Motivating Mum UK

Practical tips and suggestions from a business mum speaker at a Motivating Mum East Hertfordshire networking event

The first spring event was held on the 1st May at the Waterlounge in Bishops Stortford, where around 15 women (and some little ones) were able to meet up, network,  listen and chat to Tanya Filer about her experience of setting up her own social media business, www.socialcirclemedia.co.uk, alongside family life.

There was a great deal of discussion and tips to be shared on using social media to benefit your business, and it definitely could have gone on for longer had there been time!

HOW TANYA STARTED UP HER SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS

Tanya started using facebook around nine years for her personal use, twitter and LinkedIn around five years ago (and then other types of social media as they have become available) and absolutely loves using them. Having gained a huge social media knowledge base she took on a bet from a construction firm that she could make a huge difference to their business by developing and running a social media campaign for them, and she was so successful in doing this that what started as a hobby, changed very quickly into a business about a year ago. Tanya gave up her day job of working as a financial assistant, and the demand and business has just continued to grow.

TOP SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS SHARED AND DISCUSSED DURING THE EVENT

Tanya was happy to offer some tips on using social media for business and to answer specific questions during the morning. Here are some of the main ones that came up, focusing on facebook and some on twitter:

Facebook

1) A Fan page and a business page are the same thing

2) You have to have a personal facebook page to then set up a business one, and with a business one you must have a postcode and address to include on the page (and it is against facebook guidelines to operate a business group from your personal page)

3) Once you get to 25 likes on your business page you can set up a vanity facebook address (go into edit on the facebook page to do this)

4) Keep one facebook business page even if you have two businesses (just clearly mark the different businesses out on your page)

5) To get more facebook likes – search through discussion groups (such as Netmums, Mumsnet or Motivating Mum forum), make comments, offer suggestions etc, without being blatant about your business

6) People buy from people – when on any of the facebook groups, help by offering suggestions, answering queries etc and then sending a private inbox message if you think you can offer them something specific through your business to help them

7) Best times of day to post: facebook – 8 to 9 am and 5 to 7 pm (leave out school run times if targeting mums) and for LinkedIn – stick to between 9am-5pm on week days only

8) You can schedule facebook postings for set times via facebook itself (there is a clock icon on the page) or another option is to use sprout social (they offer you the chance to have a trial of this)

9) How many postings a day? No more than 3 postings a day on facebook, and no more than once every 4 hours

10) See if bloggers will be happy to blog about your business (offer to send some items free of charge in exchange for a review) Stephanie at Motivating Mum East Hertfordshire did a review recently with a gift company who asked for a review in exchange for free products, and this was then posted out via Motivating Mum groups and sites.  Motivating Mum is very happy to receive samples of products for review or giveaway (or preferably both)  - contact debbie@motivatingmum.co.uk for more details of this.

Twitter

11) You can put people into lists to manage twitter news feeds (but be careful what you name your lists, as those people you put into lists will get a notification that you have done it!)

12) Retweet other stories about products/topics linked to your business to boost your follower numbers Retweet other stories about products/topics linked to your business to boost your follower numbers Tweet and follow a wide range of twitter accounts linked to your business

13) Unfollowing – it is fine to unfollow after a while (they won’t know and it means you can manage your twitter feeds to only receive the most relevant ones)

Hungry for more?

Tanya can offer 30 minute or 1 hour tutorials if this is needed for specific help.

FREE BUSINESS RESOURCES

During the discussion these free resources were mentioned, which may be of interest:

www.enterprisequest.com – tips, ideas and know-how for small and home business owners

Better Business Magazine – a free copy is available by sending an email to enterprisequest@cobwebinfo.com with ‘EQ magazine offer’ as the subject and you just need to include your name and address (Stephanie has a free copy and it is very relevant)

Thank you to Tanya for so many useful tips and suggestions based on her extensive experience, it generated a lot of discussion and some great ideas to take away!

JUNE EVENTS FOR MOTIVATING MUM EAST HERTFORDSHIRE

There are two events coming up in June, being organised, motivated and focused for summer (19 June, Bishop’s Stortford) and a workshop on: your website, IT security and internet marketing (27 June, Ware) Do check out the events pages at www.motivatingmum.co.uk to find out more!

