Motivating Mum UK

I’m very lazy when it comes to insurance and the like. My husband works in financial services, and when we bought our house we happily accepted the insurance policy that came with the mortgage, with its “staff discount”. Part of me knows deep down that this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the cheapest price, and yet, each year, when the renewal comes round, I tell myself I will look at it and revisit it, but somehow I never seem to find the time – it renews automatically and I let it. Read the rest of this entry »

My name is Catherine Poole, and I launched my business, Catherine Poole Virtual  Assistant, in January 2011.

Like many other mums, I found going back to work after having my first child a real struggle. Prior to having my son, I had worked in an executive assistant role for four years, within the high pressure environment of an investment management company, and coming back to that job on a part-time basis didn’t ultimately work. When I had my second child, I realised I no longer wanted to go ‘out’ to work, but I knew I wanted to do something for myself, particularly as the children grew older and were going to school and nursery. But what could I do?

I had been vaguely aware of the term ‘virtual assistant’ or ‘virtual PA’, but I wasn’t really sure how it would work in practice, and I hadn’t looked into it in any great detail. I’m not sure when the light bulb moment occurred, but when I realised that this was something I could do, there was no looking back. The idea that I could use skills I’d acquired over the years, working for myself for clients, and working flexible hours around my children, was something that really appealed to me.

I started off doing a LOT of research. The VA industry is particularly prevalent in the US, but is now a rapidly growing industry in the UK as well, and the most helpful source of information was the forum on The Society of Virtual Assistants website. I have posted on this a couple of times, but usually dip in and out to get helpful hints and tips. If there is a question that needs answered, you can generally find what you’re looking for here. After a while the question for me was, how do I find my niche? Some virtual assistants offer a whole variety of services, some only a few, and I did struggle to think about the best way forward in this respect. I have discovered an aptitude for transcription work and have decided that I would like to concentrate on this, as well as other typing, proofing and editing work, but also be open to discussion with regards to other ad-hoc administration.

The next scary bit was networking! I read a lot about that too, and to be frank, the thought of it filled me with dread. Unfortunately (and I’m sure a lot of other mums in business will agree with me here!), most networking groups seem to meet for breakfast, which is nigh on impossible for me, with two children to get ready in the morning. Fortunately, the worm seems to be turning, and more groups are springing up that not only meet at useful times, but also let you bring your children along! I also found the free sessions run by Business Gateway (this is in Scotland, it would probably be Business Link in other parts of the UK) very helpful, and they took away the fear of networking, by making me realise that many people were in the same boat as me, anxious about promoting themselves, but still keen to make new contacts.

I’ll be honest, I’ve found the juggling act difficult at times. I am mostly doing freelance transcription work at the moment, which fits in really well around the children, as I can do it in the evenings. Only one of my children is at school, so I’m getting very good at fitting in as much as I can during playgroup and sleep time! I would say that my goal is to be working full time during school hours, by the time my daughter starts school in two years’ time.

It’s still relatively early days for my business. I often work in fits and starts, and relish the prospect of a two or three hour stretch when I can just sit down and get on with things.  I wake up every morning thinking about what I have to do and when I’ll be able to do it, and I switch the laptop back on most evenings after the children have gone to bed. But I also have the pay-off  -  I can do the school run, I can take my daughter to her music group during the day, I can take my son to his clubs after school. I’m also there for sick days and school holidays. I can’t see myself going back to the traditional workplace anytime soon!

www.catherinepoole.co.uk
Twitter – @cathpooleva

Have you seen Sarah Jessica Parker’s latest film, ” I Don’t Know How She Does It?”

I do know how she does it,  because I do it. But, I’m no Superwoman. It’s the team that I have around me that does it –  my husband, our childcare provider and our kids all pitch in and make the career-family thing work.  When I was first starting out and doing the juggling act of career and family over 20 years ago, it certainly did feel like I did it.  But the downside was I also felt like everything was solely my responsibility.

Like working mom Kate Reddy in the film (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) I used to feel that I single – handedly had to hold it all together. How was I going to make the school meeting and meet the deadline at work? How was I going to get the promotion and still take full control at home.  How was I going to have the time and energy to bake a cake for the cake sale having worked another 10-hour day. I’m sure you get the picture.

The funny thing was my husband never said that it was all up to me. I made this assumption. I put this unrealistic expectation on myself that I had to be perfect home and perfect at work.  The day I stopped trying to be Superwoman (for the benefit of my own health and therefore for the benefit of everyone around me) was the day I started enjoying my life as a mother, wife, and professional. I realised that unless I changed my mindset I was headed straight for a meltdown.

What I also realised was that I was putting my personal life in one box and my working life in another without taking advantage of any transfer of skills between the two environments. I was gaining some fantastic management skills at work which I wasn’t using at home: delegation, prioritization, working in teams and managing teams just to name a few.  I admit that when it comes to delegation, it’s sometimes hard to give up control, especially at home. Let’s face it. You do do things better than most people.  No argument there. However, if you try to do most things all by yourself, you will burn out.  Constantly striving for perfection in every aspect of your life leads to a miserable existence.  Like Kate Reddy’s husband Richard says in the film, “OK, is good enough”.

Did you ever think about what you’re like when you act like a control freak? I have. Do your kids like you? Does your childcare provider like you? Does your partner like you? Let others in. Let them help out. Make them feel appreciated as part of the team.  Get them to own some of the problems and challenges. And yes they will do things differently, but don’t sweat the detail. We often criticize our partners for not helping out. And then when they do help out, but they don’t do things exactly like we do, we criticize them for that too! My husband’s approach and style to managing things at home is very different from mine, but no less valid (although I still think my way is better!) But the point is, I do let him get on with it and I try not to interfere. He’s a smart man. Why do I think I need to treat him like an idiot?

So by adopting this team approach, does this mean your life will be perfect? No, life is never perfect.  Sorry to break this to you. By adopting the team approach, however,  you can sustain a rewarding lifestyle that combines your career ambitions with a fulfilling family life.  Do it now. Let go. Ahhh. Doesn’t that feel better?

Christine Brown-Quinn, is the author of Step Aside Superwoman, and blogs at   Christinebrown-quinn.com/step-aside-superwoman/

I have got three signed copies of Christine Brown-Quinn’s book – Step Aside Superwoman to give away.  You can specify a dedication of your choice.

To win this book, please leave a comment below, saying which woman do you most admire and why?  You will get extra entries for testing the great features of my new Commentluv Premium plugin – tweeting, liking or +1 the post.

Hello my name is Shona Andrews and this is my Scentsy Story.

I have always worked full time until the birth of my first child and even then returned to work after 6 months which I have always regretted.  When the second one came along I vowed to do it differently.  Unfortunately circumstances changed…ie husband left, I had to admit defeat and returned to work part time.  It’s then that I started to think about the work at home opportunitites.  I did a lot of research looking for the right product, and  the right company as there are so many scams out there.

