2010 – Page 18 – Business Plus Baby

July 26, 2010July 24, 2010

Why is it always about mums?

I began this website because I thought starting a business would give me the flexibility that my job couldn’t. Looking around, I saw lots of other new mums struggling with the same things as me – not wanting to miss their child’s first few years by working full-time, not wanting to spend a fortune on childcare and being disappointed by the part-time jobs on offer. And I wanted to help.

Helping people take back control over their working and family lives has to be a good thing, doesn’t it? For cultural and financial reasons, it tends to be the mum who works part time and manages the family while dad works full-time. But surely we should be moving towards a more equal sharing of these responsibilities? By encouraging mums into business, am I keeping mums in the home and dads in the office?

I hope not, but I do have good reasons if I am. Starting a business and becoming a parent are both tough learning curves. Doing both together is enough to make your head spin. Changing the traditional roles, starting a business and becoming a parent all at the same time is a step too far for most of us! Plus I’m blogging from my personal experience – I would love my husband to work less than full-time and spend more time with our children, but we haven’t found a way to do it yet. When you’re starting out in business and parenthood at the same time it helps if there’s at least one steady income in the family. And it takes time to get a steady income if you’re building up a business.

There are dads out there who have started businesses so that they can see more of their children. A few people (including my brother, in fact) have asked me why I don’t include dads in Business Plus Baby, so I wanted to redress the balance a bit and introduce Dadpreneur Week. The trouble is I haven’t exactly been inundated by guest posts from dadpreneurs! If there are any men out there who have started a business so they can spend time with their babies or toddlers and would like to be guest bloggers, please do send me a message!

You’ll be able to read a post from my one and only dadpreneur guest blogger tomorrow – I hope to feature a few more blokes around here soon!

photo credit: jessica.garro

July 24, 2010August 4, 2010

The Mumpreneur Awards

Winning an award (or just being nominated) can be a great boost to your PR as well as your confidence. Yesterday Laura Rigney told us about The Mumpreneur Conference, today she’s going to talk about The Mumpreneurs Awards, also happening on 18th September at The Heart of England Conference Centre.

The closing date for nominations is 5pm next Friday, 30th July.

Over to Laura…

The Mumpreneur Awards will be a fantastic end to the day at the Heart of England Conference Centre, seeing 8 deserving business mums walk away as winners of one of our 8 categories. With something for everyone to enter, and a quick, free and easy nomination form, nominate yourself today to be in with a chance of winning. The categories are as follows:

– Best Start Up Award – sponsored by Mums The Boss

– Best Online Business – sponsored by Create.net

– Best Business Support

– Best Green Business – sponsored by Yell.com

– Best Saleswoman

– Best Interactive Business

– Most Unique Product

As well as the main award categories, all shortlisted nominees will be in with a chance of winning The Inspirational Business Mum Award, which will be presented to, quite simply, the most inspiring mumpreneur in the UK.

Awards are open for nominations until 30th July 2010, after which a shortlist will be announced. Shortlisted nominees are required to attend The Mumpreneur Conference and Awards, or send a representative. The shortlist will be judged by an independent judging panel to include high profle entrepreneurs such as Rachel Elnaugh and Jo Cameron. Winners will be announced at the event.

This fantastic initiative is in its second year, and with tickets at just £20, you’d be mad to miss it. The ticket price includes entrance to the confernece and awards as well as lunch and a complimentary invitation to a charity event in the evening, the official launch for the Mums Mission calendar. To buy a ticket, submit a nomination or find out more information about the event visit www.themumpreneurconference.co.uk.

July 23, 2010September 18, 2010

The Mumpreneur Conference

I’m very excited that I’m getting a day off my baby-wrangling duties to go to the Mumpreneur Conference! Maybe I’ll see you there?

The conference is on 18th September at The Heart of England Conference Centre near Coventry. I’ll hand over to Laura Rigney, one of the faces behind the conference and owner of Pitcher House.

The Mumpreneur Conference & Awards is an event that aims to recognise the achievements of the UK’s mumpreneurs and inspire more women into business. The day has been organised as a way for this unique community of mums to come together and celebrate the fantastic work and achievements of one another, no matter how big or small. The conference will support and celebrate mums who juggle family life with starting up or running a business, providing opportunities for the attendees to move forward in growing their business in a way that will fit around their family commitments.