I recently read an article about how “mumpreneurs” might be the answer to our struggling economy (http://news.sky.com/story/1065411/mumpreneurs-could-be-lifeline-to-recovery).

Whilst I don’t particularly like the term “mumpreneur” (I am sure lots will disagree, but personally, I find it a bit patronising) the story did make me think about all those mums who are busy juggling kids/home chores/business/being a wife etc etc – so they can work in a free range, flexible way and be there for their family.

This is exactly why I chose to set up my own business – for flexibility.  Admittedly, there are some days where I do think “wouldn’t life be so much easier if I just went to work for someone else 3 or 4 days a week, collected my pay cheque and slept well because I didn’t have a “to do list” of a million things that kept my brain whirring away at night”!  However, there are many more days where I am so happy I’m my own boss and have the flexibility to make my own choices.

I am so happy I’m my own boss and have the flexibility to make my own choices Tweet.

For example, a few weeks ago, I chose to take the afternoon off and go and cheer on my daughter’s hockey team in their County Cup hockey final. Today, I am taking the whole day off to go and see my dad, who is undergoing rigorous chemotherapy at the moment.

Having this kind of flexibility, is the reason I chose to go the mumpreneur route and not to get a job.  I see friends of mine, who are employed, missing out on their kids’ special events, time and time again because they can’t get the time off, but I don’t have to answer to anyone, and this allows me to watch my kids grow up as well as having a strong sense of self-worth as I am making a significant contribution to the family income.

For me, another benefit of being a mumpreneur is that the business has grown with my children. When I started out, my children were still quite young – 3 and 5, so the hours I could put into it were quite limited.  Slowly and steadily, as they have grown and the Mummy hours have eased off, I have been able to put more time into Little Crab Designs and have gone from earning a bit of pocket money to earning a substantial income, whilst doing something I love and still being able to be there for my children (now 10 and 12).

So if you’re reading this, at home with little ones, wondering how you are ever going to be able to go back to work – think about going down the mumpreneur route.  It was the best decision I ever made and who knows? – You could even be part of the revolution that is going to turn our fragile economy around!?

Anna Seager – founder of Little Crab Designs – nursery wall art specialists

If you liked this article – do check out my blog – charting the ups and downs of running a small business round a family.

You can also follow us on twitter or like us on facebook , plus I also pin helpful business tips on our pinterest pages.

I was very lucky to be able to try out a family recipe bag from Jessica’s Recipe Bag, a new service which aims to make life easier for time-starved mums. The service was started by Jessica Andersson, a working mum living in London with teenage kids. Jessica is also a fully qualified nutritional therapist and experienced cook.

Jessica and her team plan four delicious meals each week, source all the ingredients and put the recipes together in an easy to follow format.  Your ingredients are delivered to your door by courier in just the right quantities to make some yummy and nutritious food for your family, so no more thinking, shopping and having to buy more than you need.

The bag that I tested was a Family Recipe bag – enough food for four people for four meals, which retails for £69 (first bag £45).

The bag was delivered on Monday evening by a smiling friendly courier.  inside I had the ingredients for the following meals:

• Smoked trout with spinach, swedish potatoes and salad
• Lamb meatballs with flatbreads and mango salsa
• Chicken pad Thai with noodles and salad
• Goats cheeses and asparagus risotto

Looking at the list, I wasn’t sure that my children would go for any of them particularly -they are certainly more adventurous flavours than I would normally cook during the week.   But we all agreed to try everything in the name of research – and to me this is the first advantage of the bag system in that you can try out things that are outside of your culinary comfort zone.

So on Tuesday night I made the lamb meatballs.  I loved the fact that although the recipe called for celery they sent just one stick of celery.  Nobody in our house eats raw celery so usually if I buy it for a recipe the remaining head is wasted.  This was perfect. the children loved the meatballs for tea, and it was easy to save some of the ball mixture and reheat it when my husband came in late.  Result – big smiles all round.

