Motivating Mum UK

Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of finding suitable childcare? In home, out of home, nanny, au pair, nursery, childminder, granny, or even a hunky ‘manny’?………..the choices seem endless. You wouldn’t be the first to say, having put your head above the parapet, that it all looks far too scary and complicated, and thank you very much, but actually I think I’ll stay at home with the little dears instead.

And when you do pluck up the courage to start looking you are regaled by horror stories from friends and relatives about the nanny that was driving children around whilst drunk or the childminder that kept children strapped into their car seats – aarrgghh, I will stay at home instead, you think. “Great childcare does exist and with it your children will continue to flourish” says Georgina Walsh, author of the book How to Find the Childcare Your Child will Love and founder of NannySuccess.com a coaching and information resource. “I can’t deny that it can take time and effort to find the right solution for you and your family, but once you have that peace of mind that your children are settled and happy with the right childcare can you really get going with the other things you need to do.”

Finding Childcare

So here are Georgina’s 6 top tips to help you find the childcare to suit you:

1. Don’t Panic, Stay Calm! Otherwise you will make a wrong, rushed and desperate decision.  Put non-urgent things aside and, if necessary, find temporary cover.  It will help you keep perspective.

2. Be Honest About What You Need: Making a nanny or au pair job sound more exciting or glamorous than it is, or initially offering a child minder longer hours than you really need, to ensure she takes on your child, will damage the relationship from the beginning. Think about what you really want and be honest about it.

3. Think Differently: If you are working from home, a more economic alternative to an experienced (…and expensive) nanny is an au pair or a newly qualified nanny; you are close to hand to ensure things run smoothly. Using granny one day a week to break up a week at a nursery or childminder can be good for your child and your pocket and enjoyable for granny.

4. Match it to Your Child: Think about what skills you would like a nanny, child minder or nursery worker to have, but also think about the kind of family you are and therefore the type of person or environment that will best suit your child.

5. Ask Specific Questions: Ensure you ask prospective childcarers questions around the qualities you need and the worries or concerns you have, for example, safety, discipline, nutrition.

6.  Always, Always Check References for All Types of Childcare: It is frightening the number of people who don’t!

Making it Work for You

Once you have found your childcare you need to ensure it works for you; if you have in-home childcare you must be clear to your childcarer and children that you need peace in which to work. Constant interruptions will disrupt your concentration, and a squawking toddler in the background does not sound professional when on the phone! Make sure you have a work space where you can close the door and that the children are not always trying to join you at your desk. They may not like it to begin with, but as long as you and your childcarer are firm and consistent they will soon happily accept it – and believe it or not, often forget you are even in the house.

With out-of-home childcare, disruptions at home are obviously less, but do not be tempted to use the quiet time at home to attack the cupboard that needs to be sorted or have an uninterrupted chat to a friend on the phone. You will then fail to achieve your work objectives, be stressed when the children do come home and find yourself catching up with work in the evening – not a great work life balance!

Whether using in-home or out-of-home care you should try to become more aware of how you work, for example, what time of day your ‘prime’ work time is and what makes you procrastinate. Try to increase your productivity and efficiency so that when the hand-over or pick up time comes around you can really focus on your children and enjoy your time with them.

I have three young children and over the last eleven years I have managed nannies, au pairs and housekeepers in my home.  I set up NannySuccess.com as I felt there was a lack of advice about how to find the right person to suit your home and family, and importantly, how to manage them well.

For further details visit the website or contact Georgina on 0288 7789256 or Georgina@nannysuccess.com

If you are thinking about having a portfolio career, the good news is as a mother you probably already have one, and if not you certainly have the skills to do it.

A Portfolio Career is, for me just a fancy way of saying people work on a set of different things to generate their livelihood. Women have been having portfolio careers since the invention of money, through raising a family whilst trading favours/earning additional money in any way possible.  The range of moving parts that mothers have to think of on any one day is huge, and we all have years of experience multi-tasking across different areas.  This makes the concept of managing a portfolio of work as easy as riding a bike.

As your kids grow the way you live your life has to grow too, and sometimes its hard to keep all the balls in the air. Whether you want to scale down to be there a bit more, or scale up because they need you less, thinking about the paid and unpaid work you do in terms of a portfolio can be a really helpful way of getting the right work life balance for you.

It should be pretty easy to divide the main things you do into separate ‘project areas’ or ‘work streams’.   The first of these should always include Managing Home and Developing your Family.   This is really hard work, and although its unpaid, it does generate huge value, and I think its a mistake not include the work you do for ‘Your Family’ Ltd as part of your portfolio.

For example, I look at the first two parts of my portfolio as 1) developing the children and 2) managing home, then I have my paid work, 3) which is my consulting and coaching practice, then my writing 4) which supplements 3, and finally I have my voluntary work, which includes pro-bono coaching, advice and projects like MLB.    Each year I set clear objectives/ financial targets etc against each part of my portfolio, and try to ensure that I stay on track.

All these work streams combine together to form my job.   That way I can spend a couple of hours dealing with the washing, followed by a pro-bono coaching conversation, and still feel that I have done some good work before I pick the children up.  My working day starts at around 7 am, and ends at about 8.30 pm, but in that day I have done a variety of interesting and rewarding things (as well as the dreaded dishwasher and washing).

