mompreneur – Business Plus Baby

March 3, 2015March 3, 2015

8 Key business skills that make moms great entrepreneurs

In the competitive business world, so often stereotypes of ruthless men or tech-savvy geeks are held up as the ideal entrepreneur. However, as we all know, the real world is far more diverse than that. Many great and successful companies are led by women and mothers who, with their unique skills, take their organisations further than anyone else could. Companies like Cannon Hygiene are a perfect example of a business that has been built around a strong female team, and others would be wise to follow their lead.

Today, we’re taking a look at the entrepreneurial skills that make mothers the perfect choice for business leaders in the modern world. As you’ll see, moms are special. They have more than a few skills that allow them to spearhead business endeavours that are both successful and well-recognised. Let’s take a look at some of the key qualities: Continue reading “8 Key business skills that make moms great entrepreneurs”

December 13, 2011December 11, 2011

5 must-have time management tips for mompreneurs

Today I’ve got a guest post for you from Meagan Visser, business coach for creative people. Over to you, Meagan!

Hello. My name is Meagan. I’m a wahm & a recovering multi-tasker.

Okay, too AA meetingish, I know.

My point is that most of us out there who have creative businesses, whether we’re a WAHM, SAHM, or we have a day job, feel that there’s not enough time during the day to get everything done we need to. We end up trying to multi-task life & business & you know how that ends up. We’re overwhelmed, frustrated, & we feel like we’ve not accomplished a thing!

We want fun, creative, successful businesses. We want time with our friends, family, & by gosh some me-time. We want to make money. We want to make a name for ourselves. We want a spotless house. We want to enjoy vacations. We want to indulge in our hobbies.

It doesn’t matter what our wants are, the fact of the matter is, in today’s world we have a lot on our plates. If we’re going to be successful, we have to get it together, figure out what works for us, move our booties to a different beat if necessary & make it happen. Success & money aren’t just going to come knocking at our door.

So what’s the first step?

Like I said, I get that you’re a mom & you may or may not have another job, let alone all the other responsibilities in your life to take care of, but in my opinion, the first step in not only getting it together, but keeping it together is time management. If you can’t manage your time, then you’re probably wasting it & that’s no good for business. Got it?

So here are 5 tips that you can use today to manage your time when it comes to running your creative biz & still being a mom that’s present in your family’s life. Continue reading “5 must-have time management tips for mompreneurs”

April 4, 2011March 31, 2011

Work At Home Mums Around The World

A couple of weeks ago I had an email from Diona Moustri and Kalliopi Fountoulaki-Hanioti of Mammas Work at Home, a website for work at home mums in Greece:

Starting a home based business or working from a home office are emerging choices for mothers who wish to spend more time with their family and continue their career or pursue a new one. The community of Greek WAHMs is growing and at Mammas Work At Home we try to provide an online meeting place to exchange all kinds of information from practical details and tax regulations to creative activities for the kids and inspiring success stories.

Mammas Work At Home was created by an electrical and computer engineer and a freelance translator, two work-at-home mothers who both wished to share their WAHM experience. Kalliopi and Diona first got to know each other online visiting and commenting on each other’s blogs. Finding out that they were both working from home, they decided to join forces and create a blog sharing Greek content for work-at-home moms.

Diona and Kalliopi said there isn’t that much Greek content out there for WAHMs and could they please translate some of the Business Plus Baby articles and publish them on Mammas Work at Home?

I was happy to say yes and the first article was published last week – it’s a translation of Viv Smith’s story of how she started Poppy Sparkles. (Here’s the Greek version and here’s the English one.)

Of course it’s brilliant to be found and contacted from the other side of Europe, but the main reason I’m so happy is that I’m connecting with another community of mums in business. We’re all women who are refusing to accept the normal work choices for mums of small children and are doing it our own way instead. And isn’t it great that we can get together and help each other out?

When I started Business Plus Baby I made it very much UK-focused. That’s because I thought I wouldn’t have a lot to offer WAHMs in other countries because the logistics of starting and running a business would be so different across the world. Not to mention maternity pay and maternity leave (which is confusing even if you are in the UK judging by the number of hits I get on BPB’s maternity allowance articles!)

But I’ve found that mumpreneurs, mompreneurs, WAHMs and business mums/moms around the world are remarkably similar. Just lately I’ve connected with mums in business from Canada, Australia, USA and Dubai as well as Greece and we all want to know pretty much the same things. How can I run a business from home around kids? How do you start and run an internet business? Am I crazy to think I can do this? How do other mums manage it? Plus the big challenge for all small business owners – getting your marketing right.

So if you’re feeling a bit isolated and stuck at home behind your computer, just remember you’re one of a huge group of mums around the world who are building a better future for themselves and their families.

Makes you feel proud, doesn’t it?

photo credit: kthypryn