On Wednesday the children were busy – I decided to do the trout for me and my husband and to give them something else as I didn’t think they would eat it.  We absolutely loved the trout and the swedish potatoes – and we had a second helping with the leftovers a few days later.   I will certainly do this recipe again.

On Thursday I was really looking forward to the Pad Thai and so were the children.  Unfortunately this recipe didn’t quite work for us – nobody particuarly enjoyed it as much as we thought we would.  I will do something like it again but tweak the flavours slightly.

And so to the risotto on Friday.  I can’t believe I have never cooked risotto before – somehow I had it in my head that is was difficult.  But it was very straightforward and absolutely delicious – top marks all round.

Overall I would say that I would have Jessica’s bag again – especially as you can see what is coming up before you order so you can choose your weeks carefully.  I might choose the Couples bag next time (three meals for two people for £42, first bag £29)  as I’m not sure my children really got as much out of the whole week as we did. But I certainly learned some new recipes and techniques that I will use again and discovered some new ingredients too (like tamarind paste) that I will use elsewhere in the kitchen.

Giveaway

Now you can have the chance to try out Jessica’s Recipe bag service yourself.  Two lucky winners will each get the chance to try two weeks of recipe bags.

Jessica’s bag currently delivers within greater London. Postcodes included are; W, WC, NW, N, E, EC, SE, SW, TW, KT and the following GU postcode areas (1 – 4, 11 -25, 46, 47, 51, 52), so please only enter if you want your bag to be delivered to an address in this area.

If you are in the right area then please fill in the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

A few months ago, I hosted a competition on Motivating Mum, looking for some bloggers to take part in a challenge with Thinking Slimmer. The bloggers committed to lose some weight using a Slimpod and to come back and blog about their progress each week.

The lucky winners have now each been presented with a Slimpod and some fitness gear, and over the next few weeks they are going to be sharing their journeys with the Slimpod, and noticing the little differences that it makes to their lives, which add up over time to a great big change.

Every Friday for the next few weeks I will be publishing a post with comments, links to blogs. and hopefully success stories from our lucky Slimpod users.  We will all be supporting and helping each other, and hopefully inspiring you to lose a bit of weight for the summer, or change some of your bad habits, if that is your goal.

If you would like to be part of  the group of Slimpodders who will be contributing to this weekly post, and helping each other to lose weight,  then please come and join us.  Pop over to Thinking Slimmer now and choose a Slimpod – use the code MOTIVATE15 to receive a 15% discount off anything you buy.

Then please come back to this site and register to be a Thinking Slimmer blogger here.  You will be sent a reminder each week, to either blog about your journey on your own site and send me the link, or to email me your comments to be included in my weekly post.  Each week I hope you will visit, leave comments on the other participants’ blogs and on this one, and share all of your progress on social media.

Positive thinking and Group support are very important when you are trying to lose weight and change habits – I hope that with this weekly support group we will inspire each other to work towards our goals.

The Slimpod will help you to lose weight and the blog group will support you The Slimpod will help you to lose weight and the blog group will support you Tweet

A bit more about Slimpods and Thinking Slimmer

Slimpod is the ground-breaking weight loss programme that’s the talk of the internet. You listen to a special 10-minute recording for 10 minutes a day and as you relax its soothing voice gently retunes your mind to have a new relationship with food and exercise.

Within a few weeks thousands of Slimpod users find they’re eating less, feeling full quicker, making better choices and becoming more active – the perfect lifestyle change for lasting weight loss.

It’s not a diet and there’s no calorie counting, no shakes, pills or special foods – and no willpower needed. The powerful unconscious mind nudges you in the right direction.

Slimpods have been used and endorsed by a senior NHS consultant, who reported the effects to be “profound and positively life-changing.”

You can see the full range of Slimpods at ThinkingSlimmer.com and read success stories and testimonials.

Please come and join us as we Get Set for Summer with Thinking Slimmer

by Kate Miranda of Mumpreneur Marketing

Want to get more people talking about your business? A great way to generate hype around your business is to create something new, unique and packed with energy.