On a week where I have less paid work, I can focus on my writing, or on networking and marketing, which keeps future income going.  Alternatively I can crack on with re-decorating the living room (rather than paying someone to do it).

If you are interested in changing the balance of work in your portfolio – take a look at How to Have a Portfolio career, or 10 tips for a successful Portfolio Career on the MLB web site.

This guest blog was written by Claire Hope from Mum-Life-Balance.com

Just over 2 years ago I had to give up my corporate career for health reasons, and stay at home. I now have an amazing work life balance with a portfolio career full of things I do for both money and love. Mum-Life-Balance is born out of my experience of spending time with talented women who have great wisdom to share.

So here we are again, the Easter holidays are upon us.  I can’t believe that six weeks have gone by since the last set of holidays – it seems like no  time at all.

For the last week or so we have had unseasonably warm and sunny weather.  I have seen t-shirts, bare legs and sunglasses appear at the school gates.  I’ve even got my toes out in my Fit Flops (don’t worry girls – I did take myself off for a pedicure first!)

The weather is absolutely wonderful, but I won’t be lulled into a false sense of security.  It may feel like summer, and they maybe warning us about a drought, but I’m fairly certain that as soon as I pick the two up at 2pm tomorrow afternoon, the summer and drought will miraculously break and it stands just as much chance of pouring with rain for the next two weeks as being sunny. Read the rest of this entry »

You may be familiar with the concept of the ‘female prerogative’ but while you may have witnessed it or even borne the brunt of it, you may not be fully aware of the phenomenon known as the ‘toddler prerogative’.

If you are a parent, you will recognise the following definition of the toddler prerogative:

I can change my mind about anything, at any time, with no explanation other than- NO! NO! NO!

So what the ‘rules’ were yesterday, forget them because if your toddler is a master of the toddler prerogative, your existence will look a lot like this:

Eating:

• What was consumed with glee and excitement yesterday will be thrown across the room with a ‘Yuck!’ and the screaming demand for something you gave up months ago trying to get them to eat, like macaroni cheese. This will in turn be consumed with delight and relish only to have it’s turn flung across the room tomorrow…
• Using a spoon or fork will become arbitrary… Sometimes food will be picked up with perfect dexterity with a fork and you will be thinking of introducing a knife as they are showing such promise. The next meal, and you are witnessing your toddler pick up and eat baked beans one by one in her fingers. The spoon and fork are on the floor.
• Likes and dislikes… This can be one of the most frustrating things. To have succeeded in getting your child to consume one type of food product, only to see that disappear in a splatter across the floor the next week, when it becomes ‘the evil food’ and something to be avoided at all costs.

Decisions:

• under the influence of the toddler prerogative you will find yourself having conversations like this:

You: what would you like on your toast, sweetie? Jam?

Sweetie: Jam? I don’t like jam.Jam is yukky. Yuk!

You: Ok. Honey?

Sweetie: No, I don’t like honey.

You: Peanut butter?

Sweetie: No, peanut butter is yukky.

You: Ummm, what about jam?

Sweetie: Jam! Wow, yes please! Jam is my FAVOURITE!

Sleeping:

• Even mention the phrase ‘sleeps through the night’ and your toddler will immediately begin having wakeful nights. In no particular pattern and with no obvious reason. What worked one night to get them to sleep through again, will not work for the following three and then on the fourth it will. This pattern will not repeat for a few months until you are at your wits end and they will start sleeping through again, all the time. You will never know why and will live in constant terror of the ‘trigger’ happening again. Whatever it was. It will probably be something different the next time anyway.

Going for a walk:

• You have spent the last week encouraging them outside for a walk. You have cajoled, wheedled, encouraged, and bribed. It is a battle but eventually they go out and you all enjoy yourselves.  You wake up one morning and it is raining. You do not want to go out in the rain for a walk. It is raining HARD. You do not want to go out. Your toddler does.  For the first time in 3 weeks they are asking to go outside for a walk.  You spend the next 23 minutes cajoling, wheedling, encouraging, bribing and convincing them that going for a walk is not a good idea today. It is raining. 11 minutes later, you find yourself outside walking in the rain.   Your toddler starts crying- they don’t want to walk in the rain.

Playing:

• You are organising a play date. Last week your toddler played with Max really well and yesterday was asking for Max to come over. You call Max’s mother, and arrange a play date for later that morning. You excitedly tell your toddler that Max is coming over. Your toddler announces they don’t like Max.

I could continue with an ABUNDANCE of examples and I’m sure you can think of plenty yourselves. What the toddler prerogative examples are showing us is that we can never win and it is useless trying to. And by ‘win’, I mean: what is going on and have any control over.

It is a case of just ‘rolling with the punches’, having a wry smile to ourselves and breathing deeply. Frustration is just wasted energy, along with anger.  Toddlers do not know what they are doing is driving you insane- they are exploring their world and developing their unique understanding of it. They processing all they are learning and trying make some sort of sense of it.  There is bound to be some element of confusion surrounding that process.

Be patient.

Smile.

Share your stories with other parents of toddlers so you know you are not the only one with a contrary monster living in your house.

