Inspiring, educating and celebrating grassroots businesses
10 Tips to make bookkeeping
a breeze for small businesses
PR
that makes an impact
How to
challenge yourself and stick to your goals
Plus
ess with in s u B k l Let’s Ta rris Clare mo io n s Solut f o r wa r d S t r a ig h t S t r at e g ie s and
IN CONVERSATION WITH Ogo and Claire Mkparu, founders of Akwa Baby
ISSN 2754-8821
£5.00 Winter issue
9 772754
882003
How Alister Esam Reduced his 80hr Working Week to 14hrs
Contributors
Meet the people who have taken part in the creation of this issue SHONA CHAMBERS MARKETING CONSULTANT
Shona Chambers is a Marketing Consultant and owner of Shona Chambers Marketing, a Marketing Agency based in Nunhead near Peckham. Specialising in helping Small Business Owners and Freelancers with their marketing. *Photo credit Portrayed Photography www.shonachambersmarketing.co.uk
ALISTER ESAM AUTHOR OF THE DIRTY WORD Alister mission in life is to solve what he sees as an endemic problem in business; work just doesn’t work. His book The Dirty Word addresses the way we disregard creativity and disempower individuals as we scale businesses. He is an investor and mentor to 12 start-up companies. www.alisteresam.com
CLARE MORRIS FOUNDER OF CM RESOURCE Clare share’s business growth ideas and strategies for new, developing, and established businesses. Creating, refreshing, or enhancing your business model. She can help you innovate, evolve and love what you do. So that you increase in confidence, overcome challenges, make well thought out decisions and feel positive in your business. www.cmresourceco.uk
TUTU POPOOLA FOUNDER & LEAD CONSULTANT OF SLEEK HR Tutu Popoola is the Founder & Lead Consultant of Sleek HR, an outsourced HR consultancy providing HR support, HR software and Payroll Services to fast growing creative businesses in the UK. She is an Accredited Member of HR Independents and Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) www.sleekhr.co.uk
Our trusted panel of contributors give you essential advice on everything from PR to wellbeing and finance. Magazine designed by B81 Designs www.b81designs.com
KASSI PSIFOGEORGOU FOUNDER OF ADVENTURESOME WORDS Kassi Psifogeorgou is the founder of Adventuresome Words. She is a Milton Keynes-based children’s author and content writer, living with her husband and three boys. She would describe herself in three words, writing, creativity, and curiosity. www.adventuresomewords.com
BECKIE SANDERSON BRANDING DESIGNER, PUBLISHING SPECIALIST AND AUTHOR Beckie Sanderson, branding designer and publishing specialist at Miss Digital Media and author and creator of The Boost Yourself Journal, explains how businesswomen can use journaling for self-care to help boost themselves, their business and their brand. www.missdigitalmedia.co.uk
NATALIE TRICE PR DIRECTOR Natalie Trice is a PR Director based in Devon. From CEOs of international TV channels and Finance Directors of IT companies to entrepreneurs at the forefront of their industry and ambitious start-ups, Natalie has worked with them all and many more. www.natalietrice.co.uk
JACQUE WILLIAMS OUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ADIRU CONSULTING LTD Mum to two daughters, Founder and Managing Director of Adiru Consulting Ltd, supporting businesses with their regulatory compliance through the implementation of good governance practices. Her remit includes charity and corporate governance, human resources management, data protection and risk management. www.adiruconsulting.co.uk
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Coming Soon! Parents in Business Community Podcast
Stay Tuned! www.parentsinbiz.co.uk
5 Low budget marketing ideas for your business
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ou need to market your business to make money, but marketing costs money. If you feel like you are stuck in a catch 22, you are not alone, but thankfully there are some low-cost, even free methods of marketing that may be the solution you have been looking for.
1. Ask for referrals
5. Apply for business awards
Word of mouth was always the best sign of a good tradesman, and nothing has changed in the digital era. Getting referrals from customers is a great way to grow your business. Offering a discount on the next purchase for an existing customer when their friend converts to a sale is a great low-cost motivator and is easy to set up and administer. Enclose information in every item you send out and publicise it across your social channels and website.
Here’s the deal if you have ever wondered how business award winners even got their hat in the ring to start with. They nominated themselves! Not everyone is aware of this fact, but most business awards are self-nominated, and you will then go up against anyone else in your category, and who knows, you might even win. This is a great platform to gain traction in your industry. Don’t forget to blog about it, too - your social channels are a great place to show off your nomination (as we say, most people are unaware these are self-nominated) and if you win or place as a runner up, be sure to shout it loud!
