I’m very excited to share with you a new venture that I’ve been working on for months, but that just launched late last night! Ella Media is my marketing and consulting business, through which I’ll be connecting businesses with today’s digital Latina. Ella Media also provides digital marketing and consulting services for large brands, small businesses, and social media savvy women.

If you’re a digital Latina (Latina blogger, social media Latina, etc.) seeking fun campaigns that also value your time, then sign up to be considered for upcoming campaigns!

While you’re at it, how about also connecting with Ella Media?

• follow on twitter
• like on facebook

Why is this a need? You may remember that more and more Brands are Leveraging the Reach of Social Media Latinas. The Latinas in Social Media BlogHer 2010 panel also proved that brands and the PR agencies representing them are interested in marketing to Latinas and many times look to our community for help in doing so. It’s also evident that as bloggers we wish to be compensated for blogging and social media work, so why not work together to bring brands and Latina bloggers together?

I hope you’ll visit Ella Media and sign up. I’m really looking forward to growing my blogging community and expanding it to bring great opportunities your way.

I am the mother of two. They live in the same house but aren’t very close. They’re jealous of one another though. They vie for my attention. I only feed and bathe one of them.

Let me explain.

I have one son, Max, who’s 4. I also have my company, Egg Marketing & Public Relations, who is almost 3. You’ve heard people compare starting a business to having a baby. It’s completely true. What I never accounted for was that my business became my son’s sibling in a sense.

Max is always trying to divert me from my work. Just like kids do when you’re giving your attention to their sibling. If I’m in front of the computer, he knows I’m working (well, sometimes I’m not but I let him believe it so I don’t have to get off so he can play Arthur). Thank goodness he doesn’t stay home with me or I’d never get anything done.

He wants to help. (Envision the big brother wanting to change the baby’s diaper.) He sits on my lap while I’m working and asks if he can type. Uh, sure, honey, you can type this proposal. Ask if you need help spelling something.

Max assumes he’s always #1. It’s hard to say, but sometimes Egg comes first. I mean, making a little money vs. playing Hungry Hippo for the 40^th time…sometimes you have to choose. And sometimes I’d rather be working. Sucks to admit, but when your business is like a child, you love it and nurture it like one.

Being an entrepreneur is hard to explain to a kid. He knows Egg from the little egg logo on my notepads. He knows it’s my work. But he doesn’t really understand the sacrifice, dedication and hardship it has required (not that I’d trade it for the world). I hope that one day when he’s older he can understand the joy of running his own business. Maybe when he becomes a parent.

Susan Payton blogs as a mommyblogger at Sometimes Parenting Sucks and as an entrepreneur who loves marketing at The Marketing Eggspert Blog. She raises an internet marketing firm in Orlando called Egg Marketing & Public Relations as well as a boy named Max who is 4.

Guest post by Philippa Channer, who lives in Maryland and together with her husband operates Forever Always Weddings, a wedding planning business. She is a member and certified consultant with the American Academy of Wedding Professionals. Forever Always Weddings, LLC, is a proud member of the Event Network and Maryland Wedding Professionals Association. Contact Philippa via her contact form or find her at the Forever Always Weddings blog.

Once I decided to start my own business and become a wedding planner, I quickly discovered that the phrase ‘part-time’ was no longer in my vocabulary. I had to learn swiftly how to become a full-time wife, full-time executive director’s assistant, and full-time business owner.

I knew starting a business wouldn’t be easy, but nothing could prepare me for the extreme loss of time I had to learn to adjust to. It took numerous heart-filled, prayerful and tear jerking conversations with my husband, but we both knew in the end that starting our own wedding consultant business from home would be one of the best decisions we could make at that time and we haven’t looked back since.

The hours spent researching how to start a small business from home – gathering information on the proper documents, permits and licenses – was actually enjoyable because we were able to spend that time together. After leaving our normal 9-5 jobs, we came home to our new 5-9 jobs of researching, marketing and studying weddings. Although it did initially take away from the personal one-on-one time we had, that is something we both prepared for and understood, and we were able to come up with new creative ways of getting that time back.

Once we had all the preliminary business items out of the way and could start getting clients, we were able to adjust the hours and the majority of the time spent on the business was spent on the weekends. We were still able to do 90% of the work from home and together. The other 10% was spent on the road meeting and greeting the local wedding vendors, handing out business cards, and attending local bridal shows. Again, time we spent together.

All-in-all, staring the small business from our home was a wonderful decision that allowed for me to continue working for a terrific boss during the week, continue to love, respect, and honor my adoring husband and to live out a dream I have always had to help brides make their wedding day beautiful. I am so glad I made the decision and had the support, resources, and ability to follow through with it.