2010 – Page 21 – Business Plus Baby

July 5, 2010July 13, 2010

How To Run An Information-Based Website as a Business (part 1)

Running an online store is a popular business choice for mums because you can work from home at any time of the day or night. Another option is to make an income from offering information online, but it’s not as easy to understand how it works. If you’re not selling a product how do you make money? Sarah Sharp of FamiliesRecommend.co.uk to tells us how.

When Helen asked if I would write a short article on starting and running an information-based website, I jumped at the chance. There is often a misconception that running anything online is both quick and easy money. From my experience it’s not quick and it’s certainly not always easy. However, there are opportunities out there, but they take effort and patience to achieve.

Let me give you some background…

I set up and launched www.familiesrecommend.co.uk with my husband in early 2009. The idea for the site came about following a family holiday in 2008, just before I was due to head back to work following my maternity leave. On our holiday we spent days out in lots of little towns in North Yorkshire and before each we would search the web for things to do and found lots of sites with lists of venues. What we couldn’t find were real life reviews from families outlining if it was suitable for getting a pram in and out, feeding, baby change etc. There didn’t seem to be anything we could find which did this whole review element on a site by itself that focused on families. Then on a trip to Pickering, we attempted to have lunch in a pub. After finding a seat and getting a menu we were told that children were not allowed in the bar. (Fair enough – but there were no signs to say this.) We were told we could eat in the restaurant but couldn’t bring the pram into the restaurant. Now this is entirely fair – the owners made a decision and we respect this – but it wasn’t for us. We decided to leave. However, had someone recommended a place in Pickering where we could be accommodated for our needs we would have headed straight there.

On the way back to our cottage we talked about a review site where we could read real life reviews from families about recommended places to go. After much searching, we couldn’t find a website that exactly met our brief; we decided to set up our own.

We got a local web designer to develop a bespoke site and once it was launched we set about trying to get it populated. We wanted (and this still remains the case) the content to be user generated and user led. This lead us to a dilemma, how do you get people to take your site seriously when it has very little content. And why would advertisers want to pay to advertise on your site when you have little content and little traffic? So, in the last 12 months, we’ve worked hard, generated a following and now the advertisers are starting to come to us.

If you are thinking about setting up an information based website here are some things to consider.

Domain names

If you have a business name or a name for your website, then buy the domain names as soon as you can. At the very least buy .com and .co.uk versions of your name. If you can buy the other top level domain alternatives such as .info and .me this is a good way to retain your brand. When your site becomes successful no one can try and steal your thunder with the same name but another address. It also allows those who do not know the exact address to still find you. Also consider misspellings for example people often misspell recommend and so may type ‘reccommend’ – we therefore have a domain called familiesreccommend.co.uk

Content

Think long and hard about how information will be added to your site. Will it be your own content? Will it be user generated? Or a bit of both? How will you get external (web visitors or commissioned writers) to write for you?

Then think about the type of website you need to answer the question above, and if it involves user generated content, then how will this be done, through email / web forms / other? And will the content appear immediately? Will it be moderated? Will you need to do work on the content before it appears on the site?

Budget

We used our entire budget on getting a great looking custom-built site. We really didn’t think too much about marketing it. As such our marketing strategy has been built about what we can do that is free and inexpensive, although perhaps this has made us slightly more innovative in the approaches we have taken. However my advice is to put aside a little bit of your budget for marketing and PR. Do you need a custom built site? Could you develop your site through an off the shelf package or online resource such as WordPress? These can be cheaper and effective.

Making people aware of your website

There are millions of websites out there. The chances of people finding you by accident are quite slim unless you work at getting people to visit you. Search Engine Optimisation is a must, but is a labour intensive process. Your website needs to have the right search terms included in the right places in order for the search engines to pick it up and list it. If you don’t get SEO right, you’ll not appear high up the search engine rankings and people will never find you. We employed an SEO specialist to tackle part of our site for us, and it’s starting to show good results. But SEO takes times to do and to show results – it’s not a quick fix. We have to SEO every new review and every new page on the site in order to make it visible to the search engines, which can be time consuming.

Keeping in touch with your visitors

You need to get people to your site and keep them coming back again and again. As you are not selling a product you need to keep reminding people you are still there. We ask users to register with us when they want to submit a review and to subscribe to our newsletter, this means we can keep in touch with them at regular intervals. Even if they don’t read the newsletter, just the fact your name appears in their inbox may trigger a visit to the site.