I came across Scentsy by accident, I had relocated nearer my family for additional support and the new home was quite damp.  Although the family said they could not smell anything, I could…so out came the old scented candles I had had for years acting as ornaments. I soon discovered (hey, got kids now) ….naked flames attracted the baby, matches attracted the older one, the wick disappeared and could I find it??, lots of wasted scented wax up the side of glass jars and that’s not mentioning the smoke and soot on the walls.  I tried plug ins but they made me sneeze, so I was already looking for something different in the home fragrance department.   That’s when I came across Scentsy….I was looking at an article from a MLM blog and it mentioned this up and coming company just launching in the UK….though ok that’s good, opportunity to get in at the top….looked it up and was surprised to discover it was wickless candles!!!

What you may say!

Well, its an electric wax warmer to be precise but it uses block wax which is heated on a hot plate system.  I thought,  oh I want one of them…tried to find a local agent and the website kept directing me to US agents, as it’s been going over there for several years and was HUGE!  Fastest growing Direct Sales company ever… I eventually found one in Scotland….hint always sign under someone in the UK if possible as you will then get local support…time difference is a killer.

And after chatting with her and doing all my research, I signed up without even seeing the product except for online.

Since then we have formed a great support group covering Facebook groups to local meetings, and had our first conference, where we got to meet the owners of the company and learnt first hand the ethics and mission behind the company.  They had plenty of success stories but they concentrated on what this company can do for others, the fundraising they do is unbelievable and we even have our own Directors Scholarship Fund for our kids to apply for funding to university.

Anyone wanting to do more research (like me) please check out the website:

www.scentsy.net – check out products and About Scentsy at top right hand corner.

Please choose UK as different markets have different products.

It’s a great time to get onboard, earn that extra cash for Xmas…this product sells itself, does well at parties, basket parties and fairs….the product is so superior to any other on the market…as the wax does not burn but gently warms it carries a higher scent load (lasts longer) and none of the troubles of wicked candles, flame, smoke, soot.

It’s great for people with sensitive noses and health problems which mean they cant use wicked candles eg.  epilepsy.

My journey so far has been exciting and I am sure this is only the start…I have not heard of another consultant in my home town so lots of scope.  I have made loads of new friends and have a social life outside the kids for a change.  I now have that extra cash to treat the kids and MYSELF.

Being a mum everyone knows how we tend to put ourselves last on the list, doing a MLM job helps to give you something back, builds your confidence, gives you extra cash to tide us over these hard times and gives us a social life.

Don’t forget who you are, get the best of both worlds and do a MLM job, but choose carefully.  Find something you are passionate about and it won’t be selling.  Its just sharing a passion, makes it easier to talk about and the selling follows naturally.

Joining a new company makes it easier as well as not many people have heard of them so people are automatically going to ask ‘what’s that?’ and away you go’

Please check out my website www.scentsofshona.scentsy.co.uk for your Christmas shopping, or if you would like to join me representing this really exciting company in your town!

By the end of half term last weekend I was at my wits end as to how to keep the two occupied.  We had done craft activities indoors on the rainy days, visited Grandma by the sea and gone to the pier amusements, been out to eat once or twice, played games and just about everything else I could think of.

Then my daughter had the idea of going to Hampton Court, which is reasonably close by for us.  She is learning about the Tudors this year in school, so wanted to go and get a bit of a history lesson.

I knew that my son wouldn’t last long indoors, doing a stately home visit – he seems pretty indifferent to historical artifacts at the moment, but I thought I could tempt him with the maze, the gardens and the lovely cafe.  He wasn’t happy, but the decision was made.

We did his stuff first.  As expected he did love the maze – whenever we have been before its has been too cold or wet or both to go outside, so that was fun for both of them.  Then my daughter enjoyed taking pictures in the gardens, while my son just enjoyed running about in the huge open spaces.

Lunch was everything we could have wished for – apart from the queue. Sausage and chips and an enormous cupcake on special offer for the children.  My toad in the hole was pretty special too.

Then we headed off to go inside the palace, stopping for ten minutes or so to watch the antics of a Tudor jester, juggling, stilt walking and fire-eating. Fun for all the family.

As expected, my son didn’t last very long inside the house and was soon whiny , wanting to go home.  He enjoyed sitting in the banqueting chair and running up and down the big staircases, but he soon became a bit of a liability.  Before long, we had all had enough and headed outside again.

We came out in a part of the gardens that we hadn’t seen before.  A fabulous tree-lined avenue with autumn leaves falling like confetti.  We stopped to watch a heron catch and eat a fish,  then I reminded them of the old superstition that you get a happy day next year for each falling leaf that you can catch.

I really must make a note to myself that sometimes I try too hard with parenting, and maybe I just need to consider the simple things.  I played leaf catching with them for ten minutes, then when it was clear they were having lots of fun without me, I retired to a bench and just watched them.  They played happily for the best part of an hour, running and leaping about – my daughter helping her brother with his catches. Then they sat down on the grass together, deliberately out of my earshot, rested and nattered happily.

Watching them, I was transported back to my own childhood, a much more natural, unhurried and ordinary one, than what seems to be the norm today.  I spent ages at the beach and out in nature, collecting stones, flowers and insects and watching clouds, while my mum kept a safe distance and allowed me to explore and develop.

Sometimes I need to get my children off their treadmill and take them back to the simple things in life, for that is where true contentment can be found.

There comes a time in every mummy blogger’s career when she takes the decision as to whether or not to work with brands, to receive review products and/or payment for blogs. It’s a tricky decision, which every blogger has to take for herself – there is no right answer, and I can very well sympathise with those bloggers who decide that it is not for them, for whatever reason.

If you do decide to dip your toe in the water of working with brands, and get your name on the list of a few PR agencies, it can be very intoxicating. There are all manner of lovely things to review, events to attend and goodie bags to be sampled. All the companies want is just a little bit of positive press, a bit of good word or mouth – not too much to ask is it?

For those of us who usually blog in the privacy of our homes, and don’t get out much (or is that just me) the first few PR events are very exciting. I still get very overexcited (and so do my children) when we are invited to exclusive screenings of children’s films before they come out – we all love cinema in my family. I have also been lucky enough to receive samples of things to review which I was thinking of buying anyway, and invitations to events (like a recent spa day) which just have me grinning from ear to ear. Working with brands is perfect for the spoilt child in you – its just one big surprise after another.

It is very important though not to get carried away in all this. Whatever the nature of the freebies on offer, you do have to consider whether an article on the subject the company wants you to write about actually fits within your blog and will add value to your readers. You also need to consider the balance between commercial and non-commercial posts. Some blogs are set up as review sites and can get away with posting a lot of commercial stuff – many are not, and can risk alienating the readers if every blog post is sponsored.

You also sometimes need to consider the inter-connectedness of the brands that you choose to blog about. I have recently and reluctantly decided to refuse a freebie from one very good company, because I am also working with one of their competitors. There is no official contract, but i wouldn’t feel right in myself if I allowed a blatant conflict of interest on my site. Although I would have loved the freebies on offer, it feels right to me to refuse – also the fact that I am now in a position to turn stuff down makes me feel like I am quite successful.

