PHOTO COMPLIMENTS OF CONNECT2MUMS.COM.AU
Today I met a budding Mumpreneur who came up from Brisbane to see me for a consult.… Like many business owners she had great ideas, but the real challenge lay in deciphering the ‘killer ideas’ from the ‘good idea, but it can wait’ ideas and what activities she needed to do in order to implement these ideas and get the results she wanted. Early on in the conversation, she made the comment: ‘I have no idea why I waited until I had 3 children before I started a business — now I have to juggle it all!’
I really relate to that comment as I started The Creative Collective just seven weeks after the birth of my second child. Although I’d started other businesses prior to The Creative Collective, this business was by far my most ambitious project at the time, and I remember feeling all consumed with creativity and motivation as I got things into place to become the master (or missus!) of my own destiny.
Working from home with an uncapped earnings potential doing as much or as little as I wanted to seemed like a good idea to me and it’s worked out pretty well.
Leveraging your time to leverage your business
Early on in my business I realised I needed to leverage my time so I started to look for help, just like I encouraged the person I met with today. And one of the first places I looked to hire was a website called careermums.com.au that features a range of part time and flexible jobs for Mums.
I got a great number of responses from my one ad on this website, from Mums around the country – all keen to work for me, from home, when they could, around their kids.
It’s a great site and I’ve since became mates with the founder of this site, Kate Sykes who won the Telstra Business Womens Awards Commonwealth Bank Business Owner of the Year the same year I did, but for ACT.
If you haven’t heard of it before, I recommend you check it out.
If you need to get something done, give it to a busy person
They say; “If you need to get something done, give it to a busy person”. This is particularly true with Mums I’ve found. They may have a lot on their plate, but they’re generally very time effective — they have no other choice if they want to earn an income around their children.
I’ve found by hiring Mums you get a few other benefits too including commitment, loyalty and appreciation for the opportunity. That’s not to mention the talent they can bring to the table.
Just because you’ve had a baby obviously doesn’t mean you lose your brain!
A Mumpreneurs Gathering
This weekend I am heading to Sydney for the Annual AusMumpreneur Conference and business awards. Yup, that’s right. These days there is a massive movement of mothers who congregate for a two Day Conference specifically designed to help Mums in business reach their full potential.
Like always I’ll be mixing a little business with family. I’ll be attending the awards ceremony on the Saturday night (I’m a finalist in the AusMumpreneur of the Year category) and the rest of the time doing some sight-seeing with the kids in Sydney.
This to me is what defines success. I’ve promised my son I’d take him to a big city ‘one day’ for a while, and I am so proud that through a combination of stowed away air points and the opportunity to attend the AusMumpreneur Awards I am able to make that ‘one day’ a reality for him.
The kids main request on the Sydney sight-seeing agenda? To stand outside of Sunrise on Monday morning and ‘wave to Nana’. So tune in Monday morning and see if you see us grinning and waving through the window at St Martin’s Place!