Proud to be hosting the Business Mums Blog Carnival for June 2012

Business Mums Blog Carnival

Hello everyone.

Its with great pleasure that I am hosting this months Business Mums Blog Carnival from Business Plus Baby.

Its my first time and I am writing this as it approaches midnight. I am not sure that’s a winning combination, but its taken me this long to get through all your lovely posts, thanks so much for all your wonderful contributions.

I do promise to nip back and comment on them too soon. Be great if some of you could do the same.

To kick us off we have a few about our customers, firstly Hannah Jones from 31days2 reminds us that we need to understand out customers, and heavan forbid they may even be lazy, whereas AceInspire are suggesting that if we want them to keep coming back for more those first days after a purchase are critical. Become a Mumpreneur point out how important your email lists can be in getting those customers and PR Basics gives us some top tips in reaching out to those customers through PR. Ces from Bizz Brand Buzz gives us her thoughts on creating sub-brand graphics to entice those customers in. Alison Bradford makes some interesting points on thinking about WHY your customers may be saying your product is too expensive; make sure you look deeper…which leads us on to making sure you follow the money which is, after all, what we want from our customers; so sound advice from The Entrepeneurial Mother. Hopefully, when you all write your eBooks, with the advice from How I Make Money Online, you will be doing just that! Ces probably doesn’t need this advice though, for her free Light Direction eBook, which she introduces to us in her post from the blog by the same name.

The final post with a bit of a consumer feel is from Love Chic Living, who to be honest, had a pretty awful customer travel experience with Ryanair recently. Well done for surviving.

Getting new customers can be a motivation for some, and Rachel Swan tells us of the importance of motivation coming from within in her post. Whatever motivates you, your dreams should be big, says Venita at ambitions2, but try to break down those dreams into smaller achievable goals. Little Lilypad Co continues the inspirational theme by suggesting we should step into our lives and not around them in her post. Very sound advice too.

Whatever your business goals as a working mum are, there are always challenges on the way, and Kizzy Bass has very kindly tried to address those challenges for those of us starting a small business. Some of our business may be branded as lifestyle businesses; and Family Friendly Working explains why having a lifestyle business isn’t for the faint-hearted. One of MY challenges as a working mum is to fit in lunch, and Lunchbox World addresses this one nicely in her post. Bizzy Mum suggests that a fair number of the working mum and parenting challenges in life might be solved if “him upstairs” gave us all life compartments we could hop in and out of as needed. A great idea – get it patented, Karen!

Whatever we do in work, there is always “another us.” Elaine from LittleSheep Learning gives us a glimpse of her alter ego as she blogs about her NCT award; well done Elaine. And Alison Pinney shares with us a poem from her daughter; both proving there is life outside business. As for me, KiddyCharts are thinking back to what visiting London was like before kids. Lakesmum also touches on going out for the day when she gives us some tips on going to the record office to help research your family history. This post from Ces’ blog Supportive Business Mums also shows another personal side to our blogs; this time giving advice on building a seaside treasure box from a slightly smaller blogger than we are used to in this round-up; Cali, aged 8.

And finally Kerry Hales asked us whether we should be taking responsibility for everything. And as its past midnight, and I am tired; maybe I better take responsibility for finishing off this post in a succinct and engaging style?

Or maybe not…

Hope you enjoyed the carnival, I have loved compiling and reading your posts; thanks so much again for them all. Do come back in July when I do believe babybudgeting.co.uk will be hosting. Happy reading!

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!