Mumpreneur – Page 4 – Business Plus Baby

May 28, 2010May 27, 2010

‘Mumpreneur’: Love It Or Loathe It?

At first, I was happy to call myself a mumpreneur. After all, it is a combination of 'mum' and 'entrepreneur' and I'd be proud to call myself either. It meant I was stepping off the career treadmill and doing my own thing.

Then I discovered that other mums in business didn't like the word. When they think of a mumpreneur, many people have an image of a woman running a little hobby business to keep her busy while she's a stay-at-home-mum.

The reality for most mums in business is very different. Ask around and you hear stories of mums looking after children all day and then working into the small hours to keep their businesses going. Of having little alternative but to work for themselves because they can't afford childcare. Of refusing to miss out on their children's early years, yet still wanting (and often needing) to earn a living.

In her post What sort of mumpreneur are you? Antonia Chitty asks 'Do you see ‘mumpreneur’ as something that helps mums who own businesses, or something that is holding us back?'. Probably a bit of both, I think.

But what interests me is how come we have a label that is meant to bring us together, yet divides us.

In my pre-baby days I never had to prove I was equal to the men I worked with. True, some women are still grappling with a glass ceiling and fighting to get equal pay, but generally most women are now seen as being as competent and motivated as men.

That's until you have children. Bam, you're back in the land that time forgot. A land of stereotypes and assumptions. A world where the only way to prove your brain hasn't turned to mush is to work full-time and put your baby in a nursery five days a week. Which of course makes you a bad mother. The alternative is to risk becoming a nobody by being a stay-at-home-mum or to apply for a badly-paid part time job.

All stereotypes (except for the badly-paid part time job, sadly). Is this what has contaminated the word 'mumpreneur'?

There are no easy answers. Sometimes I feel like I'm the latest generation in an experiment that started over a century ago, where we still have a long way to go before we learn how to be truly equal.

I'd love to see people respecting the working choices made by mothers. (And the choice to not work.) To support and encourage, rather than to divide and judge.To ditch the stereotypes. And for the challenges of being a working parent to be shared equally between women and men.

Then maybe we'd all be proud to call ourselves mumpreneurs?

What do you think? Leave me a comment below.

Photo: egor.gribanov

May 24, 2010December 18, 2014

I Started A Business With A Baby – Kayte Judge of Good Things

My business is just a little younger than my two-year old son, Jim

When I first set out my stall I primarily offered corporate social responsibility (CSR) support to micro and small businesses. Small businesses annually give more to CSR causes than big business every year– but they rarely harness the benefits in the same way that the big guys do. Through staff engagement, streamlining, and identifying meaningful causes and ways of giving that can be transformative small companies and the causes they support can reap the benefits.

A large strand of my work was to fuse CSR principles and staff training; meeting the soft skills needs of organisations through focussed volunteering. Things have changed now though – I have become far more involved in education innovation and most of my work is now in this area. In many ways the process is the same, it is only the client group that is different. I facilitate, I support, I clarify, I deliver and I aid organisational change and innovation. I suspect that my future lies in education: it really floats my boat.

A little bit about my background

I hold a first class degree in Comparative Religion from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and my early career focussed on people and work: I was variously a jobs analyst, a qualified careers advisor and Higher Education specialist and a communications co-ordinator. I hold qualifications in guidance, careers education, delivering learning and CIPD training. I then moved to the Open University and briefly managed a project to encourage graduates into teaching, before I became pregnant and had my son. My early work as a job analyst and careers adviser had shown me clearly that work impacts significantly on people sense of themselves and I had been introduced to CSR through my CIPD training. I believe that CSR can create meaning in the workplace.

Looking back I had always known that the time I took off to have a child would be time that I could sue to refocus my life and career goals. I had always been disappointed that I hadn’t continued in my studies after my degree and it was always in the back of my mind that I would study again if I became a Mum.

The last few years of paid employment had been increasingly uncomfortable for me

I was competent but miserable. It was the never-ending grind, shifting goal posts and never-quite-knowing-who-you-should-be-pleasing feeling that got me down. But, I was a wage slave. When I took my maternity leave I faced a very tough decision. The OU are a spectacular employer and had given me a pay rise while I was away, they also offered me any number of part time/flexi time working options. I remember opening the pay-rise letter on the same day that I had handed my notice in and sobbing, fearing for my future career. I always aspired to earn my age, and taking that pay-rise would have got me there at last!

