If you’d love to create your own business but are unsure where to start, read on

“Start a Family-Friendly Business: 23 brilliant ideas for business mums” is on sale from 15 September 2010.  if you know this is the book you need,

pre order Start a Family-Friendly Business now

Running your own business from home is a dream shared by millions of British mums.

• Do you need more information about what makes a great business?
• Do you want an insight into which business ideas have worked well for other mums
• Do you need advice on planning to launch a successful business?

“It’s one thing to have an idea for a business, and the desire to work flexibly around family life, but quite another to be confident that your idea is viable, to put money behind it and to make sure your business is set up in a professional and legitimate way. If you are concerned about putting your family life under pressure by taking on a new challenge when you’ve no experience of enterprise, buy Start a Family Friendly Business. Our book gives you a real insight into the benefits and considerations of running different kinds of businesses.”

Packed with practical advice to help budding mumpreneurs launch the business that’s right for them, Antonia and Helen’s book features over 120 proven ideas for flexible work and goes in-depth with 23 of them. Covering businesses as diverse as life coaching, childcare, personal training, cleaning, graphic design and journalism, the book outlines the pros and cons to give readers a detailed and realistic basis for decision-making.

“The 23 business ideas we’ve focused on are tried, tested and achievable. Using the information we share in the book, you can work out which business would work for you, playing to your skills and strengths as well as fitting in with the demands of family life.”

Buy Start a Family Friendly Business to learn how different businesses could work for you, with specific and practical options to consider. The book also includes no-nonsense tips to help mums take the first step on the road to successful self-employment, ranging from advice about business planning and complying with legislation to finding help with marketing and promotion.

“Start a Family-Friendly Business: 23 brilliant ideas for business mums” is on sale from 15 September 2010.  if you know this is the book you need, pre order Start a Family-Friendly Business now!

Order and pay today and your book will be dispatched on 15th September

Name of Business:

My business is called bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox – a green, affordable storage solution for baby & toddler books, designed to encourage an early love of reading. I sell though my website www.bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox.co.uk, via other websites, in retail shops and face-to-face at local baby & toddler events. I’m also hoping to partner with book party plan sellers to sell my product on a wholesale or commission basis.Your Name and Age:

Frances Weir, aged 34.

Tell us about your family.

I live in Ilkley, West Yorkshire with my husband John, my little boy Finlay aged 2 and a half, and our two dogs.

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

Before having my son, I worked as a medical writer for a pharmaceutical communications agency – lots of travel, lots of buzz, lots of stress! After having my son, and relocating from Cheshire to Yorkshire, I worked part-time as a clinical trials officer at my local hospital. The transition from working part-time to solely running my business was straightforward – I did the planning and setting up of the business in my spare time, then had a month of overlap when I ‘soft-launched’ my business whilst still working, and then I stopped work to focus full-time on the business. The transition was timed around my little boy starting at preschool.

When did you launch?

bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox launched in July 2010.

How did you get started?

The idea came about through one of those ‘Why hasn’t anyone invented ….” moments. My son had accumulated lots of books and we didn’t really have anywhere to store them, as they were all different sizes – we had some in a bookcase, some in his toybox and some just piled up on the floor. Preschoolers chose books by looking at their covers and we found that displaying his books in a conventional bookcase didn’t work as he either ignored them, or pulled them all out searching for the perfect book. So I thought it would be a great idea to develop a product that stored his books, at floor level, in an accessible, attractive way, enabling him to independently flick through them to choose the one he wanted to look at, without having to take them all out.

What research did you do before launching?

The initial research was to see whether anything similar was available (if it had been, I would simply have bought one and life would have been very different!). The only forward-facing book storage options available retailed at the £60+ price mark, so were in a different price bracket to the product I envisaged. I didn’t actually do any formal market research – everyone I spoke to said it was a great idea and I relied on my instinct (probably not recommended!).  I researched very heavily into the design/materials/suppliers to ensure I got the best quality at the best price possible. With my background as a writer, I naturally spent a lot of time developing the copy for my website and working closely with my web designer to get the brand spot on. The green credentials of the product were very important to me, so I looked into the various packaging alternatives until I found a solution that was 100% biodegradable, like the box.

