Mumpreneur Profile: Anne, Independent Usborne Representative
Tell us about your family: I live in Surrey with my Husband and 7 month old son CJ.
I went from working 60 hours plus a week as an assistant manager of a late night bar, head strong and career minded, to becoming a stay at home Mummy. I can’t say at first I didn’t enjoy it because I did, it was good to slow down for once, even though a new baby is a challenge in itself! But after around 4 months I started to get the itch to do….well SOMETHING!
The career woman in me wanted a business of my own, but the plan of owning my own bar like I’d wanted in the past seemed too demanding and unfair now I had a child and the Mummy in me wanted to raise my child myself not missing anything but what job would let me do that?
I started to search the internet for home based jobs, a task that was pretty hard to be honest. There are so many scams out there and its hard to find the real ones! I saw so many quotes, “I earn £500 a day working from home!” but I’ve never met these people, probably because they are at home all day earning money! I tried a few of them out, online surveys seemed an easy job, but having paid money to get membership, I rarely got any surveys given to me and most of the time the reward wasn’t money but vouchers from unknown shops or Ipoints – great for feeding the family of course! I did also try focus groups and was very happy to earn £70 at my first one for only 1 hour discussing my views, however I soon found out you can’t do another focus group until several months had passed so again it was a waste of time.
Then a friend recommended Usborne Books at Home. She explained it would be my own business working my own hours, based at home so I can look after my son but Usborne would be there to support and help throughout. So after a little research i took the plunge and did it! I now sell Usborne books to parents, school and organisations and have my own website.
When did you launch? I joined Usborne Books At Home end of January this year. Straight away my recruiter and team leader were in contact to give me ideas and support, which really gave me a boost so I started making contacts and networking immediately. I actually made my first sale of over £100 before i even had my kit delivered!
Some may say I cheated, paying a little bit of money for a starter kit. Having an organiser’s website where we can find selling tools, ideas and support isn’t setting up on your own I guess but to me it’s just like a ready made business. You still have to put in the hard work, if you don’t work you don’t get the pay, you still have to sort out accounts, sales, networking etc… and it is my own business but the start up was made easy for me.
If i had done this myself, it would of taken a lot longer to set up and a lot longer to start earning, especially since I have a young baby to look after too, but I dont feel like I deserve the success any less because my business was set up this way. In fact I would recommend it to others who want their own business but deel starting from scratch could be a daunting process.
How do you promote your business? What has worked best? As the business is fairly new I’m trying out all sorts with trial and error, adverts in papers, shop windows, word of mouth etc… but I think I have had the most success over the internet. Joining sites where other families, women and mummies communicate, whether for their business or not is a great way to network. With these connections i have been able to get an advert in a quarterly magazine aimed at working mums, a link to my website from another by running a competition and other connections that have led to big sales.
What has worked well about your business? There are so many avenues you can go down with this business, you are never stuck for ideas. If your not selling to schools and nurseries, you doing home parties for parents, or events at children’s centres, or stalls at fairs and fates, even charity work within the community. Because there are so many options, if one avenue is a bit slow, for example, no schools are buying at the end of the financial year, there are several other ways you can get sales with another organisation, so there are always sales somewhere.
What has been your biggest challenge so far? How have you dealt with it? Making contacts was the hardest part for me at first, there will be days when no one is interested and all the calls you make give you no new leads. I did try and avoid making calls sometimes when I was sick of the rejection, but I’d then end up with a week of very little sales and money so I had to stop avoiding the matter. I now dealt with it by really believing in my products. I love the books I sell, they are great and I think the special offers, discounts and free books we offer to buyers are fantastic, so if I really cant persuade someone to meet with me to see the brilliant selection of books or deals we have, let alone place an order, I now just shrug it off in a sort of “your loss” way and I’m on to the next without dwelling on it.
How do you fit in work with the family?
Day to day my son CJ is looked after by me, my office is in my bedroom where all his toys are so I will work, making contacts, sending emails, updating my website etc.. and he will play. I actually feel I’m better when I work in short bursts, so it’s turned out well that i can have a good half hour working and then I stop to play, feed, change nappies etc…. CJ actually helps me kill two birds with one stone most of the time. If we are out getting some fresh air, i deliver leaflets, if we go to a baby and toddler group, I make contacts while talking to other mums. My husband works night and day shifts but we have his full rota for the year, so I have that pinned up on my board and I always know when he will be free to look after CJ when I have a sale meeting, book party or event to go to. However sometimes I can actually take CJ with me as the places I sell to are so child friendly. As I choose my own hours I also pick my days off to be when my husband is off. That way we can all spend time as a family.
What advice would you give to someone else wanting to work in this area?
As I have said before, it was easy setting up, as Usborne gave me all the tools and they do support you through. However the hard work has to come from you. You need to be disciplined enough to make yourself work, it does all boil down to what you put in you get out. It can be hard to get into work mode when your in your home environment so set up an area where you will work from and stick to it. You also need to be thinking of the next project. Its all well and good you relaxing because you have lots of sales and events in March but what about April?
