Ridgefield Press, December 4, 2008

By Kate Czaplinski

Authors Michelle and Dan Briody live in town
with their two children Evie, 3, and Sam, 5.
Mrs. Briody recently released her first book,
Sixteen Weeks to Your Dream Business

A day in the life of a "mompreneur" must look something like a recent Monday morning at the Briody home on Mountain View Avenue. Michelle Briody shuttled her daughter to preschool on Main Street and tended to a son home sick from kindergarten in between an interview and any spare minutes she can find for writing, blogging and e-mailing to help market her business.

"I'm stealing hours here and there to make calls and promote my book," Ms. Briody said.

After experiencing successes and failures of tending to a burgeoning business, Ms. Briody and her business partner, Nada Jones, wrote the quintessential how-to book for business-minded women.

New book Sixteen Weeks to Your Dream Business: A Weekly Planner for Entrepreneurial Women was released this past September through McGraw-Hill and offers techniques and advice for what the book refers to as mompreneurs as well as women from all backgrounds.

The book is an extension of Ms. Briody's and her partner's Web site business, NedandShell.com, a site that seeks to make connections among female business owners.

Ms. Briody's husband and fellow author, Dan Briody, has supported his wife through her book publishing process and spoke warmly of her latest endeavor in an interview at their Ridgefield home.

"She has always been on this path," he said. "She's a serial entrepreneur."

Ms. Briody agreed that her flair for business is nothing new, recalling that as a child she convinced her mother to help her make T-shirts to sell at school. As a career woman in New York City, she always looked for additional opportunities while working in merchandising and product development with lifestyle brands like Williams Sonoma and Levi's.

Her husband has been an ideal sounding board during the bookpublishing process. A successful journalist, Mr. Briody gained national attention with his books The Halliburton Agenda and The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group.

The Iron Triangle explored the modern military-industrial complex, and Halliburton gave a detailed account of the oil company formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Briody currently freelances for national magazines and works as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies through Cavan Communications. He has an office in town.

"I'm the opposite of Michelle in that she has to try to steal hours away from the kids and I'm trying to steal some from work," Mr. Briody said.

Mr. Briody grew up in Ridgefield as the youngest of seven children.

Ms. Briody is a native of New York state. The two decided to move to Ridgefield from New York City when they began having a family.

"Never in a million years did I think I would end up back in the town where I grew up," Mr. Briody said. "But this is a great town, and we're going to be here for a long time."

Ms. Briody is an active volunteer at Ridgefield Community Kindergarten, where her daughter, Evie, attends preschool. Their son, Sam, recently started kindergarten at Scotland Elementary School.

Her husband, who returned from a business trip in Europe and South America recently, helps with the daily routine when he's not traveling.

"Every couple of months we have to sit back and re-evaluate our schedules," Ms. Briody said. "We both believe in very hands-on parenting and being there for our children."

Scheduling Her book and business are based on the idea that women often run into the same pitfalls when trying to start a business, including scheduling.

"I always had this idea of working with other women entrepreneurs," she said. "The more we looked at a cooperative business model the more we found other women had the same problems we did in starting a business."

The Web site and new book offer clear-cut strategies for starting any kind of business, including drafting a plan and conducting research.

They provide worksheets for raising start-up money and for financial management for a business.

They also feature inspiring profiles of women who succeeded in their dream endeavors.

"It was a big deal to us that we break things down and make them simple," she said. "It's an intimidating process alone; we don't need to make it scarier."

The positive reviews have already trickled in. One reviewer and blogger, who goes by the name The Mogul Mom, wrote that the book would have saved her a lot of time and money if she had had it before she started her business.

The book also suggests capitalizing on a woman's touch in business.

Ms. Briody said men are often brought up to be more aggressive in the business world, while some women prefer to take their time in perfecting a concept that's important to them.

Ms. Briody hopes to share her expertise locally this month. She is launching a networking group for women in Ridgefield in December.

Thus far, she said, the book is her biggest career accomplishment.

Mr. and Ms. Briody added they feel accomplished in the harmony they've created between family and work.

"The biggest accomplishment is achieving the kind of work-life balance I always wanted to have," Mr. Briody said. "It's nice to work here in town and be able to raise my family.

I mean, writing books is easy compared to this."

To buy a copy of Mr. or Ms. Briody's work, visit any major bookstore, including Borders and Barnes & Noble. Copies of Sixteen Weeks to Your Dream Business are also available at Books on the Common.