"We are women who deeply care about helping other women. Creating WebMomz is our way of giving back to the world. We have a heartfelt passion for life, a realization of the importance of family, and a firm desire to help others to realize the same kind of success. Our greatest dream is to help other women to enjoy this same kind of peace, power, and prosperity in their lives," said former Mediapolis resident Kristie (Housman) Tamsevicius and her business partner Michelle (Wischmeier) Floyd. The two childhood friends have joined forces to form a national support organization for women in April of 2002, in Chicago, Illinois. WebMomz is an online community where women and moms alike can find friendship, advice, and support.

WebMomz, shares the message that working from home can help families to save money, build stronger families, and spend more time together. "I was in a hectic place in my life. My husband and I were working opposite shifts. We were exhausted, we had no energy for the children. Everything we were working so hard for seemed to be crumbling at our feet. When we did the math, we really weren't getting ahead financially by me working and paying a sitter. That was how I decided to start my own web development business. " Tamsevicius explained.

After writing a soon to be published book (eBizMoms: The Ultimate Guide to Home Based business) which tells how women can start a home based business, Tamsevicius started thinking about building an organization to help other mothers to build their own home based businesses. After a recent visit with her childhood friend Michelle (Wischmeier) Floyd, Kristie learned that Michelle had started a successful parenting community (MyBabyConnection.com). As Kristie puts it, "I put two and two together and asked Michelle to partner with me."

An energetic, creative mom/business woman, Kristie has over 11 years of experience in online business, marketing, and media.

Michelle Floyd always knew she wanted to be at home with her kids, so after the birth of her daughter in 1999, she quit her full-time marketing career to be a stay at home mom. Being a new mom, she had a lot of questions and surfed the Internet to find answers. While she found a wealth of information online, she found it was difficult to keep track of all the "baby-related sites". That was the inspiration for her to form her online venture, MyBabyConnection.com!

Quitting her job was a small price to allow Michelle to be a stay at home mom, but it was all worth it!

“Although, it's not always easy running your own Internet business, it can leave you feeling isolated, but WebMomz provides support and advice to help you along the way, “ notes Floyd.

"It’s been great fun to be business partners with Kristie, she is full of great ideas and inspiration,” says Floyd. “I am just thrilled to be a part of Webmomz, and knew that this was the perfect way to reach moms who are dreaming about working from home, but just not sure how to go about it or who to go to for help and advice.” Floyd goes on to say, “I feel privileged to be able to be at home with my child, and want to share with other women how they too can stay at home and earn an income using the Internet.”

Before co-founding WebMomz, Ms. Floyd worked for over 10 years in the marketing/business field. Michelle enjoys kickboxing, scrapbooking, and strolling in the park. Michelle lives in Burlington, IA with her family.

Kristie Tamsevicius and her husband reside in Gurnee, IL along with their two children, aged 4 and 7. Her hobbies the typical mom-fare and include gardening, scrapbooking, and baking. A devoted mother, Kristie volunteers her time assisting with her daughter's Girl Scout troop web site.

Anyone wishing to learn more about their organization WebMomz can visit them online at http://www.webmomz.com. They offer free memberships to all women and paid memberships with added privileges to businesses. Michelle and Kristie can be contacted by email at kristie@webmomz.com or michelle@webmomz.com or by visiting their web site at http://www.webmomz.com.

When Kristie Tamsevicius started a home-based business, she put her computer in the middle of the living room so she could be with her children, who were 4 and 2 at the time.

 She was able to operate Kristie Custom Design, a Web design firm, around her children's schedules and found that working from home was all that she hoped it would be.

Tamsevicius said friends continued to ask how she was able to make it work and balance a family and career. That's when she decided to write a book, "eBizMoms: The Ultimate Guide to Home Based Business" that's in the process of being published.

The Gurnee woman recently took the idea of attempting to help other women accomplish their goals a step further. With the help of a childhood friend, Michelle Floyd, the women founded a national organization for women called WebMomz. The online community is designed to help women and moms find friendship, advice and support.

"It's a rich resource for work at home and stay-at-home moms," Tamsevicius said.

The women, both 33, say the site is geared to "empower women in work, family and life." It's all about finding balance, Tamsevicius said. "Everyone is stressed out today," said Tamsevicius, whose children are now 7 and 5.

The Web site, which went live Aug. 1, was started after Tamsevicius and Floyd met to catch up after being apart for years. The two grew up in the small Iowa farm town of Mediapolis. Floyd now lives in Burlington, Iowa, with her husband and young daughter.

Floyd says she always knew she wanted to be at home with her kids. After the birth of her daughter she quit her full-time marketing career. Being a new mom, she had a lot of questions and surfed the Internet to find answers. While she found a wealth of information online, she found it was difficult to keep track of all the "baby-related sites."

