MumPreneur

Athena Gerrards Cross 1st Birthday!

Last week we celebrated Gerrards Cross Athena's first birthday. It was (as usual!) a great meeting and it was also a time for reflection and celebration of all the group has achieved over the past year.

It was wonderful to hear how members have developed (both on a personal and business level) over the last year and to share all those success stories.

I was also particularly touched with talented GX member, Beata Rachowiecka's Ode to Athena. Please see a copy of it below!

An Ode to Athena

 

Today is pink Wednesday and we are all here

To give the mighty Athena a good year long cheer!

The goddess of wisdom she’s come to be known

As parton of weaving she sat on the throne.

 

This is no surprise that she thus was chosen

To lead us wise women to futures more golden.

Tall did she stand proud when times so demanded

Brave wars she did fight and strategy commanded.

 

The daughter of Zeus

She got some good juice

To keep her all zealous

And never stay jealous.

 

The good food she liked a little like me

But never indulged in a long shopping spree.

She had the endurance of a great many men

Whilst never crept back into her own little den.

 

She is an example to us ladies and more:

Being brave, forging links we all so adore.

Strategic alliances come to us so fast

We make good business and can make it last.

 

At Focus Nutrition we too her admire

For her love of discipline in food we aspire.

The flowers and trees can help us in doing

What we do like most and need little chewing.

 

The wisdom of men we have in us already

So wellness we keep and make it quite steady.

If you need advice on matters like this

Come forth and Beata will turn your life to bliss.

 

Some work you may need to do at your end

With walks or Pilates your body will mend.

To stay slim and fit you will need to cook

The mirror won’t lie how fab you will you look.

 

Drink water you’ll need to embrace once for all

And when in doubt what to do you will give me a call.

Like thoughtful Athena I’ll stand to you near

Until between us your problems we’ll clear. 

 

What moral that poem is asked to impart ?

Together all girls can make the world re-start.

Start spinning your webs and together we will

Succeed in all businesses and have little thrill.

Since life is by far too serious without fun

And we girls of Athena surely know how that’s done!  

Great Article in The Telegraph by fellow Mumpreneur Kate Lester..

I saw this on Tuesday and thought it was a great article! For those of you who read my blog regularly will also identify with Kate's sentiments!

Please see a copy of her article below...

Why Mums make great business people

 

It’s 09:00 and you’ve already been to the gym before the family stirs, breakfasted with the children whilst helping them get ready for school, remembering to take the chicken out of the freezer for the evening meal, putting a load of washing on and taking an early morning call from a client. So starts the typical day of a Mumpreneur.

 

Taking daily hectic home routines, mashing it up with a busy work schedule and, often, mixing that up with an essential social life is par for the course for most women in business. And through this ability to combine an enormous workload yet still manage to keep everything functioning smoothly is exactly the abilities that make a Mum the ideal business person.

 

Think of the attributes you need to succeed in business. To succeed you need to be able to multi task yet still focus on the end goal. From overseeing the operations, to making sure the daily function of an office is running seamlessly, to high level financial negotiation to dealing with inter staff disputes a Mumpreneur is likely to consider and be able to deal with all these issues whilst keeping an eye on the big picture goal.

 

The ability to negotiate with even the most unreasonable people is also a valuable asset. Whether they are right or wrong, staff often have an opinion or desire which needs to be acknowledged but isn’t necessarily the best for the company, the client or themselves. And Mum, who has stood up to a 3 year old having a tantrum in an assertive and productive manner, already has this experience. A creative company director I spoke to recently quoted her clients as being as ‘petulant as her teenager’. I suggested she applied the same tactics as she applied at home – consideration, negotiation, rules and rewards. Her ‘tough love’ principle secured a great contract and set the boundaries for a productive working relationship.

 

The ability to be adaptive, learn new skills, and be reactive to changing demand and desires is also paramount. Every Mum I know has had that, ‘I need to go to school tomorrow in historical fancy dress’ conversation at 9pm at night, then to find themselves creating ‘Boadicea’ out of bits of sticky back plastic and an old bed sheet. That creativity and adaptability and that ‘what the heck’ gusto is a great asset. Even scarier is the maths problem of a kid sitting GCSE – I know many a parent who has turned to BBC Bite Size whilst a child sleeps to explain the problem the morning after. Now that’s willing and able.

 

A Mumpreneur is undaunted – whether its illness, school holidays or family crisis or equally a brought forward deadline, a 24 hour pitch or a crisis management situation. They always have a plan, a support system and have considered these issues if only subconsciously in the wee hours of the morning.

 

And a Mumpreneur knows how to get the best out of her team – whether at home or at the office. By encouragement, praise, reward and consistency you can guarantee a busy Mumpreneur evokes loyalty and commitment and the willingness of either her family or staff to go that little bit extra for the benefit of the team as a whole.

 

Finally there is reliability – if it needs doing it will be done – and often by her own fair hand. There is no over inflated opinion of herself, or ‘jobs worth’ mentality – if it needs doing the Mumpreneur will gladly get her hands as dirty as her teams.

 

Its often said that Mum’s suffer a dip in confidence after taking a break to have a family, worrying their skill set is reduced by their absence from the work force, or fear that other colleagues may judge her torn between family and work. On the contrary, the Mum experience improves and enhances a business person’s ability, like an in-house management training course of unprecedented ferocity.

 

And as the saying goes, if you want something done, ask a busy person. Who better than a Mumpreneur?

 

By Kate Lester

Managing Director of Diamond Logistics and RS Couriers.

 

7^th October, 2008

The Telegraph Business Club

 

Parkinson's Law

How many of you made your escape from the corporate world to start your own business having every intention of working less hours each week?

Of course being your own boss means that you have total flexibility about your working hours but why is it so many business owners end up clocking up more hours running their own businesses than they did in their corporate job?

The answer isn't rocket science: when it's your own business, it's your baby and you are passionate about wanting to make it work so you put in all the time you possibly get to make the business a success.

However, just how effective are you being with your time?

I recently re-read Timothy Ferris's The Four Hour Work Week (brilliant book BTW!) and I was struck again by his section on Parkinson's Law - The 9-5 Illusion.

Essentially, when you are an employee and you work the traditional 8 hour day, you fill up all 8 hours of your time completing tasks and working...

However, if you suddenly found you had to reduce your hours by half but all the tasks had to be completed, somehow it manages to get done!

Think of all those part-time return to work mothers who claim that they are more effective and achieve more working less hours than they did before they had children and worked full time...

So by applying the same logic to those of us who run businesses, what if we limited the number of hours we spend working on our business (Ferris lives his 4-hour work week...) would we still achieve the same results and have a better work/life balance?

That's my challenge to you!

Review your list of tasks for a week and estimate how long it's going to take you to complete them all, in your current working pattern and then maybe cut down your time by a third or if you are feeling brave by half...

How will you approach your list of tasks now?

Let me know how you get on....