Rosie Scribble

Setting up your own business - crazy or common sense?

According to The Small Business Start-up Workbook, British entrepreneurship is on the rise with 400,000 SMEs being formed between 2004 and 2007. Many people have set up their own business since those figures were produced, spurred on by the job insecurities and redundancies that go hand in hand with an economic downturn, or just because they’d like to be their own boss.

But is it something I could do?

I've written before about feeling left on the scrapheap before the age of 40 when I found my employment options very limited. But I took heart from the positive comments I received and set about gaining some up-to-date skills to improve my chances in the job market.

I've travelled to London; I’ve studied online. I’ve attended a social media course, a copywriting course and gained two marketing qualifications. But still it feels as if I've hit a brick wall and the dream of a fulfilling full time job appears to be just that, a dream.

Now our hopes of starting afresh in a new house in a new part of the country are hanging in the balance because it's difficult to have your application to rent a property accepted when you don't work full time, it turns out. But that’s not the result of a lack of trying or a lack of ambition.

And there have been many exciting offers - a magazine column, a full time social media role, a freelance role in London. I've celebrated with family and friends and toasted a bright future.  But for whatever reason - I was never told - the work never materialised and my very high hopes were dashed. Cruel really. I guess that's just business. Hard to bounce back from nevertheless.

Learn how to create an ebook

A new career opportunity has presented itself to me and I'm seeing pound signs in front of my eyes.

No, it has nothing to do with writing and selling ebooks.

I have a throat infection and can only speak with the type of husky voice that commands large fees in voiceover land. So I'm off to find an agent and earn a fortune.

But if you are interested in profiting from the ebook market, then you might be interested to hear that business entrepreneurs Erica Douglas and Antonia Chitty are launching a new From Knowledge to Profit course over the next few days at Create an ebook

Do you want to work from home?

I’ve been working from home for nearly four years now. It is not something I would want to do forever as I find it quite isolating, especially as a single parent, but it does mean my working hours are flexible and I’m around when IJ gets home from school.

Recently I’ve been looking in to some ways in improve my income and considering a few new business ideas. Then out of the blue I was asked to try the new Be a Mumpreneur course, run by Erica Douglas and Antonia Chitty, prior to its official launch.

Erica recently wrote a guest post here about the course. At the time was interested but did not plan to sign up. I assumed I needed to have a detailed business plan in place or have a product to sell to make the most of the course, but that isn’t the case at all.

The course provides lots of helpful suggestions for creating income streams from selling products to offering services or even looking for items around the house to auction off. The course is developed through a series of elessons delivered straight to your inbox. There is also a private members site with further study materials, a forum and chat facility.

Just four lessons in and I’m already filling a notebook with ideas and researching the new business venture I’ve been considering for some time. The course has given me the push I needed.

The course is well written and the approach friendly and down to earth. The private members site is easy to navigate and will be a great way of meeting others and reducing the isolation of working from home.

I’d highly recommend it. Already it has led me to assess my working life and think about the direction I want to be going in. I haven’t wasted any time in taking action and I’m excited to see where this will lead.

If you are interested in registering then click over to their membership site to find out more about the structure of the course and sign up to  receive further details. There are just a couple of days left to get the reduced rate of £9.99 per month.

Guest post: Little Mummy on earning an income online in 2011

Today I'm delighted to be handing over the floor to Erica who blogs at Little Mummy. For anyone interested in earning an income online, Erica is proof that it is possible, and together with her business partner Antonia Chitty, there's an opportunity for you to do the same in 2011. Over to Erica:

I've been online doing this and that for nearly five years now.  Over that time I've blogged, stumbled, tweeted, facebooked and ebayed.

I've followed the journey of many internet entrepreneurs from before I even started blogging.  I always hoped it was possible to earn an income online but I wasn't convinced until I started doing it myself.  In 2009 I replaced my part-time income with online income and I've continued to grow that in 2010.  I don't have enough space here to write the full story, but I wrote about it here if you're interested - My Mumpreneur Journey.

Now I know what works I think there are tons of opportunities to earn a moderate income online and stay at home mums are in an amazing place to really capitalise on online opportunities.  They don't have to risk leaving a job, they don't usually have to earn to pay the mortgage and they can work randomly around the clock in the early days to get things moving.

If you've built a successful mummy blog then you're in a position now to leverage those skills for profit and I'm not talking about making money from your mummy blog.  If you're interested in making a moderate income in 2011 then perhaps it's time to consider taking your skills and applying them to a profitable niche.

Creating a blog on a niche topic, building an email list and affiliate marketing, selling your own products or selling advertising is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to make an income online today, and you probably already have most of the skills required already.

On January 17th I'm launching a membership site with my partner Antonia Chitty (author of The Mumpreneur Guide), the course is for people ready to start making their own income in 2011.

If you're ready to start making an income online, working (hard!) around your children's childcare needs then you can sign up for our free taster e-course here - Mum to Mumpreneur in a Month.

Thanks for reading and I hope that whatever your goals are for 2011 that you achieve them and more!

Erica blogs at Little Mummy.com. I have reviewed her Mum Blogger ebook here!

Introducing my Cybermummy sponsor

After hesitating about pitching for sponsorship for Cybermummy11, I decided to take the plunge last week. A week of snowbound isolation had left me keen to meet up with my online friends again and to be part of such a significant event in the mummy blogging calendar.

Despite being a little uncertain about putting myself out there, I’m delighted I did because I now have a fabulous sponsor in the form of Little Dodo.

Little Dodo is an independent business for ‘bumps, babies and beyond’ run by Maddy and Owain Bennett, with the help and advice of their young sons Jonah and Alexander. Situated in the Northumberland market town of Hexham, the shop was born from a desire to provide useful, interesting and stylish products to an ever-growing market.

A look around their website reveals an extensive range of merchandise covering everything from bathtime to bedtime, clothing, feeding, toys, gifts and more. Already I am looking at gift ideas for my baby niece or nephew who will be born in January.

There’s also a Little Dodo blog which has contributed to Jay’s Silent Sunday and Josie’s writing workshop.

The team at Little Dodo have been a pleasure to deal with and I am thrilled to be representing an independent business. I’m really keen for Little Dodo to gain as much from this sponsorship arrangement as me, so you’ll see them mentioned here in forthcoming posts.

It was hard to contain my excitement when I discovered I would definitely be going to Cybermummy11. For those on twitter keen to know who my sponsor was, the clue came in the form of a tweet where I nearly blew our cover and made this announcement too early.

It has been a fabulous blogging year for me and one that has taken me from the luxury of the Lowry Hotel in Manchester to the mud huts of Cameroon. So securing sponsorship at this stage rounds it off perfectly.