I love hearing working mother success stories! This came from Kathy Kacher of Career/Life Alliance:

Here is the story of how I came to start my own company, thanks to Working Mother magazine!

I recall taking algebra in 7th grade and thinking to myself, “this is ridiculous; I am going to stay at home and raise a family, why in the world do I need this?” But the 70's moved along and I moved along with it. By the time I graduated from high school I knew that I would have a career as well as a family. I am not sure how it happened. If I look back and try to track down the exact moment that I tipped from happy homemaker to a career path I just can't find it. I know my decision was driven by economics and a lack of eligible men, but once I was in the working world it didn’t occur to me to slow down or step off.

The first great “career” opportunity I had was at the age of 22. I had worked my way up from sales assistant to inside sales and was hoping to achieve the coveted outside sales status within the next couple of years. In 1984 I had a child and that changed everything. 

After I returned to work from maternity leave I was having a terrible time with the commute. After a few  months  I asked my manager if I could change my hours and leave at 4:30 to save myself from the commute. I was surprised when he said, “No, if we do it for you we’ll have to do it for everyone.” It occurred to me that it might be helpful to model this new schedule and help them see that it would not have any impact on my work, clients or coworkers. 

The following Monday I just started heading out of the office early. It was only a matter of days before I was invited to sit down with my manager to what I hoped would be a conversation about how it would, in fact, be okay to arrive at work earlier and leave earlier. The reality of that conversation was (and I had heard this several times before) “I am afraid we’re going to have to let you go.”  

I went on to find another job, but it was clear that I was not built for the traditional workplace. In 1987 I was reading Working Mother magazine and came across an article on organizations that were providing child care referral services for their employees. Now here was a subject I could relate to as I had my own challenges in locating quality child care and to learn that companies were paying for this service gave me an idea. I went to an organization called Women Venture where they helped me create a business plan and begin to build my own company.

Today I am the President and CEO of Career/Life Alliance, Inc. an organization dedicated to creating workplaces that allow employees to do their best work. The journey has been challenging and rewarding. In the 1990's I had two personal tragedies that took me away from work for long periods of time.  These events could have destroyed the company but because the mission and culture of my company was all about supportiveness and flexibility my team stepped up when I needed them most. The new millennium has brought its own set  of unique tests, but we continue to do exciting work in a field that we are all very passionate about.