Many mothers are leaving the paid workforce to focus on raising their children, particularly during their children's early years before kindergarten. A recent story in the Beijing Evening News on stay-at-home moms whose hobbies led to successful entrepreneurial startups shows that the market for small personal businesses is very potential.

These mothers' businesses all began with small ideas and grew out of their interests. None of the mothers ever intended to set up a business. One mother liked to bake cookies, which became popular with her neighbors. She began selling them on the side, while keeping her child as her priority.

Another mother began practicing mother-child yoga, creating yoga exercises that she can do with her child. She told other mothers about it, and it became popular. Now she has hundreds of students. Then there is a mother who fashioned her child's food into cartoon figures, which became a huge hit with other children. She now sells them under a brand name and will open chain stores soon.

As society becomes more open, there will be more space for personal businesses. Our old employment model of staying attach to a particular company for one's career is facing a big challenge. There are three reasons: First, there are fewer chances and more people scrambling for better jobs. Second, working for the same company provides little motivation to work hard and causes people to lose passion for their work. Third, exposure to more open-market economic pressures prevents employees from staying with the same company. So, people should consider alternative employment opportunities.

I call these people who don't work for a company but who still earn money "personalized survivor." … In every corner of Beijing, a large number of people have succeeded just living for their interests. Most of them are smart entrepreneurs whose businesses had low start-up costs.

Running a personal business is not a marginalized lifestyle. The stay-at-home moms' entrepreneurial experiences show how people's interdependent relationships will provide lots of opportunities for jobs. Small innovative ideas can benefit thousands of people.

We are all used to paying attention to prominent shining stars, while ignoring ordinary successful people. But who was not an ordinary person before becoming extraordinary? If … the media paid more attention to them … much more practical needs will be satisfied, especially in these days when jobs are hard to find.

(This post was first published in Chinese on December 22, 2009 and translated by Wang Mengru.)