Sunday 20 February 2011

Becoming a mumpreneur, the story so far...

Thanks to everyone for your follows and comments so far.  Before I delve into posts about my opinions, reviews and general snippets of my life, I thought I would share with you my story so far...

As you know, i'm a new first time mummy and business starter, but how did I get to this point?

The adventure had just begun 
Flash back to September 2009, James and I touched down in Sydney after a booze fuelled jolly around Mexico, Vegas and LA.  With all our hopes, dreams and savings intact we had arrived down under, ready to start our new lives together in the sunshine. (ahhhh)

After some nightmare temp jobs (we even considered 'superhero' roles at a theme park, oh yes!) we both secured respectable jobs in the city, myself in Marketing and James in Training.  With hints from both employers of permanent sponsorship, weekends at the beach and moving from a flat share to our own pad just off the harbour bridge we thought... we've made it!

Then after ten days of being late, two days of feeling like death on the train to work and seven pregnancy tests later (six for me, one for James - just to make sure they were working) we found out we were pregnant!  Suddenly our whole world changed.

We decided to stay on in Sydney until I was 24 weeks, after which I wouldn't have been able to fly.  We enjoyed the sunshine, said farewell to new friends and headed back to the sub zero temperatures that awaited us at home that February.

We stayed with James' mum and dad whilst we served notice to the tenants renting our house (thank goodness we didn't sell up, now that's fate).  For the first time in my adult life I was jobless, and unemployable, with an ever growing bump no one was going to give me a job.  So once we got back in our house, I nested, but living on one income was becoming a problem.

Summer came and with it bought the World Cup, damn ruddy football!  I had no interest in being rolled from BBQ to BBQ in the blazing heat to watch what was inevitably going to be a national let down,  so I sulked at home, sweating.

I applied for maternity pay from the Government, I have worked all my adult life, paid my NI so I didn't think there would be a problem. How wrong was I! Two weeks before my due date I received a letter to say that I wasn't eligible.  As I had been out of the country I hadn't worked the required amount of weeks in my 'test period' in England, and Australia didn't count! I was 6 weeks off.  Gutted... how were we going to get by on one wage with a new baby?  

Exchanging Bondi for Skegness - two become three
Then came June 26th 2010, the birth of my beautiful baby daughter, Belle Rose.  It was a horrendous birth, of which I will go into more detail another time, but after an emergency c-section under general anaesthetic she was here!  Isn't it just the most amazing feeling, being a mummy!  We were both over joyed and any feeling of regret about giving up the Sydney dream subsided immediately when we looked into her eyes.

Amongst the joy of having this beautiful new born I couldn't shake the stress of money worries and the guilt I had from not providing towards the household income.  I have always been very independent and worked for my own things.  Suddenly we had to live to a tight budget, of which I wasn't contributing.  I didn't like it one bit!  I knew I had to take ownership of my own destiny, so, when Belle was 10 weeks old I decided to go freelance, and baby number 2 was born... www.themarketingbean.co.uk

And the rest, as they say, is history.  I have been working freelance ever since whilst looking after Belle full time, and I'm loving it!

I hope you'll stay with me as I share with you my continued journey of working motherhood, James adoring and Vera Wang wedding dress hunting!





  


10 comments:

  1. Great story! I'm following from your Mommy Bloggers post! I hope you'll follow me back! Thanks!
    Hope
    www.hopealicious.blogspot.com

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  2. Hello, I found you on BMB and MumpreneurUK - what a fab story! Would you like to feature on my blog? I've got a "I started a business with a baby' thing going on! Here's the info..http://businessplusbaby.com/2010/04/07/did-you-start-a-business-with-a-baby-or-a-toddler/

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  3. I look forward to reading more!!
    Helen x

    Helen @ Regards Rainbow

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  4. wow... that was the blog equivalent of a page turner. Good on you.
    I guess that makes you a Mumpreneur!
    Liska x

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  5. Seven pregnancy tests! I took five, I think... and that was said to be some kind of record! Like me, you probably really needed to be sure. I've been working freelance but with the baby coming I'll be applying for Maternity Allowance for a bit as well but I've been wary about it. You're never sure you're eligible until it's in the bank! Your business looks great - may it keep growing!

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  6. You're an inspiration! I love your story and your voice. :-) I'm also interested in interviewing you for my new blog Raspberry Relief: Nourishment for Women. http://raspberryrelief.blogspot.com. Consider it & be in touch!

    kelli@mamakelli.com
    www.MamaKelli.com
    www.raspberryrelief.blogspot.com

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  7. I must admit that was very interesting and not once did I get bored reading it, it was the case you wanted to know more and kept reading :) Glad all is okay now and welcome to the world lil one :) X

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  8. That's a lot of pregnancy tests :)

    What a wonderful story with a lovely happy ending!

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  9. Hi, found you from the Business Mums Blog Carnival (I wrote the Sprog Blogs entry). What a lovely story! Looking forward to reading more. Hope you'll check out www.sprogblogs.co.uk & my blog too. If you'd be interested in writing a guest post, please get in touch!
    www.twitter.com/sprogblogs
    www.facebook.com/sprogblogs

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  10. I'm afterward from your Mommy Bloggers post! I achievement you'll chase me back!

    What can we do when we have many boring free time? How about try to get access to the online games? When we talk about the game, we need to talk about the WOW Gold. As the WOW is the world's most famous online game,all of us knows that we have to get the Cheap WOW Gold
    to save money !

    ReplyDelete