There's no official definition for the term 'mompreneur,' but it's a title that suggests many things: an attempt to strike a balance between family and work; the pursuit of a long-held dream; independence and creativity.
For Annette Yang, the owner of the Burnaby-based company Fill Your Own and a mom of two, it's all of those things and a word that sums up the last few years of her life perfectly.
"I call myself that all the time - it's exactly what I am," she told the NOW. "I'm a mom first and an entrepreneur second."
Yang runs her company from an office and warehouse site near city hall, but, at first, she was operating out of her home in the Lougheed area.
The company has a full line of carbon-neutral, non-toxic and reusable products for kids and adults, including stainless steel water bottles, plastic-free food containers, reusable lunch bags and litterless lunch kits - all featuring colourful designs (yep, they'll appeal to kids) by Canadian artists.
Like many entrepreneurs - and particularly mompreneurs - Yang got her start when she was at a loss to find a product that she wanted for her own family.
"My husband told me about a month or so ahead of his birthday that what he wanted was reusable water bottles (for the family), so I set out to find some while he was out of town (on business)," she says.
The family had been living in the U.K. for about three years and had been back for just a year; settled in, they'd decided it was time to 'green' their lifestyle and home, and the bottles were just one part of that effort.
But as Yang shopped in stores and hunted online, every one she came across was lacking in one way or another: she didn't like the smell of plastic or the flavour it gave to the water, glass was tricky with a young child at home ("out of the question," she recalls thinking), and some were just plain poor quality.
She eventually settled on aluminum or stainless steel, but what was available didn't quite fit the bill - most aluminum bottles offered graphics or designs which appealed to her daughter, but most had a lining made of an epoxy resin that she wasn't keen on; on the other hand, the stainless steel bottles had no lining, but they were plain and not as appealing visually.
If they were going to spend a bit of money on something they'd be using for a long time, she wanted to get the right fit - and so far, nothing she'd found was cutting it.
"So my husband came home, and I told him 'This is my research, and these are our options,'" she recalls.
And he, she says with a laugh, said, "You can do better."
"So I thought about it and I came back and I said, you're right, I can do better - if I do it myself."
That sparked a brain-storming business planning session that lasted for hours.
"We were so excited about the whole thing, the ideas just came pouring out. We planned the whole entire business in one weekend," she says.
Yang, who has a degree from SFU in business marketing, had worked in marketing for her entire career, and that came in very handy as she embarked on her plans.
"I had been in all kinds of companies, from small companies where I had to do every single little thing, to big companies with more stuff but maybe no budget," she said.
For an entrepreneur, no budget combined with a big to-do list is common, but there was still a big learning curve as she set out to research manufacturing, selling wholesale and setting up the myriad components of a small business.
Once they had a prototype in hand, the testing and preparation took another six months - and then they were selling their products in stores.
After three-and-a-half years, Yang's bottles are selling in more than 100 retail stores across Canada. In that time, the product line has grown - again motivated and inspired by filling a need in her own life as her first daughter began preschool: stainless steel food containers and reusable lunch bags that could be easy for children to use.
She sells wholesale to retailers and, last year, decided to start selling directly through her website as well.
As the company grew, it actually gave Yang more flexibility to balance home and career. Because it was doing well, she decided to quit her job and focus on the company and her family.
And she wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's great. It's a challenge, it's a leap to start something yourself. But it's great."
See www.fillyourown.ca for more information and a list of retailers in Metro Vancouver.
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