We also use social media to engage with our users everyday. By using Twitter and Facebook we actively tell our followers about what is new on the site and encourage them to visit us. This way the site is always being promoted but in an uncostly way. Also, we have a blog. We write about the things that we don’t cover on the site, like the decisions behind the colour scheme of the site to our own recent family trip to Butlins.

Go to part 2 of How to run an information-based website as a business.

Sarah Sharp is the co-owner of www.familiesrecommend.co.uk, an online review and information site for discerning families. She is married to Lee and is mum to Thomas, who is almost three years old. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne.

July 2, 2010July 10, 2010

Nasty Shocks

There can be a nasty shock just around the corner when you run a small business.

Copywriter Sam Thewlis had a client who published Sam’s work on his website but didn’t pay her for it – you can read the details on her blog, Mumazing.
Karen Sherr, owner of Musical Minis, is regularly contacted by people who say they want to sign up to her franchise. In fact they are gathering information so they can copy her. (You can read how she feels about this on her blog, Learning Made Fun).
Then there’s Natalie Lue’s posts on Self Employed Mum entitled She’s trying To Destroy Me, giving advice on what to do when your admirers go too far and shamelessly copy you.
Back when I was a freelance trainer, I lost quite a bit of money when a training company I worked for went bust. They cheerfully let me run training sessions at their centre, knowing full well that the chances of them being able to pay me were remote. I got my letter saying they’d gone into administration the next week.
I’ve never had any clients stolen from me by other freelancers, but I know it happens.

Why would you want to know about this? Well, if you’ve gone from employment to being your own boss, you won’t have encountered these shenanigans before. It can make you feel quite lonely and maybe even a bit of a fool. As if you should have seen this coming and done something about it. The truth is that usually, you just don’t expect this kind of thing to happen to you. Not unless you’re a total cynic.

Honesty is the best policy wherever you work, but having a good reputation is even more important if you’re self employed. Which is why I’m always stunned when I see self employed people using these types of tactics. I hope that makes me the decent, trustworthy kind of person that you’d want to work with ather than a naive fool!

If you were able to corner one of these people and ask how they could justify copying, ripping off, not paying up and generally putting their own needs miles ahead of other people’s, I’m guessing they’d argue that it’s nothing personal, just business. I don’t agree. The dog-eat-dog style of business is out-dated. These days we have a much more collaborative, relationship-based way of doing things. Thank God.

So here’s a few things you can do:

Start with clear expectations – If you’re working for another business, ask them for a contract or their terms and conditions. If there is no contract, confirm in writing what you’re going to do, when, for how much and when you expect to be paid. See Business Link for more about writing your own terms and conditions.
Read the small print – If you are given a contract to sign, read all of it. Challenge any points that you’re concerned about before you sign.
Have some savings – If you lose work or aren’t paid until well after you were expecting it, you’ve got a cash cushion to keep you going.
If it’s looking a bit iffy, keep a record of what you did – when you sent letters or emails, who you called and what was said. It’s easy to forget the details and the information could be useful if you do need to talk to a solicitor or go to the small claims court.
Be careful where you let off steam – It’s tempting to share your frustrations on social media, but you never know who’s reading. Future clients might think twice about hiring you if they’ve seen you slagging off a client in public, even if you were in the right.
Be careful about taking on very big contracts – it’s like putting all your eggs in one basket – if something goes wrong, you can lose months of work or money. On the other hand, you may feel it would be crazy to turn down a huge contract if you needed it. It’s a tough one, so all you can do is weigh up your options carefully.
If you think that the small claims court might be an option, look into it – It’s not as daunting as you might think and you can make a claim for up to £5000. Take a look at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau website for more info.
If you’re thinking of calling a solicitor – give Suzanne Dibble a shout, mumpreneurs are her speciality.
Don’t get bitter – it happens to us all eventually. Most people you meet are decent, honest and helpful. Don’t let the few that aren’t stop you from doing your thing. Onward and upward!

Do you have any advice to share?

