A Lil Bit About Business & A Lil Bit About Family

Wow and wow, so much has gone on since I last posted. I had to figure out how to move forward with the passing of my aunt, I thought I had it figured out but only fell backwards. However, I do understand that life does go on and she was all about life and she wanted to see me reach my success and that is what I'm holding on to and pushing myself out. I had been staying in and not doing a whole lot and there has been so many things going on with the cheesecake business

http://mamacheesecake.com/ 

which means I really need to shake a leg (hey that's what she would say!). So once again I am dusting myself off and getting right back up and you know I am going to shake a leg!

I had this wonderful opportunity to do a cheesecake tasting with vegans and if Mama Cheesecake can pull it off and create a dynamite tasting vegan cheesecake it will be so worth it.  I have two recipes I am working with and making changes along the way giving it my spin in hopes to give it the original Mama Cheesecake taste. 

I am also working on the website and will have it completed by the end of this month as planned I am currently working on the menu. I could cut and paste my current menu onto the page but if I do that it will look like a cut & paste so instead I'm learning how to use a plugin to help me make it look professional! 

I was thinking back to when I was making cheesecakes when my kids were much younger and it's crazy that I am finding myself doing this baking thing. I somehow feel that we all sometimes have to go down one street only to find our way back to where we should have been, does that make sense? 

Have you ever found yourself running in one direction to get away from something only to find yourself right back where you were? For instance when I left the city I grew-up in I said "see ya later" I had no thought of ever returning for anything more then a visit! And, yet after my divorce guess where I ended up at? Yup, right back there but you know I truly feel it was for a reason so many things happened that has actually helped me to become who I am now and that's not a bad thing. In fact it is a very good thing and I am so excited about the future... I know there will be other ups and downs but I and all of us should always remember that there is always the up side of the down side, lol, it does sound funny but it is so true. We get so stuck in the down side we don't know how to get back up again and we find ourselves falling further down rather then up. We attract more and more things that makes us sad, mad and upset and we continue to feel like there is no way out. the good news is there is a way out! We just have to want it bad enough that we are willing to make some serious changes in our lives; though it's not easy it must be done to make the hand of fate move in the direction of positive happenings!!!

While raising my kids I had to always remember that and trust me there were days I just had no idea how it would turn out. I never thought I would end up turning my cheesecake recipe into a thriving business and yet that is what I have done. I really believe raising a family as a single parent or with two parents is so very similar to raising a new business from the ground up. There is so much to look after!!!

I told a friend today that I was all over the place... I was creating some new cheesecakes for a tasting on Friday with vegans and I'm hoping they like my vegan cheesecakes! I was working on this post for the blog as well as working on the website. I told her it reminded me of the days when I use to juggle work, parenting, and home front and yet I can say I still miss the those days of... mom, mom, mom come here or I have to have a new dress or how about I really need you to be on time to my performance! How did we ever stay sane? Oh yes, the same way I do it now - pull my hair out (not really, just joking!!), by having the faith and understanding that somehow it would all turn out. Yes having faith! 

And, so it goes or as my aunt would say... "Carry on" 

And, A Business Was Born

First an foremost I apologize for writing such a long post... I shall try really hard to start making my post shorter!

I did state last week that my next post would be about my new business that will allow me to continue with this blog and with growing a positive community for one parent families in order for them to now feel like they are Parenting on their own!

So when my kids were small I was able to get my mom to come and watch my kids after school till I got home from work. I worked for a non-profit for ten years and they were always having pot-lucks and of course everyone was always trying to out do each other with what they brought. My mom knew I liked to bake and cook so she said I should come up with my own recipe for something since I was always changing recipes. I came across a recipe for cheesecake and since I truly didn’t care for cheesecake I thought why not create one that I would like. I began playing with flavors and ingredients once I came up with one I liked I took I took it to the very next pot-luck and wow did it get rave reviews! So much so that they asked me to make another with a different flavor and of course once again playing with flavors and ingredients that weekend till I came up with a recipe I liked. As soon as the next pot-luck came around I took it with me. Well of course it was a huge hit and it was at this point that my boss who knew I needed to raise money for my daughter’s 8^th grade trip, suggested that I sell the cheesecakes to help raise the money needed.

To my surprise I did so with great success. I continued to sell my cheesecakes as a means to raising money not just for my daughter’s 8^th grade trip but for both of their activities. I did this trough their elementary and middle school periods which helped us out so very much. Here is a picture of one of the cakes 

I use to do this cute one for Valentine’s Day.

