It’s been such a busy time in the run up to Christmas that I’ve had little chance to update my blog and let you all know Mimimyne’s news! First of all, I’m happy to say that it has been a good Christmas for my customers with nearly every single order getting to customers on time. I still have a little further to go to be 100% perfect, and there are sometimes problems with mail – couriers or Royal Mail – which are out of my control. For these glitches, I do apologise to any customers who have been affected. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to work on customer service and make some much-needed improvements to the website, as you requested in the customer survey, to make it easier and more convenient to use.

Secondly, Mimimyne’s Mumpreneurs meetup has been going great guns and I’m happy to say that BTTradespace have offered to sponsor this informal networking lunch for mums and women in business, or looking to start a business, for all of next year! Setting up a Tradespace has been a great help to me in terms of publicity, sales and traffic, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their offer to sponsor this event in 2010. I hope plenty of you will be able to come! It’s been a great opportunity to meet in person and chat with some of my favourite bloggers, ‘mumpreneurs’ and business owners and a chance to give back to the online community of businesswomen that has been so welcoming to me. Thank you everyone for being part of this event!

If you’d like to see some of our brilliant speakers at the last event, Dr Nicola Thomas of eco style blog The Ginlady, Natalie Lue of contemporary kids design review site Bambinogoodies and Birgit Medele of Clear of Clutter, visit Mimimyne’s Youtube Channel to watch their videos!

Mimimyne also benefited from some great publicity in November and December, including a fabulous article in the Sunday Times just after Christmas! The boys modelled some beautiful t shirts by Green Eyed Monster (shortly to be available on Mimimyne) and the cushions we are holding are limited edition ones by another company we love, Minimoderns.

The photo shoot was great fun, although I had difficulty stopping the boys making faces!

I was also featured with my puppy Dexter on BT Tradespace‘s mini site with an article and a video interview with me about what inspired me to set up Mimimyne.

So with a successful – if challenging – 2009 under Mimimyne’s belt, what does the future hold? As I said, I’m hoping to make the changes requested by my customers such as enabling customer reviews, shipping to Europe and maybe the US as well, offering free shipping in the UK and so on. What’s really been holding me back is time and money, those old barriers, and I’m hoping for more of each in 2010!

I’ve also been lucky enough to win 500 bags from Smartbags and am trying to think of the perfect slogan for them: if anyone can come up with one for me, I will give them 10 bags for free! These eco friendly reusable shopping bags will be a great addition to my range.

I’m also planning to add some great new designs and eco friendly products to the Mimimyne range next year. I’m particularly excited about the Wattson, a very cool-looking device that helps families monitor their energy usage. I will be using it myself in my new home office. Because – at last! – I am moving house in January and will have a ‘room of my own’ rather than a corner of the kitchen to run things from. Don’t worry, your orders will all be processed as usual, though I might be a little slower than usual to respond to emails!

Finally, as a member of 10:10 I will be working hard on energy saving in my new office. I hope to save 10% of my carbon footprint in 2010 – like all the other 10:10 companies and individuals – and have had a detailed assessment of my energy usage from LCRN which offers small businesses in London a free energy audit. I hope to reduce my carbon footprint as a business and my family’s as a household and will keep you updated on how this is going. I think most of us who care about the environment were disappointed by the Copenhagen summit and the failure of our leaders to reach a truly binding agreement on carbon emissions. Let’s hope that by continuing to do our bit as businesses and individuals we can make the difference that our governments have been too timid to make on our behalf. I think that’s the most important New Year’s resolution any of us can make!

Happy New Year to all customers, readers and friends of Mimimyne!

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Wednesday 9th December 12 noon to 2pm
Venue: Ping Pong Dim Sum (Private Room) 3 Appold Street London EC2A 2AF tel: 020 7422 0780 Nearest Town: London

Reserve your free ticket to the Mumpreneurs Meetup on Eventbrite here

After the great success of our first Mumpreneurs Meetup as part of Business Mum Week, Mimimyne is running another informal networking lunch for mumpreneurs/ businessmums and all women running or interested in running their own businesses.This event is aimed at encouraging women who might not otherwise have considered attending a networking event to consider starting their own businesses, however men are also welcome.

Speakers (to be confirmed) will include Sadie Knight from Glassraven to talk about ecommerce and web design and Natalie Lue of Self Employed Mum to talk about how to make a living as a blogger. These are informal ten minute talks and there will be opportunities to network as well.

BTTradespace will also give a short presentation about how to create your free Tradespace and maximise your online presence.

The event, in the gorgeous private dining room at Ping Pong Dim Sum (www.pingpongdimsum.com), is free to attend and includes a delicious Dim Sum buffet sponsored by BTTradespace! Spaces are limited but babies are welcome (there will be hot drinks served, so we ask all attendees to watch their children carefully) and there is space to leave prams.

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