How have you funded the business?

I funded the business set-up costs through a dormant TESSA I had held since 1999!

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

I haven’t actually done any promotion yet, other than through WAHM forums. Childminders have been a big customer group for me (totally via word-of-mouth) so I am now working with a childminding forum on a competition and product review.

What has worked well about your business?

Sales in the initial period have been better than I anticipated, my visitor to sales (conversion) rate on my website is around 5% which is very encouraging – it seems that there are people out there wanting a bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox – it’s just a case of getting them to hear about the product. The feedback from people who have brought the product has been hugely positive too and, as mentioned, I’ve had lots of word-of-mouth referrals.

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

So far, I haven’t faced any huge challenges – the biggest was convincing my husband that it would be a good idea to resign from my job! But he now loves it when we come downstairs in the morning, log on and see we’ve had an order and, in effect, have printed money while we sleep!

How do you fit in work with the family?

My son will be at preschool three mornings a week so I will do as much work as possible while he’s there. I take my son with me when we go to the post-office to send the boxes out and he loves *helping* with that! I package up boxes, deal with correspondence and network on forums mainly in the evening, but also sometimes during the day when my boy is having his nap and during snatched moments when he’s playing by himself.

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

Whether or not you need external funding to set up your business, I’d recommend writing a business plan, including information on the market, the product, the brand, the set-up costs, the unit costs and sales projections as it will help focus your mind. You really need to drill down on the detail of costs and work out exactly how many units you need to sell in order to cover set-up costs/match your existing salary/pay the mortgage/cover childcare costs/make it feel ‘worthwhile’, or whatever it is that is driving your decision to work for yourself, then evaluate how realistic that sales target is.

Your website link:

www.bigbooklittlebookcardboardbox.co.uk

All of this happens in a book that is immensely readable, and allows the reader to identify with what is being described. The Happiness Equation has been written in a time where the next challenge will be how to assimilate the vast amounts of data that will be released to us. This will give behaviour scientists ever increasing validation of their theories, maybe in time for the paperback release.

One thing that I learned reading this book was the Abraham Lincoln was the tallest US President. If you want to know how that dovetails into this story you‘re going to have to read it.

TOTAL MARK 5/5

Book Review – The Happiness Equation, by Nick Powdthavee

ISBN – 978-1-84831-166-6

Date of Review – 18^th July 2010

Reviewed By – Will Roney

To be eligible to enter, the business must have been trading for less than three years and be privately owned. The closing date for entries is 03 September 2010 and finalists will be announced early November. For details of how to enter and a full list of categories visit: www.startupsawards.co.uk.

Stoke-based PR and marketing company Plinkfizz has been shortlisted for the prestigious Top Employers for Working Families awards 2010 run by leading national organisation Working Families.Thanks to its excellent practice of flexible working and family-friendly employment, Plinkfizz has been shortlisted for two of these highly regarded and sought-after awards.

Plinkfizz is a growing marketing communications business with an impressive client base. It has doubled its turnover in the last 12 months to top £1/2 million, even though it actively promotes family friendly and part-time working.  Plinkfizz has three women directors who have chosen to put their families first – but not at the expense of a successful and satisfying career.   All three held senior positions with major corporate organisations (Julie as Head of Marketing at Britannia Building Society, Fiona as marketing manager for Co-operative Travel Group and Jo as PR manager for Britannia and a former regional magazine editor), but understood that the demands of employers offered less flexibility than their families needed.

Plinkfizz Managing Director Julie Grant explains, “We each went down the self-employment route to ensure we could realise our considerable business ambitions while earning the freedom to put family first when necessary.The ‘more to life than work’ ethos is applied to all staff – and far from impacting on the business it ensures we attract the best people with the highest degree of commitment.  We search for the right people and consult with them about what working arrangements will make them happiest.

Our working patterns are tailored to meet individual needs.

