TIPS, the prestigious mother and baby product award scheme, has given Dribblebuster a TIPS Clever Design award.   Alison Withell, founder of Almarie Designs says on receiving the award:
“It’s very exciting to receive the TIPS Clever Design Award recognising Dribblebuster as a valuable product making life easier for many mums”.
Alison plans to release other innovative products in the near future, adding “Watch this space for new products  from Almarie Designs!”
The fashionable double layer absorbent cotton Dribblebuster stood up to the rigorous testing of parents and their babies aged between 4 …

A business mum has plans well underway for her first baby fair, to be held in Northallerton in November. Cari Parker, director of The Dales Party Company Ltd, came up with the idea after approaching larger events for exhibition space and finding the costs way over her budget. While searching for smaller events she found lots of like minded business mums and so Coochie Cou was born.
“I liked the idea of small businesses supporting each other,” says Cari, 37, “A lot of the time I cannot get to networking events …

If you want great ideas about how other mums run their businesses, you can always check out the Family Friendly Working Mumpreneur Profiles. I love hearing how mums (and dads) start their business and find the tips they share really valuable.
I’ve now come across a couple of other sites which profile mums in business or mumpreneurs on a regular or occasional basis. This week SelfEmployedMum talks to Keira of Mamascarf. In a market where there are several similar products, Keira is doing a great job of keeping her company profile at …

Read in the Irish Independent about how mumpreneur Lesley O’Mahoney runs a successful baby food business. She shares her tips on juggling work and family: “I dedicate the afternoons to the girls, shutting the laptop at 3pm until I go to bed. I would hate the girls to look back and say I was never there and all I ever did was work.”
Read the whole article: Meet the Mumtrepreneur

Freecycle and Swop with Points not £’s
Swop2Shop is an innovative, new, clothes swopping website, allowing its members to Replenish and Re-vamp their wardrobes, WITHOUT THE NEED FOR CASH.
Membership entitles the user to NO LISTING FEES and FREE POINTS to kick start the Swopping Process. Buy Gift Vouchers for friends and family as the ultimate Eco- Friendly present.
As Swishing events take hold, the beauty of Swop2Shop is that the whole clothes swopping process can be enjoyed from the comfort of one’s own home.
Swop2Shop has been designed to nurture all those who …

 
Reports on the Credit Crunch have indicated that it is affecting women in employment more than in previous downturns. New website Mothers of Innovation aims to be an antidote to recessionary gloom and a breath of fresh air for working women and mothers in the UK.
Founder Sarah Dawnay set up Mothers of Innovation after she was made redundant from her job; with the only available earning options seeming to be corporate roles which make no allowance for women with young families, or pyramid selling schemes that were either patronising or …

 
Andrea Shell from Haslemere in Surrey discovered the heartbreak of baby eczema when her 10 week old son’s dry skin progressed to severe eczema that prescription creams and bath oils seemed to make worse rather than better. Dissatisfied with the help offered by doctors and an apparent lack of interest in uncovering the triggers for Josh’s eczema Andrea, an experienced veterinary nurse, embarked upon an intensive period of online research, reading medical texts, research papers and other parents’ experiences to better understand her son’s condition.
Armed with information, intuition and finding …

Babynobumps could be crowned a winner in the first national Nectar Business Small Business Awards.
Susan Port entered the company she set up three years ago, into the Small Business of The Year category, and is now in with a chance to make it to the awards shortlist and scoop the final prize!
Babynobumps sells protective hats, designed to protect babies from serious bumps to the head while they are learning to sit up, crawl and walk. The business was born in 2006 and since that date the company has been selling brightly …

Ever dreamed of setting up your own publishing business? Mumpreneur Rachel Southwood did just this, and now Giraffe Media could be crowned a winner in the first national Nectar Business Small Business Awards.
Rachel’s business breakthrough occurred five years ago in her back bedroom when Giraffe Media launched what is now the UK’s favourite fun-sized bridal magazine, Wedding Ideas. Today, the magazine could well be Taunton’s greatest export, propelling Giraffe Media onto the publishing map! It’s Britain’s best-selling A5 wedding magazine and employs a close-knit team of 13 people.
Since starting Wedding …

 
Have you been tempted to enter your business for an award, but decided not to bother? Mumpreneur Lucy Fitzgerald is a great example of why to enter. In the six months since she conceived her business idea, she has won three awards for the bedtime rabbit toy. She has generated some good media coverage too, and got her bunny comforter reviewed by key parenting media.
A super soft bunny, with long silky ears and attachments for soothers, teethers, or little development toys, the Sleepytot has won three awards since its launch …