Kirsten Sheat runs a successful coaching practice, Aspiring Change, in the Cotswolds.
She trained as a Primary School teacher in New Zealand where she grew up in the countryside with her busy, loving family. After her training and newly qualified teaching jobs, Kirsten’s travel bug got the better of her and she ended up where lots of New Zealanders end up – buying a one way ticket to see the world. England offered her an opportunity to settle down and her 10 year relationship with the British Education system commenced.

You can follow Kirsten on Twitter or join her on Facebook

I spent three years thinking about my business.

It’s an online one, so I tried learning HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL and all the other horrible acronyms that techy geeks treat as if they are the holy grail. But they just seemed like a random collection of letters to me….

All that happened was my head exploded, I spent a lot of money on Amazon (well someone benefited) and I still didn’t have my business.

Then, I gave up work to look after my little boy and girl.

I lasted three months as a stay at home mum; and launched my printable reward charts business. It was an accident; I just though, hey, I’ll explore how much it costs, and before I knew it, I was doing it. And despite all the hurdles, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

And do you know why? Lots of reasons – eight to be precise.  Hopefully, some of you who also have a sneaky idea in your head may just try your ideas out now too. It’s worth it – honest.

1. Regret – it’s always a shame when you look back on life and say, “if only.”  So give your idea a chance, and if it doesn’t work, you can always say you tried it, can’t you?
2. Learning new skills – my god, I haven’t learned so much since I was at school! And you can bet that you will be learning as much as I did.  You have to do it all as a small business, and that’s great. You will become a seriously active learner again.
3. Finding new talents – in learning all the new stuff, you find new things that you are actually quite good at.  I have discovered a talent for social media, and for writing. I’m not an expert by any means, but good enough to impress, and good enough to be proud of what I do.  And I am sure you will find something like this too.
4. Meeting new (and wonderful) people; there are so many other entrepreneurs out there.  And networking is a joy.  Everyone feels like you when you take your first tentative steps into the networking jungle…so don’t be nervous – just remember we are all bricking it!  And once you have got over that fear, there are some lovely people out there that want to help and guide you.
5. Discovering social media – What is Twitter? What’s the point of Facebook? Why bother with LinkedIn?  All the questions that we ask before we dive into social media.  I wouldn’t be without the support network and the followers I have on these media now.  They help to answer my questions, and I hope to answer some of theirs too.
6.  Being able to help others – businesses are often about helping others, whether it’s my business that helps parents with tough challenges, or a cake business that helps people’s celebrations go with a bang, or someone who helps another organisation get their name known in the press.  And there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that your efforts have helped an individual or a business to succeed.
7. Involving my children in what I do -  my business is child-related, so I involve my kids. However, it’s not just my kind of business where you can involve your children. Talking to them about what you do, and why you do it is really important. And if your idea means you work from home, then you will get many more opportunities to do so. Even if it’s just asking them whether they prefer this design to the eBook cover or that one! My daughter and son actually helped choose my logo. This involvement can do wonders for your child’s self esteem (and your mummy guilt…!)
8. Building confidence – having your own business is a massive confidence boost. So if you are a naturally shy person, you will find yourself doing things for your business that you would never do for yourself – like selling to strangers.  If the business doesn’t succeed, how you deal with that can shape you as well.Lessons learned from failure are some of the most valuable lessons we can get.

What about you other mums and dads out there who finally went with that idea?  What were your final motivations?  How has it been? Have you any encouraging words for our would-be entrepreneurs?

Helen Neale regularly blogs for her printable reward charts business KiddyCharts. She always has a thing or two to say about being a working mum, a small business owner and a social media geek.

She writes regularly for LoveAllBlogs Weekly Business Showcase as well. Her full website is due to launch in May 2012, and in the meantime her charts are currently selling (she hopes) on eBay.

You can follow Helen on Twitter or join her on Facebook

This week I had an interview for a job. Although I haven’t been actively looking for a permanent job, I have been feeling a tad lonely working at home, and was thinking it would be nice to have some new work friends, a reason to wash my hair every day, and someone else to make my coffee now and again. So when this opportunity came along, and I was asked if I would be interested in applying, I thought I should go for it.

I’ve always enjoyed job interviews, with much the same perverse pleasure that I get from exams. At heart I am a over-competitive, under-confident exhibitionist. It sounds like an odd combination, but it isn’t really – I love being marked, being praised, and I strive to do well so that people will tell me how clever I am.

What fits slightly less well with this picture is the rather cocky, informal persona I often find myself adopting in these situations, the kind where you are supposed to make a good impression, like interviews and first dates. Perhaps it is a defence mechanism – a detached but challenging front put up to hide a fear of failure. Or maybe it is just my strong attention seeking streak – ‘Look at me! Look at how charming/borderline inappropriate I am!’

Just in case my potential future employers read this though… let’s just put it down to nerves…

Overall, it would be fair to say that I gave a true reflection of my personality. Whether of not it was a good one we will only know tomorrow when they have made their decision. The way I look at it though, these are people I would have to spend a large chunk of my working week with, so it’s only fair they know what they are letting themselves in for.

Throughout the interview I cracked a string of bad jokes and waffled terribly, much like I do when I have to leave a message on an answer phone – ‘so, um… yes, that was all really, give me a call back if you have time, or whatever… hope you’re well… I should probably stop now… by-eee!’

Here are a couple of questions I think I answered particularly well:

Director of Fundraising: So, can you tell us why you decided to apply for the job?

