What is Mums Mean Business and where did the idea come from?

Still in the start-up phase, Mums Mean Business aims to bring networking opportunities to all mums who work from home, own their own business or are looking to start up their own project soon.  Initially providing a group for mummies in the North Staffordshire area, I hope the concept will expand into other areas in the future.

'Mums Mean Business' is a business networking group for mums who work from home, run their own business, or would like support with a project they are looking to get up and running in the near future.

Regular meetings will be held in an informal setting, during school hours with speakers from local organisations.  A crèche facility will be provided for those members who have preschool children and costs will be kept as low as possible to enable even the smallest of businesses to take part.

For me, like many others I'm sure, working at home means that I can combine raising my kids, being a mum, with satisfying my need to be a person ‘in my own right’.  It’s a great opportunity, but one that comes with its own set of issues.  For example, there is nobody there to bounce ideas off, there is always the distraction of housework, etc.  I also found that being out of work for a while had knocked my confidence...

So, a networking group could help some of these issues and would be a useful tool for mums in business to learn and expand their businesses, make contacts and offer advice and support of their own.

However, established networking groups didn't seem to offer what I need:

• Many are costly to join - as a start-up business we just couldn't justify the extra expense.
• Larger, more established group were too formal and intimidating for me to feel confident enough to join in.
• Meeting are held at inconvinient times of the day E.g. working breakfasts or evening events, making them impossible to attend without having to tackle childcare issues.

This is where Mums Mean Business comes in...