How mums can give birth to new businesses
Chartered Accountant MARK HJERTZEN,Managing Director of HW Associates Limited, has worked alongside a number of ‘mumpreneurs’ and is convinced that it’s definitely possible to achieve business success while raising a family.
It’s easy to think that being a mother and owning a start-up business are incompatible. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that the phenomenon is becoming more and more common.
My advice is that if you have a good idea and the confidence to pursue it, you should follow your instinct. Don’t automatically assume that having a young family is going to stop you.
Of course, there’s a need for discipline if you’re going to balance work with family life. If you’re not organised and efficient in the way you work, then you won’t be able to achieve a sense of equilibrium. But it’s usually a matter of working smarter rather than working longer.
Are you generally flexible and adaptable? If so, you’ll be able to deal with the unexpected, which is an inevitable part of running a successful business. Looking after kids may demand many of the same skills, in fact!
It’s important that you set the terms. You need to work in a way that suits you and shouldn’t think that what someone else has done is necessarily a good model. This is a personal balancing act.
Finding a good accountant and taking their advice is a critical first step. They will advise you on how to get started, the different structures you might consider and the way in which you’re going to remunerate yourself. They’ll also have plenty of advice on potential pitfalls.
At a practical level, your professional adviser can take charge of admin such as book keeping, payroll, VAT and tax. All responsibilities which can often become a troublesome burden for a fledgling entrepreneur.
So don’t let being a mum stifle your business ambitions or creativity. There’s plenty of help out there and you can make it work.
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