I was very excited to be May’s British Library Business and IP Centre Success Story.

As someone who loves libraries, especially beautiful ones (I wish I’d appreciated the Radcliffe Camera more in my student days, instead of going to sleep in it so often) I still thrill to get my British Library reader’s pass renewed and feel a little lift to my spirits whenever I go in. It was wonderful, because of this, to be asked to have my photograph taken and to have a video filmed about my experience using the British Library Business and IP Centre.

I talk in the video about how helpful the library has been to me, but to sum up it was there that I researched and created a business plan that won me a start-up loan from Deutsche Bank and made my dreamed-of business a reality. It’s a fantastic resource, with networking events aimed at business people (some free and some low-cost), its Inspiring Entrepreneurs series, a great front room to chat in, lots of relevant business periodicals, access to databases, books and anything else you could need. I am still using it on a regular basis and I thoroughly recommend it to every entrepreneur or person dreaming of starting up on their own.

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I’m very excited to let you know that Mimimyne has been shortlisted for the Make Your Mark in the Markets competition organised by Enterprise UK. It’s a great opportunity for small businesses and start ups as they are subsidising all the shortlisted entrants for 10 days trading in the market of their choice. We will be assessed by judges over our 10 day trading period and the winner will get six months subsidised trading!

I’m very happy to have been given a pitch at Spitalfields Market, twice voted Best London Market, which is in my opinion the coolest and most stylish market in London. It has fantastic stalls, great shops and beautiful architecture: what could be better? Also, speaking as someone who’s done a lot of outdoor events, I will be very happy to be under cover and knowing that my lovely products won’t be blown away by breezes or rained on!

Dates for Mimimyne at Spitalfields Market this May confirmed so far:

Friday 14th May
Sunday 16th May
Monday May 17th
Tuesday May 18th
Sunday May 23rd
Monday May 24th
Tuesday May 25th
Friday May 28th
Sunday May 30th

If you’re planning a visit to Spitalfields over the next couple of weeks, look out for me! Hope to see you there.

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I was interviewed by a very charming Brazilian journalist for Globo News the other day: it was for a programme about people setting up businesses from home. The programme as a whole is about women’s roles and home businesses generally (I understand some Spanish, so I can get the gist if not a lot more!) and there is an interview with me in English with Portuguese subtitles plus funny footage of me struggling to school with boys and dog. I’ve already had some emails from Brazilian viewers asking for advice and suppliers, so who knows, perhaps I’ll have some lovely Brazilian products to feature on Mimimyne soon! I love the way the Internet empowers you to reach out to the whole world: it really is amazing.

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First of all, I hope you are all enjoying a lovely Easter break! I wanted to share with you what I’ve been doing recently to help me work towards my 10:10 pledge (as an individual, and as a business too!). My family recently moved to a car-free development so when our residents parking permit ran out, we had to sell our car (and the roof box) on Ebay. This was a relatively hassle-free experience in the end (Ebay is a very efficient process if you are a seller) and we were happy with the prices we got, but the next step was worrying about how we were going to get around on those unavoidable occasions when we will need wheels.

Step forward, Zipcar. We had researched some other companies but Zipcar is the only one that currently lets you take pets on board (in a pet carrier) so it was a no-brainer for our family. Also, I caught them doing a promotion outside Waitrose, so was able to join for £25 a year plus £30 free driving time – not bad! This meant I was able to scurry home with the Zipcar card in my hot little hand ready to activate, rather than waiting for them to send it.

My husband and I then had a look at the site, logged in and booked a car for a Saturday drive to Epping Forest with the kids and Dexter the dog. The site is VERY easy to use, it allows to you select your nearest car for the block of time you want. In our area, the nearest car (they all have names, bless) was very popular and seemed to be booked out for a whole week, so we had to choose one about ten minutes walk away. This is a tad inconvenient if you have a dog in a pet carrier, but my husband nobly went and fetched it. Wow factor? If you have an iPhone, you can UNLOCK the door with it once you’ve installed the Zipcar app and make the car HONK. It’s like being James Bond, or Knight Rider or something. The kids (and my husband) love this.

The car itself was a VW Golf, which seems to be a popular model. It was very clean, our only complaint was that it smelt very faintly of smoke. Possibly someone just used it who had been in a smoky venue, who knows. You pay for petrol with their complimentary credit card, but ours had a full tank anyway, so off we sped to Epping Forest. The dog thought that as he was in his crate, he must be on his way to the vet, and whimpered all the way, but hopefully he’ll get more relaxed about this! We had a lovely walk for an hour or two, and then faced a slight obstacle – muddy boots. In our old car, we’d have just hopped in merrily and lived with the dirt. However, we had brought a towel to clean the dog, luckily, with so put the boots on this and put him back in his carrier. My husband returned the car to its bay, with a farewell honk or too.

We’ll be continuing to use this service and are very happy with it – we may not use it so much for driving out of London for UK holidays, as it works out a little less economically, but in London and around I think it will be a lifesaver. And we are saving ourselves between £1500 – £2000 a year from our old car’s running costs – it will take a lot of Zipcar trips to get anywhere near that!

