Fed up with working for someone else, commuting at the crack of dawn and
leaving your kids in nursery all day? You're not alone. Running your own
business is the new global fantasy. Ask around and it seems that everybody
is a wannabe Kitchen Table Tycoon with a great idea. Maybe you already have
yours, along with a fantastic company name and logo.
Wherever you are with your dream vision, it's likely you're also wondering if
running a business from home is really for you. Starting up on your own and
giving up a secure salary is scary. You will be filled with fear of failure,
fear that you're not the business type and, top of the list, fear that
you'll end up losing everything you own.
The good news is that small businesses are on the increase, with “mumpreneurs”
- mothers who are entrepreneurs - one of the fastest-growing sectors. What's
more, many of these home companies aren't side projects that bring in a bit
of extra pocket money, but prosperous businesses that have a turnover of
millions.
All of which means that you're not being ridiculous or impractical just
because you have kids and feel desperate to work from home. Three quarters
of women starting up businesses do so when their children are under 2,
according to research by Dr Tim Leunig of the London School of Economics
(who was the first to identify the new breed of Kitchen Table Tycoons).
Leunig also found that more than a third of female entrepreneurs are aged
between 26 and 30, and that two thirds feel more satisfied than they were in
previous jobs.
The founders of the global brand Taggies are the perfect example. Eight years
ago, Julie Dix, 40, and Danielle Ayotte, 37, were stay-at-home mums, who met
each other through their children's playgroup and began not only a
friendship but also a business. Their company is based on the idea that
babies and young kids love playing with labels and tags, the idea for the
product coming to Julie when she watched her son play with a tag on an old
blanket. The product grew from that into an interactive and educational
blanket trimmed with a variety of satin ribbons that babies could play with
and learn from.
Neither Julie nor Danielle had any business experience - Julie was an
early-learning teacher and Danielle an office manager - yet they have
watched their company's revenue double every year since it was founded in
1999.
To begin with they worked from home, taking orders at their kitchen tables,
stacking boxes in their garages and selling at markets, all while trying to
keep their children fed, changed and entertained. Their big break came in
2003 when Scholastic Books proposed a licensing agreement. Since then, 1.5
million Taggies books have been sold. The brand has won numerous awards and
is now a million-dollar business venture.
Besides being a mother, I have run my own successful writing business from
home for the past 16 years (writing mostly books, magazine articles, press
releases and advertising copy). I know that it can work fantastically well.
However, I'm not going to lie to you. Setting up a business from scratch,
never mind from home with a kid on your lap, is a daunting prospect.
People say to me: “You're so lucky” and in some ways I can see their point: I
have no commute, no office politics, and I don't have to work out what I'm
going to wear every day. Plus, I don't have to put my daughter into
full-time nursery. But I know those people also imagine that I spend my days
waking up when I want to, dipping into daytime TV when I'm bored, going for
coffees with friends and generally using my days at home as they would use
their weekends.
The reality is hugely different. Yes, you get to be in your own space, and be
on hand to look after your kids, but here are some of the downsides:
Working from home is distracting - if domestic duties don't get to you, childcare
ones will.
It's hard to stay in work mode when you can hear your child crying/screaming/breaking
something, even though someone else is looking after them.
It's hard to switch off at the end of the day.
When something goes wrong with your phone line/wireless
connection/post, you feel totally helpless.
You have to do all the administration yourself.
Sink or swim, it's down to you.
It can feel isolating and lonely, especially when you're having a bad
work day.
Perhaps the most important plus you'll get from working from home is that
you'll see more of your kids. A small aside, though: don't opt to start your
own business from home if you think that it means working fewer hours,
earning more money and suffering zero mummy guilt. Nothing ends your guilt
when you're a mum. Although it may be at its most intense when you're
sitting in an office, it will still exist when you're working from home.
If your aim is to work when your kids are asleep, or even to work as your kids
play around your feet - think again. Working from home means just that:
working in your home. You won't be able to run a business with very young
children around you. This means that you need to choose your working hours
carefully. Often it means working in short spurts when the children are at
nursery, school or with a sitter, and probably outside regular office hours.
