Mom-preneur Eli Edwards was bubbling over with ideas for handy and useful products – inspired by her life with her husband and three children – but she was missing a business partner to share her entrepreneurial vision.

Then two years ago, Edwards found her business match in the most unlikely of places − her daughter’s Old Town Alexandria preschool. Edwards and Sally Eastman, both stay-at-home moms, realized they had a passion for small business and turning their daily observations into products for children and families.

“You realize that the time you spend with children also gives you a tremendous insight into their wants and needs,” says Edwards, who lives in Alexandria. “It seemed like a natural step to start making products for kids.”

The two women formed EKS Kids, with stay-at-home dad Kevin Nalepka of New York, and soon after introduced their first product, the Secret Pocket Pillow. The pillow combines a decorative pillow, stuffed animal and treasure box into one functional and fun toy.

“The idea really came from wanting the kids to pick up after themselves,” said Eastman, a mother of three, who also lives in Alexandria. “You can ask them to do it 100 times, but with the pockets in the pillow, you barely have to ask. This is their space, and they want to put their things in it.”

Not surprisingly, many of the enterprises started by mom-preneurs are inspired by their daily experiences around the house or on the playground. The products these athome entrepreneurs produce are often designed with families in mind and, more often than not, they hit their target customers. “We are our demographic,” says Edwards. “What makes us different from big companies is that we are the face of our product.”

Thanks largely to changes in attitudes about home-based work, simple and inexpensive technology and society’s more entrepreneurial bent after the economic collapse, businesses started by woman are a fast-growing segment of the U.S. home-based business economy. Some 6.8 percent of women and 12.4 percent of men in the workforce are selfemployed, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“Home businesses have become a necessity in this economy,” says Edwards, who is often asked for advice on starting a business by curious moms. “People who get into it now aren’t looking to make something, they’re looking to make ends meet.”

For Edwards and Eastman, the entrepreneurial lifestyle was attractive, in part, because they could set the rules in the workplace, and the most important rule was family first. “There is no question about what or who is our top priority,” says Eastman, 37, “and we work together as a group to make sure that we’re able to succeed in business without sacrificing our families.”

Eastman, an art history major who worked with Artrain, a nationwide touring exhibit of art works, claims the moniker of the “crafty one” in the partnership. With her eye for design and knack for steering the color wheel,she designed the prototypes for the Secret Pocket Pillow. “I’ve always loved design work and now I’m putting that skill to work as the chief creative officer for our company,” Eastman says.

Edwards, a former actress and television producer, is a natural ringleader and organizer with a long track record in business.

She has started seven businesses of various sizes in the last 15 years, experiencing some successes and some failures but always learning. What she learned most is the value of family in her life equation. “I find our business gives me great balance,” says Edwards, 38 and chief executive officer of EKS. “I get to be engaged in the business world, and I get to be a full-time mommy.”

Both women say they’ve recruited their friends and spouses to the venture. Eastman’s husband, Sage, works on Capitol Hill and is familiar with public relations and media buys, so he advised them on the media purchase for their first national commercial. Edwards’ husband, Anthony, roomed with members of the pop band Hootie and the Blowfish, and she was able to reach out to them for help in writing the jingle for the Secret Pocket Pillow, which can be purchased on CD at their website (secretpocketpillow. com).

When they wanted to grow the business, they decided against digging into their own piggy banks or putting the family house on the line. “You don’t want to spend the college savings or mortgage your house,” says Edwards, noting they’ve already paid back their $100,000 initial loan to start the business.

What they did do is look for an investor with a passion for the products and a commitment to their business model. They needed someone special, a kindred spirit who understood their devotion to family. “We wanted an investor who we liked on a personal level, and we felt we could work with for the long term,” says Eastman.

Enter Nalepka, a father of twin 4-yearolds, one of their early investors who turned into their business partner, with not too much convincing aft er his twins fell in love with the prototypes. “I was excited by the opportunity to partner up with Eli and Sally,” says Nalepka, who is chief operating offi cer for EKS, “for something I believe in and something that benefi ts my family. It’s a winwin.”

After two years in business, and successfully meeting all their fi nancial and sales benchmarks, Edwards and Eastman are looking at a bright future and an ambitious goal of $1 million in sales in 2012. Th ey’ve got a number of new products in mind, but they’re mum about what EKS exactly will roll out for children and families in the new year. What they are willing to share is a few helpful hints on how mom-preneurs can follow in their footsteps. Th ey’ve been to plenty of bake sales, birthday parties and play dates to know that starting a home business is an attractive prospect for many stay-at-home moms. They say the secret of creating a successful homebased business is picking something you love, tapping into the marketplace zeitgeist for families, and establishing alliances with other mom-preneurs who know the business and the area.

Th eir advice is both simple and authentic: look for a partner who has walked their walk and understands where they’re coming from; hire professionals when needed, i.e., accountants and fi nancial advisors; make it legal early on with handy online tools like Legal Zoom; and leverage previous experience and contacts for the new business. “And don’t forget to make sure you look professional when you leave your house,” jokes Eastman, noting that working at home is easy on the wardrobe but that doesn’t mean you can meet with a business associate in a baby-food-encrusted t-shirt.

Most importantly, both women say that at-home moms must do their homework. If they’re serious about making this work, it takes a commitment that extends into the wee hours of the night or begins before the sun has come up. “You should go into business to succeed,” says Edwards. “We want to produce quality products that people like and recommend, and we want to do something that is meaningful for ourselves and our families. We’re in this to make it a success.”

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SARAH KELLOGG is a Washington-based freelance writer who writes for a number of regional and national publications, as well as a filmmaker and cookbook author.