A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of going to the Mumpreneur Australia Annual Conference and Awards night where I was surrounded by incredibly impressive women that have entered the business world since having children. There were inspiring stories of business genesis, impressive tales of mothers taking on major supermarket chains (and winning) and equally as remarkable apologues of mums that saw a gap in the market and had the courage to close it. With more than 50% of new small businesses now started by women, it is a burgeoning market and a profitable one at that.

Since that conference I have had the opportunity to make contact with a number of mumpreneurs and learn about their experiences. One of the most interesting business women I have had the pleasure of interacting with is Alison Valenti, who had the innovative idea of creating a business that helps mums in business, and specifically helps Mums to get started with their business idea. It makes sense. Mother’s are often time efficient and hard working, and for those that spend time on maternity leave they are usually exposed to a huge new array of products in the baby and kids market which is ripe for great ideas and new innovation.

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Like many other mothers Alison, who has a background in insurance, felt she needed a change after having children. She says,

“Very quickly I felt that I had lost my identity, my direction, my drive. I was completely in-love with my child, but I needed something…I needed to find out what lights me up, what inspires me, what propels me into action.”

So Alison began researching herself. She attended workshops, read books and listened to CDs. She became an expert on human behaviour and in doing so, discovered that many mums were having the same experience as she was. After having children and taking time off, they were re-evaluating the parameters of their careers. They were asking themselves, “what next?”

Her first venture was called The Mum’s Club, and it aimed to aid other mothers in a similar journey of self improvement and discovery. Many mums got to the end of the program feeling a greater level of actualisation, but still yearning for a next step. So off the back of the success of The Mum’s Club and using the combined experience she gleaned from her years in corporates and of further study, Alison launched Mums Business Kickstart.

Built around the core belief that mums can be fulfilled financially and personally with a start up business, Alison says mumpreneurs can be incredible role models. But they need to know the steps and to get support. The Mums Business Kickstart programs and workshops teaches mums about how to be a mumpreneur, how to create strong business foundations as well as marketing, social media strategies and sales. In a nutshell, it coaches mums how to Kickstart a business and make it successful.

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And of course she understands what it means to be a mum with passion and drive for success and to perform that juggling act. Alison has had some amazing results with her Kickstart clients;

• Lisa who owns her own home beauty salon was struggling to get new clients and earn an income regularly, and was wondering if she should give up. Now she is getting up to 4 new clients a week, increasing her sale per client and exceeding her turnover goals by hundreds of dollars.
• Genine is the owner of a natural therapy clinic. Her goal was to grow her weekly appointment bookings from 10 to 15-18. She has now reported to me that her weeks can be completely booked with over 20 clients.
• A mums and dad business have been doing their business for 18 months, but more as a hobby. They wanted to turn it into something more than that. Within 2 months of us working together with their marketing strategy, business foundations, and brand the dad has quit his full time job to focus on the business and they have starting hiring their first couple of employees.

A new business can change a family’s life with access to the right tools and strategies and some of Alison’s clients are now earning more money in their own business than what they would earn in their previous jobs. The advantage they now have is that they have more freedom and flexibility than when they worked for someone else.

The Kickstart website can be found here, and the Facebook group, which is full of tips and strategies for budding mumpreneurs, can be found here.