I am still very new at all this – I only opened myself up to working with brands a few months ago and I am still feeling my way, trying to find the perfect balance of doing some commercial work and enjoying the rewards, while still remaining true to what Motivating Mum is all about. If nothing else, I think that if I am going to teach courses about Blogging for Business, I need to experiment with and experience the whole brand meets blog thing.

I’m watching my readership stats very carefully – so far the changes I have recently made in the blog seem to have been very well received and readership is up. I am reviewing individual posts to see what seems to work with you – so far one of my most popular search terms is “smurf” (and those who find me using smurf go on to read other stuff!) so I deduce from that, that writing children’s film reviews is an OK thing for Motivating Mum to be doing now and again – I hope you agree…

I’d be very interested to hear your experiences of working with brands with your blog. Do you have any advice or warnings of any other pitfalls? I still feel a bit like I want to grab every freebie out there, but I am trying very hard not to sell my soul to commercialism.

Everywhere you look at the moment you are reminded that times are hard. By now in the economic cycle, we all have friends who have lost their jobs, had their hours or wages cut or missed out on bonuses that used to be regular. Businesses are closing and relationships are also feeling the strain. Most of us are having to make do with less for one reason or another.

If you haven’t been affected by a squeeze in income (lucky you!), then you will have noticed some worrying price rises, particularly petrol, utilities and some food items. It’s enough to depress anybody.

For the most part as a family we have been very lucky.  My husband has been under a huge amount of strain at work, but he is still holding down a well paid job, which more than covers the family necessities.  Up till now I have pretty much chosen the “head in the sand” / spend my way out of recession approach to the financial crisis, because thankfully we have been able to.

However I have to admit this year, that my business has not been going anywhere near as well as previously.  My money pays for all the little extras and treats for the family, covers my cleaner and the costs of my singing hobby, and this year it hasn’t really stretched far enough. Reluctantly we decided not to take a family holiday abroad this year – there just isn’t the spare cash.

I know that some of you will be reading this and will have no sympathy whatsoever. I know that some of you will have had to make much more serious sacrifices than whether or not to go on holiday. But my point is, that wherever you are with your personal finances, it’s never too soon to start making changes, and I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that head in the sand is not going to work with us anymore.

For myself I am determined to root out little ways to save money over the coming year, without significantly changing my lifestyle. Businesses are suffering too, and they are having to dream up more and more tempting offers to make us part with our cash.  My aim for this year is to find these offers, use them and then share them with you. I’m going to keep a running total of the savings I make, put the money in a pot, and hope to pay for next year’s summer holiday out of it. I will have to give up a few little bits I know, but I hope also to make some discoveries that will make our life better.

To start me off on my quest, I have partnered with a new money saving website Savoo.co.uk.  I have joined their Deal Pro scheme, where I will find offers and recommend them to my friends (that means you!). Savoo is more than just a voucher site, it is a social community, where those who really enjoy sniffing out a bargain can get together and share their findings. If you are looking for savings on a particular product or wondering which is the best shop to go to for something, you can leave a question on the forum, and one of the DealPros will see if they can help you

This concept works very well in America, where a huge community of thrifty and frugal mums helps each other to the best bargains, on Savoo‘s sister site Savings.com.  I look forward to sharing some of my finds with you , and hope that some of you may choose to join me in the bargain hunt.  You can join Savoo and start saving.  When you sign up , you can specify which areas you are interested in receiving deals for, and your home page will update to show the best deals in your area.  You can also choose to follow some of the Deal Pros, so that things that they recommend will appear in your timeline. You will also receive the weekly newsletter, and see where you can save. If you consider yourself to be a bit of a money saving expert, you can apply to be a Deal Pro, and you can also send in guest blogs on a money saving theme.

Suddenly I’m not so worried about our financial situation any more.  I’ve got a challenge and a way of dealing with it.  I feel that I can change the habits of a lifetime and start looking for money savings (and time savings) wherever I go.

How are you coping with the financial crisis?

I love these BritMums Blog Prompts – gives me an opportunity to write about something completely different and to write about something I’m passionate about (again) and hopefully somebody might just read it….

When I saw this prompt – my face lit up and I knew exactly what it was.  I just can’t live without ……singing!

I’m in the clip above (in pink, in the front….)

I love singing, in church, in the bath, in the car – even when I am out and about (I am trying to curb these tendencies as I’m aware they may make me look a little odd but sometimes it just sneaks out despite myself!).

However, when I think of the subject of this post, what I really mean is I can’t live without my weekly rehearsal with the English Chamber Choir.  For six hours between 6pm and midnight on a Tuesday night, I am not Mum, I am not anybody’s wife, I am not Motivating Mum or the Cambridge lady – I am just me, Debbie, doing something I absolutely love.  I get on the train with the other commuters coming home, and go up to London.  Sometimes I sit in a coffee shop before rehearsal starts (the second thing I can’t live without is coffee) – the silence and tranquility is just amazing.  I do my singing, uplifting body and soul, and return to my family, a happier and saner mummy.

The singing holds me together and makes everything else work in my life.  My family don’t quite get it, but even they admit that its true – I’m nicer when I’m singing….

Every so often I go up to give a concert and the very fact of performing and making other people happy is just amazing.  If I had it all to do again, I would have been a professional singer – but then I guess I wouldn’t have met my lovely man, nor any of you lot – so I can honestly say, I’m happy as I am, as long as you let me sing just once a week…..

I can thoroughly recommend to anyone who is stressing, running a home and/or a business and finding it hard to juggle (guess that’s most of you at BritMums) that you need to find a little bit of time, just once a week, when you do something just for yourself.  As I have found, it can make all the difference.

And if any of you like to listen to my kind of music and live near London, you can catch me singing here

Did you ever have one of those days when nothing seemed to go right? A day that started wrong and just got worse and worse.

I had one today. You don’t need to know all the details, but it started with a 45 minute wait in a hospital outpatients queue only to be told that they couldn’t deal with me today, and I would have to make an appointment and come back another day. That put me behind with my other things I wanted to do this morning – but some of them had to be done anyway, Even traffic lights seemed to go against me and by the time I was finished doing what I absolutely had to do, I had missed my exercise class. It was the kind of morning that just leaves you stressed, cross and frazzled!

This is the kind of start to the day that would normally drive me to the biscuit tin. I know for some people it is the wine bottle, but for me it is definitely chocolate, biscuits or cake. This is the kind of day that can lead to an almighty binge because “I really really deserve it”. Before you know it you have not only had a rubbish day but you have fallen off the diet wagon and chucked all your plans for self-improvement out of the window. You end up just feeling rubbish, both physically (overfed and undernourished) and mentally (guilty, angry and frustrated.)I don’t know how many of my carefully laid plans have been derailed by days like these – do you get them too?

