Minding your own business

The PR people at Shiny Red have got in touch, to promote the Prowess Business Mum of the Year Awards for 2008, in particular the category of "Inspirational Business Mum of the Year", which is sponsored by Yell.com.

Yell.com has commissioned a study to mark its sponsorship of the award and an encouraging message that has come through is that 92% of business owning mums believe that having children improves work skills. At last, some official recognition for all the juggling that women have to do, involving planning ahead, multi-tasking, having a can-do attitude as well as being efficient in the process.

Interestingly, the study reveals that once mums have taken the big leap to set up their own business, "they perform a remarkable 18 different job roles - from cook right through to accountant - during any average week. In monetary terms, respondents estimate that they would have to pay an annual salary just shy of £50,000 for someone else to undertake these tasks".

Now that would have been a lovely figure to have sent to the Inland Revenue this week, instead of the real earnings that were submitted in my tax return.

There are lots more facts and figures on the Business Mums website, so if you are thinking about launching your own business and want some inspiration, take a look at their site where there are some great hints and tips. You might even want to nominate someone or yourself. For more information hop along go to http://bizmums.co.uk/ or www.prowess.org.uk.

Of course, if you are inspired to set up your own business and you live in or near Bury St Edmunds, give Menta a call, our local enterprise agency where professionals are on hand to help you on your way with their fantastic WoMenta programme.

I'm off on my travels now, so won't be able to respond immediately to comments. However, I will try and test out my new phone and add some posts while I'm away.

How many hats can you network with?

Yesterday I attended a very useful networking session for women, organised by our local enterprise agency, Menta. Throughout my career, whenever I've attended networking sessions it's always been straight-forward. Shake some hands, meet some interesting people, listen to what they do and promote what you do. Simple eh, when your career/self-employment is focused in one area!

However, regular readers will be aware of my developing "Portfolio lifestyle", aka my dibble-dabbling. So far, this has been going beautifully and it's been easy to keep everything compartmentalised in their little boxes, opening one box at a time for the appropriate situation, whether it's related to scribbles, bling or blogging (my three main income streams).

It's never been a problem until yesterday, when people were asking what I do in what was a general forum. Suddenly, I felt like I was changing hats, (not to mention costumes), faster than Mr Ben (apologies to readers under the age of 30 for the 1970s cultural reference). I came away utterly exhausted.

Then it occurred to me, even though I've got each of these individual boxes under control, what is missing is a "corporate" identity for Me Ltd. However, how to create a corporate identity for a dibble-dabbler, does not seem an easy task. I wouldn't like to say that I was a Jack (or Jill) of all trades because it implies that I'm master (or mistress) of none, which is untrue. Likewise, I don't want to compromise my interests by ditching one or two of my income streams to focus on one path.

If Mr Sugar or Mr Branson happen to pass by, any advice would be appreciated. In the meantime, I'm off to see Charles Handy in a few weeks, the originator of the Portfolio Lifestyle. Maybe I'll ask him!

(Image courtesy of www.kirstysredhats.com)


Addendum:

I've just come across a great site called Down The Lane, which focuses on down-shifting, which is what I've subscribed to, having decided not to go back into formal work since having children. It's inspired me to realise my dibble-dabbling is okay and I don't need to get too serious about it. After all, get serious, get stressed and I might as well be back in the office that I am trying to stay away from.