Getting Started – Page 7 – Business Plus Baby

October 10, 2012October 9, 2012

Eight tips on how NOT to start up your work at home business

Helen Neale is owner of the Printable Reward Charts business, KiddyCharts. She is a former business analyst who gave up her role as an outsourcing expert, to focus on being a parent and a freelance writer. She is a Britmums editor and writes regularly on parenting, and small business issues. She can be found, perhaps too regularly, on Twitter and Facebook.

We all make mistakes – and I am pretty sure that many of you have made a few in setting up your businesses; from the smallest coaching company to the 100,000 consultancy business.

I know that I have made a few, and continue to do so. None of them *shesayscrossingfingers* have been catastrophic ones, but some have cost me money. Money I shall never get back, but has give me a valuable, if painful, lesson.

So, to those thinking of setting up their own business, here are some classic mistakes….so, let’s not start that new work at home business…. Continue reading “Eight tips on how NOT to start up your work at home business”

September 24, 2012September 24, 2012

Buying, running and selling a business, small or large

It seems that more and more mothers are turning to running their own businesses as they seek to balance the financial demands of having a family with their desire for career success after giving birth. In fact, the popularity of the proposition has led to the phrase ‘mumpreneur’ being coined across the pond and now over here.

Buy or start from scratch?

For most the option to buy an existing business is probably not financially or practically possible, but for those with some existing capital acquiring a business or a franchise is a tangible possibility. The most important factor when contemplating a purchase is whether the business is sound, and whether it fits your abilities, expectations and level of commitment.

If considering a franchise, be sure to have a lawyer check over the fine print. Franchises are great as they offer a business concept packaged and ready to go, often with a brand name and corporate identity included. There are other options to a franchise running along similar lines, which include a license agreement, agency or a distributor agreement. The downside to a franchise-type model is that you won’t be free to run the business as you wish, and you will usually be expected to contribute significantly to the initial start up costs, and pay a franchise fee.

Keeping it going

Once your business is up and running, or your franchise agreement is signed and sealed, the hard work begins. The most important advice to any mother running their own business is to carefully plan how to integrate your business with your family. Small businesses and families require huge amounts of time and dedication to make them a success, and of course you will be caught in the middle of this.

There is plenty of help and advice out there to help anyone starting business, this will include information on the legal aspects of running a business, including employment issues, national insurance and PAYE tax matters, intellectual property issues including copyrighting your website and protecting your ideas and logos with patents or trademark registration.

Knowing when to sell

Selling a business is a difficult decision for any owner. You may decide that the hours are no longer possible, you may be forced to change location or even decide to go back to an employed position. The most important first step is to plan your objective for the sale, and to approach a company lawyer for advice. You may decide to sell to an employee or partner, or to market the business through an agency. Getting good information early on is the key to ensuring you are able to make an informed decision on the best way to withdraw from the enterprise. The final most important factor is the timing; maximising revenue will depend on achieving the sale at the right point in the business cycle, and this is no mean feat.

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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

September 10, 2012

If I was starting out as a work at home mum now, here’s what I’d do…

It’s now four years since the day I took my three-month-old daughter to visit a nursery and discovered I couldn’t leave her and go back to work full-time. It wasn’t the nursery, I just couldn’t stand to be parted from my baby. (If you feel that way right now, you might like to read my story here?)

Next week she starts school! That’s quite a milestone for both of us.

I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in those years and I was just thinking what I’d say to myself if I could go back to where I was back in 2008. So I decided to share it because if you’re a work at home mum who is just starting out, you might find it helpful.

I’ve got a list of practical tips coming up (that’s me, always practical!) but my decision to start a business from home was anything but practical. It was very emotional at the time. So the first thing I would tell myself is that it’s OK, you’re not going crazy. It’ll all be fine. It’s going to be hard work and there is a lot to learn, but you won’t regret taking time out with your little girl during those precious few years before she starts school. And I know it doesn’t feel like it now, but those years really do go fast.

you won’t regret taking time to out with your little girl during those precious years

Despite that, there will be times when the frustration of not being able to work when you want to will drive you bonkers. You’ll have a task you desperately want to finish but it’ll have to wait until toddler goes to bed (yes, when you’ll be shattered and struggling to keep your eyes open). That doesn’t make you a bad mum, so don’t beat yourself up. In fact resist the urge to be too hard on yourself whenever you possibly can.

So (clicking back into practical mode again!) here’s what you need to do next: Continue reading “If I was starting out as a work at home mum now, here’s what I’d do…”

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Quick money vs long term business: Which is right?

When I first started looking for business ideas, my plan was to build a long term business. Something that would grow as my children grew; I never wanted to have to go back to a job.

