After five years of staying home to care for her two children, Katie Byers, 35, needed some kind of an intellectual and creative outlet.

She had practiced law for 5 1/2 years and was a senior staff attorney before her firm was bought and downsized by a larger firm. At the time, she was pregnant with her first child, so she decided to become a stay-at-home mother. While raising Sophie, now 4, and Charlotte, now 2, she experimented with jewelry making, painting and other crafts, eventually discovering a way of making purses from books and scraps of fabric.

Byers was surprised to find that people would pay more than $50 for the purses, so this June, she started an in-home business, Novel Purses. She sells her purses by word-of-mouth and online.

“Before starting my business,” she said, “I missed the intellectual stimulation and adult relationships. But as far as the rat race, I don’t miss the rat race. It’s nice to have breakfast with my children every morning.”

Byers is one of several women who are realizing that they can run a business and care for their children under one roof. This trend is evident by the term recently given to these kind of women: mompreneurs.

Fifty-six of all women-owned firms are home-based, compared with the overall national average of 49 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s 2002 Economic Census. And this number is growing. According to a study released by the Center for Women’s Business Research, one-woman businesses grew at twice the rate of all one-person businesses in the United States.

“Maybe for women,” said Byers, “it gives that balance that we’re all looking for. … I still get to stay home with my children but don’t have to sacrifice any of my professional goals.”

Janet Tingwald, president of the Central Iowa chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, has noticed more women in general are starting businesses, which she attributes to more women being willing to take on leadership roles and pursue their dreams.

The rise of Internet commerce has also helped, allowing women to sell their products and services to a broader audience without changing out of their pajamas.

Because of the Internet, Angela Petraline, 35, was able to turn her hobby of collecting vintage clothing into a business. She started selling vintage clothing on eBay when her husband lost his job. She also continued working at Home Depot, coordinating kitchen installations.

But after getting a divorce in February, she quit her job and started selling clothes full time, which allows her to be home with her 3-year-old daughter, Ava. In August, she launched her Web site, www.dorotheasclosetvintage.com, in addition to selling clothes through an online vintage mall. Her business has grown quickly, to the point that she can support herself and her child from the revenues, supplemented with wages from a part-time job at a friend’s store. She has several clothing racks in her home and also stores some apparel at her friend’s shop.

Benefits and challenges

Byers and Petraline have found that being able to stay at home with their kids and not pay any major overhead costs as the biggest advantages to working from home.

“You can work when you want to work, when it fits into your schedule,” said Byers, “such as when your child is napping or after you put the girls to bed at night. And there’s no wardrobe required.”

It also provides some financial freedom. “I missed having my own paycheck,” said Byers.

But there also are some challenges to working from home, the biggest probably being the distraction of caring for a child.

“[The business] happened by accident,” Petraline said. “I’m still struggling to make it work for me, to feel like I give my daughter enough attention. Even though I’m home with her, there’s that guilt that sits on you because your child doesn’t understand you’re working. … I’m working to find a balance.”

Petraline said she puts in about 12 hours a day, which includes researching for new clothes, cleaning and ironing clothes, taking photographs for her Web site and handling online sales. She recently started taking her child to preschool three days a week to give her more time to work.

Byers spends about 20 to 30 hours a week making her purses and has received so many orders that she’s considering hiring a couple of seamstresses to help. She also has started taking her youngest child to a baby sitter three times a week.

“It can be difficult to carve out the time,” she said. “It’s easy to fill your day up with day-to-day activities. There’s always something to be done: laundry, dishes, give kids bath. You have to be disciplined to set aside time and say I’m going to work and only going to work during this time.”

Many first-time business owners are also confused about what you have to do to start a business, said Sherry Shafer, director of the Mid-Iowa Small Business Development Center. She reminds people that starting a business is 90 percent planning and 10 percent implementing those plans.

“Whether you’re home-based or storefront,” Shafer said. “you’re still basically planning a business. You’re doing business plans, cash flows, figuring out what taxes look like, your income.” Some cities even require you to get a home-based business license, she said, which most people are unaware of.

Byers had to file a trade name with her county and fill out a sales tax permit with the Iowa Department of Revenue. She also has to file her quarterly sales taxes. She is considered a sole proprietorship but may consider becoming incorporated after a year. Having taken a course in corporate law while in school helped figure out these steps, she said.

Petraline said her business has taken off faster than she expected, but she has saved all her sales receipts and may hire an accountant to help her with taxes.

The alternative

Devon Wendler Alvord, 26, thought she would work from home once she had her daughter. But after taking this summer off to be with her, while still working from home, she realized she needed to be in an office environment.

Although she runs her own business as a financial services professional for Midwest Associates, which is a part of MassMutual Financial Group, she still shares office space with other agents. They agreed to let Alvord bring her child, Emma Lou, now 5 months old, to the office while she worked. Eventually, however, Alvord decided to put her child in day care full time, so that she could concentrate on her work.

“I would say I work smarter now,” Alvord said, “because time is more precious to me. When I go home, I want to be home. I want to spend quality time with my daughter. I definitely make that a priority.”

Being a business owner still gives Alvord the flexibility to leave early to spend time with Emma Lou. “I don’t have somebody telling me that I have to work eight hours a day,” she said. “I have the freedom and flexibility to have the quality family time that I value and cherish.”

As former president of the Central Iowa chapter of NAWBO, she has seen a lot of women making similar decisions.

“I think [having a child] is a huge reason why women go into business for themselves,” she said. “If they are starting a family or having a family, they’re able to wear those multiple hats.”

Although Petraline and Byers are not interested in opening bricks-and-mortar stores, they are already considering expanding their businesses.

Petraline is considering selling her clothes by appointment to Greater Des Moines residents and is looking at taking trips around the country with her child during the summer to find more clothes.

Byers may consider seeing if boutiques around central Iowa would be interested in selling her purses, given that she can make enough to keep up with the demand. She may also consider going back to practicing law once her children are in school full time.

By the numbers

Women-owned businesses in Iowa, 2004

64,408

Number of privately held women-owned businesses.

13

Billions of dollars women-owned businesses made in sales.

102,448

Number of people employed by women-owned businesses.

12

Percentage growth of women-owned firms from 1997 to 2004.

45

Iowa’s rank in growth in the number of women-owned firms between 1997 and 2004.

Source: Center for Women’s Business Research