2. Collaborate with other businesses Collab is a buzzword for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The key here is to pick an industry that perfectly complements yours. If they are also a small company selling, the idea of collaboration shouldn’t be that tricky. You can go all in and market each other’s products; maybe you make shoes, and they sell socks, or you can keep it looser and add the odd post for each other. It immediately doubles your audience on social media when they post about you to their fans, and you post about them for your fans. This is also a trust relationship so ensure they have a product suitable for your customers as they trust you,
3. Offer to speak Setting yourself up as an industry expert is a great way to gain the trust of prospects, and it helps solidify your brand. If you know your stuff, do not be afraid to use it. Offering yourself up as a speaker to groups that contain your demographic is a great way to get your name known. Events are always keen to have speakers onboard, and free ones are incredibly enticing. All this costs you is your time, and the payback could be valuable.
Further reading Visibility Marketing: The no-holds-barred truth about what it takes to grab attention, build your brand, and win new business Available to purchase on Amazon
4. Write for industry publications If you are not comfortable standing up and speaking in front of an audience, writing for an industry publication can have the same outcomes. Be sure to check your facts and figures, cite your sources and spell check the document before submitting it. Again, this doesn’t cost anything but time, and you can credit yourself and your company to help raise your profile and get your name out there.
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LET’S TALK BUSINESS WITH CLARE
STRAIGHTFORWARD SOLUTIONS AND STRATEGIES
H
ello, I’m Clare – your positively creative Problem Solver I’m at my very happiest partnering with business owners like you to strengthen and confidentialy move your business forward. When not working you’ll find me outside, rain or shine running or wild gardening! Clare Morris is the Parents in Business Magazines
“business troubleshooter” answering your questions.
The Dilemma: Pivoting A Busines Alex and Lindsay own Puddini. Parents to two lovely girls and wholly invested in their business. They own an innovative catering business based in Cambridgeshire. They provide the most amazing, creative, and beautiful bespoke catering services for weddings, parties and corporate events. But lockdown and ongoing restrictions massively impacted their core business. How could they pivot their operation to share their passion for Italian cuisine? I worked with them to help find a solution to bridge their income gap. I also wanted to keep them well connected to their customer base. So, we took an in-depth look at the issues they were facing, helping them identify ways to diversify their offering. And meet the evolving needs of their customers.
The Challenge Happy Customers Needed The Puddini team had been furloughed. And the business had just taken on bigger catering premises. What could we do to keep the business name at the forefront of people’s minds and get back to delivering delicious, memorable suppers? Knowing how well Puddini were known for catering the Arts Theatre, weddings, corporate events and more, gave them a strong reputation. As it wasn’t possible to service any of these areas now, we drew a line out to the edge of Willingham village. Talked to the team about moving into the delivery arena and started testing meals.
A. did the food stay hot until it reached the perimeter of destinations. Some very lucky villagers were asked to help out! B. was the timeframe for delivery achievable. Could the team cycle with the number of deliveries needed to make it pay and get there on time? C. how many people would be interested. Well, a lot, as we found out. With such positive feedback with so many wanting food to their door, the supper club was more than a takeaway.
The Ideas: Cycling, Stamping and Collaborating Puddini Caterers is well known and loved. Alex and Lindsay’s passion for food and being genuinely lovely people meant that we had no problem with our foodie community. But how did we get the message out there? Flyers were printed. The cycle team were primed, and house numbers counted. The flyer was perfect, but the reverse was blank. What if it fell face down? During lockdown, everyone had a message, so we knew it would be challenging to get noticed. We needed a cunning plan.
Already incredibly popular with existing customers, the supper club has also broadened its fan base. They regularly bring on board new customers. They are partnering with more and more local businesses to complement their supper club. And finally, they are deservedly busy. Alex and Lindsay have achieved so much in such a short time, helped by our amazing brainstorming sessions.
"The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle." Richard Dawkins
Alex and Lindsay decided to go sustainable from the outset, and one of their investments were paper bags to hold the delivery suppers. And a stamp had been purchased to show their lovely logo on the bags. So, one very hot afternoon, Alex sat and stamped over a thousand flyers, with their logo on the reverse. What a great chap and what a success. We would distribute flyers in the village and surrounding area and ask some of their local suppliers to collaborate. By putting the supper club flyers into their orders as well, the busier Puddini got, the busier their suppliers were.
The Results Bigger and Better The outcome was the Italian Supper Club. A delivery service where the team provides high quality and delicious Italian food delivered directly to the door. And it is very, well received.
