Single Mothers Overcoming the Odds
Single Mothers Overcoming the Odds
Single mothers face many challenges while trying to maintain their life and the lives of their children. The most common challenges faced by single mothers today include work-life challenges; guilt, blame, and never-ending responsibilities; emotional challenges; financial strain; limited time and fatigue; etc. Even with facing these barriers, single mothers continue to be resilient and reach their personal and professional goals while meeting the needs of themselves and others. Amongst many successful mothers, the resiliency of Tammy Lucas, Emma Johnson, Angela Benton, and Zhene Muzyka is highlighted as an inspiration for other single mothers
Dr. Tammira Lucas
Tammira Lucas is an entrepreneur that ran a business while raising her daughter on her own. Due to feeling guilty about having her daughter preoccupy herself with an iPad while working, due to lack of affordable care, she created Cube Cowork. Cube Cowork is an affordable babysitting workspace in Baltimore City. The office spaces are tailored for mothers that want to run their own business while maintaining proper care of their children. Lucas states that one of the goals of the business is to "bridge the gap in economic resources for moms". (Styles, 2021)
Emma Johnson
Emma Johnson is a single mother of two that went from being a freelance writer trying to make ends meet to the owner of one of the most successful blogs for single mothers and an author. Emma’s blog, “Wealthy Single Mommy” focuses on helping single moms build a life its successful and w community. This blog discusses parenting, feminism, career advice, etc. to its community or over 300,00 followers. (Wealthy Single Mommy, 2021) (Olya, 2021)
Angela Benton
Angela Benton, the CEO, and founder of NewMe and Streamlytics had her first child at the age of 16 and managed to overcome the obstacles of being a single mother in her teenage years. Benton states that being a single mom is not a setback and that entrepreneurship is pictured as working on the businesses 100% of the time. She further explains that this is not true and that the single mom life involves the skills of an entrepreneur including multitasking, creativity, managing and/or operating on a budget, and problem-solving. NewMe and Streamlytics are accelerators for minority entrepreneurs with startup businesses. Both foundations have accelerated over 300 startups and raised over $17 million in funding. (Taylor, 2015) (Benton, 2021)
Zhena Muzyka
Zheng Muzaka was a single mother, with no money and a dream. She started selling tea out of a pushcart and with a $3,000 loan she created a 6-million-dollar business. Zheng has grown into an entrepreneur with her tea products in over 10,000 stores, an award-winning teacher/author/executive coach, etc. She strives to influence corporations to move towards adopting more conscious business practices. (Muzyha, 2021) (N.a., 2021)
The lives of these successful single mothers are only a small example of what working women can accomplish. If you are a successful working mother that would like to give back by paying it forward. Join Along The Way’s “Working Women Give Back” campaign. The goals of this campaign are to find a group of working women who want to give back in the form of a minimum of $1/day personal giving commitment in gratitude for the many people that helped get them to where they are today! For more information and to join other working women who are paying it forward click here.
References:
Benton, A. (2021). Angela's Bio. Angela Benton. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from www.angelabenton.co.
Olya, G. (2021, May 9). 5 Successful Single Mothers Who Overcame the Odds. GO Banking Rates. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from www.gobankingrates.com.
Muzyha, Z. (2021). About Zhena. Zhena TV. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from www.zhena.tv.
N.a. Zhena Muzyka. Ojai Herbal. (2021). Retrieved November 2, 2021, from www.ojaiherbal.org.
Styles, M. (2021, October 20). The Cube Cowork Expands to Become the Largest Black-Woman-Owned Coworking Space in the Country. AFRO- The Black Media Authority. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from www.afro.com.
Taylor, K. (2015, August 2). 10 Single Mom Entrepreneurs Share Their Best Business Advice. Entrepreneur. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from www.entrepreneur.com.
Wealthy Single Mommy. (2021, October 27). About Emma Johnson. Wealthy Single Mommy. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from www.wealthysinglemommy.com.