What is an entrepreneur?

“An entrepreneur is an individual who, rather than working as an employee, runs a small business and assumes all the risks and rewards of a given business venture, idea, or good or service offered for sale. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes.” – Investopedia

What is a momtraneur?

I googled what is means but nothing came up except for “mompreneurs”, women who run their own businesses while being full-time parents as well. Am I the first person to coin the term momtraneur? Well, since nothing else is coming up on Google except my blog posts, I guess I’ll be the one to describe it…

“Momtraneurs, following the definition of mompreneurs, are women who run their own businesses while being full-time parents and travelers as well. So that’s me. I’m a mom; I travel a lot; and I work for myself. And that’s what you’ll be if you’re thinking of becoming a mom, traveler and entrepreneur as well.” – Jennie Vee

Though I’ve delved into numerous side businesses or small ventures that generated extra income in the past, I was never really an entrepreneur (yet). But I’ve always wanted to be one. I remember growing up with not much but I remember doing things that can augment my school baon back then:

• In elementary, I used to sell bookmarks I got from my grandfather who used to work as school superintendent for the Department of Education; I drew cartoons and sold my drawings to my classmates; I made my own stationeries and sold them to friends.
• In high school, I would spend my money buying snacks I can resell at a profit to my classmates; I had my pocket book collection rented out to my schoolmates.
• In college, I joined Issho-Genki, a multilevel marketing company; I did garage sales at home;
• After college, I made my own soaps, spa products, and beaded accessories and sold them to officemates, acquaintances and other networks which caught the attention of Inquirer; I worked as an occasional TV talent doing extras and semi-regular roles on TV soaps and commercials; I sold clothes online; I delved into online freelance work from time to time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did all of those things for extra income which were all well and good but they were never really good enough spirit-wise. I mean, they were able to augment my finances especially  my student budget and later on my travel budget but I’ve always wanted to do more and make it full-blown. But then all my student life, I had a scholarship to maintain. Then after college, I got into a series of jobs that pay well, the last of which was as a government employee in one of our government agencies that didn’t follow the regular salary standardization program so our salaries then were much higher than those of other regular government agencies. With my full-time job and my extra curricular activities (pursuing my MA, acting on the side and singing at Center for Pop Music) plus the numerous weekend travels I did while being employed, my energy was depleted. As the saying goes “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Yep, my spirit was still willing to do more but my flesh already needed some rest. Teehee.

Well, I’m about to turn forty next year, I’m not getting any younger and life is short. I don’t want to be in my deathbed many years (hopefully decades) from now and regret that I never really pursued being a full-time entrepreneur. This is one of the reasons why I set up this blog in the first place, so I can motivate myself further to realize my entrepreneurial dreams.  It’s a good thing that I am metaphorically married to a businessman so he’s always here to push me beyond my limits. So that is my goal now – to set up my own business and do it full-time, not just when I feel like it. I’m already happy being a mom for which I am surprisingly good at and which I will gladly keep doing for the rest of my life. I’ve already traveled to so many places in our country and in Asia and I want us to explore more of the world which would entail us having an abundant cash flow, something that having a successful business can give us. And now I want a business I can call my own. Just like many of my idols,  I can dream and make my dreams come true too, can’t I?

Everything I know about putting up a business is just basically instinctual knowledge. I started taking up MBA back when I was still a government employee but since I was also pursuing my MA, (and doing other things on the side a.k.a. spreading myself too thin), I got burnt out and left the program. Then I eventually left the MA program too because I didn’t see myself pursuing a career in development communication. I wanted to be an actress then! Lol!

And since I’m a full-time mom now and our little family is starting a new agri-business venture, I opted to augment my knowledge through finally studying those business and financial books I’ve collected over the years, as well as reviewing a $425 online business course I took last year. Then, just the other day,  I signed up for a FREE entrepreneurship course at TESDA (http://e-tesda.gov.ph/). One step at a time, right? At least I am doing something about the goal I am pursuing. Perhaps when we have more budget, Mahal can sponsor my tuition fee at Asian Institute of Management.  Hihihi. One day at a time… One goal at a time… One budget at a time.

Being a mom is still my number one priority. I do not want to miss a single moment of our only child’s development. He will only be a baby once (a time that has already gone). He will only be a toddler once (he is in his terrible twos now even if he’s not yet two years old). He will only be a child once. And before we know it, he’s already a young man pursuing girls left and right (Aaaccck! I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that!) And everything else, I will squeeze in between — our travel adventures and entrepreneurship goals. If possible, those three — being a mother, a traveler, an entrepreneur, hence, MomTraNeur, would be my current life’s goals.

Right now, I read my business books, review my previous business course and go through the current entrepreneurship course with TESDA whenever and wherever I can squeeze in some time — at the salon, during an airplane ride, at the bathroom doing number two, before going to bed, or when everyone else is already asleep and I still have extra energy. When we start setting up our farm, I’ve also already come up with a schedule that will incorporate these endeavors to our daily life. I am really quite excited because once again, I am designing a life I want and making it happen! You can do it too (if you haven’t yet). Let’s do it together!

You can read my posts under self-help category if you need guidance in your life’s journey. I read them every now and then to help me remember the lessons I’ve already learned. I will soon come out with a FREE eBook on The Fundamentals of Becoming a MomTraNeur (Design a Life You Want and Make It Happen) so subscribe to my newsletter to get first dibs! Just open my blog to a different browser and when you see the pop-up screen, don’t close it yet. Fill it out with your name and email and you’re subscribed!

That’s it for now. Until my next post!