2010 – Page 17 – Business Plus Baby

August 3, 2010August 2, 2010

How Theresa Started J&M Baby Equipment Hire

I sometimes kick myself for not starting a business before I had my babies. It would have had some free time in the evenings to get a little business started and money wouldn’t have been so tight. But I know that I simply didn’t have the push I needed to get me started until I had my first baby.

Often it takes a major life change to nudge us into self employment. For some, being a mum is the change that does it, but there are mums who have faced other challenges and made the jump into self-employment too. Jen Sargeant who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago was one of them. Today I’m handing over to Theresa Lodge of J&M Baby Equipment Hire, who started her business when she became a single parent…

“I am 37 and mum of two boys Jack aged 6 and Max aged 4. I was a part-time time stay at home mum with three small time part time jobs to help our finances – they were Medical Secretary, Legal Secretary and a Dinner Lady. I have always wanted to “work for myself” but never really had the nerve to actually do anything about it. However last year me and the boys’ father separated.

After I initially got over the shock of being a single parent it gave me the boost I needed to actually do something about my dream. I knew from previous experience of taking our two boys on holiday what an ordeal travelling with two young children and all the equipment you needed to take with you was so decided to start a company hiring baby and toddler equipment.

The first problem I came across was a name but after lots of umming and arrhing I decided what better name than to call it after my two boys “J&M”. I spent every spare minute that I wasn’t being a mum and doing mummy chores and playing with the boys researching, setting up a website etc even thought this meant spending lots of sitting at the laptop until the early hours of the morning and then still being up bright and cheerful for the school run the next day.

In June this year my website went live and I cannot believe how well it is going already. The feedback I have got from customers is great and it really makes me proud that I am helping them as well as fulfilling my dream of working for myself.

At the moment I still have my three small part time jobs as a Legal Secretary, Medical Secretary and Dinner Lady just so I still have a regular income to rely on but if my business keeps going the way I am hoping it will I may have to give these up to concentrate full time.

I would love your readers to read my story as it would inspire them to go for starting up their own business. Its a shame it took such a drastic action as my relationship breakdown for me to actually get the nerve to do it and I wish I had done it years ago but I am up and running now and plan to keep going from strength to strength.”

With your energy and determination, I’m sure you will. Good luck Theresa!

August 2, 2010August 1, 2010

I Started a Business With a Baby: Alexandra Atkins of The Ultimate Baby Shower

Tell us a little about your business

My business is The Ultimate Baby Shower Ltd (TUBS), which is the first company to focus on the British baby shower market. Rather than copying the way the U.S. are doing it, I have thought about what the British public would like. This involves cosy afternoon teas with girlfriends, swapping hints and advice, spoiling mummy to be, eating elegant baby themed cupcakes and cookies – supping the odd glass of pink champagne! The decor is elegant and sophisticated with butterflies, parasols and baby themed accents. I recognise the fact that new mummies should be celebrated and need plenty of hints and advice before baby arrives. It is a fun affair and watching the opening of the cutest of baby gifts goes down very well too!

What was your job before starting your business?

I used to work as an Environmental Consultant and travelled to Europe working on projects for oil and gas companies. I thought I would continue to do this once my baby arrived and employ a nanny to look after her while I worked but as soon as I saw my daughter I knew I couldn’t be away from her so I set up on my own.

How did you go from your old career to your new business?

I always thought I would continue my job because it is what I worked towards throughout university and it was the career path I always wanted. However during my maternity leave I handed my notice in because I couldn’t hand my daughter over to a nanny while I spent all day at work or travelling. I wanted to enjoy her as much as I could.

What were your reasons for starting a business?

I needed to use my brain and keep busy. I found I was spending time visiting other people with babies, going to baby groups, having lunch with mums etc. I felt I was being absorbed into a world of babies and I needed my own focus. I’d always been busy studying or working and I couldn’t cope with not having this organisation anymore.

Did you use any childcare?

To begin with I only worked during nap times – forming my ideas and getting things down on paper. I also worked evenings. After about 6 months (when my daughter was a year old) I had a part time nanny who worked 3 mornings a week. I spent this time creating my website, setting up the business etc. I worked 3 mornings a week, during the afternoon nap and in the evenings between my daughter going to bed (6pm) and my husband getting home (9pm). If my daughter was unhappy at any time when the nanny was with her then I would sit working with my laptop on my knee while she played on the floor with the nanny.

How did you get your business idea?

I have cousins in the U.S. who had numerous baby showers and kept asking why I wasn’t having them. I always thought they were rather tacky and not my kind of thing although I loved the idea of getting the girlfriends together to offer hints, tips and advice to mummy-to-be whilst eating cupcakes and having a glass of champagne. I found a way to create baby showers with elegance and style.