However, after ten years of working with the non-profit I was downsized due to the non-profit losing their funding for the program I over saw it was a scary time for me. The interesting thing is eleven months prior to be downsized I was promoted to the director of a program which was running a gourmet cookie and brownie store! Wow, I never knew that many, many years later what I learned and experienced would help me out. I was told that there was no way I could make this little business support myself and my children so I focused on creating a moderate, “safe” career path for myself in the insurance industry. I built my clientele and my insurance business in order to provide for my family and was able to create residual income as well. Of course this meant I had to relinquish my cheesecake business though most of my family and friends were not any happier that I went into the insurance field since I was a 10099 employee. For me it gave me the feel that I was somehow working for myself. I was also busy trying to figure out how I could create a community for one-parent families as well so I was very busy and all the while keeping my children close by. Again always using my community to help me be assured they were in good hands they attended summer camps and after school care as well as having my mom their when I was not.

However, after fourteen years in the insurance field when I realized it was time to leave the field and I found myself trying to figure out what I would do next! I did get busy figuring out once again how I could create this one-parent family into a business that would create revenue that I could live off of. I was lucky enough in 2011 to get connected with Count Me In, for women’s economic independence via the National Latina Business Women’s Association - Los Angeles Chapter (NLBWA-LA). They are an organization that was created and launched in July 2003 to meet the needs of the growing ranks of Latina Entrepreneurs, Executives and Professionals from L.A. (as FYI you do not have to be a Latina to become a member or to gain support from this awesome organization). I was attending the NLBWA-LA’s Emerging Latina in Business course when a special program was coming to town and they suggested that if we could attend we should. It was a program that was being put on with some top women in business and Coca-Cola and I thought why not. That one day program introduced me to Count Me In’s Founder & President Nell Merlino who is leading the national not-for-profit provider of resources for women to grow their micro businesses into million dollar enterprises. I was totally amazed by what she was informing all of us in the audience regarding women in business. I was also moved by the other amazing women such as Nely Galan, an independent producer and a former President of Entertainment for Telemundo and founder of the Adelante Movement. Who gave us all information that kept us at the edge of our seats and reminding us all to not waste our money but to grow it and push forward in business. There were others as well such as Isisara Bey, Vice President of Programs & Education for Count Me In, and “journey agent” for Make Mine a Million $ Business competitions and workshops across the country. Another amazing speaker was Sandra Cisneros, an American writer and poet who’s novel “The House on Mango Street” about young Latina women coming of age in Chicago, sold more than two million copies. Her story of how she became an author was so inspiring! The list of these powerful women was enough to really inspire me to move forward and to figure out how to get my single parent program on the move.

I ended up winning a spot as one of ten extremely lucky women to participate in a program put on my Count Me In by People Biz a remarkable coaching program for business and so much more. The program was an introduction to the Business Accelerator Course that would be one of the prizes when women participate with the 2012 Count Me In, Pitch Competition. Well needless to say I jumped on board with this and in 2012 without thought that I would end-up being one of the competition winners learned how to pitch my business.

As a winner of the 2012 Pitch Competition I was placed into a group of 12 other women to participate and be a student with the People Biz’s “Business Accelerator Course”. By the end of the course I was aware that though my single parenting program is a great idea it is far from being a business that will generate the income I need to leave the insurance field. I choose to make this blog become part of the community for single parent families along with a Meetup group. This is my way of giving back and helping other single parent families to find their way through the maze of parenting on their own.

OK, so this is all great and it is part of my philanthropic portion of my life but the fact remains that I needed to find a business I could be happy with.  In early April I was meeting my cousin’s daughter (Acacia Mora) who had been helping me out administratively to tell her it did not look good and that I did not know what I was going to do next. She looked at me and said “I know go, it’s time for Plan B” I looked at her and asked wow, there is a Plan B? She said yes, you always talk about how you once sold cheesecakes and we did get to taste it and it’s pretty good. She continued to say she would even help me since she loves to bake and would also like to create a business around cooking/baking and health. She thought this would be a great way for her to learn how to do what she wants and asked if I wanted the help she would be there.

It took me three weeks to figure it out; I spoke to my amazing business coach from the Business Accelerator course Alicia Marie, founder and managing director of People Biz, Inc. I reviewed everything from the course and realized I had everything and the knowledge to make this happen. My next step was to rekindle my passion for baking, after all I had been in the insurance world for fourteen years. I then found myself thinking about how I could develop my signature cheesecakes into a thriving business, and more importantly feel like I was making a difference in different communities? I knew the cheesecakes would have to be the best around and different then the top seller (Cheesecake Factory). Further, I knew that I had to “give back” to communities. I needed to figure out how cheesecakes made with love, and are the best in town can also “pay it forward”! Well with the help of Alicia I was able to come up with how I can do all of this and more!

