Business Plus Baby

February 15, 2012February 13, 2012

Five minutes with Rachel and Andrea of Zebra Ceramics

Please could you tell us a little about your business?

ZEBRA ceramics opened in late 2009. It is a contemporary ceramic café offering a bright and design focused studio for painting a whole range of items from a T-rex to a T-pot for Gran. It is also a café serving organic teas and coffee with a great selection of homemade cakes and snacks. We specialise in taking baby prints in clay, silver and ceramic and have worked hard to make sure that these are the best available. The whole ethos of ZEBRA is to be very child-friendly, have great customer service and to have a resultant product that is very contemporary and of extremely high quality.

What did you both do before opening Zebra Ceramics?

Andrea trained as an architect and worked in large companies based in Oxford and London. She specialised in hospital design before having her boys now aged 7 and 5. Rachel trained as a radiographer and having worked up the management route in the NHS, set up her own strategic management consultancy company in 2006. She has 3 children aged 18, 14 and 7 and has worked either full or part-time with all of the children.

Continue reading “Five minutes with Rachel and Andrea of Zebra Ceramics”

February 13, 2012February 13, 2012

Shine: My first audio blog

This is my first ever audio blog post!

I explain why I decided to give audio a go in the recording (it’s only 2 minutes long).

I also talk about Shine (ShineLittleBiz.com), the new website from Karen Gunton of BuildaLittleBiz.com which launches on the 14th February (that’s today if you’re in Australia, tomorrow for us Brits!)

This is also the first time I’ve used Audioboo, which is an audio social network. It’s like YouTube, but for audio clips instead of video. If you’d like to follow me on Audioboo, my username is ‘hlindop’. So far Audioboo has been great – really easy to use and free for recordings of up to 3 minutes.

Here it is:

photo credit: Suicine

February 12, 2012

Business Mums Blog Carnival for February

If you’ve got a business blog, why not join in the February Business Mums Blog Carnival?

You don’t even need to write a post for the carnival, just pick your favourite from the posts already up on your blog and send the link to the carnival host.

This month your host is www.aceinspire.com

To enter, email the link to your post to kizzy (at) aceinspire.com by Friday 17th February.

The carnival will be posted on www.aceinspire.com on Wednesday 22nd February.

If you’re not sure how it all works or what kind of post to enter, you’ll find everything you need to know on the Business Mum’s Blog Carnival page. And you can get your own blog carnival badge there too!

Want to know more about blogging to promote your business? Grab yourself a copy of my book Business Blogging for Beginners (only £2.29!)

February 9, 2012April 14, 2013

WordPress setup: a mindmap for you

Lately, I’ve heard loads of mums ask if they can set up their own websites and if so, how. Template website builders are an option (like Create, Moonfruit, Mr Site and so on) but WordPress has several big advantages over these:

1) You buy your own hosting, so your website and content are your own. So you don’t have to worry about the website builder company going bust and taking your website with them.

2) You have far more flexibility – you can install plugins that do pretty much anything you like and many are free.

3) WordPress is free

4) You have many more options to optimize your website for search engines

5) Your website won’t look like a template website!

However, the disadvantage is that there’s a bit of a learning curve. Although you won’t need to be a web designer, you’ll probably need to fiddle with a little code at some point. That said, there is a vast amount of WordPress support online for free. By the way, WordPress was designed as a blogging platform, but you can use it as a website without a blog.

One of the aspects of setting up a WordPress website that used to put me off is that there are so many little bits and pieces to think about – hosting, domain names, settings and plugins. None are all that difficult, but together there’s quite a lot to get your head around. Which is why I was glad when I found this outrageously useful mindmap on setting up a WordPress website.

Here it is: WordPress mindmap (right click to download it)

It’s a freebie from the myNAMS training course, of which I’m a member. Click myNAMS for more info and if you decide to join, enter the code MYNAMS85 to get 85% off.

Of course, if setting all this up is too much, you can pay someone to do it for you. This is still better than a traditional website because you can edit the content yourself whenever you like.

Would you like a copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success? Join my mailing list and I’ll send you one!

Contains affiliate links

February 7, 2012February 8, 2012

Become a member of Mums The Boss: new membership package and discount

It’s hard to believe, but it’s over three years since Mums The Boss’s first networking meeting in Bedford.

(Well, perhaps not so hard to believe for me as I went along with my then 4-month-old baby….and she starts school this September!)

Since then, Mums The Boss has grown across the UK and branches are still opening now.

In their own words, Mums The Boss “believe that, while each one of us may be a solitary mum working from home, by working together and sharing experience and information we can help each other to grow stronger and more profitable businesses.”

The great news is that you don’t have to live near a Mums The Boss group to benefit as anyone can become a member.

By becoming a member of MTB in 2012 you can benefit from promotional opportunities as well as an exclusive members newsletter containing expert content from the UKs top business mums. In addition, they will send you a handy Networking Notebook, to help you make the most of your face-to-face networking opportunities.

Annual Membership usually costs just £75 per year, but if you buy before 31st March you can grab it for £60.

Click here for more information or to sign up.