My reasons for starting a business were very much about my own self actualisation

I needed to see if I could create something new in the world and I needed to test my own value in the market place. I wanted to test the limits of my potential. Maternity leave gave me the safety net to create a hole in my CV without any risk: people would expect a gap, and if I used that gap to try to start a business then there was no harm if it all went wrong. The only other thing that would allow me to break from paid employment would have been a lottery win. It’s not often that maternity pay is likened to a lottery win…

I started work when Jimmy was 2 months old, I had taken on some data entry work to get funds into the business to get me started. Alongside this I was developing the CSR policy and practice of a Design and Branding Agency in return for the design and hosting of my website and stationery. I began a short OU finance course to keep my brain working. I networked hard and offered free training to a local forest centre in return for free use of their grounds to offer my own training (I do a lot of outdoor challenges and games). I attended a few business link courses and some at the Centre for Women’s Enterprise, as well as other training courses in specifics, one of which paid for by a grant from http://www.enterprising-women.org

I was exhausted. Knackered.

I didn’t finish the course. My first year profits equalled, exactly, my accountant’s fees (which I hadn’t factored in!). You live and learn.

My Mum helped with childcare and I worked every evening and nap-time

I did try to use a nursery quite early on by it was too upsetting for everyone: it was too much to young for him I think. I don’t think mums should feel guilty a bout using childcare at all, different things work for different Mum/baby combos and there is little harm in trying different things. Looking back I should have had childcare to allow me to sleep first and then start the business slightly later.

Two years on and it is very different – Jim has settled into a different nursery for 3 half days a week (with plenty of extra hours when needed) and goes to his beloved Nanny for two further days. I work much more than full time, contracted for approximately 3 days a week with different clients and studying towards an MSc in Managing Business Creativity and Innovation. I love my work and I love being a portfolio worker.

The big challenges have all been personal

have spent so long outside of my comfort zone I can’t remember where I left it. I had often been successful in my career pre-baby and feared failure. I had imagined that motherhood would be manageable and satisfying. Oh dear. The horror of childbirth and my complete failure to feed the poor little fella blew all my ideas clear out of the water – I struggled so hard in those early days. If you have managed to survive the early days of motherhood there really isn’t much you can’t do. I have taken more personal risks post baby than I could imagine doing before and most have paid off.

If I were to offer any advice I would urge Mums to be brave, rest up and throw away the guilt. Your child wants you to be happy.

Kayte Judge

www.goodthingsltd.com

May 11, 2010May 26, 2010

Inspirational Business Mum: Vikki Horner of Maths Extra

Today, Vikki Horner of Maths Extra tells us how her daughter Charlotte inspired her to start a business to help children with special needs.

My business is a labour of love

My daughter Charlotte has Down Syndrome and wasn’t ‘getting it’ in the classroom. So I developed a new method for learning how to tell the time, breaking the learning down into small steps, making it visual and hands-on.

Because it was so successful, other parents wanted to know what to do to help their child and so Maths Extra was born.

I designed a working kitchen clock which gives children a sense of movement. Then I put together a handbook full of photos and ideas, activities and games to help parents and teachers. The clock and handbook were named after Charlotte, of course!

Learning to Tell the Time with the Charlotte Clock

It took about a year for Charlotte to understand both digital and analogue formats as in “It’s 7.30” or “It’s half past seven.” Not only did she start to use ‘time’ vocabulary, her organisational skills really came on a pace at home and at school.
And Charlotte began to keep her room tidy! Everything in her drawers was organised and folded perfectly. Even her clothes that were ready for washing came down in a neatly folded pile.

Charlotte’s sense of her world increased by learning this crucial skill.

I had many challenges, even more so when I became a lone parent

Suddenly I had to deal with everything myself. Good job we didn’t have a dog too!

Working around my daughter’s schedules and needs was tricky and quite problematic especially during the long school holidays. Charlotte was making good progress with other subjects but maths has always been the biggest mountain to climb. I never gave up. I have always believed that my daughter should gain an understanding of basic maths so she could learn to tell the time and use money.

