Mums get down to business

[Miaow]

Mums get down to business

Susie O'Brien
May 23, 2007 12:00am



MEET the amazing mumpreneurs. They're successfully mixing bubs and business, and they're the driving force behind thousands of new companies created each year.
Victorian mums are turning their backs on the 9-to-5 grind in favour of doing business in their bathrobes, and many are turning hobbies or interests into cash.
More than one million Australians work from home and half of them are mothers, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Women run 126,000 small businesses -- a third in Victoria.
Many are online and popular areas include baby and maternity clothes, jewellery making, children's parties and children's gifts.
Many are going solo after successful careers in public relations, financial planning and accounting.
Two mums who set up small businesses are now helping other mums get started through website mumsinbusiness.net.
Sharon Wood, who set up aromatherapy range Healing Hippo, and Alison Basson, who founded baby sign language Tinytalk, will present a "Mums in Business" seminar in Melbourne next month.
Ms Basson said time was the biggest enemy of mums setting up their own businesses.
"Everything takes a lot longer than you think and you always have a lot less time than plan for," she said.
"We'd encourage mums to seek out information to help them with financial plans and budgets."
Ms Basson, 35, mother of Ellie, 3, said many mums started businesses because of the lack of part time work.
"It's hard because most women still have to work because of financial reasons, or just to keep their brain active.
"People are wanting that control and flexibility to give them time with their children."
Karen Houghton, of the Australian Business Women's Network, said having children challenged many women to reassess their working life.
"It's about lifestyle choices, not about turning over $12 million in the first year," Ms Houghton said.
But she said it wasn't always easy for women to turn their hobbies into successful businesses.
"It's about what you are good at and where you've come from -- it's about what you can actually do," Ms Houghton said.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...4-2862,00.html

[mumski]

Thanks for finding this article Miaow! You're a star! I'd love to have my own home based business one day. But as they pointed out time is a big factor, I'm planning to just wait a little longer for my youngest's sake before I get too far with it and then I will give it a whirl.

I think there are a lot of Mums who are finding this an attractive option for balancing life, work and family, but I know that having a business is not the same as having a hobby or even working from home for someone else especially timewise.

I'd love to hear success stories if anyone has one. Especially how to juggle the practicalities of running a family and a business successfully.

[motherhoodlmb]

Having a successful home based business is great in theory but there are positives and negatives. My business allows me the flexibility to take my child to school and pick him up when I need to, but it involves many evenings of working and my youngest goes to creche 2 days a week, otherwise I'd never get anything done.

For me, the blessing has been my partner who is very domesticated and is home by 4.30 at the earliest. This allows him to help with the boys and also take a load off by cooking, etc.

I could do sooo much more work if I wanted to but my time is limited - however I'm building a successful business for when my 2nd child goes to school and I'll have (in theory!) 5 days a week of school hours to work. I'll never earn heaps of money, but the balance of being around for my kids and continuing to utilise the skills I've had for 20 or so years is good. The isolation is an issue at the moment though - so I need to make sure I get some me time and not to have a melt down when there's too much on.

[mumski]

Hi MHLMB
That sounds cool, I hadn't considered the isolation though, I'm very social at the moment because we all have kids at home and I'm very ionvolved with playgroup but I wonder whether that will change once the kids all start school and everyone else goes back to work?? Also if I have a business will I be able to go out and have fun or even do the amount of voluntary work I do now as well, probably not, although it depends on what I end up doing I suppose.

A helpful DH is a definite must for any working mum, glad to hear yours is so considerate it makes all the difference!