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This page is devoted to all
those Mum's who are running their own business and bringing up
the kids (with or without hubby), whether they are babies,
toddlers, teenagers or really big kids who just refuse to leave
home! |
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After 23 years of being a
'Business Mum' myself I have great admiration for all the self
employed mothers out there who are exhaustively juggling a home
and family life along with the stresses that running your own
business can bring.
Read all about my 23 year business history below. |
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This is a page is dedicated
to Hampshire Business Mums, where you can showcase
your company and include links to any websites that you may
have. If you'd like to send me some editorial I will feature it on
the top spot of the page on a rotation basis. And it's all for
FREE, and any type of business run by mums are welcome. |
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I look forward to hearing
from any Local Business Mum who would like a link placed on my
website. Please email me your details at
theme.parties@ntlworld.com
Sherrill
Church |
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Top Spot Business
Mum |
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this month is Angela
Davis of Fusion Hair |
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Fusion Hair is
a mobile hairdressing company based in Chandlers
Ford bringing you the salon experience at home. With over
15 years experience within the hair industry Angela Davis
of Fusion Hair brings that knowledge to you within the
comfort of your own home, covering from Southampton to
Winchester and everywhere in between.
Specialising in
colour and cutting we use the latest techniques
while keeping up to date in the progressive world of
hairdressing today. We also offer bridal and prom packages
with prices to suit every budget, and with the growing
trend in hair extentions we specialise in the micro ring
application using only the best in human hair for that
natural look.
At Fusion Hair
everyone is treated as an individual and customer service
is our top priority, so if it's just a trim or a whole new
look you're after don't hesitate to give us a call.
We offer a free
consultation as this first point of contact is
essential in ensuring you the look you want.
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www.fusionmobilehair.co.uk
www.fusioneventplanning.co.uk
Email :
fusionmobilehair@aol.com |
Telephone: 07807 834135 |
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Kindermusik International
have been producing music classes for children aged newborn
to 7 years old since the late 1960's. Right now there are
more than 5,000 licensed educators using the Kindermusik®
curricula in over 66 countries to bring music into the lives
of children and their families. |
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Kindermusik
with Allison
www.kindermusikwithallison.co.uk
E-mail:
info@kindermusikwithallison.co.uk
Telephone: 01794
521054
Mobile: 07966 452546
Address
Rushy Hill, 168 Botley Road, Romsey, Hampshire. SO51 5SW
Allison is a mum to
two small boys
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Spotty
Boxes is an online gift shop in the UK providing
carefully chosen boxes of gifts for men, women and
children. Spotty Boxes owes its creation to my family.
Finding suitable gifts for them all was a nightmare
which reoccurred every birthday, Christmas and
anniversary. It was this nightmare which prompted the
launch of Spotty Boxes – simply gifts in a box! |
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www.spottygiftboxes.co.uk
Email:
caroline@spottygiftboxes.co.uk
Telephone: 01962 889460
Caroline
is Mum to
Jessica aged 6 and Katie aged 4. |
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Business Mums
Coaching |
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As a
business owner have you maximised the FREE business
marketing strategies to increase your sales. Email, Press
Releases and Referrals. These areas should be an ongoing part of
your marketing plan. |
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Would you like to know . .
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. .
. how to increase contact with your current customers?
. . . how
to come up with additional products and up-sells?
. . . how
to re-negotiate your advertising rates?
. . . how
to test and build your marketing strategies?
. . . and how
to form joint ventures and alliances?
All the
answers and more to these questions can be found in our newly
launched business mums newsletter.
And the best thing
about it is that it's all FREE advice ~
so don't waste time, sign up for our
newsletter today. |
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Sherrill Church |
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Join our Business Mums
newsletter to get FREE access
to tips on how to grow your business using effective marketing
and advertising strategies |
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I'd like to
find
out more first >> |
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Sherrill Church has been
running businesses and bringing
up her family for the past 23
years and has encountered many experiences including the highs
and the lows, the profitable ventures to those that didn't even
get off the starting block
and all those unforgettable missed
opportunities.
You could say that
she's been there, done that, read the book and bought the
t-shirt!
