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Happy Mother's Day! A List of Small Businesses That Cater to Moms

For a long, long time, one of my favorite things about watching It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas was that Donna Reed was in it. Beautiful, strong, and one of the all-time best smiles anywhere, I was smitten with her from a very young age. It wasn't until I was a bit older that I fell in love with the story; Jimmy Stewart shaking and stammering and raising his fist at Mr. Potter, the wonderful oddity of Clarence, or the beauty of people coming together and helping those in need.

But always, there was Donna Reed.

Years later, I'd talk with various women in my life and get a broad range of reactions when I mentioned my infatuation with her. I remember my grandmother smiling and agreeing that she was very pretty. Looking back, I think she was probably talking about what Donna Reed represented as much as her appearance, but I'm only guessing.

There were those friends in college who thought it was cute. Others looked at me blankly and seemed to mentally scratch their heads, wondering, "Donna who?" There were others, though, independent, passionate, and familiar with her character on "The Donna Reed Show," who disliked her with an intensity that's still a little scary. Clearly, those folks had never seen From Here to Eternity.

My sister just looked at me like I was nuts.

Think about "The Donna Reed Show" now and it's easy to dismiss it as so much mindless fluff from the late 50's and 60's with quaint storylines and canned laughter. For that matter, it's just as easy is to dismiss Donna Reed as little more than the character she's most associated with - an icon of squeaky clean family virtue who covered her mouth when she said, "Gosh." And while the show may have been simple, quaint, or even corny, Donna Reed certainly was not.

In fact, through the course of her career, Ms. Reed acted in more than 40 films, co-founded the newly re-organized anti-war group, Another Mother for Peace (you may remember seeing their message: War is not healthy for children and other living things), won an Academy Award, and raised four children.

But she's not alone.

Spend a few minutes on the Internet and you'll find countless sites dedicated to working women. Page after page of organizations and resources for single moms, traditional families with mothers trying to find balance in the day to day, or women completely independent of children making their way through the workforce are available at the click of a button.

Just last year, Fortune released its list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business. And while two of those women operate in completely different industries, PepsiCo's Chairman Elect and CEO Indra K. Nooyi and Avon's Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung have at least two things in common: both officers fall in the top ten on that list and both will be receiving gifts from their children this Mother's Day.

While the following small businesses (under $15 million in revenue) may not have executives on the top 50 list now, they do provide products or services that Ms. Jung, Ms. Nooyi, or any of the mothers in your life might enjoy.

Happy Mother's Day.

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Happy Mother's Day! A List of Small Businesses That Cater to Moms

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