Fulfilling my Dream: BlueSuitMom celebrates their anniversary

By Maria Bailey

As BlueSuitMom.com celebrates its first anniversary, I've spent a great deal of time pondering the question, "What makes a dream come true?" Some might say that it's the perseverance of the dreamer combined with a little luck, while others might say it's being in the right place at the right time with the right idea. To some extent perhaps you need a bit of each of these to have your dreams come true. But what these answers lack is the contributions that others make to helping the dreamer reach his or her goals.

I had dream and like many dreams it was the outcome of an experience in my life. A poor man might dream for gold because he has lived in poverty for so much of his life. An adult might dream to learn how to swim after he touches the warm waters of the Atlantic. We can have many types of dreams as well. Some are real dreams. The ones that if we work hard enough can one day possibly obtain. Then there are pie-in-the-sky dreams like my dream to one day have Cindy Crawford's legs, Audrey Hepburn's neck and shoulders and Jennifer Lopez's stomach. No matter how many miles I run or Oreos I pass on, it probably won't happen in this lifetime.

My dream for starting BlueSuitMom came after having three children under 2 years of age. It developed from my desperate search for work and family balance. I searched so hard to find resources to help me do it all that eventually I dreamed of providing others with those resources once I found them for myself. Last Mother's Day, my dream became a reality when BlueSuitMom.com was born. I truly wished on a star but rather than reaching my star, to my surprise an entire universe opened up to me. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined the year that we've experienced at BlueSuitMom.com. I'll never forget my husband Tim waking me up on May 12th last year to show me a full-page business section feature on BlueSuitMom.com. My dream had made the front page of the paper and it was still two days before we officially launched the Web site.

The momentum continued during the following months. We were featured in USA Today, SELF magazine and local newspapers from Denver, CO to Lincoln, NE from Salt Lake City, UT to Tampa, FL. Immediately we received positive emails from working mothers all over the U.S. as well as Australia and Britain. It was all so overwhelming and unbelievable. The media attention was followed by requests to appear on radio talk shows and then interviews for magazine features. I proudly display the covers of Entrepreneur magazine, Working Women magazine and Small Business Computing magazine in my office. All found my dream interesting enough to write about.

Then one day, one dream led to another dream when Prima Publishing offered me a book contract because they had visited BlueSuitMom.com. This is where I learned the reality behind the old adage, "be careful of what you wish for." Although I had always dreamed of writing a book, I was given only four months to do so. It took a great deal of work but in July, I'll have a book to display on my shelf and the author's name will be Maria T. Bailey.

Along the way, BlueSuitMom.com even collected some honors as Baby Talk and Working Woman magazines recognized it as one of the best sites for mothers. It has truly been an incredible twelve months. And my family has benefited from my dream as well. My children now recognize that hard work pays off in many ways. They have watched me work late into the night but also shared in my accomplishments. Keenan thinks he is famous because he's been on the news and in the newspaper! Owen is proud that his name is in my book and Madison finds her pleasure in knowing that she gets to go on business trips. Morgan will find out later in life how much fun she missed because she was too young to understand. My children have learned many lessons about pursuing dreams but even at my old age, I learned a few as well.

Perhaps that greatest lesson learned was in finding out the answer to my own question, "What makes a dream come true?" What I've learned in the last year is that it takes the help of others to turn your dreams into reality. No one can truly do it on their own. I could have never built BlueSuitMom.com into what it is today without the support of my husband, Tim and my business partner and friend Rachael. Tim never once complained about managing the house while I worked long hours. He is my greatest fan. Although Tim's job was difficult, I'd have to say Rachael had an impossible job at the office. She's the one who had to take my dream and put a face to it. Can you imagine having to take everything filed in someone's brain for five years, organize it, understand it and then add color and words to it? Or even worst than that, can you imagine working in close quarters 15-20 hours a day with a hyper, moody, overly driven by passion lunatic and survive? Well, that was Rachael's life for many months. We ate together, walked to the bathroom together, cried together, exchanged irate emails a few times but in the end emerged as friends. I could have never done it without her.

I couldn't have done it without my old college buddies like Audrey, Jennifer and Brenda who had to listen to me cry and complain day in and day out. And then there were the hundreds of friends I made along the way who supported our efforts. How could I ever have done it without Jorj, Marti, Robin and Paula who were always there to lend their talents when we couldn't afford to pay for them? There are all of our experts, writers, partners and investors who believed in my dream. I can't possibly name them all because there are so many.

And what would our efforts be without a loyal group of readers who come back day after day to see what's new or those who tell a few friends about BlueSuitMom.com? It was the positive emails from perfect strangers that kept us going when we had trouble staying awake late at night. It's hard to explain the feeling you get when you experience the reality of your dreams. Fortunately for me, I get to relive it each time I receive a note from a stranger who has found our site and benefits from the information we provide or when I interact with one of my virtual friends I've met in the last year or when I get to share another moment of glory with Rachael or when one of my kids tells me that they showed their computer class www.bluesuitmom.com and I see the pride on their face. I am living my dream thanks to so many other people's efforts.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me realize my dream this year. My gift in return for your support is to keep dreaming and to continue to reach for new stars for in doing so. Hopefully our hard work at BlueSuitMom will help someone open up a universe for themselves so they can reach their dream.

Thank you!

Share your thoughts on our message board or email Maria.

Also see:
• Week Thirty-Three -- Combining a business trip with spring break
• Week Thirty-Two -- Making Spring Break plans
• Week Thirty-One -- Importance of a Support System
• Week Thirty -- Life is good
• Week Twenty-nine -- My nine year anniversary
• Week Twenty-Eight --Does birth order matter?
• Week Twenty-Seven -- Things we take for granted
• Week Twenty-Six -- My youngest turned two
• Week Twenty-Five -- Losing someone you love
• Week Twenty-Four -- Where's the romance in Valentine's Day?
• Week Twenty-Three -- The call I've been waiting for
• Week Twenty-Two -- Where did the weekend go?
• Week Twenty-One -- Business trip challenges
• Week Twenty -- Girl Scout cookie time
• Week Nineteen -- Thoughts on motherhood
• More diary entries

Maria Bailey is the CEO and founder of BlueSuitMom.com and a mother of four children under the age of seven.