• Julie, MD, with one daughter works four days and enjoys picking up from school each Monday.
• Fiona, marketing manager, with two and seven year old children, works five days, but shortened hours for three days to give her flexibility.
• Jo, PR manager, with two primary age children works five days, with three shortened, to be there at home-time.
• Nigel, part-timer and freelance, has two under fives.  He works from home when the business needs him and comes into the office on Wednesdays (leaving early to take one daughter to swimming lessons).
• Our new administrator will work five days, 9.30 to 2.30 – to fit work around school.
• Emma is on extended maternity leave
• New recruit Laura, with no children, still values working four days – with one based from home to cut down on travel.

We operate in a highly competitive environment and organisation is imperative.  We open five days a week 9-5.30 and all work together to ensure holidays are covered and we share information to ensure effective client liaison at all times.  Supporting one another’s workloads from time to time is also key.

We have invested in IT server systems and Blackberries which allow every member of staff access to our computer network from home, or other venues.  So when children are ill, when sports day or the school play require a break – we can be there, and still in touch with business needs. This applies equally to staff who need quiet time away from the office hustle and bustle.

It is business critical to attract and retain experienced professional people.  We are successful because we employ the right people and working flexibly means we attract the best – regardless of their home circumstances.

As the business continues to grow we anticipate attracting more like-minded staff – people with ambition and vast experience and who make no apologies for wanting to live a full, guilt-free life.

Things are changing, though. Half of mothers with children under one work, mostly part-time.

- Today’s fathers do eight times more caring for babies and young children than their fathers did.

- In the first year, new fathers work shorter hours than other men.

- One third of fathers work flexibly to spend more time with their children.

- Mums and dads both worry about getting the balance right between work and home.

- Two out of three mothers think fathers don’t do enough in the home. Two out of three fathers agree!

TOP TIPS FOR NEW PARENTS

Don’t end up with one parent doing all the caring and the other doing all the earning unless you really cannot avoid it.

Both spend time alone with your baby. Both become competent and confident with him/her, learn and appreciate your different parenting styles – your child will.

Mothers: put yourself first sometimes (and fathers – let them do this). Mothers who make the children such a big part of their lives that everything else is forgotten often become depressed.

Fathers: move mountains to get flexible work, even if it gives you only a few extra hours with your baby every week.

Talk and listen. Don’t just barge into the role you think is yours – find out if your partner is happy with what your choice means for them. Do they feel put-upon or pushed out by you? Things will then feel fairer, you will be more loving and less stressed – which will also be good for your sex life.

Make time for each other and do things you used to do before you had children. A happy couple relationship means happier children.

Don’t feel guilty about working – nearly all mothers and fathers for all of human history have had to work. Try to organize work so that one of you is looking after the baby as much as possible; babies have always been looked after by several people.

If moving house could mean a smaller mortgage or more involved grandparents, think hard about it.

Each agree to do the one task around the house that the other likes least. If you can afford it, pay for some of the tasks to be done for you.

Find out more about Baby’s Here! Who Does What at www.whodoeswhatbook.com, including some enthusiastic reviews and endorsements from Agony Aunts of national newspapers, such as Deidre Sanders at The Sun.

40% of mothers feel that the cost of childcare is preventing them from returning to work.

The annual research, which polled nearly 2,000 mothers, shows that grandparents are playing a vital role in enabling parents to return to work not only by looking after the children but also by keeping childcare costs to a minimum with almost half (44%) doing it for free.  A total of 40% of those polled use nurseries, whilst the rest use childminders, friends or other family and a very small percentage (4%) use a nanny or Au Pair.

Despite the fact that more than two thirds of mothers are in employment, 40% of mothers feel that the cost of childcare is preventing them from returning.  Whilst 44% pay nothing for childcare, 23% pay up to £250 per month, 24% between £250 and £750 per month, 9% pay over £750 per month.