Here are a few tips on how to create a buzzing word-of-mouth campaign to promote your business. Read the rest of this entry »

Name: Debbie O’Connor

Blog: Motivating Mum and Mum’s the Boss

Sponsor:  I am sponsored for this conference by the wonderful people at siblu Holidays Read the rest of this entry »

…

There are only so many hours in the day, so with emails needing attention, kids throwing a tantrum, deadlines looming and a gym session to be squeezed in, how on earth do you keep up with what’s happening in the business world and stay on top of the news?

There’s a very simple solution: business podcasts. The beauty of a podcast is that you can dip in and out of them whenever you like. Swot up on social media or find out how the FTSE’s doing while waiting for a train, pounding the treadmill or rustling up supper. Now that’s multitasking.

It’s every working woman’s best kept secret, so here are some of the best podcasts you need to subscribe to… Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of years ago now, I had a significant amount of press interested in this blog because of some articles I wrote about the subject of extreme couponing, following a visit to the USA, where I learned about the subject from a master.

Some of you who read the articles then and signed up to my Money Saving Tips newsletter may have realised that I have gone a bit quiet on the subject just recently, and I thought it was time to give you a bit of an update.

I am still saving money – significant amounts of money to what I was spending before.  But I have to say that the amount of time I spend couponing and chasing bargains is very small – almost non–existent nowadays, and certainly not worth writing a sensational blog about.  So I’m afraid the press won’t be bothering me again any time soon…

So here  is my guide to quick and simple money saving:

1. Last year I made a big point of comparing my house insurance, car insurance and pet insurance on price comparison sites.  I ended up saving nearly £800 annually compared with my previous premiums.  This year I have done the same exercise again – it took me maybe 30 minutes –but it just confirmed that there are no better deals than the one I am on.
2. After those I looked at my gas, electricity, home phone and broadband.  For me the best deal was Utility Warehouse, and I now have all of those four services with them, with my mobile phone ready to switch over to them later this year when my current contract runs out.  I am now paying less for those four services above than I used to pay for gas on its own.I also love Utility Warehouse because I am helping my friend Penny, who is a distributor with them, to run her small business from home, rather than paying for a company to do expensive TV advertising.  This fits in with my values of supporting local businesses , even with things like Utilities. (Disclosure – the link above is an affiliate to Penny’s site and she will benefit if you sign up for services with her.  Penny has not given me any incentive for this link)
3. The Utility Warehouse has a cashback card, which you can use to get up to 5% discount on many high street and online retailers.  I signed up for that and use it regularly.  I also have loyalty cards for all the shops I visit regularly (but not store credit cards).
4.  I have also signed up for all the supermarket loyalty schemes (Tesco Clubcard, Nectar, My Waitrose).  I shop online using Mysupermarket – and each week it tells me which is the best supermarket for the products I want to buy, so I use that one.   I also pay attention to the coupons the supermarkets send me through the post  and those I receive from other places and I shop each week wherever I will get the most money off.
5. Whenever I am making a purchase online, I consider, first my Utility Warehouse discount card, and secondly sites like Savoo – to see if I can get a further discount.  Nearly everything I buy, clothes, shoes and holidays, comes with 5 or 10% off or even more – and I like it that way…

And that, in a nutshell is it.  I know there are people out there doing much more.  I know there are places where you can get more coupons or benefit from glitches where the supermarkets get the prices wrong, or buy short-dated food at a big discount.  I choose not to go there – mainly because I just don’t have the time. Money saving can take over your life, and for some people it has to.  But I am proof that even busy, time-poor people can still save a little bit here and there.

How do you do your couponing?  Please stop by and let me know….

Happy Saturday to you all… if you’re like many small business mums, then Saturday is a day for family rather than business.  You may be taxiing the children around their various sports activities, or you may be doing a supermarket run, spring clean or any of the chores and errands that didn’t get completed during the working week..

What I hope you will get is a little bit of time to yourself, to grab a cup of tea or coffee and sit down for just a short time.  Because the weekend is a good time to catch up on reading and learn a few tricks that you can then use in your business during the week.  So here are a few nuggets from the web this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

With today’s communication technologies more and more people are working from home, even large companies are encouraging home working, so there is no reason not to start your own business using your home as a base.