Here's how it went. |
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I suppose you
could say that my entrepreneurial streak appeared from a very
early age. I was only 8 years old when I took my first step into
business. Clearing out my wardrobe and toy box I ventured to
prepare for a
garage sale and let all my friends in the neighbourhood know
that it was taking place. That Saturday came and so did a nice
healthy profit ~ and it was with that jar full of money that I
decided that I was going to do this often and save up enough
money so that I could go on holiday to Butlins in Bognor when I
was 16 years old!! |
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At the age of 14 I
started to make soft toys, rag dolls, teddy bears, glove puppets
and the like. Whilst I was still at school my mum and her friend
would spend every Thursday in Eastleigh and sell my wares on the
market there. This business lasted a couple of years as did
making designer clothes that I copied and selling them to my
friends, cheaper than they could buy in the shops. |
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Next came working full-time
in a clothes shop I still needed to venture out so I placed
adverts in newspapers and started making wedding dresses and
christening robes to customers specific requirements. This was
all spurned on due to my impending wedding. I was 21 years old. |
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In the early
eighties along came my next business venture with my family ~ a
retail Bridal Shop in Eastleigh called The Strelli Collection
where we manufactured and sold bridal attire to other shops
throughout the UK. At one time I had 40 dressmakers working for
me (I was in my late 20's then) and a very busy schedule indeed
in quality control. I could be found burning the midnight oil
most evenings of the week in my spare bedroom making wedding dresses
and could usually turn out about 5 of them a week. This was the norm, as
was bringing up Ashlea and Asa who were both under 4 years old
at that time. |
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Towards the end of
running Strelli I set up Country Furnishings (which ran for a
couple of
years) and set about making Austrian blinds and curtains for
customers on the Valley Park estate. At one time there were only
2000 houses on the estate and 750 of them were my customers and
had used my curtain service. Ashlea and Asa were under 5 years
old
at this time. |
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Next came Natural
Nails, a nail extension business. I worked on it for 3 months in
my brothers salon but gave it up pretty prompt as it was doing
my eyes in! |
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With Strelli now
closed and Country Furnishings coming to its end I started
Mimicks
Face Painting in 1990 which is still going strong to this date.
Most of the businesses I ran overlapped each other as one became
a sunset business and another a sunrise business.
Ashlea and Asa were 6 and 4 respectively when Mimicks started
and when my divorce came. Poor Trev, he just couldn't keep up
with me!! |
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I would take the
kids Face Painting with me wherever I could and from an early
age Ashlea became very interested to learn my skills and by the
time she was only 11 she was on the payroll and a very competent
face painter and still works actively for Mimicks (read all
about her on our About Us page). |
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Between 1996 and
2001 I worked first part-time and then full time at Eastleigh
College teaching Theatrical and Media Make-up along with Beauty
Therapy where I gained my teaching, assessing and internal
verifying qualifications. I was still running the largest
Face Painting company in the UK. It was during this time that I
met Roger (who runs his own company and has been a double
glazing installer for 26 years) and we married in 2002. Believe
it or not during all this madness and mayhem I still wanted more
children, although we had 7 between us, and unfortunately we had 3 failed attempts (probably a
blessing in disguise!) |
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During the period
between 1998 and 2004 Mimicks Face Painting was at it's peak and
we were travelling the whole of the country in our motor home
with countless staff members doing shows and festivals,
corporate events and birthday parties. We also
had a manufacturing company making the popular novelty toy 'The Wiggley Worm' which we sold to traders across the UK and on our
own face painting stall. |
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When I left my
college position in 2001 I started to look for another business
and in 2003 Once Upon A Party was born. A year in the planning
and in 2004 Ashlea and I started providing location parties for
our customers until our venue and shop opened in July 2006.
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And now in 2008
(and on the wrong side of 40) Ashlea, Roger and I are very much
involved in the running and growing of our Once Upon
A Party retail shop and party venue. Mimicks Face Painting still
continues to run with corporate events and birthday parties. I am
currently writing a book on Face Painting for Profit and how to
run a face painting business using my well proven format.
There are many many design books on the market but very little
on how to run the business side. After a break of 4 years I have decided to train customers again
in Face painting as I often get asked for this service. Please
email me should you require any details on training or the book
at
theme.parties@ntlworld.com |
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With teaching,
training and assessing playing a very important part of my life
I am now coaching select individuals on how to build their very
own website without the need for a website designer. This way
they have total control in their web design and appearance,
accessibility, seo and page additions, hosting, autoresponders
to name but a few. Having built my own websites for 10 years and
stressed over the many obstacles that have come my way along
with the uncountable hours I spent just trying to fix a problem
I feel I am now in a very strong position to teach web page
creation to others in order to avoid the dreadful pitfalls that
I found myself stuck in. |
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I hope my business
history has been an inspiration to any business mum reading
this. It is difficult, it can be lonely, it's very time
consuming and you always feel guilty about neglecting the
children. Ashlea (age 23 years) and Asa (age 21 years) are all
grown up now and when I look at them today I know I made the
right choices back then and I feel very proud about the adults
that they have become, especially as I was a single mum. I
believe it has helped them become strong independent adults. |
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If you too have an
inspiring story that you would like to
share with my website visitors, please email me at
theme.parties@ntlworld.com |
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Sherrill Church |
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