Thanks, Mom

Mom is the first mogul you meet. She's the chief birthing officer, the director of operations and the supervisor in charge. As the boss lady, it's her job to manage the headquarters and raise the company from a single branch into several independently owned and operated franchises. It's no wonder so many entrepreneurs are inspired by their moms to start their own businesses.

Here, five entrepreneurs share the lessons their mothers and mother-figures taught them that inspired them to succeed in business--and in life.

"You can do it!"Growing up, Stephen Moore never had to deal with the "meatloaf Mondays" most kids dreaded each week for dinner. Instead, Moore had "tofu Tuesdays" to deal with--and Wednesdays, and Thursdays. As a vegetarian, Moore's mother, Helen, was always looking for ways to blend nutrition and great taste.

"My mom didn't like all the other vegetarian options at the time that were full of preservatives," Moore says, so she started experimenting with tofu.

Those childhood tofu recipes became the backbone for Helen's Foods, a company Moore started in 2002 that offers vegetarian frozen entrees and fully seasoned, pre-baked tofu steaks. Helen's Foods can be found in 1,300 stores throughout the U.S., Canada and Australia, but it wasn't easy for Moore to grow his small business into a seven-figure company.

"I've gotten a lot of 'No's,' 'That will never work,' and 'You can't do it like that and be successful,' but you just keep trying. Even now we have to present to people two or three times before we get the product into a store," Moore says.

Thankfully, Moore's mother taught him more than just a great tofu-steak recipe.

"She taught me to never give up. Whether it was learning to ride a bike or learning to ice skate, she's always said, 'You can do it,' " Moore says. "She taught me not to worry about failing."

"Play nicely with others."Peter Ross learned at a very early age the value of sharing.

"I was the last of 11 children in a very giving family. We all had to help each other to get by," Ross says. "My mom taught me to always treat all people with respect and dignity."

That important lesson was the founding principle behind Senior Helpers, a service that provides in-home personal assistance for seniors, including meal preparation, housekeeping and medical care. Ross co-founded the company after making the heartbreaking decision to place his mother in a nursing home because he lived out of state and was unable to care for her.

Since starting in 2006, Senior Helpers has grown from three franchises to 202 (ranking it #25 on Entrepreneur's 2008 Franchise 500 list) and brings in system-wide revenue of $25 million annually. But it's the care they're providing to seniors and the relationships they've nurtured that are the real rewards for Ross.