On my quest for self improvement, I am trying to look at things differently. Bad things happen, sometimes they even happen more than once in the same day. But that doesn’t make it a bad day – it’s just a day, same as any other. It is not an excuse to eat differently or do anything differently at all. As soon as possible you need to re-establish control over your routine and get back on track, the sooner the better. That is the way to regaining your sanity and not making a bad time worse than it is.

I do know that, really I do. And I am trying….but what really happened today?  Well I ate sweets in the car coming out of the hospital and going about my other appointments (I’m worth it) . As a result I wasn’t hungry at lunchtime and didn’t eat enough. SO now at teatime I’m starving & have made some slightly wrong choices, including chocolate and wine…..

But in mitigation, I did get back in charge of my schedule and did some really productive work instead of the tail end of the exercise class and lunch, such that I was pretty much caught up with what I planned to do by the time it came to go singing tonight. And I was organised enough to bring my writing gear out with me so I could put together a blog post while travelling up to choir, instead of just staring into space on the train.

I am thinking about things, monitoring myself, and learning from my mistakes. Tomorrow I will be straight back on track, including back to the exercise classes.

Days like these – I know I’ll still get them – but hopefully they won’t get me!

Been over on the BritMums site today and caught sight of their new Prompt of the Week feature.  This week’s prompt is “If I had the chance to start my blog again what would I change?”  A very interesting question. But I’m going to take a bit of licence here, because I don’t believe in regretting things I should or ought to do. When I decide to change something I change it. And having spent a lot of time thinking over the summer holidays (inspired in part by Cybermummy) I have made up my mind to make quite a few changes to my blog, starting any time now. So instead of writing about what I would do differently, this is going to be about what I am going to do differently.

Lets go back a bit. When I took over Motivating Mum, a year ago, the blog was just one part of the overall package that I took over. It was already set up, formatted, and had been run for a year or so. Maintain the website, blog once a week, tweet regularly, post on Facebook and LinkedIn. Those were the basic set of instructions left to me by my predecessor Alli Price. I didn’t spare any thought for the format, the style, the set up  – I had enough to take on with the website and the rest of the business.

At that point had never blogged before, but I set to the task with gusto, religiously blogging once a week. Every Monday morning I sat down and wrote something. Some of it was total garbage (some of it still is).  I didn’t really have a purpose, or a clue what I was doing – as long as I got some thoughts down on screen every week I was happy. But guess what – very few of you read it….

Over the last six months or so, I have come to realise that the blog, is not just a means of marketing Motivating Mum – it is an integral part of the website and the whole Motivating Mum ethos. The strapline of Motivating Mum is Support and Advice for Mums in Business. Between myself and the various guest bloggers I’ve had along the way, we have dispensed more support and advice from the pages of the blog than the rest of the site put together. Some of it has even been published into an ebook  – Motivating Business Mums.  This blog is at the core of what I do, and I really need to pay a bit more attention to it.

So this is what I’m going to do to hopefully make Motivating Mum a much better and hopefully more interesting and readable blog.

1. Post more regularly – once a week is just not enough. Some of it will be business support and advice, some of it just stuff I want to write about – hopefully the whole package will be entertaining and inspiring.
2. Feature guest bloggers a lot to make this a bit more of a collaborative blog.  If you want to come write for me, then please let me know….
3. Run featured months – the Mummy Mentoring Month feature I did last March was the best thing ever – I’ve got more features planned – see my newsletter.
4. I am going to feature advertising, and sponsored posts – I will do reviews and work with brands – but this will only be part of what I do, and I hope not too obtrusive. This is an experiment – if after a short time I feel it is not helping the overall structure of the blog, then maybe I will stop. But at the end of the day if I am going to invest a significant portion of my time into blogging then I would like to see a bit of a returnon it.
5. I am going to write on a series of themes – I set most of them out in a recent post – New Years Resolutions. Most of them will be support and advice – or at least will document my own quest for self-improvement and enlightenment both on a personal and a business level. Hopefully my own experience will be helpful to others who are on the same path.
6. I will try to craft the blog posts more carefully. I will start to pay a bit more attention to SEO, and will provide links to the main Motivating Mum site whenever I can fit them in. Hopefully the blog will grow in popularity and will then help to direct people to the stuff that I really want the to see.
7. Finally I will try to spend a lot more time interacting and responding to other bloggers. In the interests of that, expect to see me lurking around the Blog post of the week and other linky features. I want to join in the mummy blogging community this year, and I will be coming to a blog near you, contributing my two penn’orth very soon.

So that’s where I am hoping to go with this blog. I hope y’all like it.

I know some of you will be thinking that I am four months early, but bear with me……Now that my children are back at school, my life seems to revolve round the school year. I buy an academic year calendar for the kitchen, so I have just taken the old one down and put a new one up.

Also, having spent the summer in downtime, planning, September always feels like a rebirth, a new season for my business, and also for me. This just seems like a more sensible time for me to celebrate New Year, so I would just like to say Happy New Year to you all.

So having got that out of the way (you probably still think I’m weird but hopefully you have decided to humour me)  I have decided to make my New Year’s Resolutions now. Part of me always feels January is the wrong time anyway – it so dark and cold and miserable – very hard to get up and find the energy to commit to anything new. If I make the resolutions now and get started on them, I will be in a much stronger place come January.

So here for the record are my New Year’s Resolutions – business and personal.

1 To grow my social media following and interact better and smarter and more personally with you all

2 To move my business as far as is feasible onto the Cloud, to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy that engulfed me in July.

3 To find ways to work smarter and more efficiently and to stop giving my time to unproductive activities.

4 To finally once and for all, declutter my house, and set up routines and tidy habits that will make my whole life run more smoothly.

5 To look out for and act on money saving tips and advice, cutting down on wastage throughout my home and business

6 To eat healthily and take regular exercise.

So far so good. But I also know that all the productivity gurus reckon that one of the best techniques when setting goals is to hold yourself accountable. So for that reason, I am going to be sharing snapshots from my journey towards these goals on my blog.

I hope to share with you the hints, tips and tools that I have found the most useful in achieving the goals above. Once a month or so, I hope to do a wrap up blog where I will set out the progress I have made in each area. I hope to be able to inform, inspire educate and entertain you, as I journey towards my goals in these areas. I would also be very happy to hear your advice and anything you can share that will help.

Is anybody else setting goals at this time of year? What are you committing yourself to, and what are you going to do to make this the best year ever?

