Business-owner moms making it work 

By Jaime Cone Hughes 

Moms make the world go round: it’s a truism that’s as relevant within the local business community as it is in the rest of life. This Mother’s Day, three moms reflect on their very different, busy lives as the owners of local businesses: Alley Cat Cafe, Moore Family Farm and The Cat’s Pajamas. 

A space where cats — and kids — can feel at home

“When I opened, I wanted to create a community space, and as parents we’re all about making the world we want to see for our kids grow up in,” said Kristin O’Scammon, owner of the Alley Cat Café in Ithaca, a cafe that provides coffee, loose-leaf tea, lattes, a space to hang out and — most unique of all — shelter for cats in need and a chance to pet and adopt them. 

O’Scammon wanted to create a public place where people could “come together and be content and happy and play with cats — all positive two-year-old things,” she said.

This was important, because at the time, O’Scammon’s daughter, Mackenzie, was about two-and-a-half.

O’Scammon started up the café after working for a decade at a local food store. She said that after Mackenzie was born, she brought the week-old newborn into the human resource manager’s office to complete maternity leave paperwork because she was told she needed to be there in person to fill it out.

At seven days postpartum, as she tried to figure out how to fill out forms while also handling a fussy baby who’d just dirtied her diaper, O’Scammon said she was told she should leave her baby at home from now on unless it was asleep. Nine years later, she still gets angry thinking about it.

“It was so condescending,” she said. “I was livid.”

One of the main reasons women have a hard time in businesses, as well as a big reason why small businesses do not succeed, is a lack of child care, she said.  

“I’m very lucky that my kiddo can come to work with me, whether she wants to or not,” she said with a laugh, adding that usually Mackenzie enjoys the cat café environment and that she feels fortunate her business tends to attract customers and employees who are positive and welcoming of children.

She has watched her daughter grow from a toddler who would take naps with the cats to a capable child who is itching to make customers’ drinks (O’Scammon said it will probably be a few years before she lets Mackenzie handle hot beverages, though she is helpful in other ways).

“It’s fun. There’s a ton of cats. I like that, but I also dislike that,” said Mackenzie with a smile on a recent afternoon at the cafe, which moved to a new location on North Cayuga Street in 2023. But as she feeds the cats treats and greets each one by name, it is clear the outgoing nine-year-old has a deep affection for her feline friends. “I helped paint the walls,” she added proudly.

“She knows the vibe and how to put herself in a spot of helping but not hindering,” O’Scammon said. This past year, the café participated as a venue for Ithaca’s Fairy Fest, and Mackenzie chose to stay at the cat café to help children with a special craft.

“She’s a good facilitator and good with helping folks,” O’Scammon said. “I’m glad that’s part of her nature. And her nurture.”

“It’s interesting to me,” she added, “because there’s so many times when she has school break and comes to work with me every day, where I’m like, ‘How do other folks make this work?’”

This observation comes hand-in-hand with her number-one piece of advice for mothers who want to start their own business: “Make sure you have a child care plan that can work. That’s a huge part of what it boils down to.”

Also: “Talk to people in the field. Get the good, the bad and the ugly of what you’re getting into — and then run at it, full force.”

Real-life lessons in business and the importance of family

Carrie Moore, who co-owns Moore Family Farm in Groton with her husband Jason, married into the Moore family almost 15 years ago. Once the youngest of their three children turned three, Carrie and her husband decided it was a good time to expand. In addition to the Christmas tree farm that has been in the family for generations, for the last few years they have run fall family activities at the farm that include a children’s train, games, a corn maze and food trucks.

Several years later, the kids — Brooks, 13; Ainsley, 11; and Jacob, 8 — are all in school during the day, which allows more time for the business.

“Most of my day kind of revolves around drop-off and pickup and trying to get as much done as I can while they are at school,” Carrie said.

She enjoys teaching her kids real-world skills by exposing them to the different aspects of owning a business. One of her children is currently in a math unit about money at school, and she was able to relate the lessons he was learning to making change on the farm. “They like learning about having a business and what it takes,” she said. “Maybe someday they will want to continue the tradition here. We’ll see what happens.”