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The Women on their Way Awards, for which I was nominated as one of the Best Online Businesses, was a great day out and very inspiring. I didn’t win the award, but had a very enjoyable day catching up with some of the fantastic people that I’ve chatted with on Twitter and met at other events. We listened to a talk from Caroline Marsh (from the Secret Millionaire series). From a difficult start in Africa after her family fell on hard times, she went on to work as an air hostess, move to the UK and then build up a million pound property portfolio. She is very active in her local area doing charity work as well, helping young people get a start in business. One thing I enjoyed about the Awards was how varied they were, taking in so many different areas of business and charitable work. Here is a photo of all the nominees and award winners together, from the day!

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The Trikidoo is a fabulous adult tricycle with space for your children on the back. I’m friends with the fabulous mumpreneur who designed it, Clare Kemp-Welch, and when I heard that she’d worked out a way to give the Trikidoo that bit of extra oomph, I wanted to share it with you. Having a bit of power can be a real help when you’re tired on that school run home, or have had a lot of journeys – or if you’re facing a steep hill!

Trikidoo has teamed up with Powabyke to create a unique child carrier: no effort required! The electric assisted Trikidoo makes hills a doddle; just turn the throttle and away you go.
The Lithium Battery Trikidoo: £1950 (inc VAT)
8 mile range
Speed of up to 12 mph

The lithium battery works in conjunction with a small silver control box, which is attached to the frame between the childrens’ seat and the rider’s seat. This is where the ignition key fits. It is completely waterproof, small and tidy.

The lithium battery itself fits inside the underseat bag with plenty of space to spare. See picture bottom left.
No need to charge every time
Weighs just 2 kg

The Lead Acid Battery Trikidoo: £1870 (inc VAT)
15 mile range
Speed of up to 12 mph

Large, fits in the underseat bag, but takes up the majority of the space.
No need to charge every time
Weighs just 10 kg
Get the kids from A to B, to school,
to friends, then home for tea!
Call 07795 436 674 or visit Trikidoo for more information

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I just received an email from the Book of Green, which Mimimyne is in this year (we’re going to be listed in their free iPhone App as well – can’t wait to be in an App!) and wanted to let you know that Book of Green has been nominated for Best Media/Publication at the Eco Veggie Awards 2010!

Eco Veggie Awards 2010, honour the movers and shakers of the Green, Fair Trade and veggie circles – the people, organisations and products that are making a difference right now.

Awards organiser Tim Barford from Bristol based hemp firm Yaoh says: ‘The threat of Climate Change, and the reality of poverty, injustice and environmental destruction, are there for us to deal with – this is the challenge to the generations of today. We aim to focus on the positive, not the negative, it’s the only way forward to achieve solutions, and for this reason we are honouring some of the brightest and biggest achievers on the planet.’

Book of Green said: ‘We were delighted when we discovered we had been nominated for the award. We created the national paperback eco directory last year to promote a collective set of eco/ethical businesses. We made it free to enable the public to gain access the genuine green marketplace easily. We had such a fantastic response in 09 we’ve doubled our print run to 60,000 copies for 2010, and we are looking forward to launching our free iPhone app soon’

The awards are voted for by the public and winners of the ten categories will be announced on Sunday May 30th at The Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre. To vote for favourites (including Book of Green!) visit Eco Veggie Fayre Awards

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Mimimyne got a lovely write-up by columnist Andrew Williams in the Wharf newspaper this week! He recommended the Wattson by DIY Kyoto and also mentioned Cosytots Organics gorgeous chick toys, perfect for Easter.

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We have a winner! 18% of you voted for author and TV personality Daisy Goodwin with her slogan “Because the future’s worth it”. She’s the lucky winner with 10 bags with her slogan printed on them headed her way, congratulations Daisy! The second most popular slogan was “I may look like an old bag but inside I still feel sixteen” from the fabulous Sam Pearce from Mums The Boss while in third place we had a tie, “Same Bag, Different Day” (my effort, ahem) and “Caution: May Contain Cake, Wine or Chocolate” from Sam Pearce again! An honourable mention also goes to Victoria Cramsie from the gorgeous Paperboy Wallpaper for her great suggestion, “Bag Yourself a Future”. I am hoping to use more than one of the slogans on the bags as there were so many great suggestions and ideas, thank you so much everyone for participating and I’ll keep you posted once I have finished designing the slogan and sent it to Smartbags for printing! I also had some lovely comments about Mimimyne’s service, and am happy to report that over 70% of you who had bought something from Mimimyne were very satisfied with your purchase, while the rest of you were evenly split between quite satisfied and satisfied.

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Mimimyne is proud to announce that we are now the stockists of the gorgeous new Big Ben wall sticker and clock face from eco wallpaper design geniuses funky little darlings. This iconic UK landmark would be a striking focal point in any room just as a wall sticker, but with the working clock face incorporated it’s a winner. Designed and made with pride in the UK!

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