Vacation, Staycation, Playcation?….. whatever you’ve done, wherever you’ve been,  you can’t help but feel a bit deflated at this time of year when you come to the end of it.  The weather in the UK has turned suitably grotty and autumnal , and with a heavy heart we realise that we need to start the frantic charge down to the start of term. Nothing for it, deep breath, here we go:

First up school uniforms, shirts, dresses, shorts, long trousers, ties jumpers, socks, underwear, new shoes (“how much?”), plimsolls, trainers, PE kit (“Mummy I need a red PE shirt and a school tracksuit this year cos I’m going into Juniors”) , brownie and beaver uniforms (sew on badges), swimming kit, taekwondo outfit, dancing shoes, football boots     – all things bought or found, sorted, washed, ironed (nametags on everything), packed into the correct named bags.  CHECK

Dentist, Optician, haircuts all round (go to bank and renegotiate overdraft) CHECK

School bags, pencil cases, (“where’s the pencil sharpener we bought on holiday?”), whiteboard pens (????  …..don’t remember needing those at school in my day…) water bottles, lunchboxes (remember to buy fruit), coats, hats, umbrellas.  CHECK

The night before; tea (on time, at table – no more TV dinners), bath and hairwash (check for lice, remove temporary tattoos and toenail varnish), pack all bags by the door, prepare cheques for dinner money and all relevant school activities, find daughter’s piano music and get her to practice, reassure same daughter that Juniors are not going to be anywhere near as scary as she thinks,  and that Mrs Thingummy is not anywhere as near as strict as her friend says she is….

BED! (for kids) 8pm ON THE DOT, NO ARGUING!!!!!!  Bed (for me) not long afterwards – don’t forget to set alarm).

BRRRNG!  (“what time? Surely not?”),  fight with husband and kids for the bathroom, wash, dress, fix hair before 7am, get children out of bed with cattle prod (“how come they’ve been up at dawn all summer except today?”), force them into washed, ironed clothes – yes you have to wear all those layers and socks, new shoes (“you said they were very comfortable in the shops so don’t tell me now that they hurt you”)

Force some breakfast into all of us – yes from now on we all have to eat something healthy before 8am because there won’t be any more snacks till lunchtime, and you are going to have to concentrate and work your brain again (I will confess to feeling slightly sorry for them at this point, but only a bit).

Coats on, pick up bags and piles of assorted stuff.  Double check all PE equipment, musical instruments and cheques.  Out the door, meet up with friends and walk off to school.  Quick kiss goodbye and then I am free….

Home to an empty house (at last) a very large cup of coffee and a whole load of new plans for my business and myself  – a new year has begun

First of all, I want to apologise for not being entirely there over the last week or longer. I’m well aware that emails have gone unanswered and things I promised to do have been left undone. I did try to soldier on, but unfortunately sometimes you just have to accept that you are only human.

I became aware that my ear was aching a bit around Wednesday or Thursday last week. I was treating it for blocked wax, and thought I was making progress. On Friday it was sore, but I just put that down to the treatment. I didn’t have time to be ill – far too many exciting things to do with the kids over the weekend.

Saturday morning I had an inkling things were not as good as I thought they were. Pain was a bit worse. But I was taking Grade 1 piano alongside my daughter (moral support, agreed a few months ago when she was struggling). I certainly wasn’t going to pull out now – soldier on – its what mothers do.

After the exam, I did trot down to my walk in centre and got some antibiotic drops and a job lot of paracetamol. The antibiotics made my ear sore but I figured that was just doing me good. Soldier on, it’s what mothers do.

A completely sleepless night on Saturday – paracetamol wasn’t working. Pain considerably worse on Sunday. But we were invited to the cinema in London to watch the premiere of The Smurfs. Both me and the kids had been looking forward to this for a while – not to mention the kind people at Ubisoft who had given me the tickets and would no doubt expect a review. Nothing for it, soldier on, its what mothers do.

Sunday afternoon I went back to the walk in centre. got some oral antibiotics to take alongside the drops and the doctor told me to alternate ibuprofen with the paracetamol for the pain. Antibiotic drops still hurting, oral antibiotics making my stomach turn. Another sleepless night.

Monday morning, the pain was considerably worse. But I had promised to give a Blogging for Business seminar. I couldn’t possibly let the mums down, nor Andrea who had organised the event. I took both antibiotics together, and the paracetamol and the ibuprofen at the same time, floated off in a doped up cloud of my own making and gave the presentation. I kidded myself that I felt better – in truth I wasn’t feeling very much at all. Surely the antibiotics would kick in soon…. Soldier on, its what mothers do.

Yet another sleepless night on Monday, by Tuesday morning the paracetamol and ibuprofen were certainly not working and my face had swollen up and gone bright red. Off to the GP who gave me two different antibiotics and some prescription painkillers with sedatives to help me sleep.

Finally, half an hour after using the new antibiotics, I felt things turn. My face came down again and some of the pain went away. A blessed relief. I started to wonder why I had allowed myself to put up with it and ignore it for so long. And then the total exhaustion hit me – both the lack of sleep and the sheer onslaught on my body from the cocktail of different drugs.

At long last on Tuesday afternoon, I gave in and allowed myself to have some rest. I stopped feeling guilty about it, turned the computer off, and sat in front of the telly while the children were at school. I cried off my singing rehearsal, and got in takeaway instead of cooking. Tuesday night I slept like a baby, but I have carried on resting throughout Wednesday and a significant portion of today. I have learned my lesson – my body needs to recover fully and I need to sit back and let it.

As mums we spend all our lives caring for other people but sometimes fail to care for ourselves. As business owners, we are always chasing the next thing, getting all the jobs done, pleasing our customers, making contacts. Sometimes you just have to get off the treadmill and listen to your own body, even if it means disappointing others.

Motivating Mum is going to be a bit quiet over the summer holidays. I’m going to concentrate on my sweet children and on having a great holiday. If you can’t bear to be without me, you can get a daily blog in your inbox by signing up for A Daily Dose of Motivation. I will do a bit of writing here and there and get myself ready for a whole host of exciting projects which will be coming your way in September. Watch this space…

We’ve been camping this weekend, at the end of a very busy and hectic half term holiday week. It was great fun, but totally exhausting as I didn’t manage to sleep at all either of the 2 nights.

When we got home, around 6pm on Sunday I made toast for tea, bathed the children, then fell into bed shortly after them at 8pm.

So now it’s Monday morning, and they are back at school (can anyone hear my sigh of relief?)

And now the big dilemma – what to do?

• Unpacking?
• Food shopping?
• Laundry (huge pile!)
• Other housework?
• Catch up on emails, facebook, twitter and other Motivating Mum business?
• Plan my talk for the Blogging for Business workshop in 2 weeks time (how did that sneak up so fast?)
• Go and have coffee with some friends?

Is it just me, or do you find that when absolutely everything needs doing that it is even more hard than usual to decide which job to tackle first.  Well, I’m here blogging so you can see that I have decided to go for the catch up on Motivating Mum bit first.  But what to do next……I’m procrastinating……

Let  me throw into the mix that the coffee with friends option, involves catching up with Alli Price, the original Motivating Mum, over from Australia for one week only, and that today is the only chance I will get to see her.

