Effective and affordable, email marketing can be a great tool to promote your product or service. It’s also easy to do from home, making it a form of marketing that enables you to balance your business and your baby. However, this type of business writing has to be done right to be effective, or else all your efforts will go to waste. Here are a few do-it-yourself email marketing tips to follow when embarking on an email marketing plan. Continue reading “Before You Hit “Send”: Email Marketing Dos and Dont’s”
Why Are All Mumpreneurs Inventors?
If you see mumpreneurs featured in the newspapers or on television, they will almost always be inventors. Usually, inventors of products for babies or children.
I have huge respect for these mums. Inventing a product and bringing it to market is a long process with no guarantee of success. Compared to other business options open to mums, this is the one that needs the biggest investment of money, takes the longest and has the highest risk. Add to that the facts that the mums rarely seem to have any experience in bringing a product to market and that they are working around children and you have some idea why I’m so impressed.
Oddly enough, this is why I’m disappointed that the only mumpreneurs you seem to hear about in the media are inventors. If you’re a mum with young children, crazy childcare costs and an inflexible job, you could easily think starting a business is not for you because you don’t have a product to invent. And that’s a shame, because there are many businesses that are much easier and faster to start, as well as needing a much less money to invest. Where are the virtual assistants, bookkeepers, pet sitters, community magazine editors, yoga teachers, beauty therapists, graphic designers, online store owners…(and many more, actually)?
If you’re a mum with young children, crazy childcare costs and an inflexible job, you could easily think starting a business is not for you because you don’t have a product to invent.
I’m far from alone. Jane Hopkins of MumsClub has spoken to ITV and The Mail about featuring mumpreneurs who aren’t inventors. Joanne Dewberry of www.charliemoos.co.uk and www.networkingmummies.com started a bit of campaign about exactly this issue. Joanne says:
“Daybreak, ITV’s new morning programme, featured 5 mums on their website and also for a week on the show all under the name ‘mumpreneur’, but these 5 women all had something else in common not just a business and children … they were all inventors. Is this a fair portrayal of ‘business mums’?
Firstly I posted the question on my Facebook page and as predicted the ‘non-inventors’ (and there’s a lot of them) weren’t impressed. It got me thinking even more so I sat down and wrote a very long detailed email about myself, my business, and the many varieties of mumpreneurs out there. Their reply consisted of about 10 words and ended in ‘thank you’. I proceeded with my mini campaign, posting my email and Daybreaks reply on my blog. I was pleased that so many people took the time to give their feedback and not just business mums. After a few days I emailed the link over to Daybreak and well a few weeks later and I’ve had no reply.
Firstly my issue wasn’t that I hadn’t been featured far from that. I am really pleased for those that were. I feel it should not have been labelled ‘mumpreneurs’. Not many mums sat at home on maternity leave would think ‘ooo that’s for me! I can leave my job be a full time mum and invent a product to regulate my income!’.
Why not have a week featuring……
Victoria Dixon mum of 2, creator of www.enhance-me.com she takes an image of your child and turns it into a beautiful fairytale creation. Or Rachel Jeffries mum of 2, who runs online wooden toy shop www.totsandtiddlerstoys.com both of these businesses are online and enable the mumpreneur to work hours to suit her. If she needs to be working late at night or early in the morning so she can spend the day helping at her child’s school or taking them to the park, she can.
Lisa Carpenter, mum of 1, runs www.mobilecarsolutions.co.uk with her husband, offering a wide range of products & services for individuals & companies ranging from a hands free kit for your iphone that streams your music to a tracking solution so you know where your vehicles are 24/7. Not really a girly business but not only providing flexibility for childcare but also working alongside her husband.
Or maybe a new start up business? Ama Aqua making beautiful bespoke polymerclay cake toppers (http://www.facebook.com/bespokeclaycaketoppers )and using social media to market and network while she establishes herself. Sarah Philips, is definitely one to watch.
Business ideas born from the desire to be a full time mum yet earn money
Or possibly end the week on Olga Taylor, brains behind www.weddingvipcard.com a privilege card for couples getting married in Dorset, by teaming up with a number of premium quality suppliers to offer exclusive discounts and special offers in the leading up to your wedding day.
These case studies would definitely display to mums that self-employment isn’t beyond their reach. Uncomplicated business ideas born from the desire to be a full time mum but yet earn money and have the flexibility and freedom needed to do this.”
(You can read Joanne’s email to Daybreak, their reply and the responses of many mums in business and even a few who aren’t on her blog)
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts – drop me a message and let me know what you think.
