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All in Good Time
O’Kelly: A stay-at-home mom sees an entrepreneurial opportunity and builds a business.
Photo by Webb Chappell
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The image of a hard-driving entrepreneur who is on call around the clock doesn’t mesh well with the nonstop demands of family life. But that didn’t stop Allison O’Kelly (MBA ’99) from leaving a fast-track management position at Toys “R” Us and starting Mom Corps, a staffing company that matches qualified professionals with part-time, temporary, and flexible full-time positions in legal, IT, accounting, strategy consulting, and marketing, among other areas.
Like many young mothers with two small children, O’Kelly felt the tug-of-war between home and office. A CPA, she did contract accounting work from home after leaving the corporate world in 2004. When her workload overwhelmed her, she got some friends involved. “I realized that there were many other people who had the same need for flexibility,” O’Kelly says in a phone interview from her home office in Connecticut. (Mom Corps’ base of operations is in Marietta, Georgia.)
“When I started in 2005,” she says, “I went through all the usual growing pains of hiring too many people and spending too much on marketing. But I was able to do everything that I needed to do at home at the same time.”
Mom Corps grew slowly but steadily and quickly picked up steam after a nationwide franchise program launched in 2009. Revenues for that year were $2 million; in 2011, they’re projected to hit $10 million. The company charges employers a percentage of a worker’s hourly rate or salary; franchisees (which now number fifteen) pay a start-up fee and percentage of revenues as well. Potential employees can post their résumé and use the Mom Corps job bank at no charge; they can also pay a fee to have their résumé revamped.
The challenge of maintaining Mom Corps’ sense of identity and level of service at every franchise location is foremost in O’Kelly’s mind, as is, ironically, maintaining balance in her own life. “Amid ups and downs, I do feel like I’m achieving it,” says O’Kelly, who declined venture capital funding so that she could maintain more control over how quickly the business grew.
Twelve years out of HBS, O’Kelly notes that many of her female classmates are now stay-at-home moms. “It’s great if that’s their goal and choice,” she comments. “But I believe many make that decision because they think there are no other options. It’s important to know that you can be an entrepreneur, or continue to work, and still have balance.”
— Julia Hanna
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