Almost four years down the line, I’d still agree with that. But (you knew there was a but, didn’t you? 🙂 ) it’s not as simple as it sounds.

The problem with growing a long-term solid business is that it takes time. Lots of time. And time is one thing you don’t have with young children around. There’s a big learning curve for starters, then there’s market research, getting the product or service right, marketing and finally after that you might make some money.

Many mums with young kids get stuck in a trap where they can’t afford childcare because they haven’t made enough money yet, but they don’t have the time to build their business without the childcare. That can lead to an agonisingly slow and frustrating start-up period.

Whether you can free up time to get your business off the ground or not varies. If you’ve got just one pre-school child, you may be able to pay for a little childcare a week (I found this harder as my children are just over a year apart in age and that meant childcare was seriously expensive for a couple of years). If you have a relative or close friend nearby that can look after your child for one day a week, that can make a huge difference. Or if Dad can look after the little ones all day Saturday, that’s a big plus, too.

Throughout this start-up period, there’s a good chance that you’ll be making very little money. Some families may be able to tighten their belts for long enough to get through this but what if you really do need cash, and fast? Continue reading “Quick money vs long term business: Which is right?”

June 15, 2012June 15, 2012

Why aspiring work-at-home mums are vulnerable

As a mum with young children who is looking to earn flexibly, you are the target of many skilled marketers.

It’s no surprise that there will be scammers looking to take your money in return for business opportunities that don’t exist. But I want to talk about business opportunities that are entirely legal.

In the (almost) three years that I’ve been running Business Plus Baby, I’ve seen sophisticated marketing techniques designed to snag aspiring work-at-home mums. In this post I want to shine a light on them so that you can make an informed choice about whether to ‘tune in’ or not.

You see, I’ve been in that truly uncomfortable position where you simply can’t put your baby in a nursery and go back to work, but you have no idea how you’ll pay the bills if you don’t. That desperation makes you open to marketing that you simply wouldn’t have paid attention to before.

There are plenty of perfectly legal business opportunities out there where the vast majority of recruits will make little more than pocket money. The few people who are doing well for themselves will be used as the case studies given to potential new recruits – after all, that’s just good marketing. My problem is that often, their stories don’t show the reality for 90%* of the people who sign up. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll often find that the successful few have a background in sales, which is a huge advantage.

You could argue that a high failure rate is to be expected if people are buying into these business opportunities with little or no business experience and are only working part time.

But I don’t think that’s good enough. If a business opportunity is being offered to you at a price, your chances of success (and by that I mean at least an income equivalent to what you’d get for those hours in an average job, providing you work hard) should be far more than 10%*(and I suspect the reality is often a lot less).

Here are some clues to look out for:

“Recession-proof” – nothing is recession-proof.
“Anyone can do it” – not everyone has what it takes to succeed as a self employed person.
“Everyone needs to buy these” (e.g. consumables like household cleaners, gas or electricity) – true, but that usually means your competition will be fierce.
The founder of the scheme being presented as an ordinary housewife – Look closely and she’ll often have run businesses before. True, she may be working part time for a few years while she brings up her kids- but is it likely that you can replicate this success with your own skills and experience?
“I’ll be your partner in…” – you SHOULD get support and training but always keep in mind that you are a customer and you are being sold to. You’re not an equal partner in the usual business sense.
Using the lifestyle as a selling point – “I get to travel the world and earn money at the same time” – if you’re starting a business, your focus should be on what you have of value that your customers want to buy. Keep in mind that this ‘lifestyle’ tactic is putting you firmly in the customer role when you need to be thinking like a business owner.
“I’m working flexibly around my kids and loving it!” – Great, but are you earning more than minimum wage?
Any suggestion that you can earn a full-time income by working part-time hours. This is possible, but it usually takes about five years of hard work to build up to this point. And only a relatively small number of people have the stamina, mindset and skills to do it. Are you one of the few?
“No hard sell, just sell to your family and friends” – do you want to be hassling your family and friends on a regular basis to buy these products? Will they want to buy these products?

These tactics are NOT definitive signs that you’re about to be ripped off, but they are indicators that you should keep your eyes open, read between the lines, check the small print and definitely Google the company to see what others are saying about it. It can be hard to tell a good opportunity from a poor value one and you do need to do your homework.

Just to make it clear again, I’m not saying all direct selling schemes, multi-level marketing schemes, franchises or other ‘business in a box’-style opportunities are dodgy or unethical, I just want you to be able to make an informed choice. That’s not easy to do when you’re faced with slick marketing and are worried about putting food on the table.

*These percentages are my estimates. I haven’t yet found any statistics, so if you know of any please do tell me. I’m basing this article on the experiences of mums that I have spoken to over the last few years.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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