Four mothers share their trade secrets: earning more while working LESS
Tomorrow on Mother’s Day there will be more to celebrate than ever about mothers.
Not only are they the backbone of family life, they also make a huge contribution to the economy.
More and more people are setting up a company and combining work with their children.
Women in Britain will set up more than 150,000 new businesses in 2022, twice as many as in 2018.
Here, four female entrepreneurs tell Mel Hunter how their children have even enhanced their success. . .
‘My home hair salon raised £150,000
in the past 12 months’
CALLY BORG is an award-winning hairdresser who now puts her family first – by working from home.
Cally, 38, swapped a busy freelance career in TV, magazine and celebrity styling to set up her own salon at home in Reigate, Surrey, and earned more than £150,000 last year while working just four days a week.
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She was able to spend more time with daughter Eliza, 12, and partner Andy, as well as her stepchildren, Alexa, 17, Luke, 15, and Elise, 13 – and now earns a lot more money too, after struggling financially when Eliza was little .
She says: “I don’t work evenings, weekends or school holidays and my business is doing better than ever.”
Cally left school at 16 and worked in top salons before becoming a freelance stylist, but was outspoken and says: “It wasn’t until I started having health problems four years ago that I realized my priorities were wrong.”
She has now created a luxury home salon and can charge accordingly.
She adds, “I’m starting to forgive myself for the stupid hours I worked when Eliza was little.
“Now I’m there for her.”
CALLIES TIP: Prioritize time for yourself – I get my best ideas when I’m rested. And set boundaries so you spend quality time with your family.
See callyborg.com
‘Ideas for my GoHenry pocket money app came from my children’
LOUISE HILL was inspired by her children to co-found pocket money app GoHenry – and 12 years later it is now a global business with an annual turnover in 2022 of almost £40m.
Louise, now 59, and mother to Isabella, 25, and Mackenzie, 23, then talked to other parents about her idea.
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She says: “Children were using money online, but without safety nets.
“Many of the early ideas for GoHenry came from my children.”
That’s why GoHenry launched in 2012, giving children ages six to 18 a prepaid Visa debit card managed by their parents.
Louise, from Lymington, Hants, spent much of her own children’s teenage years building the business.
She says: “I had a large mortgage, but was lucky to have a great network around me: friends who helped with the children.
“I have had many sleepless nights – being an entrepreneur is not easy.”
GoHenry now has 250 employees and was picked up by American investment app Acorns last year.
TIP FROM LOUISE: If you believe you can do it, try it.
Maybe start as a side job.
See gohenry.com/uk
‘My son and I are a team, he was the inspiration for my World Cup invention’
ZOE CHAPMAN has invented the eco-friendly portable toilet the Whizzer, inspired by her son.
After Zoe, 39, appeared on TV’s Dragons’ Den a year ago and won £25,000 in investments from Sara Davies and the same from Steven Bartlett, it was 11-year-old Mayson who called them while the cameras were rolling.
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Zoe, from north London, remembers: “He said to me, ‘I’m so happy for you’. And I told him, ‘I’m so happy for you – we’re a team’.”
Running her business from her two-bedroom home hasn’t always been easy, especially since she has ADHD, PTSD and bipolar disorder.
‘But Zoe says: “Mayson is used to things being unpredictable.
“Add to that running a business and he has to be able to adapt.”
Zoe discovered the Whizzer idea while potty training Mayson, and launched it in 2021.
With several designs for adults too, it now makes over £200,000 a year, and she puts all the profits back into the business.
She adds, “I’m doing it for Mayson.”’
ZOE’S TIP: No one can be you better than you, so let ‘you’ shine through.
See kiddiwhizz.com
‘Traveling with my son made me realize that I could do anything’
SALLY TETTERSELL designs retro-inspired homewares from the comfort of her own home, while caring for nine-year-old son Elliot.
The death of her partner Jaime eight years ago inspired Sally, now 48, to quit her job as an NHS manager and travel the world for six months with Elliot, who was three at the time.
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She later returned to North Devon and founded Sally Tettersell Designs in 2020 with just £500.
She says, “Travel proved that I could do anything and after what I had been through, it didn’t feel so scary to take a leap of faith.”
She also has the ‘safety net’ of a part-time job at a clothing company.
Sally says: “As a single mother, finances are my responsibility. I would like to run my business full time, but in the meantime I have bills to pay.”
She works on her business whenever she can fit in with Elliot and her other 20-hour-a-week job, and has built up a turnover of £25,000 a year.
Sally adds: “When I work I feel like I need to be more of a mother, and when I’m more of a mother I worry that I’m neglecting the business. But life is short, I want to show Elliot that you can follow your dreams.”
TIP FROM SALLY: Have a strong support network and do something you love. This will help you through difficult times.
See sallytetterselldesigns.com