It’s Mother’s Day on the 14th of March this year and I know what I’ll be getting for my mother this year: a lovely Mum’s Bag from Carry-a-bag. Mimimyne stock these beautiful bags, which are made from recycled vintage fabrics by Sally Walton in East Sussex. Sally designs, makes and hand prints her bags as well and was one of the first designer-makers to champion the eco cause of bringing a bag shopping instead of taking one away with you – and later putting it into the rubbish, from which it goes to landfill, taking many years to degrade, or ends up as litter, endangering wildlife and spoiling the appearance of our beautiful countryside. Sally has also made some limited edition “With Love” bags, which I’ll be adding to the site in the next couple of days and would also make a beautiful present.

Mum's Bag

Another present I’d suggest considering for a mother with a baby, a Heba changing bag made by a women’s charity in the East End of London. We are currently giving one of these away with the Primary Times Online and they make great gifts, with practical pockets for mobile phones, bottles and other mummy paraphernalia! 85% of the purchase price goes direct to the charity and you know you are helping a good cause, as these low-income women are learning how to use their sewing and design skills to build a great future for themselves and their families. Oh yes, and the bag is on sale this month!

1 Comment »

Sarah from Boogles, a book keeping firm for businesses that Mimimyne has been working with, just sent me some copies of her fabulous maths game (on CD, suitable for PC only) for young people aged 5-11. There are a choice of questions – addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And 3 levels – easy, medium and hard. Players need to answer as many questions as possible before the time runs out. In addition there are over 150 worksheet excercises which cover various math concepts – including shapes, ratios, fractions, weights and measures. This normally retails at £4.97 so you’ll be getting yourself a bargain, as shoppers on Mimimyne will get a free copy of this game with their next 5 orders! So come on, do the maths and get your Christmas shopping sorted out at the same time

Boogles Making Numbers Fun 1

1 Comment »

Paula Wynne, Tabitha Potts and Carol Savage at the Everywoman Conference

The Everywoman Conference was a very inspiring day for me. I was speaking on a panel, “Build Your Online Presence for Business Success” with two entrepreneurs I really admire, Paula Wynne of Remote Employment, Carol Savage of MyDish. Judith Lewis of i-Level was the panel moderator.

Paula Wynne talked about her business Remote Employment, which helps remote workers find jobs, how it is important for businesses to ‘punch above their weight’ (making sure your website is professional and attractive, for example) and making sure your search engine optimisation works right from the start. She also talked about how important it is to work hard at PR.

Carol Savage gave a fantastic account of the tough time she had facing the Dragon’s Den with her MyDish concept (helping people share recipes with each other) but showed how it was worth it in terms of publicity and increased visits to her site. I am planning to get on it straight away and share some of our family recipes: I’m lucky enough to have some of my mother’s already printed in her Pauper’s Cookbook but as most of my family are good cooks there are lots of family standbys I’d like to share with others.

Judith gave a very useful analysis of how important it is to build a good online presence on the web, pointing out that if you don’t put yourself on the web, someone else will, and talked of the importance of monitoring what other people say about you online. My talk was about how I have built up a presence online using Twitter, BTTradespace and Facebook and I mentioned some of the tools I have used to make it easier and quicker.

We also listened to some great talks, including Allegra McEvedy’s sometimes hilarious story of her life and adventures as a chef. Her main points were that you should build a great team, that hard times define you, that respect is important (never treat people badly) and that you should enjoy what you do. There were also some fascinating panel discussions and workshops, I didn’t have time to attend everything but all-in-all it was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking day. I will be back next year!

1 Comment »

Today I was lucky enough to have a visit from LCRN who help small businesses like mine audit their energy use and environmental policy. They went through my gas and electricity bills and had a look around my home office to assess my energy consumption. It was a bit shaming to admit I didn’t realise my boiler had a timer function but I was proud of the fact that I recycle absolutely everything I can (garden waste, food waste, plastic, tins, cardboard and paper) and have a low energy computer and low energy lightbulbs. They will tell me my carbon footprint and then I will be working on my environmental policy with them and building up a list of targets (which will also count towards Mimimyne’s 10:10 commitment as a business) on which my progress will be assessed in a year’s time.

No Comments »

The National everywoman Conference 2009
Wednesday, 18th November 2009

Business success comes from creating winning ideas, learning new techniques, sharing experiences and making them work for you. Join us on Wednesday 18th November at this year’s National Everywoman Conference and you will be giving yourself the space and time to do just that.

You will hear winning ideas from inspirational speakers, as well as attend Masterclasses that will teach you how to be a more creative thinker, work on your leadership style and plans to promote your business and raise your online profile. And of course you will be able to network and share ideas with over 300 like-minded business owners. If you’re a woman running or interested in running your own business, you can’t afford to miss this! I will be presenting on the topic of online networking and marketing, can’t wait…

No Comments »

Mimimyne is one of the Finalists for the Green Business award (part of the Thames Gateway Business Awards)!
The awards are given to SME’s who are based or operating in the South East London, East London, Essex and Kent area. I’m excited to be in the running for this award, can’t wait till the 6th November!