Joanne Dewberry runs Charlie Moo’s (www.charliemoos.co.uk – party bags, gifts and toys) from her home in rural Dorset, where she lives with her partner and their two children Megan 2 and Charlie 3. She is also co-owner of Networking Mummies (www.networkingmummies.com) with Laura Morris (www.rentabuggy.co.uk)
If you would like to spend more time with your children and earn an income, take a look at my book Start a Family Friendly Business: 129 Brilliant Business Ideas for Mums
Us Business Mums are a Very Special Breed…
“I think us business mums are a very special breed indeed”, says Accidental Businessmum Andrea Daly, host of this month’s Business Mums Blog Carnival.
Andrea, I think you’re right!
Big thanks to Andrea for posting November’s carnival, especially as it just seems to get bigger every month! Why not grab a coffee, take a break and have a read of some great blogs?
If you’d like to join in next month, you can grab all the details on the Business Mums Blog Carnival page.
Mumpreneur Monday Challenge: Create Some Fresh Content
It’s Monday again, so it’s time for this week’s challenge. (If you missed the previous challenges, here they are: Promote your blog, Get out there!, Get creative!)
Right, let’s dive in!
Content, content, content. You need it for blog posts, words to put on your website, things to link to on your facebook page, useful links to tweet about….
But how do you come up with all this stuff?
Your challenge this week is to….
Create some fresh content
More specifically, to take one step that will make creating fresh content easier for you from now on. (But that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue!)
Here are some ideas you could try this week… Continue reading “Mumpreneur Monday Challenge: Create Some Fresh Content”
Finding it tough as a mumpreneur? You’re not alone…
You know how life has its ups and downs? Last week I was getting bogged down by everything – working, cleaning up after the family, not having much time off to myself. I still very much believed in helping mums get businesses of the ground, but all I could see was a long, hard slog ahead. The days here are getting shorter as winter approaches, I was tired and if I’m honest, a bit bad tempered too.
So I took a few hours off (steady on, Helen!), got stuck into a good book – fiction, rather than my usual business books – and tried to get things back into perspective. Then I got an email from Erica Douglas that sums up exactly why I’m doing all this. Here’s her story…
“In 2009 I was working part time as a waitress, a job I enjoyed but that was physically demanding. Events that year meant I had to resign leaving me with very little personal income (I was earning £100-£200 from my blog). A few months later I found myself well enough to seek work again, I attended the Job Centre every week only to be disheartened to find that the recession meant that opportunities were limited. With every week that passed and every visit to the job centre I felt more and more depressed and my self-esteem was suffering.
I’d been trying to make a go of things online but the small amount of income I was earning via my blog wasn’t really enough. In October 2009 my husband told me to stop looking for a job, just like that, just stop. He promised that he’d make up the difference between my waitressing job and the income I was making online in overtime (about £200-300 per month). I took his advice and, well, he never had to do any overtime. My husband is a sensible guy, he figured by taking away the barriers it really put me under (good) pressure to follow my passion and soon as I started taking it seriously I started earning an income. I ‘work’ for around ten hours a week now on various things but predominantly my income comes from training business women how to use the internet more effectively. I chose that niche as it’s something I’m hugely passionate about but there are a ton of different niches out there.
My target next year is to earn a ‘full time wage on part time hours’…
My target in the first six months this year was to exceed my waitressing income £400-500 per month. My target by the end of this year was to earn more than £1000 per month working just ten hours a week (I’m not lazy, I’m studying full time too!). Last month I exceeded my target, I know it’s not a huge amount (I’m not rich, yet!) but it was a big milestone. My target next year is to earn a ‘full time wage on part time hours’ and I calculate that as £1500 per month before tax.”
Why was Erica sharing all this? Erica, Antonia Chitty and I have put together a pack of books that will help mums start their own businesses. In Erica’s words:
“I’m sharing this personal information because I want you to know that this is accessible, but it’s not a get rich quick scheme. These books will teach you how to build a proper business that you can run flexibly around your children.”
Sometimes you need to hear someone else’s story to bring things back into focus. Erica reminded me why I started Business Plus Baby. I wanted to help women build a working life on their own terms, not to have to put their children into full-time childcare (unless they wanted to) and spend all their earnings on it. To earn a decent income but still have plenty of time to spend with their young children. To make use of their talents, keep their skills fresh and perhaps discover an entrepreneurial streak. To open up possibilities and opportunities.
I wanted to help women build a working life on their own terms
Because I’m passionate about my subject and also online, blogging is the perfect way for me to do that. But an online business is a long haul, it takes a lot of patience and determination.
So if you’re knee-deep in hard slog and flagging a bit, remember you’re not alone. Whether you’re thinking of starting a business and daunted by all the challenges ahead or you’ve hit a tough patch after starting your business, keep at it.
Keep taking those steps forward and make sure you’ve got the company of other business mums (we know what it’s like). From time to time reconnect with you reasons for doing all this. Take a little time out if it all gets too much.
Keep going and all those steps will add up to something really amazing.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, please leave me a comment :0)
