Michele Downie, PhD, started Downie Therapy in May of 2010. She’s a therapist that provides individual and group therapy with the goal of helping women take better care of themselves.

“My blog, The Women’s Self-Care Therapist, is a way of encouraging Moms who would not walk through my door to think about their own self-care challenges and to offer some ideas about putting self-care into practice,” she said.

Downie is like many others when she says she struggles finding balance between work and family. “I have a full-time job outside of the home and I’m trying to build a private practice. The idea is that if the practice grows enough for me to quit my full-time job, I’ll be able to make more money in fewer hours and spend more time at home. So, right now it’s even harder than usual to find balance.”

“When I get home in the evenings, I leave my full-time job at work and it’s family first,” Downie said. She sees private practice clients on one evening and then takes care of business and marketing tasks later in the evenings after her boys go to bed.

Downie encourages other mom entrepreneurs to always remember their goals and be sure to leave something for yourself as well. “My challenge is that I have to expend more energy and a little more time away from my family in the short run so that in the long-term I’ll be able to be home more. Keeping the long-term goals in sight helps you get through the daily challenges,” she said. “Make sure to take care of yourself, also. To model self-care, I have started integrating yoga and exercise back into my life,” she added.

In addition to her website and blog, Downie can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

When Angela Bickford wanted to start a family in 2008, she left her teaching career to pursue her love of writing and crafting and started always B designs in July of that year.

As a business, always B designs offers custom stationery (invites, business cards, etc.), domino necklaces, scrabble tile necklaces, and bottle cap necklaces, decorated clipboards, and premade scrapbooks. always B designs also offers parties to show you how to make some of the products. But, since Bickford is also a freelance writer, editor and marketer, she sometimes helps her customers with those things as well.

Bickford admits that she’s still learning how to balance business with family. “I recently moved to working solely from home, and I’m loving it. But, I do tend to stretch myself too thin at times,” she said. She also admits that she doesn’t like it when she has to multitask. “It bothers me because I’d rather focus on one thing at a time.”

She admits that most of her “quality time” with her husband is spent in their office. And sometimes he has to drag her away to spend some real time together. The couple is currently trying for kids, and in the meantime, helping to raise their nieces and nephews and cater to the occasional long-term houseguest. “We also have five pets that demand constant attention, and sometimes I have to just get out of the office and ‘play’. So, I guess I balance things by remembering WHY I am doing what I’m doing,” she said.

When asked about what advice she might have for other mom entrepreneurs, Bickford admitted she often struggles with guilt, and wondering if she’s doing enough for her family or with them. “I think getting over the guilt is the hardest thing, and I would encourage other mom entrepreneurs to try to remember that being an entrepreneur IS what they are doing for their family. To be proud of it and show their families that it’s something to be proud of too.”

In addition to her website and blog, always B designs can be found on Facebook and on Twitter.