Children are expected to work with abstract concepts too soon – they cannot find a way in. It’s like we are asking them to decipher hieroglyphs and if parents were given a sheet most would not know how to access their meanings. Would you?

I tried every resource possible, or so it seemed! Everything was too abstract and nothing used in school helped Charlotte progress. It took a trip to New York to learn about the original invention designed to provide children with a structure in a multi-sensory manner – Stern Structural Arithmetic. Here we go! I knew I had found something that would really help.

Charlotte enjoyed learning maths this way and began to flourish

By then she was thirteen and had only three years left of formal education, however, at sixteen she passed GCSE’s at Entry level for Maths, English, Science, and food Studies, with Art GCSE. That’s my girl!

Then our emphasis turned to learning about money.

Where would I like to go next with my business?

Although I am passionate about helping children with special educational needs, I would like to see more nursery settings and schools introduce the children to learning with this system. This will give them a better start and our children with special needs will have the opportunity to work alongside their peers in an inclusive way. (I’m working on it!)

I set up the business because my experiences are not unique, there are many families experiencing the same things. I’ve ploughed through it all and come up with solutions that are worthy of passing on.

People just need to know where to find me, so a big thank you to Business Plus Baby!

Vikki Horner

www.mathsextra.com

You're welcome, Vikki! If you've enjoyed this article, why not sign up to Business Plus Baby's mailing list to get updates delivered to your inbox? See link at the top-right of this page.

April 27, 2010April 26, 2010

What’s My Greatest Challenge as an Aspiring Mumpreneur?

What’s my greatest challenge as an aspiring mumpreneur? Not enough time or money. Oh and not forgetting the lack of sleep (milk in the washing machine, dirty socks in the fridge – you get the picture).

The fact that I’ve had the word ‘aspiring’ in front of my job title for about eighteen months now gives you some idea of how long the research phase takes when you have babies.

But we mumpreneurs face even more challenges than a mere lack of time, money and sleep. If you’re short of cash from being on maternity leave or working part -time, then you need to start a business on a shoestring, which means you might have a lot of competition. And that means your marketing needs to be good if you’re to stand out from the crowd. That’s a tall order if this is your first journey into the world of business.

Most businesses have one main aim – to make money. Most mumpreneurs run businesses with two aims – to make money and to work around their family. This is a tough juggling act, especially if you’re grabbing an hour here and an hour there when the children are napping or at pre-school.

So why on earth are so many of us doing it?

• Because we refuse to miss the first years of our children’s lives by working full-time when they are tiny.
• Because we refuse to be restricted to the typically low status and poorly paid part time jobs out there.
• Because we’ve earned our own income all our lives and don’t see why we should stop now.
• Because we want to show our daughters what women can really achieve. And our sons, too.
• Because we’ve got talent and we want to use it.
• Because we get such fantastic support from other business mums. We don’t compete, we collaborate.
• Because childcare is outrageously expensive so many of us have no alternative.
• Because we want to.

Having children shifts your priorities in ways you cannot imagine until you do it. Of course your children become the centre of your world, but with this can come a huge burst in motivation and creativity. Your time becomes more precious – any working time is time away from your babies – so you want to make the absolute best of it.

The urge to provide for your family is not just for the guys. Mums have it too.

It’s this potent mix of instinct, motivation, determination and (let’s face it) necessity that drives us to start our own businesses at one of the toughest times of our lives.

Watch out, here we come.

(First published on the Start Up Donut Blog, picture by Tie Guy II)

April 2, 2010May 5, 2010

A blog to watch: LittleMumpreneur

Mum blogs have been around for a few years now, but business mum blogs are still new, exciting and developing fast. My personal favourites being Family Friendly Working, Mum's The Blog and Self Employed Mum.

So I was really pleased to see that Erica, otherwise known as Littlemummy, is branching out into business mum blogging. Littlemummy is one of the best mum blogs in the UK ( in my opinion anyway!) and Erica sums it up nicely when she says she blogs about 'life, parenting, trying new things'.

In creating new LittleMumpreneur blog, Erica is giving herself more space to talk about blogging, entrepreneurship and eventually subjects like marketing and social media. Erica already has a lot of experience in blogging (I recommend her free course Mum Blogger E- Course), so I'm looking forward to watching LittleMumpreneur grow over the next few months.