Don't be fooled into thinking, however, that becoming a kitchen table tycoon
is not a proper career. Working from home is still a real job; there's big
money to be made in running your own business. But those with certain
qualities will get farther than most.
BEING A RISK TAKER: You can't play it safe all the time; you need to
have the ability to take measured risks - the risks you can afford.
CONFIDENCE: Studies show that when it comes to self-belief, many women
hold themselves back. The first rule of business is to believe in what
you're doing.
COMMITMENT: You may think you're committed now, but will you still be
six months down the line when you've had three hours' sleep and can't afford
to have your hair cut? Commitment to your business means that you have to be
willing, when you start out, to make personal sacrifices.
INITIATIVE: Part of the problem of working for others is that you get
used to being told what to do and when to do it. Working for yourself
requires you to take the initiative - whether this means taking a leap of
faith with your idea, or trusting a supplier/manufacturer, or asking an
established business person for advice.
DETERMINATION AND RESILIENCE: Are you flexible, able to be the power
behind your idea and to deal with the uncertainty of running your own
business? When risks don't pay off and people let you down, you will need
determination and resilience to pick yourself up and carry on.
©Anita Naik 2008
Kitchen Table Tycoon: How to Make It Work as a Mother and an Entrepreneur, by
Anita Naik, is published on March 27 by Piatkus, £9.99. Available for £9.49
from Times
Books Direct
Now I'm in control
Divorced mother of two Sally Preston, 43, set up Babylicious in 2001
I was puréeing yet another batch of chicken casserole at midnight when I
thought: this is crazy, why doesn't anyone make delicious-tasting frozen
baby food to save me this hassle?
I realised that there were many other mothers like me, eager to give their
kids the best food but without the time to do it. So I combined my skills as
a food scientist (I had 11 years' experience in ready-meals for Marks &
Spencer) with my role as a mother, and started Babylicious and Kiddylicious
frozen meals.
I was confident that I could start a company but I had no marketing skills, so
I outsourced the brand design. Everything else was planned from my
dining-room table. I found a factory to make the food legally and safely,
planned the recipes, bought the raw ingredients, sold to retailers and did
all the invoicing.
I visited high-street banks for funding and wrote a business plan. The banks
thought it was a great idea but put high penalties and interest on the loan,
so I had to walk away. I remortgaged my house in the end, and borrowed from
my parents.
I thought up the name with friends and registered it as a trademark. However,
in the three-week gap between registering the company and incorporating the
name, someone maliciously took the name. I had to rebrand and set about
winning back the name in court. I did eventually win, but the rebranding
cost me and I was awarded only limited damages. I was then the victim of a
hoax caller who told all my customers that I was under investigation by the
Advertising Standards Authority. What I learnt from all this was that you
have to be able to bounce back over and over again. I had faith in my
product, I knew mothers loved it and, thankfully, I had the support of
friends and family.
My advice to anyone starting up is to do all your homework and persevere. Know
your product and give people a reason to meet you.
The best bits of owning my own company are simply that I'm in control of my
life - and it's great fun.
A bathtime eureka moment
Polly Marsh and Helen Wooldridge, mothers of two from Somerset, launched
Cuddledry in 2006
The idea came after a birthday party, when Polly and I had all our kids in the
bath. We talked about how difficult it is to pick babies out of the bath
when they're slippery, while holding a towel and trying to wrap them in it.
We thought there must be an easier way, so we started playing around. We cut
up sheets and started wrapping up teddy bears - and that's how we came up
with the idea of a towel that attached to you like an apron, so that you
could safely lift a baby up out of a bath. To start with we financed the
business through our day jobs [Helen was a freelance PR consultant and Polly
worked in marketing] while finding a manufacturer and a supplier. We are
natural risk takers, which helped.
We received fantastic advice from others in the industry and as a result
quickly managed to get Mothercare on board as one of our retailers. Our
joint skills meant we understood the need for constant promotion and a clear
brand. Since launching we've won two national awards and the number of
Cuddledry retailers is increasing all the time. We are in discussions with
worldwide distributors and are about to launch new products.
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