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Introduction

Who knew that when Rae Lynn used her Mom’s 40 year old sewing machine to create a bumper pad for her toddler boys’ bedside walls that it would lead her down a life-changing path.  After all, at a young age she had become disinterested in school and more interested in having fun.  Her grades allowed her to just squeak by.  Having no real aspirations or dreams, she chose not to go to college, but instead to head right out into the rat-race of full-time employment.  She thought, isn’t that what we’re all supposed to do?  Over the next 22 years, she learned some life-changing lessons that lead to entrepreneurship and in the right direction for success.

Background

Rae Lynn started her career in the health insurance industry in an entry-level position.  Her parents had always taught her to put 100% into everything that she did, and this lesson was finally starting to sink in.  So, that is what she did.  Over the years, she was promoted again and again and began going to night-school for her business degree.  Things were going well.  She met a man and it finally seemed like her destiny was playing out.  They got married, bought their first home together and things looked great for a short time.  Shockingly to most, the marriage fell apart and they were divorced within 19 months of their wedding vows.  She had to sell her home because the credit card bills were piling up from buying groceries and other necessities while paying the mortgage with a single low income.

After those 19 months of being emotionally abused, Rae Lynn began to feel invigorated at the prospect of starting over with a clean slate.  A whole new confidence had filler her.  This was her very first empowering moment.  She no longer thought she had to settle as she had in that relationship.  She knew that her true prince charming would come along and she wasn’t settling for anything less.  This self-proclaimed enlightening period lead to some magnificent changes both professionally and personally. 

Within a year, she met her prince charming.  A year after that, she was offered a management position within the same company she had started with right out of high school.  All of a sudden, she was managing 30+ people and she developed the strategy of “fake it until you make it”.  Although she wasn’t comfortable with public speaking, she just pretended she was.  She realized that she could trick herself into filling any roll now just by acting the part.  In other words, when she wasn’t in management, she didn’t have too much confidence in her abilities and was quite shy.  Knowing that this personality couldn’t possibly manage that many people without a negative outcome, she began to pretend she was confident and outgoing, and soon she was.

Just a few years later, Rae Lynn had been handed another extreme challenge, a real slap in the face.  After roughly eighteen years with the same company, she was being “eliminated” as part of a cost cutting strategy put forth by new upper-management.  It took the wind out of her, even though to some extent she could feel it coming.  It was still shocking.  What would happen now?  She and her husband had two toddlers and were already struggling to pay the bills.  Her heart pounded so hard at that moment, she thought it could be heard by everyone.  Little did she know that she already had the answer.

Personal and Professional Challenges

Rae Lynn looked back at all that she had learned over the years; that she could fake it until she makes it, not to “settle” in life, and that she deserves to be happy and do something that she loves.  Past experiences had lead her to know that she could accomplish anything she set her mind to.  She decided to take the bull by the horns.  She wasn’t going to settle for what most feel is what they “should do”.  She had an idea and an opportunity now, although she had absolutely no knowledge of how to run a business, but that didn’t stop her.  She certainly had the time to put into it now as she was unemployed.  She convinced her husband that she could make it work, began researching online until the wee hours of the morning and started making lots of phone calls looking for information.  She was led to the non-profit Center for Women & Enterprise in Worcester, Massachusetts, where they offer business start-up workshops and courses for little to nothing.  She took every possible class that she could, joined networking groups, and contacted other related product business owners for information. 

Only six months after being laid off, she launched her new business selling products online for children’s bedtime routines.  It had been right in front of her face and she never noticed it until she lost her job.  She had previously made two long thick bumper pads that she attached to the walls next to her sons’ beds to prevent them from bumping into their walls while they slept.  At that time, she had no idea that these were the first of their kind. 

There were lots of new challenges to face.  She had to learn from scratch how to finance the business, how to market the business, create an image for it, create a website with shopping cart capabilities, do all the search engine optimizing and so on, all while raising two very young boys in pre-school.  One thing she did know was that there was nothing that she couldn’t accomplish if she set her mind to it.  If she didn’t already have the knowledge or skills, she would take a class, research online or network with others and find some one with the skills that were required, often bartering for help.  Where there is a will, there is a way. 

Today, Rae Lynn is very happily married, working part-time for the Center for Women & Enterprise, the same center that walked her through the process of becoming economically self-sufficient through entrepreneurship.   This position was brought to her attention by an acquaintance she had made while networking and taking various workshops.  On Mondays and Fridays, Rae Lynn stays home with her 4-year old and inter-mingles working on her own business, researching online, filling orders and optimizing her website.  She is a typical “soccer-Mom” in the sense that she brings her children to karate, t-ball and soccer, among other school activities.  She does not miss anything that involves her kids. 

Rae Lynn’s business continues to grow and she continues to learn and foster relationships with other like-minded people.  She has two great opportunities ahead of her, both now available to her through relationships she has nurtured over time.  One involves custom bumper pads for beds made for children with special needs, and the other is an opportunity to run the daily operations of another Mom-owned business selling childen’s products.  However, her priority will always be her family.  It is a constant balancing act that she seems to be mastering pretty well.  She is hoping that her next challenge may be quicker Kidz Comfort growth.  If this is the case, is it possible to continue to balance family and professional life?