What were your challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge has always been, and still is, splitting my time between my work and my children (I now have 2 daughters age 6 and 3). I’ve worried whether my work is taking my time away from my children. If my children have been unhappy then they have always come first, meaning my business has suffered along the way and taken much longer to get to where it is now. I closed the business for 12 months after my 2nd daughter was born because I couldn’t cope with a new baby, a 3 year old, a house move and the business. We had just moved to a new house in a new area away from friends – there was no child care so I needed to be with them full time. I worked evenings to keep things ticking over but that was all I could do. I never wanted to compromise being a mummy. Even now I work 3 days a week and every evening when they are in bed.

What training, information or advice did you need to get started?

I went to Business link to begin with but because my business was unknown to anyone at the time (baby showers weren’t really heard of in the UK back in 2005) it wasn’t much help. It’s been a huge learning curve for me because I didn’t know where to get help from and didn’t seek advice about running a business. I jumped into it, thinking I could do it and I did. Organisation and determination have been key to me succeeding. My business has changed massively along the way and isn’t what it was 5 or even 2 years ago. It has evolved as I have gained experience from my customers. I have responded to their needs and they have helped form the business.

If you could give one piece of advice to a mum of a baby or toddler starting a business, what would it be?

If you’re starting a business and find you can’t cope because of demands from your little one then put the business on hold, sort out what needs sorting out, and pick it up again. The good thing about starting a business is that you’re in control of your time and where it is spent.

July 30, 2010July 25, 2010

I Started a Business with a Baby: Laura Morris of Rentabuggy

Having had a long career in Insurance I left for a break and whilst looking for another job I fell pregnant with my daughter. I decided I didn’t want to go back to a full time job but I was one of these people that needed some buzz as well as being a full time mum and I can never sit still!

When my daughter was about 18 months old, I met up with a friend for lunch and a bit of shopping and she had a son the same age. Slight problem was she forgot her pushchair. We joked that wouldn’t it be a great idea if there was a place where you could rent one for the day? That comment sat with me for near enough 6 months!

Lying in bed one night I couldn’t stop thinking about it, ideas were flooding out of me and I kept thinking ‘I might of hit on something here’. I got up and wrote down the ideas. Within a week I had built my first website and had my first order and what a buzz!

The company was launched in October 2008 right in the first talks of recession and I did argue with myself whether it was the right time to launch into a new business but I kept coming back to the thought that by providing a service where people could rent a pushchair monthly would help ease families cash flow.

Rentabuggy now provides top selling pushchairs on a monthly basis and we also provide holiday rentals including travel cots, highchairs, sterilisers and more. We cover both services Nationwide and the unique point of the holiday rentals service is we deliver your products direct to your place of stay and then collect them when you have gone taking the stress out of travelling and packing the car trying to squeeze everything in.

Rentabuggy has grown in 18 months and the beauty of spending time with my daughter when I choose is something I would not want to give up now but that doesn’t mean to say it has not been hard work. I can honestly say it is only in the past 18 months that I have retrieved a good work v life balance. I love the fact that I get to see the stages of my daughter growing and we talk daily about work and she knows it brings in money to give her clothes and buy food. I want her to grow up understanding the value of money and how you have to work hard to achieve it but also to see the benefits it can reap in. For example last week I was on a BBC2 programme and I was a judge on a panel, she loved it that her mom was on TV!

Once piece of advice I would give to anyone looking to start a business is go for it. If you don’t you will only wonder ‘what if’. One thing with business is it is a huge learning curve. Don’t worry if you get something wrong, pick up and move on. We only succeed by learning our mistakes.

July 28, 2010July 25, 2010

Top Tips for Managing Your Time as a Mumpreneur

Today, Laura Morris of Rentabuggy gives us her top five time management tips for mumpreneurs. Rentabuggy is a pushchair rental service that you can use if you’re on holiday or just want to try out a buggy for a couple of weeks before you buy. You can find out more about how Laura started Rentabuggy here at Business Plus Baby this Friday 30th July.

When I started my business I was married and even though running a business was tough at least I had two pairs of hands to ease the workload. Now a single mum to my daughter Ashleigh, who will be shortly 4 years old and also now running not only my own business www.rentabuggy.co.uk but co-running another one, has definitely been an insight into a whole new world that has taken a lot of adjustment.

My work day life now revolves around meal times, school runs, piles of washing and various other duties, not including my ever growing workload. Trying to maintain a routine has been tough and if you are a mother yourself as you will know sometimes illness and a variety of other stuff seems to pop up in the middle of an important meeting or deadline! Here are my top tips on managing your time.