That was the inspiration for her to form her online venture, MyBabyConnection.com.

The duo came up with the idea for WebMomz found at www.webmomz.com.

Once on the site, women will find that individual memberships are free. There are upgraded corporate memberships and advertising opportunities available.

In an effort to help women even further, WebMomz is also sponsoring a business grant program to help aspiring women entrepreneurs establish their home-based business. The organization will offer a $1,000 grant to a qualified applicant. Entries are due in May 2003 and the recipient will be named the following June. Information is available at the Web site.

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Moms Reach Out Over the Net

Moms reach out over the Net Publication Date: Sunday, December 8, 2002 Category: Financial     By: Gretchen Fields Stay-at-home mothers find career, hope to help others along the way. By Gretchen Fields The Hawk Eye Their Web site won't change your child's diapers or quiet their cries, but Kristie Tamsevicius and Michelle Floyd say it will help mothers in a myriad of other ways. The Mediapolis natives launched WebMomz in August. The site is an online community that offers ideas and support to women and mothers, in particular, who are or who would like to stay at home with their children while remaining active in the work force. Best friends since childhood, Tamsevicius, 33, and Floyd, 34, came up with the Web site after becoming mothers. When her first child was born seven years ago, Tamsevicius was a marketing executive for an information services company in downtown Chicago. Two years after the birth of her first child, she had her second. She remained in the work force, working shifts opposite those of her husband so they could cut down on child-care costs. "We were exhausted. We had no energy for the children, and everything we were working so hard for seemed to be crumbling at our feet," Tamsevicius said. "When we did the math, we weren't getting ahead financially by me working and paying a sitter. That was how I decided to start my own Web development business." So, four years ago, Tamsevicius quit her job and became a successful Web developer. During her four years in the business, she also penned a soon-to-be-published book called "eBiz Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Home Based Business." Meanwhile, Floyd was back in Burlington. Three years ago, after 10 years in marketing, the University of Iowa grad gave birth to her first child and decided to give up her job in favor of staying home with her daughter. That's when she too began to dabble in cyberspace. "Being a new mom, I had a lot of questions and surfed the Internet to find answers," Floyd said. "I found a wealth of information, but it was difficult to keep track of it all ... that was the inspiration for me to start my first online venture, MyBabyConnection.com." Both women were making a successful go of being working stay-at-home moms, but both still felt something was missing. Tamsevicius started thinking about building an organization to help other mothers build their own home-based businesses. When she found out her childhood friend already had started a successful parenting community on the Web, Tamsevicius put two and two together and asked Floyd to partner with her in a new venture. "When Kristie called me about WebMomz, I knew I wanted to help," Floyd said. "I had the whole work-at-home mom thing and she had the parenting arena covered," Tamsevicius said. "The more we talked about it, the more excited we got." That was in April. By August, the women had the site up and running. By November, they had 1,100 registered WebMomz members. The site, with the motto "empowering women in work, family and life," offers work resources, family advice and self-care help for women. The site does not advertise any one specific work-at-home venture, but rather gives work-at-home ideas, free business tools and loads of advice on how to start a home business, whether it be cake decorating, crafting or Web design. "I'm a firm believer in relationships first, so we really wanted to create a sense of community with our Web site," Tamsevicius said. "By offering work, family and self-care resources and ideas, we're really offering the whole triangle of who women today are trying to be." "We just want moms to know it is possible to work and stay at home with their kids," Floyd said. "It's possible to have to whole package and be successful." Since starting the Web site, both women have heard from other work-at-home moms who have benefited from it and local WebMomz chapters are popping up across the United States. Women who met online are becoming friends face-to-face and leaning on one another for advice and guidance in their business ventures. Both Tamsevicius and Floyd said that is really all they ever hoped for. "It's such a joy to have the opportunity to work with a good friend," Tamsevicius said. "It's an even greater joy to have a solid business partnership where you can depend on one another and work together toward success. If we've done it, anyone can." "I'm just thrilled to be a part of WebMomz," Floyd said. "I knew this was the perfect way to reach moms who were dreaming about working from home, but just weren't sure how to go about it or who to go to for help and advice."   WebMomz Glancebox Publication Date: Sunday, December 8,  2002 Category: Financial     By: Gretchen Fields On the Net   You can check out WebMomz by logging onto www.webmomz.com. There you can get tips on working at home, parenting and taking care of you. If you like what you see, you can also register for "WebMomz in the Windy City," a retreat for home-based business owners. The event, set for March 14 and 15, will offer top work-at-home experts teaming up to offer a weekend of education, motivation and fun.

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