I thought White Ochre Design needed a freshen-up so please check it out www.whiteochre.co.uk.

School’s back in and our diary is filling up quick so get your requests in soon! Email meg@whiteochre.co.uk if you need a new website, a website re-design, website updates, ecommerce, stand-alone graphics or just site maintenance.

Kids are happy to be back in school and I’m happy they are happy. And just as I had predicted, the sun has come out and it is hot. But alas, no time for the beach. There are alot of really exciting things happening over the next few weeks and next month! The Mumpreneurs Networking Club (MNC) is back and the first event is in Worthing tomorrow (sept 3) at Lime Cafe, 9:30 to 11am. I’ll be there and look forward to seeing everyone.

Please take a look at www.businessmumsconference.co.uk – site designed by White Ochre, we are exhibiting so if you want to attend the conference and visit us, please get your ticket now.

The Business Mums Conference 2010

All for now, but watch this BLOG for announcements and site launches over the next few weeks – we are working at top speed and gearing up for Business Mum Week 2010!

Meg

I used to feel very ambiguous about networking. People say that networking is key to making those all important contacts and getting your business ‘out there’. However I never really believed it and after having tried a few different networking events without gaining any new leads or really useful contacts, I decided to just give up and put it down to experience. I figured my time was better spent actually working rather than meeting people who weren’t interested in me, what I do or how I could help them. I also found the networking events to be incredibly businessy (I would dress to impress and therefore feel uncomfortable and annoyed at my discomfort) and too formal and not to mention too expensive. Since I work from a home-office around my family life, I often felt embarrassed by this and as soon as I mentioned that I had young kids and worked flexible hours around them, it seemed people would tune out/switch off/look around for someone else to talk to. I got frustrated with this so eventually stopped going to them.

I then had the brilliant idea to hold a Family Friendly Networking event at my house during Business Mum Week last October 2009. This went down so well and was so well attended, my house was bursting at the seams! There was obviously a need for this type of business mum, mumpreneurs networking. It was thrilling – so many enterprising mums running their entrepreneurial businesses around a busy family life whilst providing their children with a strong role model and stable future. The feedback was phenomenal and I felt so proud of what I had acheived, not only for myself and my business, but for others who benefitted from the event as well.

Determined to keep this networking for mums in business alive in the Worthing area, I researched how I could get involved and ‘do my bit’ either by hosting more events or helping out others.  I hooked up with Nicky and Sara, founders of The Mumpreneurs Networking Club and now I am the Worthing Area Manager for the networking club. We have our events at Lime Cafe in Worthing – they are friendly and informal and very well attended.

So, I have made a total U-turn with regards to networking. It’s definitely worth it so long as you find the right kind of networking group! For me, there’s no point in trying anything else.