WAHMfest

I contacted the local hospital, which hosts a New Mothers meeting twice a month, and asked if they would be interested in having me come in to talk about how to start your own home-based business. They thought it was a great idea, and so I started planning for my presentation. One of the handouts I wanted to be able to give the mothers was a list of helpful references. I planned to include the County Tax Office, Zoning Office, Chamber of Commerce, etc., as well as a list of moms I knew who were already running their own home-based businesses. I figured anyone who was interested in a certain company or career path could contact a "mentor" about doing the same thing.

Then I started thinking, "What if, instead of just giving these new moms a list of people to contact, I actually put them all in one room together?" Thus WAHMfest (the Work At Home Moms Festival) was born. I called the Small Business Administration and Women's Business Resource Center to see if they were familiar with any "expo" specifically aimed at moms who wanted to work from home, and they both said they had never heard of anything like it (and the WBRC wanted to be involved if I started one).

My next step was to find a place to hold this expo, and I started with my Homeowners' Association. They agreed to let us use the clubhouse for a reduced fee. Finally, I started contacting my friends (both on- and off-line) who had home-based businesses and asked if they would be interested in being exhibitors. The response was overwhelming. Not only were most of them interested, they all had FRIENDS who would be interested. I started planning in November, and by January, I had sold out all the booths that our little clubhouse could hold -- and still had people who wanted to advertise, volunteer, be involved or kept on a list for next year. I also went out and talked to groups that might be interested in advertising to moms and subsidized the program (and some of our advertising) through ads.

The day of WAHMfest, we had approximately 200 moms come through, looking for opportunities and information. For a first year, I thought we did pretty well. Now we're planning for WAHMfest 2000. Not only do we hope to expand the size of WAHMfest here in Virginia, I am hoping to be able to expand WAHMfest across the country. If you're interested in getting involved or would like more information, feel free to visit http://www.wahmfest.org to learn more.

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