Business Plus Baby

October 28, 2011

October’s Business Mums Blog Carnival is Live – and I need your opinion!

This month’s carnival is a monster!

No, not because it’s almost Halloween, but because this month we had double the number of entries we normally get!

This month’s host Emma has very kindly done two carnival posts, one today and another next Friday, so your post has the best possible chance of being read and not lost amongst all the others. So a great big ‘thanks!’ to Emma for all her hard work this week.

Head over and take a look at the carnival here, at Mum’ Business Directory. Please do have a read of the posts and leave some comments!

Because we’ve had so many entries this month (35 compared to a typical 17-to-20ish), I’m now thinking of ways we can make the task of putting the carnival together less work for future hosts, but at the same time not put a limit on numbers. I don’t want to make a rule that (say) only the best 20 get in, because this is about promoting your business, not a writing competition. I’m thinking that using a Linky, where everyone adds their links to the bottom of a post, might be the best way forward but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Where do you think the carnival should go from here?

October 27, 2011October 26, 2011

I started a business with kids: Louise Villis of KidsDoTravel.co.uk

Tell us a little about your business

We offer a complete solution to travelling with children offering everything from practical advice to some very innovative ideas such as the inflatable BubbleBum car booster (the booster seat in a bag), not forgetting the all important fun games to entertain young (and old!) minds during the journey or in the restaurant. Other travelling essentials included in our product range are children’s suitcases, travel games, towels and towelling robes, car organisers, lunch boxes and child safety ID bracelets. In the spirit of mum friendliness we have also included a section headed treats for mums.

What was your job before starting your business?

I worked full time in Sales and Marketing for a fibre optics company. Continue reading “I started a business with kids: Louise Villis of KidsDoTravel.co.uk”

October 24, 2011October 24, 2011

From Tweet to Telegraph

Proving that PR is possible on a tiny budget (in fact no budget at all!) Business Plus Baby guest contributor Frances Weir had her children’s book box featured in last week’s Telegraph Magazine, as the direct result of a Tweet…

“I had read the ‘Children’s Notebook’ column in the magazine before and thought it was beyond my wildest dreams to ever feature there” says Frances. “But out of interest, I decided to Google the name of the columnist, and I saw she had a Twitter account. So I Tweeted her, asking if she would like to receive a sample. She sent me a Direct Message in reply and I posted the bookcase to her”.

After receiving the box, the columnist contacted Frances to ask for more information about how she came up with the idea. Two weeks later, Frances had an email from the Picture Desk of the Telegraph asking for a cut-out product shot, and a lifestyle shot for the 22 October issue…

This demonstrates what a powerful PR tool Twitter can be for small businesses, as it gives immediate access to journalists (and celebrities) with just a click of a mouse.

Congratulations Frances!

If you’d like more top business tips like this, why not join my mailing list? Sign up and I’ll send you copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.

October 21, 2011October 19, 2011

Everywoman Conference: Take a friend and get a discount!

This year’s National Everywoman Conference is on the 1^st of November at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

(I’ve still got childcare issues so I’m missing out on conference season this year, otherwise I’d be there!)

If you’d like to get a ticket for yourself and a friend for £95 + VAT, book your place here by Sunday 23 October using the promotional code ‘LMD2’

The two tickets need to booked individually, so each delegate can book on to their chosen master classes. Oh and please tell ’em you heard about this at Business Plus Baby!

At this year’s conference you’ll hear how:

you can inject authenticity, integrity and your own spirit into your business
a group of successful women play to their strengths to make their businesses stand out from the crowd

You’ll also have the opportunity to learn how to:

present with impact to win business
use social media to engage an audience in a way that feels right for you

Plus you’ll come away with:

fresh thinking
market insight
new contacts

But hurry, book your place here by this Sunday 23 October using the special promotional code ‘LMD2’.

October 20, 2011October 25, 2011

Mumpreneur: Exploding the myth

Last week I found myself in a twitter debate about the word ‘mumpreneur’. Personally, I’m not too keen on that word because I’m not sure it gives a good impression of mums in business.

(I thought long and hard about using the ‘m’ word in my e-course Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur, but we live in a keyword-driven world so I decided to just go for it).

Whatever people think of the word ‘mumpreneur’, there are loads of hard-working, creative mums out there doing amazing things with their businesses.

So today, I decided to stick up for ‘mumpreneur’. It’s only short but they say that YouTube is one of the best places to be found on the internet, so that’s where I did it!

What do you think?