Web Site Offers Tips and Camaraderie to Busy Moms

TROY -- With a full-time job and two young daughters, Mary Miodowski found herself constantly searching for ways to optimize her time while designing creative solutions to everyday tasks.

As her discoveries gradually helped simplify her life, she decided to share her ideas.  As a result, her Web site, http://dashingelements.com/, is devoted to moms and their families.

"I wanted to create a space that would be helpful to other moms like me," said Miodowski, who holds a bachelor's in business from Wayne State University, a master's degree in accounting from Walsh College, and who works full time as an accounts payable administrator.

Dashing Elements offers quick and simple recipes, party and craft ideas, exercise suggestions, book reviews; and features product giveaways from time to time. Miodowski's tips can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Her logo, a stick figure mother in mid-running stride with a briefcase in one hand and a baby bottle in the other - whimsically depicts the reality of a busy mother's daily life.

"The stick figure is pretty much how I feel," admitted the Fraser mother of daughters ages three and seven. "Life can get hectic when you are busy, moms are part of an elite club. We have all been there, done that. Sometimes it can be downright overwhelming."  Her revolving message to website visitors, "We are all in this together."

Although Miodowski first reached out to the busy mom community a year ago, it wasn't until recently that she began receiving significant responses to her efforts. She read about Walsh College's Blackstone LaunchPad program in an alumni magazine and soon signed up for mentoring from the business school's program, which began in September 2010 with a grant from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation.

"I was getting frustrated with the low number of visitors to my Web site and only had 20 followers on Twitter. I met with Blackstone LaunchPad advisors who gave me tips on changing the format of my website and helped me bring in more website traffic," said the busy mother who continues to attract a steady stream of site traffic and now boosts more than 500 Twitter followers.

Miodowski plans to continue offering tip as her daughters grow and mature and would eventually like to join the public speaking circuit.

"My goal for 2013 is to reach as many people as possible and to make my Web site easy for people to find," she said.

Funded by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, and in partnership with New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, Automation Alley, University of Miami, Walsh College and Wayne State University - this program helps aspiring entrepreneurs develop and launch their businesses. As the first of its kind in Michigan, it offers fully enrolled Walsh students and degreed Walsh alumni; and Wayne State University students - the opportunity to assess the feasibility of their ideas for starting and growing for-profit and non-profit ventures.