Image courtesy of Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My own organisation, Company Partners, started from home when I had the idea of an on-line matching site for people to find others to start a business with. It continues to grow now,  matching up entrepreneurs with investors, from our office next to my house.

There are obvious advantages:

• Low overheads

• Fits in with other commitments

• You can devote as much, or as little time as available

• You are your own boss

• Ability to scale up or down rapidly

• Test out business ideas

• Earn money and develop a business

A lot of companies advertise “home business” packages and you do have to be cautious with these. They can be expensive and many don’t give the income advertised.

The better ones may be bought as a franchise. They all will cost several thousands to buy the franchise. But they will give you a formula for running the business and then it’s down to your efforts to determine success.

I prefer to start my own company and not to give away money to someone else that I could spend on developing the business.

5 important stages of starting a business:

1. The Business idea:

It should be something that you have an interest in and enjoy, because when times are tough you will still need to be motivated by the work.

It could be a hobby that is turned into an earning business, or simply an area of activity that you enjoy, because not every hobby would make a good business.

This leads me on to a warning, not every “good idea” is a commercially good idea. You need to consider whether customers will in reality pay you their hard earned cash for the product or service. Is it fulfilling a real need, or addressing a problem that a customer will pay you to fix.

Carry out market research. Don’t just ask friends and family; test your idea with individuals that represent your target market. Check out the competition. Don’t think that simply doing it cheaper will win you business; choose an idea where there is a sustainable profit.

2. Do your financial planning:

• How much will it cost to make your goods, or provide your service?

• Include any packaging and distribution costs.

• How much from your market research can you charge for your activity?

• When will bills need paying and when will you get paid (cashflow is very important).

• Plan it out on a spreadsheet.

Many home businesses can start using very little money to get you up and running, if you do need more funds you could approach your bank for a loan but they will want a business plan and some security. There is a government backed scheme that will provide the security if you haven’t got it.

Alternatively if you want someone to invest in your start-up business, rather than taking out a loan, you could look at  Angel investing.

3.  Legals and Administration:

Choose how you want to run your business, as a limited company, or a Sole Trader. A Sole Trader is easier to start and less complicated, however a limited company has tax advantages and looks better if you are ambitious to grow.

Consider if you need insurance cover. If you employ anyone you will by law require Employers’ Liability insurance and if you have people visiting your house for business purposes you ought to have public liability insurance. If you sell, manufacture or supply products you should have product liability insurance.

Some types of home business – for example food preparation, may need a licence, so talk to your local council.

Ideally you would find a local Accountant to advise and help. Shop around, talk to several and find one that you can relate to. A very small business activity may not need an accountant, but if you register as a limited company and expect to rapidly grow, find one early on.

4. Getting customers and marketing

Right from the start establish your brand. What do you want your business to represent – fast and speedy? Handcrafted? Professional services? With any of them make excellent customer service and attention to detail a key part.  If appropriate have a simple logo and choose carefully the colours that you will use for your business.

You could begin by selling your product or service to friends, getting recommendations and referrals. You should come up with ideas to encourage that such as a referral card which you can give to customers to pass on, perhaps with a discount for their friend.

I’ve written before on this subject: How to find customers . Lay out a marketing plan of how you will get your customers, some initiatives may cost money (such as adverts), but there is a lot of PR/marketing that you can do for free (such as talking to local radio, or newspapers).

5. Implementation

Good ideas are a 10 a penny, it is the implementation of those ideas that counts. Plan your finances, line up suppliers, find and market to your customers. Be action orientated, make things happen.

Each month review your plan, what has worked and what hasn’t and keep on top of the finances, know your cashflow.

Starting a business should be fun and exciting. There will be difficult times but overall it will be a fulfilling and hopefully rewarding adventure.

The author, Lawrence Gilbert, teaches MBA courses in business planning and is the founder and Director of Company Partners, an on-line matching site where entrepreneurs can find fellow entrepreneurs to start-up a business and also find Business Angel Investors.

