My first year of owning my Business
Can you believe it? Today marks the day of me leaving EE 1 whole year ago and working full time on my own business. It’s a momentous time, it’s been tough, it’s been brilliant. I want to share with you my stand out moments from the past year and say thank you to a few people who have helped the success happen so here’s my first year of owning my business by Mrs Mummypenny!
- The initial set up of Mrs Mummypenny commenced in July. I went for it straight away making the most of the few weeks before the kids broke up from school. I set up a meeting with a government funded enterprise allowance (NEA) advisor. All provided by the job centre. For them I had to create a business plan, survival budget and cash flow forecast. This was an invaluable experience and discipline. My advisor assessed the business to see if it was viable and worthy of NEA payments. I was approved and started to receive £65 per week for 13 weeks, then £33 per week for another 13 weeks. Help comes from everywhere when you look.
- I set up the legal and the financials. I set up Mrs Mummypenny Ltd, got an accountant, sorted out the share structure, opened a business bank account. All took a lot of time, but so worth it to prepare for the future when you absolutely cannot live without these people/services.
- I spoke to my incredible business advisors. Motivational people who were skilled in life coaching or brilliant small business owners. They gave hours of their extremely valuable time all in return for a coffee to go through my business plan, listen to my ideas, encourage my ambition and gave me lots of brilliant advice. They are successful for a reason and I am incredibly grateful to these people.
- I published some incredibly powerful and popular posts. I have helped people save money, helped people with depression, weight loss, those who are grieving. Standouts in terms of traffic and comments include: –
Coping with the winter blues
How I made £1000 tax free on Cashback sites
The day my life changed forever, the death of a parent
5. I landed my first client in September. Money Dashboard. We worked together on a competition post where I offered a £100 gift voucher. I did a you tube video for them. The clients starting rolling in in February, March time, all the hard work on brilliant content, social media growth has paid off. I now work with Aldi, McDonald’s, Smart Energy GB, Standard Life & Nectar to name a few.
6. I have made some incredible blogger friends, some of whom I have collaborated with. The wonderful Stylist and vlogger partnership of Claire and Nicky have become brilliant friends. We have collaborated on many posts and you tube videos. I have joined the UK Money bloggers community and get invaluable knowledge sharing and promotion from the guys on there, thank you to Andy of Be Clever with your cash for setting it up. There are so many others (too many to mention but I thank you all:-)) who help me, keep me sane in this non corporate bloggers world.
7. I have made some great contacts and friends in the PR world. The peeps at Clarion Comms have been properly amazing, and it all traces back to a you tube video I made taking for 60 seconds about my favourite Aldi wine.
8. I have attended the most incredible events, some of which the children get to come to as well. We have filmed the new Aldi back to school campaign Jack got to experience 4 hours of sensory play, creative play, messy play in North London with Dr Margot Sunderland and her new DVD launch. I have got to do a Bake off challenge with Smart Energy GB. This was so much fun. I made lots of great blogger friends who there is most certainly a collaboration future with and the networking possibilities at these events are endless! All of my work comes as a direct result of going to events and yes simply talking to people about my business and what I can do for their business.
9. I am making money. Yes, I am actually making a living. It comes from all over the place. It comes from sponsored posts, free products, affiliate income, referral income, social media consulting, blog consulting. I am well diversified and the money is coming in. I can pay the mortgage:-)
10. I am in control of my own destiny, call the shots and work as hard as I want and do as much with the children as I can. I work when I want, where I want, be that my sofa, on the train, in the local café and can work at 5am, or at 10pm. It does not matter as long as I meet my deadlines. I negotiate everything myself. I am determined, enthusiastic and passionate about my business and 100% in control of its success. Who can ever say that who is working for a company and who has a boss.
Do you need help with you blog or social media?
If you are inspired by this post leave me a comment or drop me an email on lynn@mrsmummypenny.co.uk. I offer a consultancy service to help others set up a blog, or social media of any kind, can even run your social media for you! I would be more than happy to have a chat and see how I can help you achieve your dreams and objectives
13 Responses
I just thought that I would leave a comment to congratulate you on your first year and wish you many more years to come. I have been following/reading your posts for around 6 months now and where at first I was drawn to the site by the competition that I saw advertised your posts have become more polished and informative as each month has gone by and I continue to read for the information that you provide. Very helpful indeed. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much…what an amazing comment that really means the world. Writing is deffo something that gets better with time. I cringe when i look back at some of my early posts..but they still generate organic traffic!! You are absolutely entered into the competition:-)
Wow congratulations, you’ve come a HUGE way in just a year! Here’s to many more for you xx
Thanks so much Leanne, sometimes I have to pinch myself. I am loving it.
Wow! What a wonderful year you’ve had. Sounds fantastic. Happy 1st anniversary!
Thank you so much Melanie:-)))
Thank you again:-) It was a huge leap, but it has worked hurrah. And I am so much happier than working in the corporate world:-) I should have left years ago!!
Congratulations on all your achievements in the past year.
Thank you for the giveaways too.
Thanks Stephen. Its all going so well. I sometimes have to pinch myself at the results in 1 year. But self belief I always knew it was an incredible idea and with my commercial marketing mind behind it…well golddust;-)
Good post, the first few years are always difficult. never underestimate this. It take hard work and commitment.
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