Me: Well, I’ve been working at home for a while now, and I really miss getting dressed up to come into an office…

Senior Trust Fundraiser: Can you tell me what you would expect from me as your line manager?

Me: [looks thoughtful] Treats?

I can only assume that this level of childishness must mean that subconsciously, I really want the job. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the highly competent yet decidedly immature combination is just what they are looking for.

I’m Jo and I am a single, work-at-home mother to two gorgeous, spirited girls. Bee is 16 and Belle is nine. Bee was born when I was 17, and by 19 I was a single parent for the first time. I became a single mum for the second time in 2008. It is hard work, harder now than at 19, but I manage to juggle family, work and home commitments by pretending I don’t notice how dirty the house is. I am also a freelance journalist, specialising in parenting, breastfeeding and issues affecting women. I am available for any kind of work involving research, features, comment and commercial copywriting. I am basically a word whore. You can find my blog here.

A few months ago I posted on behalf of Regis Salons, introducing Emma Willis as the new face of Regis salons and announcing a great competition.

Not only did Regis run a competition for the public to enter, but they ran a competition for bloggers too, and I was one of the lucky winners.  The prize was a trip to the flagship Regis salon in Debenhams on Oxford Street, a hair consultation, cut and colour by Regis Creative Director Guy Cammarano , a pedicure and a lovely lunch at the Cumberland hotel.

During this day I was joined by the very lovely Emma Willis herself, and also by three lovely bloggers, Pippa from A Mothers Ramblings, Jules from Curtains for the Window and Becca from Fashion Train. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting a business can be a daunting thing to do.  There are so many challenges to face.  There are so many things you just have to get right, if you’re going to succeed.

Of course, there’s lots of good advice out there.  The trouble is that some of it is conflicting, and an awful lot of it just isn’t written for mums who have limited time to spend on their business venture and lots of other commitments that sometimes just have to take precedence over business activities.

If you’re thinking about starting a business, or on the verge of starting your business, don’t worry.  You don’t need to give your life over to your business in order to succeed.  You just need to work sensibly.

Ten Tips For Mums

Here are ten tips to help you to ensure that you really give yourself the best chance of succeeding in your new business venture.Work out how much time you have to spend on your business each week. Be realistic about what you can achieve in that time. Accept that you will progress more slowly if you have eight hours each week than if you have twenty hours.

1. Allocate your time wisely.  Decide which are your best working times in the day.  Do your planning and your strategic thinking at those times.  Use the time when you’re likely to be interrupted frequently for tasks you can pick up and put down easily.
2. Structure your month.  Give each week of the month a different focus as far as business development is concerned.  For example, pay attention to developments in your marketplace in week one.  Think about how to build better customer relationships in week two.  Concentrate on marketing and promotion in week three of the month.  In week four improve your sales process.
3. Come and live in the real world.  Forget the power businesswoman who attends four breakfast meetings a week, writes superb articles for her blog or website every day, manages every client interaction superbly and never gets ill.  The other 99% of the population have to fit their business engagements around everything else they have to do – just like you.
4. It’s important to know what you’re aiming at, so set yourself some goals.  How much money do you want to make?  How many customers are you trying to get?  How many sales do you think you can make this year?   Write those goals down.  Then work out how you’re going to achieve them.
5. Make sure you have something to sell.  Sell a development programme, a book, a treatment – a something.  Don’t sell your time. People buy solutions to problems not little slices of you packaged in hours or days.
6. Get out more!  Build alliances with other businesses.  Do this online and offline.  You’re not an island and you’re not going to succeed alone.  Accept that you need to work with others.
7. Use social media wisely.  If you find you’re spending hours on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and the rest, just remind yourself that you’re engaging with others on these platforms to build your business.   Work out what the return on your investment in social media is.  If you’re not happy, then reallocate some of your precious time elsewhere.
8. If you have a bad day, be kind to yourself.  Bad days happen.  If you have several bad days on the run, talk to other people in your network.  Share your concerns and get a different perspective on things.  Life will look better, if you do.
9. Keep going.  You were probably too ambitious when you made your original plans.  Check that you’re moving in the right direction.  Then just keep going.  You’ll get there.

Follow the advice here and you’ll find that these ten tips will help to keep you and your business on the right track.

Your Turn
Have I missed something that’s really important?   Is there a piece of advice you would like to add to the list?  Which of the above tips do you think really matter when you’re starting out in business?  Leave a comment and share your views.

Margaret Adams helps women entrepreneurs to turn their dreams of running a successful business into reality.  She is the author or The Solo Success Start-Up Guide, an e-guide written especially for people starting out on their own in business.

Find out more about her work at  www.margaretadams.co.uk and www.solosuccess.co.uk

I’m taking a short break from Mummy Mentoring Month to host the Totally Money.com blog carnival for this week.

Anybody who is visiting my site for the first time, please do check out the Mummy Mentoring Month page, as we have a huge charity auction of coaching and mentoring services, with a few other lots thrown in for good measure (holiday in the Cotswolds anyone?).  Bids welcome until 31st March and all money to charity. On this blog I have also had guest posts from different businessmums all throughout March so please do take a look around and have a good read. Read the rest of this entry »

There are five ways or “levers” you can work on to grow your business. By regularly working on your business and not just in your business you will be able to “pull” these levers to achieve year on year growth. These five levers are leads, conversion rate, transaction value, number of transactions and your margin. To understand the things you can do to improve your performance in each area to achieve the business you want..