I had to come up with a name and do some tasting and conduct some tasting to assure my cheesecakes were still as great as they were. Three of them were held over a three week period and I was thrilled with the outcome – questioners were completed and from them I ended-up making some slight adjustments to the recipes with an outrageously delicious outcome! This how…

was born!  

I wanted to make sure that the name some how the name would make someone think of family and of homemade quality goods. When I heard the name I said it over and over again aloud and all of a sudden I realized that Mama was the name we (cousins) called my grandmother on my mother’s side! I then said to myself well that is it!

Once I knew this was what I was going to do I got to work on my business plan in order to assure I truly had a great road map (so to speak) to follow. In fact at the National Latina Business Women Association, Los Angeles 10^th Annual Awards Ceremony I was awarded a $2,500 Grant for the 2013 Business Management Academy as a participant with their annual program which included perfecting my elevator speech, creating a business plan along with many other requirements.

Mama Cheesecakes currently has one wholesale account, many repeat customers and after a short time of creating my Facebook Business Page I was pleasantly surprised to have received quite a few followers. In fact click this link to go directly to my Mama Cheesecake page   https://www.facebook.com/MamaCheesecake  and help me reach 100 followers with in a two week period!

At the moment if you live in Los Angeles area or surrounding area you can order via, e-mail mlopez@mamacheesecake.com or by phone 707-704-3482 or by fax 323-837-4770. However, by the end of this month I will have our new website up and running which will bring in the side of this business which will allow me to “pay it forward”! Also I will be able to ship the cheesecakes all over the U.S. which I am working on right now! If you are currently living outside of the U.S., I can’t ship to you but I will work on this as well!!

This is all so very exciting and if it was not for all the marvelous people in my life over the years and for all the good and bad experiences I would not be embarking on this amazing and exciting journey it’s such a riot to be on this trip!

Well now you know the story of my other business which is giving me the affordability to keep this community growing and to make it as large as I can.

I have to give you the links to all of the amazing organizations I have been so thrilled and extremely grateful to be a part of - if you don't know who they are then I suggest you find out because it is all of them along with individuals and books I mentioned in my last blog post that got me here today! They are also part of why I have such amazing kids who are now all grown up and living their own exciting lives!!!

In no special order:

• http://www.nlbwa-la.org/ for the National Latina Business Women Association-Los Angeles
• http://www.countmein.org/
• http://www.peoplebizinc.com/
• http://theadelantemovement.com/about/

And, so it goes… 

How Do I Grow A Business & Be A Great Parent?

You know many single moms & dads have the desire to build their own business having a vision of the great benefits it would hold for their family and yet they never move forward.  I know for me I always wanted to run my own business since I was small but was always told I could not run a business.  Once my ex and I divorced one of the things I thought about over and over again was running my own business but I was told over and over again you are the main bread winner of your family now, you can’t take a chance on a business.  They always made it clear that I had to give up my dreams and make sure I had safe money for my family according to family and friends it was the right thing and the responsible thing - to have a JOB.

Oh I sold Princess House, Tupperware, Avon, Mary Kaye and even tried Amway!  I did well and always hit awards however, none of them fed the need nor my dream of running a successful business.  Does any of this ring true for any of you?

As my kids got older I wanted to make sure that I always showed and told them that they had my support for what they wanted to do with their life.  Well as long as it did not hurt anyone including themselves, it was important to me for them to feel supported unlike the way I felt.

During junior year of high school my daughter came home and said I want to go to Japan for a month mom! I said “What are you crazy?” I stopped and asked how and what was this all about. She explained there was an organization who sent two students every summer for a month to Japan at no cost to the family however, each family had to commit to three years of participating with the organization (a sister city organization). I said "wow".  I wanted to do the same program when I was in high school but was told no it was too much to ask of the family.  The following week we went to an orientation meeting and obtained all the information about the program, the trip and what would be expected of our family.  The next day with my daughter we sat down with my mother (who was at our home during the day while I was at work).  My sister since she lived with us would have agree as well due to the fact that part of our commitment would be to share our home with a student from Ashiya, Japan (the association was a Sister City program in the City of Montebello).  We were able to get everyone on board including my son. It was no surprise that my daughter was selected to be the Student Ambassador for the City of Montebello that summer. And, we were the first single parent family that was ever selected, they told us they truly felt how committed we would be to the organization. I ended up becoming the president of the organization for four years and took them to a whole new level.