Flexible working remains firmly on parents’ agendas with all employed respondents agreeing that flexibility was important to them.  The vast majority of workers (69%) agree that their job is flexible with 77% finding that their employer was supportive when they returned to work.  Just over half (53%) of those who requested flexible or part time working upon their return to work, felt that they got what they requested, or reached a good compromise.  Flexible hours for full time jobs, regular work at home and the offer of part-time jobs were the three factors that made a company family friendly.  Flexi-hours topped the research as being the most important aspect (76%) even surpassing part time hours which also rated as important(66%).  Half (50%) of those who were not working said that the lack of appropriate (57%) and available (53%) flexible jobs presented further barriers for their return to work.

Gillian Nissim, founder of Workingmums.co.uk, says: “This year’s survey shows just how important grandparents are in helping parents get back into the workplace.  Working mums are able to contribute significantly to the British economy as a result of their parents looking after their children.  Without their help, it would be impossible for many mums to go back to work – grandparents not only help with the childcare but also keep childcare costs to a minimum.”

“This survey confirms that working mums are increasingly relying on grandparents for childcare,” comments Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of Grandparents Plus.  “Families are under increasing financial pressure and grandparents are helping to bridge the child care gap.  It is time we start recognising the growing contribution of grandparents.”

Over the years that I have run my businesses, I have really changed how I work. Initially I did everything … but swiftly realised that I needed help to do the jobs that took me a long time. I got in a VA to help with invoicing and once a year used a very affordable accountant to submit my tax return. Moving forward eight years, I now have a great team who support me. Getting someone to do all the website management has saved me hours – especially hours of putting right errors! I do a lot of partnership working: coauthoring a book or collaborating on a course or event is much more efficient than keeping everything to myself. And it really pays dividends when it comes to the summer holidays.

If you would like to get more support for your business but worry how to pay for it, remember that you can make the business far more effective if you do the jobs that you are good at and outsource the ones that you struggle with. If you are nervous about getting other people in to work on your business, here are some tips to help you find a freelancer, prevent problems and develop a successful working relationship with freelancers and causal help. I’ve been using different people to support my business over the last eight years and I’ve tried and tested these ideas!

1. Get recommendations. I rarely hire anyone from ‘cold’, but instead use people for whom I have had personal recommendations.
2. Start small. If you’re thinking of working with a freelancer ask them to do one small specific task and see how you and they get on.
3. Be clear. If you are working with anyone, be specific about what you want done, when you need it by, any standards you need to be met, and the price that you have agreed. Put this all in an email, or the freelancer may create a contract for you.
4. Communicate. Phone and email regularly to freelancers and remote workers. You can encourage them to share any problems they may be experiencing and get updates on progress. You could build regular updates into your email about the work or the contract.
5. Pay on time. If you have found someone great to support your work, recognise this and thank them, and pay their invoices promptly so they are keen to help you in the future.

There are lots more ideas for support for your business on the Mumpreneur Guide blog. And don’t forget to visit the Family Friendly Working Business Services directory to find some of my top recommendations for people who can help your business.

The Prime Minister and his wife went with the Cornish “Endellion” as a middle name and they’re not alone in being influenced by a holiday destination. The Bounty Parenting Club has carried out research into baby names and found that over the past 10 years, more than 18,000 parents have named their babies after places.

Florence (coincidentally the first name the Camerons chose for their new daughter), Rio and Paris are the most popular holiday-themed names chosen by parents, closely followed by India, Sydney and Lucia. But you don’t have to go abroad – there have also been 1,255 Devons, six Brightons and four Dublins in the past ten years.

Would you – or have you – named a baby after a place? Tell us in the comments.

* My all-time favourite is Penn Gilette of Penn & Teller’s daughter: Moxie Crimefighter.

ARTICLE FROM STAINES NEWS:

A DEVOTED grandson has set up a gift shop website dedicated to presents for grandparents after his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Mark Readman, who lives with his wife in Adelaide Road, Ashford, was in despair when his nan, Joyce Kirwin, developed the illness in 2007.

He said: “There are some days she knows who I am and others when she doesn’t. She is slowly deteriorating.

“It is terrible, it is the worst disease I have ever encountered. It almost kills the person in front of you.

Read more of Staines News Article >>