Welcome to week two of the Mumpreneur Monday challenge!
How did you get on with last week’s challenge? If you missed it, the Monday challenge was to Promote Your Blog.
The internet is a wonderful thing but nothing beats meeting real, live people in the flesh. Too much time on your own in front of a PC can drive you a little bit crazy, so this week your challenge is to…
Get out there!
Here’s how you could do it:
- Go to a new networking group
Pick one that suits your style – structured, informal, for mums, for women… take your pick. Stuck for ideas? Ask people you know where they network and what it’s like. Also, ask if you can join them as a guest.
Want to take the little ones but there are no mums networking groups in your area? You could start one of your own! Take a look at Mums The Boss and Mums Business Club.
- Have an informal meet-up (or a Tweetup*)
If you don’t want to start a networking group, you could just ask around if anyone knows any mums in business in your area, then arrange a time to meet up in the local park with the kids.
(*Tweetup = A gathering of people who use Twitter.)
- See someone you know you should meet
Have you been bouncing emails around with someone when you know you should go and see them in person? It’s not always easy to getting around to meeting people face-to-face. This week, set the date and go and see that person.
- Look for business events in your area
Sometimes you just need a breath of fresh air into your business. Look around for local business events and workshops where you can meet new people and get some new ideas. See Woman’s Work, you local Enterprise Agency or Universities, Business Link, or your local Chamber of Commerce.
- Turn to Jelly
Have you heard of Jelly? It’s where groups of home-workers gather together and work in the same space for a few hours (but without networking). There are Jellies popping up all over the world and quite a few are in the UK.
If you’re a Twitter user, the hashtag #Jelly will keep you up to date with all things Jelly.
- Go for a coffee, girls’ night out or whatever you fancy.
Between family and business it’s easy to forget that you’ve not been out just for fun for a while. So go out, enjoy yourself and recharge those batteries.
Drop me a comment and let me know how you get on!
Hi Helen
Great post, I’m a staunch believer in the boosting effects of getting out of the home office. The link you’ve provided to the Jelly Wiki will tell your readers whether anything is happening in their local area, and if not, it’s straightforward and fun to start your own, and there’s lots of info on how to do that on my site. Must also tell you that I’m co- organising a national Jelly event in Shropshire on Friday 25 March next year – details soon!
Thanks Judy, do keep me up to date with Jelly as I think it’s a fab idea. I can’t really get involved myself as I have very little childcare and tend to work in the evenings, but I’m sure it would be great for mums who have school-age children or kids at nursery/childminders.
this is such a fabulous idea, absolutely brilliant. And it’s funny but after running 3 experimental art e-courses this year some of us have finally put together the possibilty of having a creative meet up in real time to do some experimental photography just for fun – something different from always doing things on-line.
Love this idea of a challenge and off to look at last Monday’s challenge – thank you 🙂
Amelia.x
Thank you very much! I love online courses, they are so flexible and give you the chance to learn with people you could never normally gather together. But it’s brilliant if you then get to meet people face-to-face too. Sounds like fun!