My son later came to me and said he wanted to know why our city did not have a skateboard park in our city where they could have a safe place to skate?  I suggested that he attend a City Council meeting and ask this question to our City Council members.  I went with him and we found out about six months prior some older boys came together and asked the same question. A council member asked my son if he would be willing to sit on a committee to help make this happen and my son told them sure and my mom is really good at this kind of stuff so she will to!  The entire council laughed and the audience as well, the council members asked me if I would be willing to sit on the committee as well and of course I said yes. We met with several boys the director of the city's Parks and Recreation department and came up with a plan; not to mention I became the Chairperson of the group.  My vision for this committee was to create a committee that was truly formed from our community, we solicited to neighbors, local businesses, our police & fire department and we gathered as many skateboarders as possible to be a part of our committee.  We were a hit and extremely successful then and today the City of Montebello has one of the top skateboard parks in the state!  My kids both learned there is a right way and wrong way to get things done and most importantly that they can't do it alone!

I truly believe in what I have mentioned in earlier post that "it takes a village to raise a child" and that is what I truly did. But I know you are thinking what does any of this have to do with how I grow a business and be a great parent?

Here is my thought on this comment and if I had the chance to do this single parenting thing over again these five items are what I would do different:

1.      If I did not have supportive individuals in my circle of friends and family I would look for individuals who
      were looking for the same thing. For instance... I would go to Meetup.com and find other single moms
      and dads!

2.      I would not listen to those who say No You Can’t Do That!

3.      I would surround myself with positive individuals, books, and audios. Such as “Millionaire Mind”, “The
      Secret”, Anything from Bob Proctor like his book “You Were Born Rich” Joel Osteen, T. Harv Ecker
      and so much more but these books and individuals are amazing!

4.      I would look for organizations such as “count me in (for women)”, National Latina Business Women’s
      Association (you do not have to be a Latina to join). These are organizations that will keep you pumped
      up and help you formulate your ideas or point you in the right direction. Single dads out there I am sure
      there are lots of organizations you can join as well. I will do some research for you all. I am part of the
      two associations but there are others out there, just become part of one!

5.      Get a handle on your finances, this is real important. I did several different things to help including in the
      very beginning I went to Consumer Credit Counselors. Again there are so many other places to go to
      including attending a three day Intensive program with T. Harv Ecker.

If you make a commitment to the list above I promise you it will make a difference in your world. If you are wanting to start your own business or go back to school, change jobs, change careers or what ever it is to help your family and children then do it and create a great group of people to support you!

Just start making changes! If anyone needs a bit more detail or support you can always send a confidential e-mail to mlopez@parentingonyourown.com

As for the family side you always keep your kids close to you and when you can't have them with you make plans to have them watched by someone you trust in order to attend meetings and such.  Keep in mind our children learn from us, so if they see you being powerful and going after your dreams guess what they will do and be the same way!  When my children were younger I had many weekends where I had to go to the office and guess what I use to take them with me to the office.  I did my work and my kids brought toys and books they had fun, we would take a break and have our sack lunch together.  Almost every night before going to bed we would read a book and then tell each other our dreams. 

I stay involved with my kids at all times and if I had created my own business I would have continued to do the same thing.  Will it be hard to do this?  You may ask, I would love to say of course not it will be a piece of cake but lets be real it will be hard and you will have to juggle your time.  However, remember it won’t be forever, you make your choices.  Though I did not have my own business I did do a lot of other businesses as mentioned like Tupperware.  Since I would be gone on certain nights without my kids I would have choices to make like hanging out with my girlfriends or be at home with my kids on the weekend.  Well of course my kids won but I was always one to make adjustments such as inviting my friends over to our home instead.  We had bar-b-ques and gathering where we would all come together, I got what I wanted adult time as well as my kids and my kids got to play and have me near by.  It was a win, win situation for all.  The same thing can be done if I was putting in extra time to grow a business.  

So take the bull by the horn and go after your dreams don’t delay, don’t wait till everything is just right because it is never just right!

I am now building my business and I'm so excited and happy and you know what both of my kids are so excited for me, they are proud of what I am doing.  Which has helped them to see and go after what they want!

In my next post on Wednesday, July 10th... I will share with you my new business and I'm hoping to have an announcement of my next guest blogger and/or interview by then.

And, so it goes…
Oops, I almost forgot to mention:
If you live in the Los Angeles area or will be in the LA area on Saturday, August 3rd Parenting on your own will be having a Champagne Celebration to celebrate the new business Mama Cheesecake and Parenting on your own!
It will be hosted by An Empowered Women organization and the exciting part is I will be interviewing Founder, Desiree Doubrox, a divorced mom who raised her two boys in a one parent family home as well,  creating businesses to support them! Check out their (An Empowered Women) site at http://www.anempoweredwoman.com/about/ .
If you would like to attend click here, location TBD:
https://anempoweredwoman.infusionsoft.com/app/form/test/bec196027f074b26b5a659a00027b02d?inf_contact_key=0f87383e53ddc86a906cbc6d177388c5