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Following on from my blog post about how I got started in business through launching event management company Little Fish Event Management – which you can read here.

I wanted to come onto how the idea for Mums Enterprise came around and what made me decide to….. as the Talented Ladies Club say – Screw it lets do it!

Mums Enterprise wouldn’t have started if I hadn't had my baby Molly and if I hadn’t launched Little Fish, it seems very odd that is all seems like it is all a tale and every chapter I look back and go…ahhh I see, because each chapter leads onto the next.

After choosing not to go back to work after my maternity leave, working out the right childcare then actually finding a childminder. Figuring out how much money I had to earn to make becoming self-employed viable, and after looking into all other possible work options. It was really after speaking to my mummy friends when I started to realise that s**t…… pretty much every working woman on this planet must face the same conundrum about returning to work, and you know what, I haven’t been proved wrong since. Even now my friends have babies and the conversations are still the same, every woman has some tough choices about what to do and there are tough pressures about earning an income and actually spending time and being there for your family.  That is even before we have sat down and thought actually what is it I would really want to do, what are my dreams - that is a whole other blog.

I started to research a little as I had the idea for an event for ambitious mums flickering away at the back of my mind because of my own experience and of those I mention above of my friends.  I had looked into what other events were out there for mums, I knew of business support groups, spotted the growing number of flexible recruiters and became a familiar visitor to the Talented Ladies Club website.   As a…..ah-hem young….woman, mother and by being self-employed I knew there were a lot of resources and support out there for me. It wasn’t until I was applying for a tender for Little Fish and it was telling me that if I were successful I would be taking on full commercial responsibility for that event. That was the light bulb moment for me, if I were to complete that tender which was actually in an industry I don’t know much about (and actually quite boring) and risk taking on its commercial responsibility, why don’t I just make my own event idea a reality and take commercial responsibility for that instead.

Well that was it, I started to research and research some more. Once I get an idea in my head I am like a dog with a bone. I started planning out my idea, Talented Ladies Club helped me conduct a survey and I had a very strong vision of what was needed to be done, who the events were for and how they should be organised even before putting anything on paper.

The events were to help ambitious women, who may be on maternity leave, perhaps on a career break or even currently expecting. At first they were to simply support women find flexible roles, start or grow a business but it was after conducting some focus groups that we added re-training. It is remarkable how many women want to up-skill or train to enter a completely new career altogether, or re-train to then start a business.

It was in April (2015) and the survey results that made my mind up, 100% of women surveyed would either be very interested or interested  to visit an event if it were near them.  I could feel it in my bones and those results were  the proof, I just had to do it.  Work then started to make it all reality - I worked up a marketing audit, business plan, marketing plan, started to visit venues and by August we had set a date to launch our website by the beginning of September.  

Even though I had been self-employed there is no better feeling than creating your own event as there is no boss at all, not even a client.  (I do love working for you clients ha) - but I felt free but also really pleased that my 15 years’ experience organising events could really come into its own. For this event I was making the decisions and I promise you that is a good thing, I am organising events for my past self, what I would have wanted to see then and what I would like to see now as an owner of a start-up. I am organising the events for my friends who are facing such challenges, the amazingly talented mums and women I meet and talk with every day and the thousands of women out there who are facing the exact same conundrum about what to do now they have started a family.

The Mums Enterprise Roadshow will be events that unite, empower and motivate but above all inspire and instil confidence for women to shoot for the moon. I am so very, very passionate about our events and I cannot wait to deliver the very best events of their kind for every woman who attends.   The partners and exhibitors we are already working with and those I am speaking to are critical in making these events awesome and believe me we are being choosy. No irrelevant, sales pitches here oh no, just essential and passionate organisations who believe in helping ambitious women nationally and locally.

My mission is to make them the number one events of their kind in the UK – and you know what there aint no doubt that I will succeed.

So there we go, that’s how the Mums Enterprise got started. Next I will talk about how Lucy Chaplin got involved and about how we came up with and created the Mums Enterprise bold and unique brand.