Finalist in Thames Gateway Business Awards in association with HSBC

No Comments »

I was recently sent some tickets to take my children along to hear LMA Orchestra perform classical family concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, and I thought I’d tell you more about this great opportunity to introduce your children to classical music.

This concert series is quite unusual as it is especially for kids and their parents. They play games, tell stories, sing, clap and dance and the children even get a chance to conduct the orchestra and sit in amongst the players. Very few orchestras do this and they are trying to get as many children there as possible. The orchestra makes no profit from these events they are purely to pass on knowledge and exciting learning! Here are some of the events they’ve got coming up:

Mini Maestro Family Concert
Saturday 17 October 2009, 4.30pm
Beethoven Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’

Come and enjoy our friendly Family Concerts, a musical playground with full orchestra where everyone can listen, learn and join in the fun and games. Go on a musical treasure hunt, take a quizz and face the challenge! Enjoy a ride on our orchestra side-car or play musical chairs. You might even get to conduct the orchestra!
So join us for a feast of musical treats. See you there!

Ticket prices: Children £6, Adults £8
Tickets available from the box office: 020 7766 1100
Buy tickets online
Concerts last for 1 hour and are suitable for ages 4 and over.

Mini Maestro Family Concert
Saturday 14th November 2009, 4.30pm
Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony

Come and enjoy our friendly Family Concerts, a musical playground with full orchestra where everyone can listen, learn and join in the fun and games. Go on a musical treasure hunt, take a quizz and face the challenge! Enjoy a ride on our orchestra side-car or play musical chairs. You might even get to conduct the orchestra! So join us for a feast of musical treats. See you there!

Ticket prices: Children £6, Adults £8
Tickets available from the box office: 020 7766 1100
Buy tickets online
Concerts last for 1 hour and are suitable for ages 4 and over.

Family Carols by Candlelight
Saturday 12th December 2009, 4.00pm
With special guests Vivamus, Choir and conducted by Rufus Frowde
Ticket prices: Children £8, Adults £12
Tickets available from the box office: 020 7766 1100
Buy tickets online

Enjoying a family concert at St Martin's in the Fields

No Comments »

Bloggers have been in the news a bit recently due to controversy over whether they are open about when they are selling products, what they are promoting and so on. I have to say most of the blogs I read are very entertaining and well-written and if the writer would like to make some profits from their hard work, I for one say why not? The problem is only when people can not distinguish between promoting a product that you are selling and a review of a product (advertorial, in other words) or when you do not disclose that you have a commercial interest in writing about something.

My blog exists mainly to share news about products in my own store, Mimimyne, and to talk about events, products and issues that interest me as well.

As I’ve had several organisations contact me recently to ask me to blog about them or their products, I think it is time to state my position here. I am happy to blog about non-profit or green causes or events provided I have the time. I will occasionally blog about other campaigns, products or services that I have found useful/entertaining/intriguing. If anyone asks me to review/visit/blog about something, I will a) guarantee to give my blog readers my honest opinion on that product/website/service b) disclose that I have been asked to review/visit/blog about that product/website/service. However, I am running my own business so don’t have much free time to write about anything else!

Here are some (only a few) of the blogs I read, although ‘blog’ is a bit simplistic for some of them (more multimedia colossi):

The Rockmother She’s so funny!
Dulwich MumShe makes me laugh as well
The Green FamiliaBrenda is one of the best green bloggers
The Ginlady The Ginlady won an Evolved Blogger award recently for her Green, Independent News blog
Bambino GoodiesThe coolest kids products review site with design news etc

No Comments »

Are you Experienced?, an article on small businesses and home working, interviewed Mimimyne and three other owner-managers.

“To mark BT Business Experience 2009, SmallBusiness.co.uk kicks off a six-part series on technology in business by hearing from four-owner managers about homeworking.

Tabitha Potts, founder of online eco store Mimimyne, set up her business from home as a way of balancing childcare commitments

Working from home has helped enormously with the recession. Although people are spending less on discretionary purchases, I don’t have to worry about having overheads. If it weren’t for advances made in technology, my business wouldn’t exist.

The biggest problem as a mum working from home is the isolation. But I do use networks and talk to other ‘mumpreneurs’ and have formed online friendships…”

Read  More

No Comments »

“Recently I was rung on the telephone by a journalist who wanted to ask me about working from home. As I was chatting away to her, I mentioned that one of the risks of working from home is children interrupting you on a business call. As if on cue, I hear a “Mum”! from the bathroom, as my youngest child is not able to open the door by himself, so have to excuse myself to let him out and chat to him before returning to the phone call. So many people work from home these days, that having children within earshot while taking a work call is not regarded as the crime it might once have been – and didn’t I start my own business so I could play with the kids, go to the gym and eat lunch when I wanted, rather than at someone else’s whim? However, I have paid the price for my flexible working lifestyle, as I said to the journalist on the phone, sometimes it’s hard for me to switch off and I don’t think I’m the only one.”

Read the rest of this interview with Tabitha Potts, featured on BT Tradespace,here

1 Comment »