I work in blocks of 30 minutes. I have found that if I have sat at the computer all day I seem to not get as much done. Seems silly when put in such context but if you try the ‘30 block trick’ it works a treat as you get a break and your mind has time to be restored and focus. I.e. Breakfast 30 minutes, Phone calls 30 minutes, School Run 30 minutes etc
Every morning when you wake up write a to-do list. Many people keep there to-do list within their head but it is important to write it down. The biggest reason for this is that when you cross items off it you can see the progress you have made and this gives you more motivation.
For a long time I had a massive guilt that as I was not only trying to be a role model for my daughter and earn an income I was also not spending enough time with her. In reality I was but it is a massive guilt every mother seems to carry. My daughter is now old enough to love the fact of helping around the house and by doing this together she knows she is helping mummy but we also get to chat about our day’s and share some time doing stuff together even if trivial.
It is very easy when running a business from home to basically get sucked in and to work all night every night. In all honesty, I am quite a sucker for this but I recently decided that to actually be more effective I needed to switch off some evenings. Again, for the first few nights I sat there racked with guilt (especially after a big bar of Galaxy!) but the next morning I woke up feeling refreshed and more focused. We all need to switch off. Even if you had your own office somewhere, you would have to come home at some point!
I recently was at an event where there was an Inspirational Speaker that I really connected with. She was telling the story that every morning before she switches on the computer she goes for a run. She say’s when she comes back she feels refreshed. She says she sees the time as working as it sets her up for the day. Unfortunately, I don’t get time to run every day but this is something I do 2-3 times a week. It really helps me de-stress. So remember who you are and still keep passion in any hobbies you may have!

‘Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent’

July 27, 2010September 30, 2013

Running an Online Shop: Pros and Cons

Today I’m introducing my first ever male guest blogger Trevor Ginn of HelloBabyDirect.co.uk! Dadpreneur Trevor is going to give us the basics on running an online shop. It would be great to have a few more blokes around here, so if you’re a dad who started a business to spend more time with your baby or toddler and would like to be featured on Business Plus Baby then drop me a line! Anyway, over to Trevor…

The huge amount of money which parents spend on products for their newborns inspires many parents to think about setting up some sort of baby focused retail businesses. The baby sector is an attractive option for would be entrepreneurs as it has been hardly been touched by the recent downturn. Recession or no recession, people still have babies.

An increasingly popular option is to ignore the traditional brick and mortar shop in favour of selling online. This strategy is in many ways sensible as, while the rest of the retail sector is in the doldrums, online sales are still experiencing double digit year on year growth. Buying online has great advantages for parents in terms of convenience and increased product availability. In addition, the barriers to entry online are much lower than traditional retail. So how easy is it to set up an online baby shop? This post looks at the pros and cons of this business opportunity.

Pros

Easy to start

Sites such as eBay and Amazon make it easy to start selling online. These marketplaces have a huge, international user bases which allow sellers to get off to a flying start. Very limited technical knowledge is required, although a basic understanding of HTML can help to make listings more visually attractive. There are also no set up costs to sell on eBay or Amazon.

For people with more technical know-how, setting up a transactional website is also not as difficult as it used to be and there are lots of solutions available off the shelf at a very low cost or even for free. OS commerce and Magento are popular open source solutions for creating an online shop.

Cheap

An online retailing business can be started on a very limited budget. All that is required is some stock and an online presence on eBay or Amazon or your own website. This is all easily achievable for around £2000-5000.

(Note from Helen: If you want to know how to do it for less than £200, check out How to start an online shop on a budget)

Sales 24-7, worldwide

Unlike a high street shop, sales on the Internet can be made 24-7. The Internet also opens up a business to an international audience. Around 20% of eBay sales are international and the current strength of the Euro makes UK prices attractive to people in the Eurozone, even when additional postage is considered.

Not limited by geography

An online retailing business can be run from any location and an expensive high street location is not required. Many sellers work from home, although this may become difficult as sales grow.

Cons

Admin intensive

Running an online shop is hard work. Creating product listings are time consuming and maintaining the product catalogue is a never ending job. The proposed VAT increase, for example, will mean the retailers must reprice all their products. In addition all sales should be packed and dispatched on a daily basis.

Customer service

There is no getting away from it, customers can be a pain. Being a retailer involves dealing with the general public and so it is important to be patient.

Solitary

Running an online retailing business involves very little face to face customer contact and so can be a little lonely.

High competition, low margins

Let’s face it, the web is where people go to get bargains and consequently competition is fierce. Margins in online retail tend of be lower than on the high street and so retailers need to compensate by selling more.

About the author

Trevor Ginn set up and runs the online nursery shop HelloBabyDirect.co.uk and you can read his blog at www.trevorginn.com