“Clare has been the breath of fresh air that we so desperately needed! Always a pleasure to speak to and immediately able to offer such practical and creative advice.”
I am ready to answer your questions, which can be anything business-related, but don’t restrict the situations to just inside work. If they are affecting your life-work balance, I would love to address these. Click here to send your questions to me or email Info@parentsinbiz.co.uk Connect with Clare www.cmresource.co.uk JAN 2022
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Small Business Spotlight The Book Publicist Matt & Ella Davidson Briefly tell us about you?
W
e are Matt and Ella Davidson, the husband and wife team behind The Book Publicist – an award-winning PR agency specialising in promoting non-fiction books and the brilliant people behind them. We are also parents to three messy, mischievous but pretty marvellous boys, Barnaby (9), Ben (6) and Wilbur (2). We live and work together from our chaotic house full of books in Herefordshire, surrounded by our dog, cat and six chickens.
What inspired you to start your business? Both of us had been working in London in jobs we didn’t like. So, when Matt was headhunted for a job in York, we decided to quit and start a new life in North Yorkshire. Ella moved without a job, so while she was at home, she reached out to one of her favourite previous employers – a non-fiction publisher – about doing some freelance PR work. This first freelance client gradually
turned into more and more, and within just a few months, she had built a business that gave her a really good living using nothing more than a laptop, a spare room and a lot of hard work.
of entrepreneurs, fitness experts, life coaches, psychologists and parenting experts who don’t even have a book, but we’re still able to position them as the “go-to expert” in their field.
Shortly after our first son was born, however, all the staff at the company Matt was working for were made redundant. He got the phone call with the news while giving baby Barnaby one of his first ever baths at the kitchen table, and with Ella off on maternity leave, it suddenly turned the happy “new baby” period into quite a worrying time.
Our job is really just using our relationships with magazines, radio stations, podcasts and other media outlets to put people in front of the right audiences. That might mean getting a book reviewed in one of the national newspapers, having an expert interviewed on a BBC News or getting an author the opportunity to tell their story on the This Morning sofa – every campaign, and every day, is different, and that means we still get a buzz out of the job even after all these years.
A few hours later, once the baby was finally asleep, we sat down together, and Ella said, “Why don’t we use this as an opportunity to give ourselves some freedom?” We decided that we could both work on the business while splitting the parenting duties 50:50 to create a work/life balance we both love. Fast forward to today, and we are super proud that the little company Ella started has grown into a team of 10 brilliant people – all while fitting around raising 3 wonderful little people of our own.
Tell us about your niche? As the company name implies, we specialise in publicity for non-fiction books, which means we work with lots of different authors and publishers. However, what’s interesting is that for many of the clients we work with, it is much more about sharing their ideas and expertise with the right audience to help build their profile, rather than just promoting their book as a product. In fact, we work with lots JAN 2022
We feel fortunate to work with some of the world’s leading experts to help them share their ideas. We might be talking to a World Cup winning footballer about combating racism in the morning and a parenting expert about coping with toddler tantrums in the afternoon, but the insights we get from them are always genuinely fascinating, and we’d like to think these ideas might help make the world a little bit better place for our kids to grow up in. www.thebookpublicist.co.uk *Photo credit Sally Corrick Photography www.sallycorrickphotography.com
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Collaborate with us Become a guest contributor and showcase your expertise amongst the Parents in Business magazine readers. Contact us info@parentsinbiz.co.uk
How to challenge yourself and stick to your goals Be Realistic
T
here is no point in challenging yourself with unrealistic goals because you are setting yourself up to fail, which is not good for confidence or self-esteem. This applies to both work and personal life. For example, a popular personal goal is to lose weight, which is fine but define it with a realistic slant. If you have never been a size zero, the chances are you won’t ever be, so you are immediately doomed to failure. So, your goal should be to eat healthily, exercise regularly, and as a side effect, there will be weight loss leaving you feeling more positive about your bodily image. The same applies in your work life; set realistic goals and narrow them down to achievable steps that will boost your confidence as you pass each step along the way.
Find Your Tribe We are not designed to walk this world alone, and support can make much difference to what you can and cannot achieve. January is always seen as a great time to make resolutions, and this brings about a sense of community as so many people will be joining the January vibe. This gives you a support network, and it is essential to talk to friends and colleagues as this has been shown to lead to lasting results and longer-term commitment than going solo. It also pays to build in some accountability, and friends can be great at this. You can also track your progress with various apps and social media interactions but keep this positive as it can go the other way and make you feel like you have failed when you are doing fine.
