Name of Business: Tourdust

Tell us about your family:

I live with my husband Ben and our 2 daughters Alex & Emily in a rural village in SE England.  Alex is 3 1/2, Emily is nearly 2 and we have a new baby.  We run the business from our spare bedroom and split the work and the childcare 50/50 between us.

What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition?

I worked part time for a social media consultancy, Ben worked for American Express. We have always been passionate about travelling and especially about authentic travel experiences and have done quite a bit of travel ourselves.  From a lifestyle point of view, we were getting to the stage where Ben wanted to have more time to the children and I wanted to work more and we had a dream of sitting down  to lunch together as a family every day.

The transition was stressful, because for 6 months before we started we were both doing our days jobs + the children + the business! Once we both stopped our employment, it became a lot easier.

 When did you launch?

 Our public beta launch was the 9th January. Tourdust is all about discovering authentic travel experiences from passionate locals.  We want to become the leading global community site for the long tail of travel, to create this fantastic resource so that any independent traveller, wherever in the world they’re headed, can come to Tourdust and find a couple of awesome local gems that will be the highlight of their trip.  Think photo workshops with a professional photographer in beautiful Umbria, stunning eco tree-houses in private pristine forest in South Africa or birding and bushcraft on the Isle of Mull with Jeremy and his Landrover.  Whilst there is plenty of competition out there, no-one else is anywhere close to achieving this.

How did you get started?

Working every evening, weekend and when the kids had their after lunch sleeps!  We are privately funded, so once we had raised the funds, we briefed agencies and then the site build started in June.

What research did you do before launching?

We did a lot of research, we started planning in June 2007 and this involved researching the industry, sending out survey to family and friends and also approaching people in the trade for their opinions.

How have you funded the business?

We are privately funded.

How do you promote your business? What has worked best?

We are just starting that now.  We have been to a lot of networking events and have been spreading the word through family, friends and our contact lists. 

What has worked well about your business?

I love being my own boss and not having layers of management politics for every decision

What has been your biggest challenge so far? How have you dealt with it?

Being pregnant , with 2 young children and starting a new business all at the same time has meant that life has been very busy.  Working closely with Ben has meant that I have got to know him in a whole new light on a business level. However, romantic evenings in (or out) are very few and far between.  We have yet to get this balance right to be honest.

How do you fit in work with the family?

It is a constant juggling act! We wanted to restrict the childcare that we used for our girls, so they go to nursery 3 mornings a week and my Mum has them one day. The rest of the time with the children we divide up between us. We also keep one day a week which we all spend together.

What advice would you give to someone else wanting to work in this area?

Be prepared to work hard and also have patience!

If you have a flexible working business opportunity, please explain briefly what you offer and how people find out more.

At the moment, we are too small to be recruiting, although I will be on the look out for help during my maternity leave. 

Your website link: http://tourdust.com