AUSTIN, Texas — Lynne Builta quit her job as a mortgage broker to found Mommyshop.com in 2000.
At a time when a lot of dot-coms were shutting down, Builta, then a single mother, put $100,000 of her savings into the Austin-based Internet retailer and struggled to make it succeed.
"I knew it was a good idea," Builta said. "I knew it would work."
And it did. Mommyshop.com, which sells jewelry for moms and products for kids, racked up sales of $350,000 last year and is profitable, Builta said.
Builta, 45, and Mommyshop.com are part of a bigger trend sweeping the country in which professional women — many of them moms — ditch their day jobs to become Web-based entrepreneurs.
Thousands of mom-run Internet businesses have taken off in the past few years, but no one knows exactly how many exist, said Terri Lonier, founder of Workingsolo.com, based in New Paltz, N.Y. The nature of the small, home-based businesses make them difficult to track, she said, but everyone agrees they are taking off in record numbers.
"These moms want to design a life instead of just make a job," Lonier said.
However, the phenomenon of women starting new ventures is not just confined to the Internet. Overall, the number of women-owned businesses has grown 11 percent between 1997 and 2002 nationwide, according to the Center for Women's Business Research.
"This trend is an outgrowth of what we have seen with women coming back into the business world but on their own terms and having more control over their own lives," Lonier said.
Thanks to the Internet and access to cheap technology, moms can launch Internet businesses from their kitchen tables on a shoestring budget.
Melissa Sands, 34, a former financial recruiter in Mount Clemens, Mich., started a collectibles business in 1999 at www.sands-o-time.com and sells most of her stuff on the auction site eBay. She belongs to an elite group of power sellers on eBay who sell the most merchandise.
"I actually work more, but I enjoy myself so much more, and I'm home," Sands said.
Every week, Sands, who has two daughters and another child on the way, sends out between 100 and 150 packages to customers. She works seven days a week acquiring new antiques and collectibles in addition to selling, packaging and mailing her merchandise. She also hired two part-time assistants.
"I don't like working for other people," Sands said. "This is a way for me to work for myself and be home with my kids."
The fun comes in when she finds a gem, like a rare old Zippo lighter she acquired in an estate sale and eventually sold for $990 on eBay to a collector in Japan.
"I love the treasure-hunting aspect of it," Sands said. "It's those little victories that keep you going."
In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Maria T. Bailey, 39, a former executive with AutoNation and the mother of four, created BlueSuitMom.com in 2000. The site provides articles geared to moms about family, career, food, health and travel.
"Women are starting businesses at four times the rate as men," Bailey said. Her company, BSM Media, now includes a radio show and recently launched a national magazine. She also wrote a book, "The Women's Home-Based Book of Answers."
On the Internet, Bailey said, a glass ceiling doesn't exist. "You're virtual," she said. "The gender and all those things that sometimes cloud corporate America are erased when you are running an Internet business."
One of the mistakes some Web-based mom-entrepreneurs make is they don't treat their businesses like a real business, Bailey said. Moms need to make sure their kids aren't crying in the background when they talk to clients by phone. If necessary, they should have child care in their homes.
Despite the dot-com fallout, Bailey sees the potential for even more Web-based businesses in the future. And Jeanine Cox, 36, agrees. She shut down her art gallery in South Florida to found Babyzone.com, an advice site for pregnant women, shortly after the birth of her daughter in 1997.
Cox worked from home for the first seven months of her daughter's life, but the business grew so quickly she had to move into regular offices.
A few years later, her husband joined the site as chief executive, they got $1.3 million in venture capital, moved the site to the Boston area and hired 17 employees.
When the dot-com crash happened, Babyzone.com moved into smaller offices, laid off most of its staff and struggled through some tough times.
Now business is booming. Babyzone has seven employees and dozens of contractors around the country.
"It never gets boring," Cox said. "My position supports my role as a parent."
Builta, with Mommyshop.com, said the Web-based business gives her flexibility. Since launching the site, she has remarried and gets to spend more time with her four children and her husband, Steve.
Her kids even help evaluate products and decide what gets sold on the site.
"We truthfully do not sell anything if it hasn't been looked at by them," Builta said.