Leads

• Define who your best customers are and clearly define their characteristics
• Work out how many leads you need to meet your turnover target
• Talk to your best customers

  What do they like about you
  What else could you offer them
  Do they know other business owners who would require your services

• Do some marketing every day

  This does not have to take a lot of time
  There are many cost effective ways e.g. social media
  Do not rely on one or two tactics, use 8-10

• Review what is effective and do more of it

• STOP doing anything that does not work

Sales

• Have a sales pipeline that you regularly review
• Consider what it would take to move prospects to the next stage
• Understand where your clients are in the buying process
• As well as looking to get new business, you need to ensure that you also look after existing clients and see what further/future services they require.
• Remember that existing clients will have a shorter buying cycle as they have already bought from you.

Transaction value

• Work out the average £ spend per client
• Consider how you might differentiate your services to reflect the needs of different clients/target markets
• Some clients will be very happy with a premium service and the additional cost that incurs
• Other clients will only require a basic service but should understand that for instance call out times might be greater.

Number of transactions per year

• Are there other services that you could offer to your clients – not only will this increase their spend but it will fulfil their needs e.g. an accountant offering a half yearly review.
• Do you regularly keep in contact with your clients? You need to regularly remind them that you are there and that you care about them.
• Are your clients aware of everything that you offer?

Margins

• Regularly review the costs in your business – are there areas where you could make savings?
• Look at your pricing – make sure that you are charging correctly for
  Your services
  The time you spend delivering your product or service

• Could you outsource some tasks e.g. bookkeeping or admin which would allow you to spend more time generating business
• Are you making best use of technology?

Mary is the Managing Director of the Business Fit Club with responsibility for the operational delivery and financial management. Outside of work Mary spends her free time walking, running, going to the gym, reading and cooking, the first of which she shares with John Basinger her husband, the latter which he enjoys. She also loves to socialise and spend time with her adult son and daughter and their partners, as well as friends.

You can contact Mary by email mary.carter@businessfitclub.co.uk or telephone 0800 731 7022

As someone who always advocates celebrating successes, this is going to sound weird.

Being in business isn’t all about the successes.

It’s not all about the highlights, the celebrations, the ideas that go viral, the launches that sell out, the results that go way beyond your wildest dreams.

We think it is, it’s what we hear about, it’s what we cite in great examples, role models and industry leaders.

Often when people ask me “how’s business?” I feel this pressure to reel off the highlights – achievements, successes and what’s gone right, whilst brushing under the table what’s flopped, what looks crazy and what I’m still trying to get working.

And if I say I’m busy, people think, ‘that’s great, you’re busy with clients’. But what if I’m not? What if I’m busy getting clients – isn’t that just as important, or even more important?

I recently sent this out on Twitter and judging by the amount of times it was re-tweeted, I think it really resonated with a lot of people:

“One reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with other people’s highlight reel”

That quote came from Steven Furtick, a speaker I was particularly encouraged by recently at leadership conference, in a talk he gave about digging ditches.

He talked about a biblical story where the kings of Edom, Israel and Judah were leading a campaign to overcome the Moabites, and found themselves in a dry and barren land where they could not water their armies. The prophet Elisha gives them a message to ‘dig ditches’, even though no clouds could be seen, that the rain would come and fill the land. They dug. Rain came. But the digging wasn’t to bring on the rain – God could send the water regardless – it was preparation, so that everything was in place ready for when the rain came.

Sometimes we find ourselves in dry and barren times, when it is hard work and there’s no sign of rain. Those are the times when we question our vision, when we’re tempted to give up and start looking elsewhere, where the grass is at least growing, let alone greener.

But sometimes that’s precisely when we need to dig ditches.

Digging ditches means believing enough in a vision to act on it, even when there are no signs of certainty or success. In fact the difference between a forecast and a vision is that a forecast is limited to what you can see immediately in front of you, whereas a vision goes beyond the horizon, where nothing is certain and anything is possible.

Not that a forecast gives certainty either – it just feels safer to react to a forecast than to act towards a vision that (at the moment) can only be seen in your heart.

It’s having audacious faith. As Furtick put it “the difference between a vision and a daydream is the audacity to act and faith to get started”.

Are you acting on a vision, or just simply following the forecast?

Digging ditches means you put in the hard work now, to be ready for the opportunities that are yet to come, rather than waiting for a sign or chasing rainbows.

And it goes beyond that first moment of inspiration, which can sometimes seem fleeting or ungrounded. It’s the act of putting your stake (or shovel) in the ground and saying I’m going to see this happen. I’m going to work towards this vision. I don’t know how it’s going to pan out, but I’m going to invest myself and prepare for it nonetheless.

Digging ditches doesn’t look successful. It can seem pointless, even laughable, especially when you see no sign of rain. Sometimes what we’re working on doesn’t look successful or fruitful. There’s nothing glamourous about digging ditches. Sometimes it looks like dry and hard work. But it’s precisely this work that prepares you, stretches you and grows your capacity to take on, harness and run with the opportunities when they arise, to reap the blessings when the rain comes. Remember Noah? He looked ridiculous building an ark… until the rain came, then it made sense. Only with hindsight does digging become obvious.

