Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2015, and its data are as of then: the business owner’s age and her children’s ages, a launch in October 2015 and an early-stage business. The 6,000 dollars a month cited for Samantha Hess is a 2014 figure.
Some time ago we came across Samantha Hess’s business idea, a professional cuddling service that, put like that, might sound crazy. Though no crazier than the 6,000 dollars a month she earns thanks to how well the idea has been received.
This time we head to the city of crazy ideas, New York, where Nina Keneally, a 63-year-old woman, offers to be your “mom” for 40 dollars an hour.
(See: 6 innovative business ideas that started in New York)
After long, intense hours of work, traffic jams and stress, some people aren’t lucky enough to have their mother nearby, and there may be moments when all they need is some good motherly advice.
But Ms Keneally warns that she isn’t the kind of mother who will clean your house or your bathroom, cook for you or do your laundry. As any mother would say: “I’m not your maid.” In exchange, she promises not to criticise your haircut or the way you dress.
She can, however, do everything else, such as going grocery shopping with you, giving you some motherly advice at home and offering a bit of perspective on life so you don’t lose sight of certain values.
How did this business idea come about?
The idea for NeedAMom came about when Keneally met a lot of young professionals in a yoga class and noticed that, since she was the oldest in the group, they approached her in a motherly way. It seemed as if they were looking for a mentor for life’s lessons: a life coach offering only the wisdom and perspective that come with age, rather than a professional coach.
According to Business Insider, Nina Keneally and her wisdom and perspective officially became a business at the end of October this year. Although the company is still at an early stage, the idea has been well received, and some people are already asking to work with her or to franchise the idea and take it to other cities. For now, though, this mom for hire, who has two grown-up children of 27 and 30 who have left home, prefers to make sure she has a stable business before looking to expand.
We don’t know whether her project will succeed, but it is certainly a very “maternally” original idea.
Featured image: James McNeill Whistler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
