Top Business Tips for Mumpreneurs

You’ll need to find the right supplier and at the right price. Shop around, get referrals. You’ll find people will talk about their suppliers, maybe not if you are competing with them but in general other people (especially other mums!) will pass on their experience. You can use Alibaba to source overseas manufacturers, but again referrals will help no end. Online networking and Google will be your best friends!

Aggressive sales companies teach their new sales reps to go after friends and family first, although it’s a great tactic for the company to get the friends & family of every employee signed up, it’s not so great for a newly self employed person to constantly sell to those closest to them. You could end up a business bore and potentially alienate any referrals you stand to gain from your own personal network. There’s a fine line between networking and self promotion...get it right by making sure everyone knows what you do and you’ll be laughing.

You need to identify potential quality sales and time wasters. It’s not just in the car sales world; you get the tyre kickers in business too! If you have a skill, some people may want to pick your brains rather than actually pay you to do the job. You need to identify this soon on and only spend your time where an income is coming from.

In the early days you could be all excited about being in business and the freedom you now have; you tell your friends and family what you’re doing...’if you want my service you know where I am!’...Without realizing the effect it’ll have on you, such people may expect discounts, if not for free. Set a ‘friends & family rate’ early on and offer a great discount if they supply a testimonial and refer you to their friends.

Don’t forget about your family time. In the early days you’ll be so into your new business (and quite right too!) those early days are intrinsic to your success but you need to build in time for family. Get the work life routine under control early on so you don’t have to make changes later on when you realize that your kids are growing up too quickly. It will happen on occasion, but look for signs that it’s becoming commonplace – you may not realize until it becomes a problem! Don’t miss a moment.

You’re launching a new business, you have your USP (unique sales point) so get a press release out and shout about it. Learn not to be modest about your success; believe in yourself and your product/service and get the word out. Build up a database of contacts from day one and keep in touch with them. Send out a regular email newsletter with extra tips about using your product/service, and get feedback and testimonials from customers.

A professional website will not just say something; it will say everything about you and your business. Put across a professional image at all times and never ever have homemade business cards. Websites and business cards are inexpensive these days so the investment can be minimal so there is no excuse for handing out cheap cards!

If you work from home, be careful of any distractions – the fridge, the kettle, the TV, and surfing on the internet. You are your own boss now and have no one to answer to; this in itself can be a problem. You need to regiment yourself every day – get up at the same time, focus on the day’s task and get it done. No surfing, limit your snacks and be careful of daytime TV!

Networking is the key to success, both online and offline networking is incredibly effective, make time everyday to post on Twitter/Facebook/online forums. Like-minded people provide fantastic networking and potential for referrals. But at face to face networking don’t ever deal out your business cards like playing cards. You need to be interested in others as much as you want them to be interested in you. But if you feel you’re being sold to by someone else, you need to know when to move on to the next person, subtly!

Too many people start out in business without a proper business plan. Yes, it’s in your head but remember your goal is to make money so before investing your own money and time, a plan will help you see exactly how (and when) you will see a return on your investment. It will keep you on track so be sure not to deviate from it. Of course, you’ll adapt the plan as you go, but it will be based on your experiences, so the changes will be positive and will lead to the development of a strong business model. But do not let ‘new opportunities’ cloud your judgement. New opportunities will pop up all the time, just be careful how they could affect your original vision of your business.

Learn to make a decision and quickly. If an opportunity comes your way, decide straight away whether it’s worth pursuing. If it is, go for it, if not, disregard it and carry on without delay. Not making a decision can be worse than making the wrong choice, so evaluate everything carefully but quickly.

You are in business to make money of course, but you need to be value led to get more business. Provide a good service at a fair price and you will be rewarded. For instance someone may set up a children’s clothing website. The owner works from home, has their spare room as a stock room, no overheads, no staff but still think they can set prices to compete with a high street stores. Keep your prices realistic, whilst making a fair profit for yourself.

These days the cost of setting up a website is minimal, especially if you’re prepared to do it yourself online. But there are other costs – stock, marketing, advertising, leaflets, business cards, brochures, etc. Make sure your business plan does indeed plan correctly.

The early days are critical to business, the first sale is wonderful and indicates you’re on the right track but you need to build on that success, don’t allow yourself to become complacent after a success. Keep the momentum going, think about how that lead was generated and turned into a sale and repeat it, straight away.

Cash flow is critical to a start-up business, don’t spend too much on items that are not essential to your business and once the customers start rolling in don’t let them take too long to pay you. Do you really need a new desk, phone system…an iPhone…new car…?

You can either plan thoroughly to ensure your own investment will see you through the early stages, look for a bank to support you or seek outside investors. The latter however will take time to secure, and you will need a strong business plan to impress any investor. Alternatively you could ease into your new business on a part-time basis until you know that it will make enough money to support you…and your family. Funding can also be available through local business grants and sponsorship. Google will be your best friend here, but also look for local networking groups, Business Link and chamber of commerce as good starting points.

The moment your business becomes a chore you need to re-evaluate. Don’t forget the reasons you decided to go into business in the first place. It’s for more freedom, to improve your life and enjoy being your own boss. Your job as the business owner is to develop the business so aim to reach a point where you have staff to take care of the more mundane tasks leaving you to work on the growth of your business.