Stephens Scown Solicitors have been busy researching and collecting statistics about employment in the UK.  They have discovered that employment in the UK continues to be driven by small and medium enterprises (SME’S).   Read the rest of this entry »

When you’re travelling with a baby, you need to factor in regular stops for feeding and changing. How regular these stops are depends on the time of day and the age of your baby: but they may be needed as often as every two hours. Planning these stops in advance should make the journey much easier!

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Before you set off, you’ll need to prepare the car just as you would for any other journey. Make sure that your car insurance cover is up to date, you have appropriate breakdown cover and that your baby’s car seat is properly installed.

A parent’s number one priority is the safety and comfort of their baby, and this should be no different while on the go. It’s dangerous and illegal to take your baby out of their car seat while the vehicle is moving, and you should always pull over and park safely before feeding them.

Here’s some helpful tips on making your feeding routine work during a car journey:

Breast feeding

If you’re breastfeeding, here’s some good news: it’s the easiest way to feed during a long car journey! You don’t need to worry about bringing along any equipment; you just need to make sure you stop regularly to keep your baby fed and happy.

Suitable stops along your route will include lay-by car parks and service stations. Many mums like a bit of privacy to breastfeed, and sitting in the back of the car may be a better option than the front. If you’re stopping in busy car parks, a breastfeeding cover might make you feel more comfortable.

Formula feeding

When you’re feeding your baby formula milk, long journeys can be more challenging. A simple solution is to use ready-to-feed milk during the journey. All you need to do with this kind of milk is attach a sterile teat to the bottle. This makes the process much easier, and reduces the need to have all your feeding equipment to hand.

If you prefer to make up your own bottles, there are products available that make this easier. Some suggestions are:

• a portable bottle warmer
• pre-sterilised bottle liners
• a portable steriliser
• portioned formula powder
• a thermos flask

Don’t be tempted to make your bottles up before you set off, as this can increase the risk of infection. It’s really important to make sure you have the appropriate equipment to hand so that you can make bottles up as they’re needed.

Solid Feeding

Older babies tend to need a bit more entertainment while in the car, and you may find that a few healthy snacks help to keep them occupied. Babies aged nine months and older may be able to eat some foods while still strapped into their car seat.

There’s a risk of your baby choking if they eat while the car is moving, so it’s very important to make sure an adult is sitting with them.

When you’re giving a baby solid foods in the car, mess is going to be an issue. Make sure you pack wet wipes and either wipe clean or disposable bibs. Ready-made baby food can be a great option in these cases, especially the kind that comes in squeezable pouches. Even better – you won’t need to bring a bowl and spoon.

When it comes to travelling with a baby, careful packing and forward thinking equal smooth journeys! Take some time to think about which products and foodstuffs will make your feeding routine easiest, and make sure you pack it all in an easily accessible place.

This guest post has been written on behalf of Money Matters, the Sainsbury’s Bank blog. All views expressed here belong to the author, and not Sainsbury’s Bank.

The tips and information it contains do not constitute advice and shouldn’t be used to influence any financial decisions. Sainsbury’s Bank does not accept responsibility for the views and opinions of external contributors, or the content of external websites linked from this post. All information stated here was correct at the time of publication.

For anyone with family this is not breaking news:

Having children was the point at which my career and life in general had to change!

This was something I realised very soon after my eldest was born, I then spent quite a few years bumbling along trying to find a different direction to fit in with my new family life.

I took careers advice, I searched the internet for inspiration and looked for jobs, but nothing really grabbed me.

I had chosen my original career path at the great age of 11; it was all I wanted to do and I did enjoy my work.  I may well have continued on that path, or that path may well have been naturally reaching an end.

There is no doubt that once children are part of your life your view of the future changes. Life changes and there are new challenges to overcome along the way. I had reached a point where I felt ready for a new direction career wise. (Not surprisingly my interests had changed since the age of 11!). I was feeling that there was potential within me waiting to grow and I could work a new career into family life.

However with more restrictions on my time, energy and finances, finding a suitable, exciting and rewarding career was not easy. If I could get a part time job, maybe I could fund a course, but without a clear direction I don’t have time or energy to waste!

