Name of Business: Parties Around the World

Your Name and Age:Deirdre Bounds, 44

Tell us about your family

 I’m married to a gorgeous American Actor called Bryan and we have two children, Frankie age 8 and Ava age 3. We live in between Leeds and Harrogate so get the best of both worlds of city and country life.

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

I set up the ethical travel company i-to-i.com, which became the world’s largest gap year company.  I launched the business from a bedsit in Leeds and over the course of 10 years, built the company up, selling to a FTSE 100 company  in 2007.

Before this I was a backpacker and travelled the world for 4 years (having had a mid-20’s crisis and ditching my mediocre marketing job). I came back and became a youth worker and a stand-up comic and then started i-to-i.. So there is nothing truly spectacular in my background.

When did you launch? July 2009 

How did you get started?

 I came up with the idea for PAW around 4 years ago and my son’s first big birthay party. As a busy mum, I found the organisation time-consuming, the number of presents appalling, and sweeping up plastic broken toys pretty thankless.

 What research did you do before launching?

 I roamed the mums at all of the parties I was invited to and asked them would they be interested in an alternative – not one disagreed that these parties needed to be ‘busted’ in some way as it wasn’t teaching our children anything.

How have you funded the business?

Privately along with my business partner, Carl Hopkins.

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

We promote PAW through our Charity partners who inform their members of this great new way to raise money for their cause. We also will be talking to schools as we believe PAW supports many aspects of the school curriculum. We have had some success in promoting PAW via social sites, we have our own Facebook site and we have been contacted by relevant parenting and mummy blogs. Initially we managed to pull favours and a PR consultant (Faith PR) wrote and issued a press release which was picked up on a regional and national level.

What has worked well about your business?

As we are so new it is early days, but the proposition itself has been well accepted and seized upon. The opportunity of more ethical parties, reducing the consumerism surrounding our children, the ease and high quality of the invitations, RSVPs, thank you cards that are all produced free on Parties Around the World.

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

Finance. Like any start-up business there are always costs before there is any income, so cash flow is an issue. We have input our own money and had to make further loans to the business plus pull as many favours as possible with  our very supportive supplier base.

How do you fit in work with the family? 

I have a nanny – I would advise anyone who can afford it to get a nanny and take away the constant stress of working around a nursery. When I had my first child I was back at work within 5 days doing the wages. He went to nursery at three months – it was difficult, but it was a choice both me and my husband made. With the second child, we could afford a nanny as we couldn’t take the stress of being late for nursery collection. It was a good decision to make.

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

I wouldn’t, we don’t need the competition thanks!

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

We have lots of opportunities and would love lots of help but sadly we do not have the revenues just yet to pay people on either a full time or flexible basis. We are working on and in the business for nothing at the moment. 

Your website link: www.partiesaroundtheworld.co.uk

When you organise a party on Parties Around the World it is FREE so we cannot discount any more than that, but the first 25 Family Friendly Working readers to organise their next party with us will receive a unique JELLY MOULD! Just quote Family Friendly Working when you book.