Digging ditches means your focus is on your behind-the-scenes efforts, rather than staring longingly at other people’s highlight reels.

That’s what I mean when I say being in business is not all about the successes.

It’s about the work we put in, before it looks successful, before we see any signs of certainty. It’s about what we do behind the scenes that enable anything to happen out front.

That’s what real business is about. Digging ditches.

So next time you ask me how it’s all going, and I tell you I’m digging ditches, this is what I mean – it’s all good

Grace Marshall is a mum of two children and a coaching business where she helps busy entrepreneurs make the most of their time and talent.

Get her free report “Yes You Can! Top Ten Ways to Grow a Successful Business without Compromising Your Family”
at http://grace-marshall.co/yesyoucan. You can follow her on Twitter @GraceMarshall and Facebook.

I’ve been thinking about ideas how to combine my family life and work for quite a while. I knew I wouldn’t go back to my old job, working maniac five days a week and not seeing the kids most of the day.  Additionally, it is usually my turn to stay at home when the kids get sick or during term breaks. A part time job didn’t seem to be an option either as my previous job required to be present full time. So I was thinking about being self-employed and had a few ideas spinning in my head already.

One afternoon, during a play date, a friend of mine asked me where I got my aluminium drinking bottle from (an unhealthy old one as I would find out later). I told her I got it from somewhere in Germany but was sure they would be sold in the UK as well. When she replied that her son hates the plastic water bottle he always took to school, I immediately had an idea. I thought I would purchase healthy bottles for schools in the area as my friend’s school was not the only one to provide plastic bottles only. And if her son hated the bottle, I was sure a lot of other kids would too. That’s when I started researching and found out all about BPA in plastic and how it can harm you and your kids’ body. I realised that I fed all my three kids out of non BPA free baby bottles. I just didn’t know about BPA at the time. I also did heat their milk in the microwave, meaning I did everything wrong and can just hope it didn’t harm them too much. That’s how my journey started.

I was always striving to find healthy, natural products for the whole family but now I realised my household was full of plastic and unhealthy products. I started throwing everything away which was not marked as BPA-free and suddenly questioned everything. Which lunchbox can I still use? Which are the healthier options for drinking bottles compared to plastic and aluminium? Where shall I put my leftovers in? Which alternatives do I have to avoid tins and cans? Which chemicals are in my shampoo and which washing detergent is safe? Questions over questions…

Eventually an enquiry came along from one of the healthy stainless steel suppliers from the US (whom I asked for prices for bigger amounts) whether I wanted to become their UK distributor. After doing some calculations I decided to go for it and became UK distributor for Green Bottle – eco-friendly and BPA free water bottles made out of stainless steel.

I feel very balanced since starting my own business 1.5 years ago. It is something I am doing for myself, not the kids, not the husband just for me. It feels great but of course it is sometimes a challenge switching between work and family.

The other day my daughter couldn’t go to nursery because she’s been sick. I was supposed to have a work meeting though. I thought of cancelling it but we agreed I would just bring her with me. Luckily it went well as she was sitting nicely and not interrupting me a lot. But kids are so different it wouldn’t have worked with my boys at all. My business bag was a great mixture between work stuff and nappies plus food and toys to keep her happy. I’ve been proud I could go to that meeting as it was important for me and I’ve been proud of my daughter too.

You see, you can combine work & family and feeling balanced at the same time.

Daniela Schaffrik is Founder and Director of A Fine Choice Limited.

Please have a look at my blog where I share lots of experience I made as a Mumpreneur.

You can follow us on Twitter or join us at Facebook.

Telephone +44 (0)7904 959 574

If you’re like most time pressed Mumpreneurs, you probably find that much of your time and focus is spent juggling day-to-day administrative and office management tasks (and your childrens’ social diary) rather than on actually growing your business.

Planning your day efficiently can really give you hours back, increase your productivity and help you leverage your time more effectively.

Here are my top 5 time management tips for time starved Mumpreneurs:

1. Set goals. Set yourself achievable daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals for your business and family life and stick to them. If they seem overwhelming break them down into manageable chunks and tackle them one step at a time.

2. Plan your day in advance. In the evening or the first 10 minutes of your current working day, plan your ‘to do’ list so that you can start your day with focus.  Batch similar tasks to be worked on together and add times to them so that you know precisely when you will work on them.

3. Use your calendar effectively. Block out time to work on specific projects and stick to these times. Schedule everything from phone calls to meetings to picking the kids up from school.  Never agree to calls or meetings with no clear agenda or end time.

4. Switch your phone to voicemail or divert it to your call minding service and use that time solely to clear the items out of your to-do pile.

5. Manage your email inbox effectively. Aim to clear your inbox. Once you have deleted unwanted mails either action or file the remainder immediately - you will find that your inbox is much less of an interruption and source of stress. If you regularly receive a lot of emails then allocate a couple of set times in the day to go through and action items.

Julia Burman specialises in providing virtual business support, lifestyle management and coaching for mums in business.

For more information you can contact Julia directly at julia@juliaburman.com or visit www.juliaburman.com

You can also follow her on Twitter and join her at Facebook

I started Better Birthing as it grew from a passion of mine for childbirth and being able to assist and empower women with their birth choices. I never dreamt that I could actually make a living out of something that I love. My reasons were more that I had the passion, saw the need and started off offering free assistance and then moved to my own practice/business.