They also participate in all the hands-on work involved in running the farm and its activities, and Carrie said it is rewarding to see them take pride in what their family has created. “That’s been really fun, watching them grow up on a farm and knowing this is their backyard, and having them see people enjoy what we have here, is really cool, too.”

Carrie worked for a custom playground company until her youngest was two years old. “We decided as a family that it was time for me to be home more and transition from a full-time working mother to be home more, and we expanded from there,” she said.

“It’s important for us as a family to do things together and make memories,” she added, “so we wanted to provide space for other families to do that together. That is kind of a driver here.”

 She has found that it is important to have a good support system.

“Jason and I are extremely lucky that his parents live basically across the street from us, and my parents are just a few miles down the street from us, so we have a ton of grandparent help,” she said. “They help us, picking [the children] up from school and activities. That’s the biggest reason why we have had the chance to expand the way we have.” Carrie’s brother-and-sister-in-law also live in the area, and they enjoy having the kids over to each other’s houses, she added.

Carrie continues to expand the farm’s offerings. “We’re hoping to host a few new events this year,” she said. One new activity coming up soon is a wine and beer tasting in the corn maze.

“It’s an adult date night,” Carrie said. “Come hang out and experience the farm as an adult. We’re hoping to host some corporate events here in the late summer/fall time, and then we have, possibly, another season that we’re hoping to add. We’re excited about this upcoming year, and we’re trying to reach as many people as we can to get them outside, enjoying fresh air and spending time together.”  

When owning your own store is the ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ 

When Jennifer Engel took ownership of children’s toys and clothing store The Cat’s Pajamas, she was fresh out of college and trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She had just graduated from Cornell University and decided to turn down a job opportunity that, on paper, looked perfect.

“I was supposed to work at the UN in New York City and just couldn’t face it,” she said. “The time was not right; I needed to get a job in town if I was going to stay.”

She worked at a different store in Dewitt Mall before the opportunity came up to buy The Cat’s Pajamas. She and a friend took the plunge, taking out loans that had to be cosigned by their fathers because they were both women in their early 20s.

“I had my first child in 1984 and rolled through with that, and on and on,” she said. “The early days of having kids and work were stressful but delightful.”

She has two children of her own and “two extras,” and they could often be found at the mall when their mother was working in the store.

“They would visit the merchants,” she said. “They would be over having a pickle at the deli across the hall from me.”

“I latched onto the kids in the college scene,” she said. “They became my workers at Cat’s Pajamas and my day care providers, so that was a beautiful thing.”

The hours she spent working in the relative peace and quiet of the store became her respite from the more chaotic parts of her day. “I was constantly shuffling kids from here to there to there, so this was the calm part, the solace,” she said of her job.

She paired up with another working mom to share child care duties.

“Her kids grew up in my home, and she had my kids in her home, and they consider each other brothers and sisters,” Engel said. “It was out of necessity, when you realize you can’t do something alone and don’t have your families nearby.”

“I hear from people all the time, ‘We moved here to be near the grandkids and help out,’ and ‘I’m so happy parents are here, just down the road, so they can watch the kids when I’m running late.’ It’s gotten to where there are very few moms who I know who don’t work anymore, and cooperation with kid watching continues to be a huge part of that. …Times have changed, and you have to have that special, niche job that allows your kids to be a part of your job. Maybe that was more readily available back in the day.”

She advises mothers of young children who do not have family nearby to reach out to others. “Set yourself up for success,” she said. “Create those relationships with another family. Sometimes it’s rocky, and there are arguments because ideas about child rearing are different, but sometimes in a partnership you have to give something up and be more pliable with your beliefs.”

Now, with four grandchildren and another on the way, Engel is able to enjoy being a grandmother whose grandkids come into the store to play and hang out in the summer.

One piece of wisdom she gives to mothers is to trust yourself. “You know more than you think you do,” she said. “There is something to be said for trusting your instincts. It’s scary, but the universe is scary. If you have enough moral support, and you think you can do it, you probably can, no matter what it is.”