No contest really – Coffee 1  – Housework 0

For those of you that knew Alli, I’ll bring you her news on here later this week.  But for now, I’m off to get me some coffee…

I ran a Competition on Motivating Mum in April – the prize was a fridge from Argos.  If you want to know who won the fridge – you’ll have to wait until it comes out in the newsletter next week… join here if you haven’t already

As part of the competition I asked the entrants to tell me what they liked best about Motivating Mum, and so I thought I would share the entries with you.  With any luck they might inspire some of you to look at the sections of Motivating Mum that you might have missed.

As for me, what I like about Motivating Mum, is that it has given me a real sense of purpose, bringing good advice, support and entertainment to all you businessmums out there.  I love hearing that you are enjoying what I do, and I just love helping you all.  Thank you for all your kind comments – please keep spreading the word, leave your comments here and tell your friends….

There will be some more competitions this month, so keep your eyes out on the site.  In the meantime, here are some of the other answers to the question “What I like most about Motivating Mum…..”

• The site is informative and a one stop shop, perfect for busy parents.
• Wow, so full of useful information, great for the working mum
• ’tis a clear and easy to understand website you have there.  I’m thinking of setting up my own business and it’s given me a bit of a shove!
• A multi-tasking Mum, I feel it’s an honour… to be motivated by Debbie O’Connor!”
• One of the very best sites around for helping busy mums – written by mums for mums.
• The advice which ranges from how to deal with my pregnancy to my tax!
• It’s a one stop shop for everything the business mum wants to know.
• I like the forum and knowing that there are other mums out there in the same situation as me, going through the same start up issues and that there’s somewhere to go for support.
• The website is colourful, informative and user friendly, it covers multiple subjects
• What I like about the site is everything is so easy to find.
• …it reminds me that it is completely possible – and normal – to run a  successful business AND be a good Mum to my two kids!!!
• I like the advice you give to mums that want to return to work. It is valuable and insightful information since I feel a bit lost in the world of employment. Thanks.
• The motivating mum website gives articles, inspiration and a sense of community that encourages me to continue being a self employed mum!
• On this site there is so much info all in one place, its ideal. I am going to tell everyone on my fb and twitter about it, its so helpful. Thank you
• It’s a great and easily accessible all round support group for Mums!
• I definitely need motivating most days and after reading your blog I can do it with a spring in my step!!! (Either that or I carry on reading LOL)
• It’s very informative and interesting site, always up to date, my favourite is the article and features

by Griselda Togobo

Research has shown that the brain is up to 40% slower when we multitask. Read my post Is multitasking making us stupid? for more on why we should all stop multitasking.

I think this challenge is even more difficult for the renowned multitasking mum. I say this because all women, especially mothers multitask. It is difficult not to when we have so many things vying for our attention. It is ingrained in our psyche that the only way to get things done around the house is to multitask.

Multitasking whilst spending time with our children is stressful. We also feel guilty because we know that we are not giving them our full attention. Children and business partners alike need and want us to be present in the moment when we spend time with them. Clients will respect you more and value the time they spend with you when they know they get your undivided attention. Sometimes, childcare may fall through at the last moment meaning your children may be present at client meetings. It is great to run a family friendly business that allows you to take your children to meetings but should this be the norm or the exception?

The question is, how can we STOP multitasking when it is our default mode of working? I believe that all humans can multitask in one-way or the other. Men don’t multitask because they are brought up thinking they are no good at it. This proves that it is possible to rewire our thinking to break away from this counter-productive habit of multitasking everyday at everything. All it takes is commitment and persistence at correcting this habit.

I challenged myself recently and stopped multitasking when spending time with my 10-month-old son. This meant no eye on my inbox, texting, tweeting and certainly no TV in the background. It was difficult but I was surprised by just how engaging my son was when he had my full attention. I was shocked that although, I was around him, I was still missing out because I chose to have the laptop and phone interrupting our precious moments.

Mums in business need to awaken to the fact that it is impossible to do ALL things at the same time. Attempting to do this ruins the special opportunity we have to live a flexible life with business fitting in around our family commitments. Carrying on multitasking means neither our businesses nor our children get the best of us.

Trying to stop multitasking won’t be easy, but just think of the freedom a more productive and profitable business will give you and your family in the medium to long term. When you multitask but still feel stressed then it is time to get external help. Delegation is the answer to your time management issues – NOT multitasking.

Griselda K. Togobo is the founder of AWOVI Consulting Ltd, a company devoted to increasing the success rate and profits of small businesses. AWOVI’s online portal is used to support and inspire entrepreneurs with advice, tools and success stories. Visit Griselda’s blog at www.awovi.com

This blog is one of 45 featured in my ebook  Motivating Business Mums – now available from Brightword publishing.

For hints, tips and a daily inspirational blog post from Motivating Mum please sign up for a Daily Dose of Motivation

by Anna Davis

How often do you say “I haven’t had time…”? Yet, look through history and think of people who you admire – who have achieved amazing things – they all had the same number of hours a day. So how did they achieve it?

As a coach & consultant, I have discovered many techniques for making the most of your time and achieving more. I have found these fall into three core areas that will vastly increase your effectiveness, feeling of control, and ultimately your happiness. Within each area I have numerous methods to help you progress, depending on where your greatest improvements could be made. Here, I am sharing 3 or 4 tips for each area. Find a pen and paper and start on the right path to organisation, efficiency and effectiveness….

Top ten tips to achieve your dreams

Clarify your priorities

1.    Clarify what you want out of life – This deceptively simple exercise is a good starting point: Write down ten things which you would like to achieve within a year, large or small, and assign each of them a target date. Focus on the one that would have the biggest impact on your life. Write down all the actions you need to undertake to achieve that goal. Decide what you can do this week and do one action every week to move you forwards.

2.    Remove extraneous activities – If I were a fairy (and not just a tooth fairy!) and could magic you an extra hour a day, what would you do with it? Alternatively, if I were a baddie (to use my 5 year old’s vocabulary), and took away an hour a day, what would you stop doing? Now…replace one with the other!

3.    Look after yourself – We can cope with almost anything as long as we are both mentally and physically strong. Schedule (on your family calendar) regular time each week to exercise and to relax. Keep that time sacred.

Get organised

4.    Organise your correspondence – Start organising your paperwork by buying a 31 day expanding pocket file. The slots correspond to the next 31 days in a rolling manner. Put all invitations, tickets, travel arrangements, birthday cards etc into the day you need them (a couple a days beforehand if preparation is required e.g. a present to buy). Just make sure you check it every day!

5.    De-clutter – Don’t try to de-clutter a whole room. Break it down into individual shelves or drawers. Dedicate 15 minutes a day to making progress and put each item into one of four buckets – keep, throw out, give away (charity/ freecycle.com), sell (ebay.co.uk/gumtree.com).

6.    Put systems in place – Design systems and routines. For example, when the children get home from their swimming class, rinse and dry their things then re-pack into swimming bags for next week, and create rolling 2 or 3 week menus. Teach your kids routines such as the morning routine so that they can get themselves ready rather than having to be nagged (a pictorial or written routine on the fridge can work wonders!)