So it all started from a passion and a dream and now I am able to do something that I really love and believe in.

I am not in any way saying that in doing something that you love you won’t have any challenges. Challenges that I have experienced have been:

• Getting your name out there- advertising can be so expensive so I have had to be creative and try other avenues to get my name and services out there. It’s actually amazing what you can do for very little money if you network with the right people and use excellent tools such as Facebook and Twitter and now Pinterest (which I am still getting to grips with). 
• Ideas –If you’re like me, I found I wanted to run before I could even crawl with my business and I found that I had tons of ideas and thoughts flooding to me I did not know where to start. While this can be good, it is also frustrating. My advice is to put it down on paper, even if you can’t manage a proper formal business plan just got with what is it that you want to achieve, why, and how. I have even used mind mapping for my ideas and its amazing how carried away you can get but its wonderful. Don’t let go of your dreams and ideas, while initially it may feel like all you are doing is boring small ‘stuff’, think of that as the foundation for a strong healthy business. Don’t let anyone tell you what you are doing is not important it all is, a ship that is not built proper will fall, so take time in those early days to enjoy setting things up. 
• Time – A huge issue for me and anyone with children but it is manageable. Plan your day, plan your week and plan in specific work time. Find a place in your home and set aside certain times where you are at work! Just because you are at home it does not mean you’re not serious. However set boundaries and make sure that you have time for your children, yourself and your partner. I think that there is a danger of the work taking over, especially if you working from home.

Finally to believe in yourself and to believe in what you do and have fun doing it, the sky really is the limit!

A mother of 2 with a passion for birth and pregnancy, and a desire to empower women to make informed choices. Claire qualified as a doula in 2007 and ran her own doula practice for 2 years before moving back home to the UK.

For more information, queries or even booking please contact me on claire@betterbirthing.org.uk

telephone +44 (0) 7720 957 780

You can follow Claire on Twitter

The whole ‘work at home’ concept is a godsend for many parents.

Take one day last week for instance.

I went to wake my daughter up at about 7.45am, and was greeted by a less than enthusiastic response. “I feel sick,” she groaned, in her usual dramatic style.

“Well, you do say that every single morning, so I think you’re probably alright,” I replied.

“But this is different from just-woken-up feeling sick. Honestly!” she added, sensing my scepticism.

She did look a bit peaky to be fair, and her sister hadn’t been feeling well the day before, so I decided to keep her at home. She did go back to sleep for quite a long time, which isn’t like her, but after a couple of hours of enforced bed rest was recovered enough for me to drop her in late morning. If I hadn’t been working at home today I wouldn’t have had the option to do any of that.

You know all that though. Here’s my question…

When you’re a work at home parent, how much work is it ok to do when your children are actually at home?

I regularly spend an hour or two after school each day working upstairs, and it does make me feel guilty. I’m getting lots done, I’m enjoying quietly working whilst listening to Radio 4 and they are 9 and 16 years old now, but is this ok?

Is it alright for me to leave the girls downstairs playing Mario Kart while I work, or does it completely negate the whole point of flexible working, which is meant to enable me to have more ‘quality time’ with my children?

To be honest, I’ve always been dubious about the term ‘quality time’, implying as it does the presence of craft materials or cookery books. Whose idea of a quality way to spend time is that?

So am I being a bad mummy, tucked away in my cosy study, or is it just an inevitable part of single parenting, and of trying to provide a standard of living slightly above super noodles for every meal and electricity just on special occasions?

A post on behalf of VUPbaby about the dilemmas of being a work at home parent…

This guest blog was written by VUPbaby – stockists of Very Useful Products for babies and children that are all totally BPA free. You can find them at www.vupbaby.co.uk

We are very lucky to live very close to Legoland in Windsor, and took advantage of an annual pass, visiting it to death for a good couple of years.  The whole LEGOLAND concept is such a great idea, combining reasonably tame rides, with plenty of fun play things to do.  An ideal first theme park experience, for children of all ages (including husbands….!)

A light-hearted guest post from Cuddledry, as a reminder of why your business should be fun as well as hard work!!

Would you rather have a child or a horse?

It’s a very good question, and a prime example of the kind of high-brow discussions that go on at a Cuddledry team meeting.

“I’d definitely rather have a kid,” declared Helen, Cuddledry Director, mum of three, and all round savvy businesswoman, “horses have got more legs.”

The conversation stopped, and we all turned to look at her.

“What?” she said, looking at us blankly as though it was a completely obvious point to make. “Seriously, have you seen the price of Clarkes shoes lately?”

We pointed out that as she has three children, she actually has a total of six legs – more than your standard horse – but she remained unconvinced. The conservation swiftly moved on to something far more serious.

“OK then,” said Helen, “so if you were a burglar, which animal would you be most scared of?”

“A tiger,” I said immediately. I think if I climbed through a window in search of an Xbox and found a tiger I’d be pretty scared.

“No,” said Sarah, “not a tiger. What about an elephant? But hang on, and elephant would be too big wouldn’t it? It would just be there wedged in the hallway. That wouldn’t be very scary.”

“I don’t think an elephant,” said Paula, the woman in charge of managing our finances, “I think I’d be more scared of something like a goose.”

A goose?