What makes The Mumpreneur Conference different from other business conferences and events, is that this is organised by mother for mothers, ensuring their needs are met, with a suitable day and location to allow mums from around the country to attend, and with the days itinerary created to ensure the attendees get the best out of the day on both a personal and professional level.

We’ll be offering six seminars tailored specifically to the needs of mums juggling family life with running a business, and indeed run by Mumpreneurs. Attendees will be able to attend three of these seminars. The workshops are as follows:

– You Don’t Have To Be Superwoman to Achieve Your Goals

– Tax Tips and Accounting Accuracy for Mumpreneurs

– Simple Social Media Marketing

– Ten Things Every Business Owner should know about the Law

– Creating a Successful Website

– Sales: The 10 Commandments

We’re delighted to be joined by three guest speakers on the day. Millionaire Mumpreneur, Emma Wimhurst, will be talking to us about her journey as a Mumpreneur. Carmen MacDougall will be talking to the attendees with the aim of motivating us, and aiding us in building our confdence, with “The secrets to boosting your inner confidence and how to attract new business opportunities”. Our award ceremony will be opened with a short talk from Lisa Warner of Fink Cards, who’ll be talking to us about her experience of entering awards, and her experience of judging The Mumpreneur Awards.

This fantastic initiative is in its second year, and with tickets at just £20, you’d be mad to miss it. The ticket price includes all of the above, as well as lunch and a complimentary invitation to a charity event in the evening, the official launch for the Mums Mission calendar. To buy a ticket, submit a nomination or find out more information about the event visit www.themumpreneurconference.co.uk.

P.S. I’ll tell you more about the awards tomorrow.

July 22, 2010July 21, 2010

Why Jen Started Her Family Friendly Business

If you’re like me, you’ll look on mums with school age kids with just a bit of envy. Now I know that working around school hours has its own problems. But at least by that stage I’ll have from 9.30 to 3pm free every day and I won’t be squeezing my work into nap times. Sounds wonderful!

But life doesn’t always go so smoothly, as Jen Sargeant of Jen’s Nappy Cakes has found.

“I started this business as my son Jimmy has autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and many conditions within that spectrum. He also has terminal Crohn’s disease and colitus. He goes to a special needs school and because of his conditions we are at the hospital regularly for check-ups. I just found it completely impossible to get a job to work around my family and because my son wouldn’t go to a carer.

He was diagnosed with ASD at 7 years and terminal Crohn’s disease and colitus at the age of 9 years, so we have had a lot of time in hospital and I have had to concentrate on him keeping well. I fit the business in around my family when my son is at his special needs school.”

Jimmy is now eleven (that’s Jimmy in the picture) and Jen also has a daughter, Cheree, who is fourteen. Jen has always been creative but stumbled across nappy and towel cakes on American websites when she was looking for a business idea.

“I decided to do the nappy cakes and occasion cakes as they are not very well known in this country as yet and I want to change that.”

If you haven’t come across nappy cakes before, they look like celebration cakes, but are made up of the bits and pieces you might give as a gift to a new or expectant mum. Jen doesn’t stop with cakes though, here’s her sock bouquet.

Jen also makes arrangements for charity auctions and raffles as she believes it’s good for businesses to support others. And she sent Danni Minogue a nappy cake when her son was born last week.

“My tips for other mums are to work at it every day, put the word out about what you do to as many places as possible, network like crazy, swap links with as many companies as possible. BE PATIENT!”

And her plans for the future?

“I want to eventually open a shop, as at present I work from home and my creations are everywhere! I would love to achieve is to have the nappy cakes and any occasion cakes in the large retail shops, which is something I’m working on at present.”

Jen, we wish you every success!

July 21, 2010July 21, 2010

Business Mums’ Blog Carnival for July is Now Live!

This months’ Business Mums’ Blog Carnival is now live over at Mumazing. It’s well worth a read to check out what other mums in business are up to and (if you leave a comment) you’ll also be doing some networking. Without leaving the house!

Not only does that save on petrol, it also cuts down on calories because you won’t be tempted by the coffee and cakes!