Give it a Date Stamp Challenges and goals should be set and measured in SMART terms, and if you know about this method of working, you will know that the T stands for Time. We have already covered the rest of the acronym (Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Relevant). Finally, we need to give ourselves a deadline to stay on track. Think about how clean your house can suddenly become when a family member is coming for dinner, or how fast we can get a piece of work out the door when the client has paid for express turnaround. The same applies to our goals and how we challenge ourselves. Without time limits, it is too easy to bump them down the to-do list or put them off for another day – procrastination is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to success, so set a deadline and stick to it. JAN 2022
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Parents in Business Directory Joy Foster TechPixies
Salihah Agbaje Spoken World Productions
Vee Roberts Insight2marketing
TechPixies is an award-winning CPD accredited online learning platform with a social mission to help women leverage the power of modern technology (Social Media, WordPress and MailChimp) to improve women’s access to employment or help them to start a business.
Spoken World Productions are a Theatre in Education organisation operating across London and the globe (virtually!) to bring fun, educational and enriching Drama lessons to primary aged children.
Insight2marketing is a Full-Service brand & Marketing agency led by Vee Roberts, an award-winning Brand & Marketing Coach.
www.techpixies.com
Their sessions are designed to work in line with all subjects and can be tailored to the individual curriculum. So if you are a school teacher, home educator, enrichment officer or parent seeking a drama package for your child to enjoy, they can help. www.spokenworldproductions.com
For the last 25 years Vee has been working with and for businesses globally to help them develop, promote and grow their brands. You’re in the right place if you need help with your brand and marketing. Insight2marketing is a Full-Service brand & Marketing agency led by Vee Roberts, an award-winning Brand & Marketing Coach. www.insight2marketing.com
Patience Modevi Otentikcare Patience created Otentikcare as a wellness hub for women because she believes that wellbeing should be an everyday practice and that even the smallest things in life can bring calm, comfort and care. With this in mind, she shares the mindful products and practices that have revolutionised her own well-being in her online space. She stocks authentic, sustainable products for mind, body and soul wellness, with a particular focus on products for ladies over 40 who are conscious of their wellbeing. www.otentikcare.co.uk
Leanne Parry - Werk Lifestyle Management
Shannon Reed Mockingbird Makes
Werk Lifestyle Management offers a new, modern approach to personal and business support, supplying you with transparent and uncomplicated assistance when you need it most
Shannon of Mockingbird Makes, mindfully Make beautiful bespoke hand knitted crocheted or embroidered handicrafts, co-creating alongside her clients (partners, really).
It is a service for businesses, entrepreneurs, or anyone who needs business support to offload tasks or bring structure to their home life.
Her Makes have been called “sunshine in product form” that have a ‘huge feel-good factor.’
www.work-werk.com
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ MockingbirdMakesCo
You can find these businesses and more on our online directory Michelle Molyneux MJM Virtual Solutions
Louise Worsley Worsley Training
Nadene Martin Format Services Limited
Your everyday virtual admin solution provides personal assistant support to conquer general admin tasks, so consultants and small businesses can focus on growing their business. They offer a range of flexible packages to suit your needs, drawing on our expertise in education, Health and Social Care, GDPR and proofreading to name a few.
Louise has over fifteen years of hands-on First Aid experience, both as a global expedition leader and as a parent. She draws from this to bring First Aid to life for participants, providing practical training grounded in realistic examples of how the techniques could be used. Louise is qualified through and regulated by Rescue Emergency Care, Nuco Training and ProTrainings.
Format Services is a Virtual Assistant Company taking care of all of your administration needs. Offer various services which can support you to grow your business, and you can view them further in the Services section. There are many benefits of outsourcing your administration, which you can discuss further as every business is unique.
www.mjmvirtualsolutions.com
Julie Hawkins – Single Mums in Business Network The primary objective of the SMBN is to help you gain exposure to your business. They concentrate on driving traffic to their member’s pages so that you are seen. The secondary objective is to reduce stigma and dispel misconceptions that single mums are work shy. It is the passion of founder Julie Hawkins to raise awareness of the real issue is that work is not in sync with school and wages are not in sync with inflation. www.singlemumsbusinessnetwork. com
www.worsleytraining.co.uk
www.formatservices.co.uk
JOIN THE DIRECTORY The Parents in Business Directory is here to help you! Featuring your business with us will boost your visibility levels. We will ensure that your business, and more importantly, what you offer, is seen by the RIGHT people. www.parentsinbiz.co.uk/join-the-parentsin-business-directory/
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