I consider myself very lucky to have joined forces with a friend in a similar situation; we have started a new business venture. There were times at the beginning we were the blind leading the blind! Not sure which direction to take, we started doing admin work at home and this has very quickly highlighted our different strengths. Now we are defining a new career for both of us that fits perfectly into family life.

This is only the start, once you have your business idea up and running this is when the fun really starts! Time management is a must: keeping the existing work up to date and completed on time; ensuring customers are happy with good customer service; and still make time for important new business deals.

Unless you employ someone to do all your PR work, you will need to take care of it yourself. This is not always easy, we are not all fantastic sales people. Your work is may be excellent, but no one will know unless you sell it! Business networking is an effective low-cost marketing method for developing sales opportunities and contacts, based on referrals and introductions – either face-to-face at meetings and gatherings, or by other contact methods such as phone, email, and increasingly social and business networking websites. But no matter how effective networking is it can still be a very daunting prospect!

A Few Simple Beginners Tips:

• Be prepared:

Know who you are and what you do, think elevator pitch, a short summary used to quickly and simply define a person, profession, product, service, organisation or event and its value.
Make sure you have business cards to hand, but remember first impressions count in business so why settle for anything less than exceptional. Think carefully about how your cards represent you, online printers are a cost effective option.

• Follow up:

Meeting someone is just the first step in networking. In order to forge a lasting relationship (and make sure people don’t forget you), you need to follow up, every single time. As well as giving out your business cards make sure you collect cards too. If you say you will do something at a meeting, do it. Keep a pen with you to quickly scribble out what follow-up actions you have for that contact, and review your cards after the event.

• Conversation starters:

Nothing worse than an awkward silence!  A couple of ideas: compliments can be an icebreaker, ask about travel to the venue or parking, or simply “Networking isn’t really my thing” if you see someone looking as uncomfortable as you!

• Go with someone else if it gives you more confidence.

• Remember:

Keep in mind that networking isn’t about short-term gain, but about learning, growing, and forming connections. Adopt good social habits, and you’ll see your skills and comfort improve, your opportunities increase, and your relationships grow—for the long haul.

A summary from a Motivating Mum East Hertfordshire workshop

The topics of HMRC requirements and record keeping along with business planning are ones that women from recent Motivating Mum East Hertfordshire events had been keen to receive more information on.  So, this workshop was planned to help provide this, and it was held for the first time at the www.myincubator.co.uk in Ware, which provides support to pre and early start-up businesses.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today have worked ridiculously hard.  This morning my husband got up and left for work at 5am, and some strange part of me thought it might be a good idea to get up and get some work done while I could.  So I was dressed and sitting at the computer at 6am – and by lunchtime I had already achieved more than I normally do in a day.

Such is the joy of working for yourself – you can fit in the work around your life.  Some people work well in the mornings (I’m one of those) and some people work better at night. Some business mums I know fit in a fair amount of work on a Saturday night while the family is watching television.  I will probably be flaking tomorrow, based on my overwork today,  but I certainly have done my fair share of blogging while watching TV in the past.  it’s the only way I can fit it all in.

Do you remember growing up when the whole family would sit around the television on certain nights, watching the same programme, cheering on the contestants of some inane panel game, laughing at sitcoms or enjoying a variety show presented by a National Treasure? Maybe we didn’t like all of the shows, but there was very little else to do, so we put up with grandma’s favourite programme and she put up with ours. But a lot of Saturday night shows were designed to have a little bit for everyone to enjoy.

Image courtesy of Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Nowadays I find that although we are often in the same room on a Saturday night, and although we are occasionally all sitting on the sofa with the telly on, yet the whole family is simultaneously multitasking while watching.  My daughter might have her kindle on, my son his DS – I will quite often be playing on my phone, ipad or laptop and my husband may have his nose in a book or magazine or be doodling something.  Quite often I use the TV like I used to use the radio – I listen to it and use it for company rather than paying attention.  The rest of the family are the same – the viewing seems to have diminished somehow.