Get it all done

7.    Delegate – Don’t take everything on your own shoulders. Delegate or outsource tasks where possible and make sure the children have their own, age appropriate, responsibilities.

8.    Plan – “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. Many things on our to-do list are not actions at all, but “projects” requiring two or more steps. Write out all the steps so you know where to start and what is stopping you. Make sure the first step is a clear physical step which you know how to do.

9.    Be punctual – Calculate your “Stop Working on Everything Else Time” (SWEET spot) by working backwards from the appointment. Include plenty of buffer time for unscheduled delays – at least 10 minutes when leaving the house for the inevitable dirty nappy, lengthy toilet visit, accident or itinerant shoe.

10.    Stop procrastinating – Select an issue which needs thought but which you have been putting off. Start a timer for exactly 5 minutes. Brainstorm (do not judge) the issue non-stop until the timer goes off. Read through and underline any significant insights or actions. What can you do first?

These are just the tip of the ice-berg. There are many more techniques and much more depth to uncover. If you would like to move from hectic to effective, contact me to find out which of the packages I offer would suit you. Don’t procrastinate!

Anna also does career coaching for people who are dissatisfied with their current career situation or returning to work after a child, and personal coaching to provide support to help you achieve your goals.

Wishing you organisation, efficiency, effectiveness and overall balance,
Anna Davis
Coach, consultant and time management expert
www.BalancedMum.com

The essential question is not, “How busy are you?” but “What are you busy doing?”

This is one of a series of  guest blogs from successful mumpreneurs and coaches that will be published on this site every day during March. Please look at some of the other fabulous posts that we have published over the last few days.

To receive a daily notification of the blog of the day, please sign up for the Mummy Mentoring Month newsletter at Motivating Mum.

by Fiona Muir

Whether you are for the most part a planner or someone who prefers to “go with the flow”, there are times in all our lives when things happen which are seemingly out of our control and it can feel as if we’ve been put through the spin cycle on the washing machine a couple of times, dropped on a treadmill at fast speed and been chucked 100 balls to juggle in front of a watching crowd.

The first thing we have to do once we recognise that we’re in a situation like this is, metaphorically step off the treadmill, put down the balls, turn our back to the crowd and get our balance back.

So, what can you do today, right this moment to help combat Overwhelm?

As overwhelm can be experienced as a physical, spiritual and psychological state, it helps to do physical spiritual and mental and emotional exercises in order to become unstuck and move forward.

Physical Jump-Start Exercise

Firstly, centre yourself physically; you might be all in your head at this moment of Overwhelm.  Just take a quick moment to observe where your shoulders are at the moment.  If they are somewhere around your ears, consciously drop them down and take 10 deep breaths from your abdomen, breathing slowly in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Spiritual Jump-Start Exercise

From a spiritual point of if you have a belief in a higher power you’ll probably find it helpful to take a short time to hand over the things you know are out with your control to your higher power through prayer, freeing you up to concentrate on taking action on the things that are within your control.

Psychological Jump-Start Exercise

If you find you have a problem that keeps running through your thoughts and taking over your headspace and draining your energy, take control and if there is nothing you can do immediately to solve it, make an appointment to allow yourself to think about it for half an hour at a future allotted time e.g. 10 o’clock tomorrow morning and make a promise to yourself to consciously put the situation out of your mind until that time and concentrate on taking action on things you can change or move forwards today.

Watch your “internal chatter” very carefully at this point.  This is the things we say to ourselves and these can be very destructive and add to the feelings of overwhelm e.g. be observant for thoughts such as “I can’t believe you’ve got yourself into this mess again, it’s your own fault, you’ll never learn, you’re always letting people down”.  These thoughts are counterproductive, it might seem strange at first but make an effort to change your internal chatter to the kind and supportive way you’d react to someone you love who came to you with the same situation e.g. “I’m sorry you’re so stressed, I know you don’t like being in this situation, It’s not ideal but you will get through it and learn from it, I love you and have every confidence in you.  Who and what will help you the most right now?” This takes time and practise but is deeply empowering and there are many coaching tools to help you observe and change your negative self talk for the better.

Examine the Juggling Balls…Are they Needs or Wants?

Next, it helps to look at each of the balls at our feet and decide which of them you absolutely have to pick up.  To do this, it is important to examine them and to differentiate between the needs and the wants.

Wikipedia defines needs as, “A need is something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as food, or they can be subjective and psychological, such as the need for self-esteem. On a societal level, needs are sometimes controversial. Understanding needs and wants is an issue in the fields of politics, social science, and philosophy.”

With clients I’ll often use a wheel of life tool which helps them break down their life into its component parts, to find out what is and isn’t working for them in their lives.  Your life’s component parts might look something like this:

My Life………..What matters most today?

• my body
• my mind & emotions
• my soul
• my children
• my home
• my finances
• my vocation
• my hobbies & interests
• my partner
• my relations
• my friendships
• my community

If you take a short time out to identify your needs for today in each area it will pay dividends.  Fast forward your mind to the end of today and identify what actions you could take today to make the biggest difference to your peace of mind and quality of sleep.

“What” questions are sometimes referred to as Wisdom Access questions in coaching.  For example, concentrating on your physical body ask yourself:

• What am I feeling right now?
• What does my body need?
• What  4 things can I do today that will have the greatest positive impact.

Then write down the answers in your action list.  Do the same for each area and you will have a list for the day

In might seem counter intuitive when you have so much on and are overwhelmed but it does help to take time out to do something that energises you and/or meet up with someone who energises you.  Also, the opposite is true; when you’re operating in crisis mode, gently and kindly avoid situations and people who are a drain on your energy until you’re back on track.

As always, prevention is better than cure so take time to write down your observations from this case of Overwhelm and jot down what worked for you and helped you through it and use this information as the start of a crisis plan so that you can be as prepared as possible for the next time you have too many balls to juggle.

Becoming aware of your strengths and weaknesses, your needs and wants and what does and does not energise you will help you when you’re overwhelmed.  You might want to consider working with a coach or attending a coaching workshop to work on your own personal crisis plan and perhaps one for your family so that, when something big happens in your life that you can’t control you have something to refer to or to refer others to to support you in physical, spiritual, mental, emotional and practical ways as you walk through that part of the journey of your life.

I hope you find some of these techniques useful as you juggle the various balls in your life right now.

Fiona Muir is the founder of Fab Life Coaching, part of Fab Communication.  Fiona is a fully accredited coach with over 20 years corporate experience devising and implementing marketing and growth strategies for a wide range of individuals and organisations; from sole traders and starter SME’s to blue chip organisations across all sectors.   Prior to launching Fab Life Coaching and Fab Communication, Fiona’s corporate experience was gained at a variety of levels including: student, executive, manager, director and co-owner of a successful SME.  www.fablifecoaching.co.uk

This blog is one of 45 featured in my ebook  Motivating Business Mums – now available from Brightword publishing.