I mean everyone knows a swan can break a man’s arm, but surely you’d stand a better chance against a goose than a wild jungle beast? Efficient businesspeople that we are, we tackled the issue head on, and made a snappy yet democratic decision - a quick poll put the elephant in third place, the tiger in second, and the goose on top.

Good to know those business skills come in so handy isn’t it?

This blog was written by Jo Middleton, Marketing Manager for Cuddledry
creators of the award-winning baby apron towel. www.cuddeldry.com

Everyone talks about networking and its importance. I just thought I would share something very interesting with all the ladies on this brilliant website to make it fun. The business benefits of networking are generally seen as:

- Generating strategic alliances = reduced acquisition cost;

- Collaborating on marketing efforts = reduced marketing cost;

- Building an irresistible company brand = marketing & acquisition cost reduction

- Being known as the “go-to” person or company for your specialism. That is Branding.

Networking isn’t just a matter of turning up at networking events or joining groups, whether online or offline. You won’t consistently win new clients by hoovering up business cards, turning them into connections and keeping in touch. By far, the greatest challenge in networking is that most active networkers desire the same thing: new clients.  When everyone is trying to sell, how are you going to persuade them to stop selling themselves, and start introducing you instead? If can take a while to get it right – just like other forms of marketing.

When you are networking you will meet a lot of men and women. However, very few of them are going to be your MAN. Your MAN, whether male or female, has the Money, Authority and Need for your product or service. A lot of networkers try to turn people they meet into their ‘MAN’.

So, ladies, look for your ‘MAN’:-)

Yuliana is an experienced mentor, business coach and trainer with extensive experience in developing and delivering enterprise education programmes and activities. She has worked with, coached and mentored many enterprise owners. She has a wide portfolio of businesses she has supported from a pre start-up stage.

Yuliana has particular expertise in setting up social enterprises. Yuliana is a co-founder of Phase 1 Enterprise Training Ltd. Phase 1 Enterprise Training has recently launched Enterprising Mums courses (baby friendly courses for mums). For more details or to apply, please email info@phase1training.co.uk. Yuliana can also be contacted on 07912 261 110.

We have got to the time when we are thinking of booking a holiday.  Now that the children are a bit older, we are giving careful consideration to where we might go. While of course,  left to their own devices they might still choose beaches, holiday resorts and theme parks, I don’t see why we couldn’t start to introduce the odd shorter city break in here or there, too add in a bit of history and culture to the agenda.

I had never really considered owning my own business. It is funny how life opens doors when you are least expecting them. The question is, are you brave enough to go through them?

My journey to business owner was accidental, you might say. I was a Primary school teacher for ten years before the birth of my third baby. I made the decision not to go back into teaching, but in all honesty, didn’t really know what I was going to do. I was given a Beauty Treatments voucher when I left teaching and whilst I was enjoying a Pedicure, I had a light bulb moment. I had trained as a beautician in the evenings many years ago, more for pleasure really, but had never done anything with the qualification.

I went home and asked my Husband what he thought about me setting up a beautician business from home. He was very supportive and encouraged me to go for it. Within two months I was up and running, mainly carrying out treatments for friends. Someone asked me if I would consider carrying out a Pamper Party for her daughter. It seemed like a fun idea, so I came up with my first party concept.

Although apprehensive beforehand, I felt an excitement rise in me whilst carrying out the party. I had found my ideal job, combining both my skills as a teacher and beautician. I knew then that I wanted to pursue the party business idea, and ‘Pamper Parties Oxfordshire’ was born.

I knew next to nothing about running a business and didn’t really know where to begin. I started making a list and gradually went through it. I confess to not having a grand business plan. I just took baby steps and followed the path that naturally opened up to me. I had little money to ‘play with’ so I tried to do as much as I could myself. With three children, I was working in the evenings on marketing ideas, going to local school events and generally working on getting my business known. I set up a Facebook page, and utilized its potential by offering competitions, with more ‘entries’ offered if the page was shared. I downloaded graphic design software and designed my logo. I needed a website, but couldn’t afford to pay a company to do one, so I spent hours making one, and learning about SEO.

Within a year, I have carried out over 110 parties, offer four different party options and have set up another company ‘Princess Parties Oxfordshire’ for younger girls. I absolutely love running my own business. Before, work felt a little like renting as opposed to having a mortgage. Now, the effort I put in is for my benefit. The targets to be met are my own targets.

I am not anyone special. I do not have any snazzy business qualifications. I still snigger to myself when I think of myself as a ‘Business Owner’. I am just a Mum who was brave enough to go through doors when they opened. Someone once said they would love to have as business but didn’t know what they could do. I told them to think about what they really like doing, what gives them that thrill inside, makes them happy. Then build a business idea around that. If you enjoy your work, you never actually feel like you are working.

So what is your passion? What do you enjoy doing? Is there a baby step today you can take to create a business from that? Go on, be brave. Walk through those doors…

Karen Paine is a Mum of three, a qualified teacher and beautician, and a keen Blogger. She owns Pamper Parties Oxfordshire which provides fun, interactive parties for girls aged 6-15. She also owns Princess Parties Oxfordshire, providing the Ultimate Princess experience for girls aged 4-6.

Her blog can be found at www.bizzymumsblog.co.uk and you can join her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @Pamper_Oxon