of liquidity, the complaint said. The money was later transferred back.

"It was essentially a matter of... putting the money into the entity and transferring it out shortly after," said Gottfried. "It was giving the impression that the money was part of the Empire Land assets."

Because of the extension, Previti was able to refinance the IndyMac loan with a new lender and remove the personal guaranty clause.

Empire Land and seven of its affiliates eventually filed bankruptcy in April 2008. The companies would have sought bankruptcy protection nearly a year earlier, however, had Previti defaulted on the IndyMac loan, according to the complaint. By the time the companies did file, Diamond alleges, they wasted tens of millions of dollars continuing to operate as active businesses.

The Empire-related bankruptcy cases were consolidated and converted from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 in December 2008.

NACA Is Gearing Up For The Next "Save the Dream" Tour 2010

The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America ("NACA") is a non-profit, community advocacy and homeownership organization. NACA’s primary goal is to build strong, healthy neighborhoods in urban and rural areas nationwide through affordable homeownership. NACA has made the dream of homeownership a reality for thousands of working people by counseling them honestly and effectively, enabling even those with poor credit to purchase a home or refinance a predatory loan with far better terms than those provided even in the prime market.

Investing In Working People

The NACA homeownership program is our answer to the huge subprime and predatory lending industry. NACA has conclusively shown that when working people get the benefit of a prime rate loan, they can resolve their financial problems, make their mortgage payments and become prime borrowers. NACA’s track record of helping people who have credit problems become homeowners or refinance out of a predatory loan debunks the myth that high rates and fees are necessary to compensate for their "credit risk."

Started in 1988, NACA has a tremendous track record of successful advocacy against predatory and discriminatory lenders as well as providing the best mortgage program in America with $10 billion in funding commitments. NACA is the largest housing services organization in the country and is rapidly expanding by growing its existing 30+ offices, headquartered in Boston, MA, opening many new offices nationwide, and expanding the services it offers its membership. NACA’s confrontational community organizing and unprecedented mortgage program have set the national standard for assisting low- and moderate-income people to achieve the dream of homeownership.

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The incredible NACA mortgage allows NACA Members to purchase or refinance homes with:

no down payment,

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and at a below-market interest rate.

Everyone gets the same incredible terms, including the below-market interest rate, regardless of their credit score or other factors. NACA also provides free, comprehensive housing services. NACA counsels Members into the extraordinary NACA mortgage using character-based lending criteria that takes each Member’s circumstances into account to determine whether they are ready for homeownership and what they can afford. This is in contrast to risk-based pricing where people are often given loans they cannot afford while brokers and others make tremendous fees and profits.

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Soon, NACA will once again travel across the county in order to help America’s at risk homeowners. Here are some of the projected cities for 2010:

◦Miami, FL April 15-19

◦Chicago, IL May 13-19

◦Atlantic City, NJ May 21-25

◦Los Angeles, CA June 3-7

◦Minneapolis, MN To-be-announced

◦Dallas, TX To-be-announced

◦Jackson, MS To-be-announced

◦Seattle, WA To-be-announced

This is a Save-a-Thon, that means 24 hours a day or over 100 straight hours. We expect many thousands of homeowners with an unaffordable mortgage to attend these events. NACA’s historic Save the Dream Tour has been an incredible success with over 375,000 participants in fifteen cities and many thousands of homeowners receiving same day solutions. Most people have had their mortgages payments permanently reduced by over $500 and many by over $1,000 a month often with interest rates reduced to 3% or 2% and sometimes a principal reduction. All of NACA’s services are FREE. Over 300 NACA counselors will work with you to determine an affordable mortgage payment. In addition, the servicers/lenders have hundreds of staff on-site and in their offices to approve your solution.