For hints, tips and a daily inspirational blog post from Motivating Mum please sign up for a Daily Dose of Motivation

by Heather Bestel

I often get asked to explain exactly what a mumpreneur is.  Is she a woman in business?  Is she an entrepreneur who happens to be a mum?

I believe mumpreneurs are a whole breed apart.  We are born out of many needs, wishes, dreams, desires and yearnings:

• The need to earn a living in order to support our family
• The wish to find a flexible solution to our complex needs
• The dream of being creative and expressing our talents
• The desire to be recognised for our skills
• The yearning to have our full potential realised

The answer to all these needs, dreams and wishes creates this wonderful role of being our own boss, owning and running our own business.  Sounds like heaven – but comes at a price because being a mumpreneur is not the easy option.

Being a mumpreneur is a 24/7 serious business.  Just like being a mum – we are never ‘off duty’.  When a child wakes in the night with a pain, we know because we’ve woken seconds before.  We are programmed to be ever watchful whether for a problem with our children or an issue in our business.

Being a mumpreneur is about wearing so many different hats and being able to change them at a moment’s notice.

Being a mumpreneur is a very delicate job of juggling and balancing many things and is about so much more …

It’s about:

• Being brave
• Being creative
• Being focused
• Being determined
• Being passionate
• Being persistent
• Being the best we can be

It’s also about motivating yourself and nurturing yourself at the same time.

To do all this and be all this, we need to take care of ourselves and find time for total self care, so start today by taking just ten minutes to connect with your inner self and tell her she is loved, appreciated, recognised and you are so proud of what she’s achieved.

Then, every day, take a moment to remember how totally amazing you are!

Heather Bestel is a mumpreneur, therapist, lecturer, author and award winning business mentor.  She has a lot of experience through running her own company and as a mentor for others, especially start-up mums.

Mums Got A Business.com was set up to help mumpreneurs grow their business while creating a balanced lifestyle.  It’s full of info, tips and resources from experts on a variety of subjects such as: social media, marketing, finance, productivity, getting on-line and extreme self care.

http://www.MumsGotABusiness.com

This is one of a series of  guest blogs from successful mumpreneurs and coaches that will be published on this site every day during March. Please look at some of the other fabulous posts that we have published over the last few days.

To receive a daily notification of the blog of the day, please sign up for the Mummy Mentoring Month newsletter at Motivating Mum. This newsletter will run three times a week during March and April and will then be discontinued, so you will not receive endless spam.

by Natalie Strong

Being a mum for over seven years now, inevitably the majority of women I meet or hang out with are mothers too – usually bright, bubbly women, who in the pre-nappy years were successful, ambitious career types. The arrival of children generally puts a halt to all that, even if  temporarily – priorities change, demands increase, money gets tighter and it seems that like women all over the nation, half the mums in Greenwich and Blackheath are embracing their inner entrepreneur and setting up their own businesses.

These mumpreneurs, to coin a phrase, are transferring their skills and experience, turning passions into companies, talents into pounds, in a bid to create a flexible working life and ultimately find that elusive life-work balance.  Utopia being doing something they love, not wasting their brains and hard-earned experience, earning just enough cash and most importantly being able to spend as much time as possible with their loved ones.

Well that’s the plan! But inevitably, especially at first, it can sometimes seem like it’s all back-fired!  When you have ‘The Idea’, find something you’re really passionate about and start dreaming of how you will turn it into a business, it holds you hostage and takes over your mind with a heady mix of plans, ideas, excitement, worry and self-doubt. Then when you make the leap and get started, there’s just so much to do: registering the company, deciding on a name, getting insurance, sorting out banking and finance, designing logos, creating a website, marketing, advertising, the list is endless.

Lisa O’Hara, a local freelance sports physiotherapist is currently pushing those life-work scales to the limit by training for the London Marathon in addition to running her own business and caring for her two young boys. “I started my own business to get the best of both worlds – to spend time watching and contributing to my boys growing up. At the same time, I was desperate not to get de-skilled and to maintain a degree of financial independence”.  She continues “in theory it does work and I do feel lucky to wake up and be able to plan my own day (to a degree!) and spend time with my children. However because I work in the evenings, it does dominate the day for me…my mood, the pre-planning in the afternoon, juggling the boys’ teatime with getting ready for work and finding some head space to focus on my clients”.

Once you’ve launched your company, the workload doesn’t let up; in fact if anything, it increases and the line between work and life is difficult to distinguish. You could work 24 hours a day and there’d still be plenty to do.  Beth Bourrelly of Charlton, previously ran her own architectural practice “When I started, I was naive to think that this was the answer and that it would fit perfectly around family life. When a job is live on site, you are needed on hand 24/7 and with 2 young children and a newborn, this became impossible to manage without full-time childcare – always a path I have been loath to take. I very quickly became envious of my old working life as an employee where I could switch from architect to mum. So, in hindsight, the type of business you set up is crucial. An obvious statement but one I had overlooked”.

Whatever type of business you choose, as you fall in love with it, work becomes so enjoyable and exciting, that at times, you want to do nothing else – but you can’t, you have other responsibilities. You really have to stop, step back and keep reminding yourself why it is you set up the business in the first place. Rome wasn’t built in a day and now you are the boss, it’s up to you when the work gets done and how quickly the business expands and progresses.

Beth now runs Red Urchin, selling her own range of beautifully designed children’s t-shirts. “I wanted my new business to fit around the children, not to make the children fit around work. This time, I have found a business that is much more forgiving in terms of flexibility, but one that is just as creative. A sales-led business is one that naturally (unless you are incredibly lucky!) starts slowly and grows with the kids, which is ideal. As the business demands more time, you have more time. There is so much more that can be done with a little one in tow. I have learnt that at this stage in our lives, a good work/life balance is so much more important to everyone in the family”.

Local wonder woman Laura Sydonie of Theatre Tots  agrees. ‘Before I set up Theatre Tots, I was an actress and drama facilitator. I literally travelled the world for work: on stage, TV and in education. I loved it but I didn’t want to continue when I became a mum – I was worried I would miss out.  Now, there’s always something that needs to be done for work – new things to write and things to develop. But what makes it flexible and family-friendly is the CHOICE I have. To a certain extent I can choose what is urgent and choose when we will be busy with extra events. My main aim was to work from home and to be locally based so that I can be there for my boys. It definitely feels like I can choose to do that and have a business I love and am proud of.’

And that’s what it’s all about – the choice and flexibility that running your own business can give, to enable you, maybe not at first, to enjoy the very best of both worlds. And once you get it sussed there’s nothing better.

Natalie Strong is founder of The Wonder Women Network: a web-based network which champions the business wonder women of the boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham in SE London. For more info contact: natalie@thewonderwomennetwork.co.uk or visit www.thewonderwomennetwork.co.uk

This is one of a series of  guest blogs from successful mumpreneurs and coaches that will be published on this site every day during March. Please look at some of the other fabulous posts that we have published over the last few days.

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