Nicky McClure (McClure Photography), me, Bob Walter MP, Lara Williams (Lara Williams Coaching) Rachel Jeffries (Tots and Tiddlers Toys) and Darren Toms (www.darrentoms.com)
Yesterday I and a few of the Networking Mummies (Dorset) branch met the MP, Bob Walter, for North Dorset. It was a great meeting we had the opportunity to discuss what Networking Mummies was all about, he was interested to learn about each of our businesses and what careers we had had before children. I was glad to report we had a wide and varied mix of businesses before and after .. which I’m hoping put across to Bob the diversity and shun the stereotype that all mums working from home are party planners, as in tupperware, Virgin Vie etc , as most of us aren’t.
Last year a staggering £4.4billion was put into the economy by ‘mumpreneurs‘ ‘business mums‘ ‘table top tycoons‘ however you want to put it … which I’m sure you agree is a huge amount. I personally wanted Bob to be aware that this isn’t a passing phase this was a new wave in ‘working mums‘. I also remembered to put across (which I super glad I did) to mentioned success stories within Networking Mummies, from award winners, to shop relocations to bigger premises to opening more music classes there are many great small businesses run by mums thriving in the current economic. Which is a huge coup for us when you look at the likes of Woolworths, Whittards and all the big hitters on the high street .. where are they now??
I was lucky enough to have on my side some very vocal individuals who also feel very strongly about the issues we discussed. Nicky McClure, a photographer, spoke about the challenges she faced to start her business up as equipment for photographers is so expensive and the cost of childcare hindering the chances of her going back to her previous career. It was really interesting to hear more about the challenges faced by the other businesses as so much of the work we do within Networking Mummies is training and support I don’t always feel like I have the opportunity just to talk to people.
So hopefully this experience won’t have been in vain and our local MP will remember us in the future!
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