But then I was asked by the nice people at Ladbrokes, to tell you about a little bit of fun that they have produced. It’s a Bingo Card that you can print off and play along with while watching the Voice this weekend. Could this be the thing to tear my family away from their gadgets and have them actually watching and paying attention to the programme?  Who knows it is worth a try….

Whether we like it or not, things have moved on at a pace and family life and family time is not at all as we remember it.  But there is still scope for stressed home workers and their children to have a bit of silly fun at the weekend.

A summary from a Motivating Mum East Hertfordshire workshop

The topics of HMRC requirements and record keeping along with business planning are ones that women from recent Motivating Mum East Hertfordshire events had been keen to receive more information on.  So, this workshop was planned to help provide this, and it was held for the first time at the www.myincubator.co.uk in Ware, which provides support to pre and early start-up businesses.

Read the rest of this entry »

So you’ve found your perfect business idea and have set up the website. Now you’re waiting for people to find you. You probably know that search engine optimisation is going to be important, but how do you do it?

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If your business involves physical products – there may come a time when your family car is no longer suitable for transporting them from place to place. Vans are often seen as big and cumbersome – and there is the image of the ‘white van man’ which some mum entrepreneurs would like to avoid.  So what to do?

Step forward the Volkswagen Caddy – a great entry level van.  It drives like a car but has great load carrying capabilities.  Take a look at what some female entrepreneurs have to say about their Caddy. Read the rest of this entry »

I often get asked whether dads who run businesses are welcome at Motivating Mum.  the answer is  - of course they are!  Anyone who gains benefit from what we do here is welcome to attend meetings, advertise with us and join in, and I am more than happy to promote the businesses of ‘dadpreneurs’ (is that even a word?) alongside the mum-run businesses.

To illustrate the point, here is an an interview with Rhys Davies, owner of Your Jigsaw Puzzles.  Please take a look.

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Advertising an event traditionally meant spending significant sums of money on real-world promotion and tangible literature, but social media has changed all of that.

For the cost of only time, you can reach thousands of people on diverse platforms who you could never have hoped to reach otherwise.

But social media networks can be vast and unfriendly places for the beginner. Not only is the number of sites increasing in size all the time, but the numbers using them are multiplying every day. Great for awareness potential for your event, bad for finding new and innovative ways to get your event noticed and talked about by the people who matter.

A gorgeous location for an event…..

Use our five top tips for promoting your event online to cut through the bluster and barnstorm social media.

1. Target your resources. There’s no point opening new promotional accounts on every site going if you’re not going to be able to maintain them both in terms of content and following up on interest. Choose the three biggest – arguably Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and concentrate on them, being sure to change how you put across information in line with the strengths and limitations of each platform. So tweets are limited to 140 characters, meaning brevity is key, whereas on Facebook and LinkedIn you have more words to play with.
2. Plan ahead. As ever online just the same as off, start your advertising and promotion as far ahead of the event as you feasibly can. Creating a buzz and getting the message out to everyone in your network, and your network’s network, takes time – so the further ahead you start the better. If you’re short on details at the beginning as you wait for speakers etc to be confirmed, make bold statements about what the event hopes to achieve and publish teasers for information coming shortly.
3. Utilise your existing networks, but try every avenue you can think of to reach new ones. Cross post to interest groups or message influential people directly every time you have a significant update. Don’t be scared to bang the drum for your event – no-on else will do it for you. If your event concerns mums or amall business owners then drop me a line at debbie (at) motivatingmum.co.uk and I will certainly give you a shoutout!
4. Whichever networks you target, keep pumping out information. Showing that you have a buzzing, exciting event in preparation whets appetites, which you can then lure in when speakers and sessions start being firmed up
5. Keep it simple. Direct as much of your traffic as possible to an uncluttered page where those interested can quickly and easily buy tickets. Promotion is important, but attendance is paramount so ultimately focus efforts on getting people to the event.

Follow these rules and you have a very good chance of making your event a success. Good luck!

These five useful tips have been provided by Meetings Four You, who provide meeting rooms in Bristol and in many different locations across the UK.