THIS time last year, Ms Daisy Low, 23, a mother of two, was torn between staying at home and returning to work.
Slotting back into her old job as a coffee shop assistant would help pay for the growing expenses involved in bringing up her two sons, aged five and seven. Her husband, Ah Seng, 40, is a part-time chef.
'But if I went back to work, who would look after my children? Even with the extra income, I would not be able to afford a helper. Yet I needed to find a way to earn more for my family.'
The young mum hit upon the idea of setting up an online business with a friend. In January last year, they opened Cheappo, a blogshop which sells baby clothes and contact lenses imported from Taiwan and South Korea.
Today, she makes about $300 a month in profits. 'It's not a lot, but a little bit goes a long way in my family and it's most important that I'm there for my boys,' she said.
Ms Low is part of a fast-growing online support group of young mothers - many of whom gave birth and married in their teens - who are turning to the Internet for extra cash in these tough times.
The group has seen membership soar from 50 to 100 within the past year. At first, they started hanging out together online for emotional support and cathartic reasons. But as the economy worsened, many have banded together to sell items from baby clothes and slimming products, to cosmetic contact lenses.
These young mums now link up their blogs, forming a comprehensive network of about 50 mum-run blogshops, which advertise for one another.
In their blog postings, a common topic is their struggles to make ends meet. They document the struggles of leaving secondary school midway to care for newborns. They also often lament how their husbands work as odd-job labourers or contract workers, and are vulnerable to job losses.
These days though, business is very much on their minds too. Their postings are often advertorials for other blogshops. They also carry animated advertisements from blog advertising communities like Nuffnang and Advertlets.
Ms Daw Chew, a 22-year-old mother of a 10-month-old girl, started selling cosmetic contact lenses from Korea on Narak Lenses six months ago.
She said: 'This year has been very tough on us. Without the blogshop, I would be at home with my daughter worrying about money. With this business, I feel like I am also contributing.'
She now makes about $400 a month. But she says juggling a toddler and a fledgling business has been an uphill task. Plus, profits have been getting leaner because of the dismal economy and tougher competition.
'When I first started, I could make a few dollars from each pair of lenses. Now, it's reduced to only 90 cents because of the competition. I have to sell nearly thrice the number of lenses to make the same profit.'
Ms Low estimates that she spends up to 20 hours a day online, dealing with e-mail inquiries, sourcing for new products and handling nasty customers. In between, she does some household chores and monitors her sons.
As with all businesses, there are also frequent hitches.
Ms Low recalls: 'There was one month when one of my clothes shipments ran into problems, and I had to deal with angry customers. My phone bill, which is normally $18, shot up to $70. I've gone for an entire day without sleep, just handling accounts and e-mail.'
Despite the uncertain future, most of the mothers in the group intend to stick with their blogshops.
Ms Rykiel Goh, 23, who runs Leetleones, which sells baby clothes and accessories, said: 'Despite all the sleepless nights, I have found a good balance. My blogshop has allowed me both financial independence and time to be there to witness all of my son's special moments.'
What she earns each month is enough for her to pay for her three-year-old son Xavier's clothes and toys and her own shopping.
Her online business has become such a big part of her family's life that she once walked into her living room to see her son opening up her boxes of goods and repackaging them.
'He wanted to do his bit for my business too,' she said with a laugh.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Feb 11, 2009.
