Ask Lorrie Triben-Farrero, owner of two online copyright agencies, what launched her business from floundering to flourishing and she’ll have one word – mentor. “I’m a big believer in always being surrounded by other business owners who have had previous experience. It’s so worth the investment.”

To date, Lorrie has had a series of influential and notable mentors including Tom Sparks, Alex Mandossian, John Carlton, Yolanda Harris, Matt Furey, Dan Kennedy, and now Joe Polish.

Lorrie created her business in 1999 and credits her first mentor, Tom Sparks, for guiding her from a budding copywriter into the powerful information and copywriting business that it is today.

Her business is now a mix of information products, long distance learning via teleseminars and webinars.

"That’s one of the beautiful things about knowing how to write copy. You get an idea, whip up your copy, and you can sell anything.”

While it was a divorce that created the need for an income, the desire to become a professional copywriter and a work-at-home mom stemmed from her strong need to be with her two young sons. “There is no other job more important in my eyes than raising your children yourself. But you have to make a living too. With the advent of the internet, I truly believe there is no reason why a mom can’t stay home with her children AND earn a darn good living.”

For Lorrie, the real freedom for being a work at home mom is having a passive income. Urged by her good friend and fellow online business owner, Tom Sparks, Lorrie created information products to create a steady flow of passive income while she continued to take on her regular copywriting clients. “Passive income is critical to work at home moms because our schedules can be wacky. When you have passive income rolling in, you don’t have to worry about scheduling other things.”

Lorrie is also a strong proponent of finding and building a support system. In addition to finding good mentors, she believes that strong friendships and support systems are vital to work at home moms. She credits her good friend Wendy Gibson (AKA The Ezine Queen) for being a valuable and supportive colleague and providing spot on information on how to market her company.

Lorrie also stresses the importance for work at home moms to find balance in their busy lives. “You know how on the airplane they have the speech we all ignore. Well in it, they say in the event of loss of oxygen, you should place your oxygen mask on first and then your child’s. I think you have to take care of yourself first by exercise, eating right, and getting enough sleep.”

Outsourcing has been an invaluable tool for Lorrie in her quest to find balance and continue to grow her business. “I outsource as much of my life as I can so I can focus on my highest value, which is writing and marketing.” Even chores like running errands and cleaning the house can be outsourced so that you can spend your time on the things that are important to you and the tasks that you enjoy.

Lorrie stresses the importance of not letting yourself become isolated, as often happens when a work-at-home business grows, and family responsibilities take up the remainder of the day. She feels that it is important for work at home moms to get involved in online communities so that they can stay motivated and share challenges, it's critical.

Her advice for other online business owners just beginning their own business is to learn how to network and market yourself appropiately, use the right tools and services. “Women in particular are naturally good at this because we are very empathetic and natural relationship builders. My business started doing very well financially when I created my own information product.”

For Lorrie, being a online business owner means that she is able to have the best of both worlds. “I have very close relationships with both of my sons. Because I’m home sometimes they’ll just get bored and come chat with me. It doesn’t get better than that. Plus I get to have my dog and cat in my office all day, which makes me happy. I and many hundreds of thousands out there are proof it can happen. I get manicures, meet deadlines and still manage to pick my kids up from school and help them with their homework.”