Photo: Jessica Flavin

June 30, 2010July 1, 2010

Free Days Out With The Kids

If you’ve taken small children out for the day, you’ll know how easy it is to spend more than you planned. And that will be exactly what you want to avoid if you’ve got a tight budget while you get your business off the ground. Let me introduce you to my latest guest blogger Tamsin Oxford, writer on Playpennies.com – a UK parenting site about money-saving, with some great ideas for free days out.

We’ve all had it. The feeling that we really should do something with our kids but we’re not entirely sure what, or where, or whether we can afford it. Finding things to do with the children on weekends, or during the week, can be expensive and frustrating, especially if it’s raining or cold. The park may be a fabulous idea for those hot and sunny days but you can’t really rely on the weather doing what you want just because you have a free day.

As the Budget kicks in we’re all going to have to cut corners and stare sadly at empty pockets. It’s time for us all to take advantage of free days out and activities to help us save money.

There are loads of fun and free things for you to do with the kids, I promise! It’s all about looking in the right places and planning everything a little in advance. To start with, make sure that you pack snacks and drinks before you go. These usually cost a fortune at most venues and taking your own will massively cut down on costs.

One of the best ideas given to me by a super mum friend was to freeze a couple of plastic bottles of water the night before. Wrap them in plastic so they don’t sweat all over the nicely wrapped sandwiches and then stick them into your carry bag. They’ll keep fruit and sarnies nice and cool, and as they defrost they are a fabulously refreshing drink. Brilliant!

Silver Cross Prams have just started a new website for parents called Silver Cross Days out that is populated with ideas by parents, for parents. It’s completely free to join and you can search through the listings made by other parents to find activities that suit your tastes and location. One of the nice features of this site is the fact that they encourage parents to point out issues with venues (such as no toilets or food) so you can prepare accordingly.

Another idea is to spend a bit to save in the long term. Places like Sea World, for example, charge only £2 more per person for a year’s free entry into the park. If you hurry, you can get free entry tickets from your local Co-op for your kids (valid until 30th June) so you only have to pay for yourself (once) and your kids will go free.

Invest in a book like 501 Days Out for Kids in the UK and Ireland (you can see our PlayPennies review right here ) that outlines all sorts of activities and has loads of ideas on free things to do across both countries.

If you have older kids then consider merging your day out with something that will support their curriculum or learning. Many museums and art exhibitions are completely free and will likely entertain you all. Although if you’re taking younger kids along be sure to provide them with other entertainment (such as colouring books or toys) so you’re not harassed by the sound of, “I’m boooored.”

Finally, use Google. Just enter “free days out for kids” into the search bar and be amazed by how many sites pop up with brilliant ideas. My personal favourite is Day Out With The Kids as the search function is clever, the listings impressive, and the ability to find different activities in different locations for different age groups is a stroke of genius.

Don’t forget to pack your essentials like sun cream and snacks!

photo credit: mkm photography

June 29, 2010June 28, 2010

What Would You Do With £100?

Tell Enterprise Nation how you would spend £100 to boost your business and they might just give you the money! Each month from July to November they will be giving £100 each to the 20 people with the best ideas. All you have to do to enter the competition is to tell them how you’d spend £100 to start or develop your business online.

It might not sound much, but us mumpreneurs are very resourceful. It’s amazing what we can do with £100! All the details are on the Enterprise Nation website.

June 28, 2010July 19, 2010

My Free e-Book is Launched Today!

Today I’m launching my new e-book :

Business Plus Baby: Ten things you need to know if you’re starting a business and have a baby

Many new mums expect to return to work after their maternity leave ends, but find their priorities change once their baby arrives. Faced with a choice of working full-time, taking a poorly-paid part time job or giving up work altogether, many are starting businesses instead.

This is exactly where I was two years ago. I fully intended to go back to work full-time after my maternity leave ended, but changed my mind once my baby was born. I knew starting a business might be an option, but I didn’t know how I could fit it in around a young child. And with the end of my maternity leave approaching fast, I didn’t have much time to work it all out.

Since then I’ve blogged, networked, Facebooked, tweeted and hung around a lot of forums to find the answers I needed. I’ve picked out the ten key facts that aspiring mumpreneurs with babies need to know and written about them in this e-book.

Making such a big career change at the same time as adjusting to being a new parent is tough. I found the information I needed, but it took a lot of research. By sharing what I’ve learned, I hope to make the transition easier for other new mums.

You can get the e-book here (no sign up needed).