I’ve been working hard on my e-course, Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur which launches on 11th May.
- I started my blog businessplusbaby.com in summer 2009. I’d researched lots of business ideas that could fit around a family, but none of them were quite right for my family.
I’d spent many months doing the research because the information I needed wasn’t easy to find – it was scattered all over the internet and at that time there was only one book for mums wanting to start a business (there are now lots!) I had a feeling I could help people with my blog and explore a gap in the market at the same time. The final nudge I needed to start Business Plus Baby that summer was the fact that I was struggling to get out of the house. I had a 14 month-old daughter and was eight months pregnant with my son, so my world had to be online!
My background was in training, mostly IT, but I’d qualified as a life and business coach too. Before my first child was born I’d written and delivered online training for big companies and had a gut feeling I could bring that online training to the small business world. At that stage I couldn’t quite piece it all together, but I knew that if I kept working on it, I would get there before too long.
Through Business Plus Baby I met Antonia Chitty, experienced author and founder Family Friendly Working. By coincidence we’d both been planning to write a book full of business ideas for mums. We decided it would be great to write it together and our book Start a Family Friendly Business: 23 Brilliant Business Ideas for Mums was published in September 2010. Since then I’ve been working hard on my e-course, Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur which launches on 11th May.
From looking at their business models and the prices they charged I could see that many mumpreneurs were earning less than they should considering their skills and experience. Some were barely making a minimum-wage income once their expenses were taken into account. It really got to me that all that hard work, generosity and talent was not being properly rewarded. The end result would be that many mumpreneurs would have no choice but to return to employment once their kids were older and childcare was no longer a headache. That didn’t seem fair to me, so I started work on Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur.
I’ve got many more ideas of online courses I can write and I’m looking forward to cracking on with them. Eventually I’d like to help other experts convert their knowledge into online training – I can see online training growing bigger in the future and I’d love to be part of it.
My progress has been slower than I would have liked. Well, having two babies in 16 months isn’t the best way to start a business! But building a future for my family is the best motivation I’ve ever had and bizarrely, being stuck in the house has given me a focus that I’ve never had before!
Helen Lindop
