In Blogger

At the top of the blogger screen it has a button ‘new post’. Click that and it leads you to the blank sheet where you can write your first post.

In Wordpress

Somewhere on your front page is a ’site admin’ button. Click that and it takes you to your dashboard where you should click on ‘write’. You will then be presented with your clean sheet ready for writing. Wordpress has the bonus of having much more options in this area.

The Title

It is often said by top bloggers that the title is the most important part. Here are a few tips that I’ve heard of when it comes to titles;

The Post

Here are a few ideas for your post;

Howto

List

Recipe

Funny/Interesting Story

A Review

A News Post

Here’s a video that gives you more in depth instructions on how to start posting as well as adding categories, and the all important about page.

I’ve highlighted some of the points that could help us

Promote Other Peoples Work and Link

If you spot an article you love or you refer to something that someone else has said, link to it.

Comment

Visit other blogs regularly and get involved in the conversation. If someone comments on your blog try and visit their blog and see if you have anything of value to add.

Stumble, Digg and Share

Stumbleupon is my favourite bookmarking site, especially for bloggers in our niche. When you have a post of yours stumbled several times it can result in hundreds and even thousands of visitors. Digg is a similar idea but tends to rate tech articles more highly. If we stumbled each others articles it could really drive some traffic.

Consider guest blogging/collaboration

I’ve guest blogged in the past, it was fun to write for a different blog and get exposure to a new audience. Any collaboration with another blogger in your niche has to be a good thing.

Any thoughts, ideas?

I’ve been blogging for two and a half years, I’ve written over 700 posts, 529 remain on my blog, I’ve received tens of review offers and other opportunities. Today I realised something simple which may change my blogging in the future.

Over the past two and a half years I have continually failed to leverage every opportunity. If you want to blog for more than just fun you need to make the most of every post, every opportunity, every email.

Leveraging Articles/Posts

Writing articles/posts whatever you like to call them takes time, I have 529 which I’ve written over two and a half years, posting has been slow over the past few months, I’m going to try and turn that around by prioritising, content is king, it should be the first thing I focus on. Once you’ve written a post you need to promote it, having your post delivered by RSS is one way to ensure that each post receives good exposure, another is to submit quality articles to blog carnivals. Submitting to carnivals introduces new visitors to your site. Re-jigging articles and using them to form an ebook could be pretty lucrative too. One of my first ‘ventures’ was an ebook on pregnancy, I sold it via ebay, it wasn’t about to become the next no.1 bestseller but it opened my eyes to the possibility of making money with ebooks.

Leveraging Visitors

Once you have a new face through the door encourage them to subscribe to your blog, I have my RSS button high up so that it is visible. I have just launched a VIP list too, each time a new visitor visits my blog they are presented with an opportunity to join the VIP list and receive free gifts, voucher codes etc…

Leverage Email

When I talk about leveraging emails I mostly mean opportunities. I receive a lot of opportunities via email, look at this?, wanna try this product?, do you want product B for a giveaway?, I’m opening an envelope want an all expenses paid trip to attend? In the past I have offered a simple yay or nay, now I’m trying to look at the hidden opportunities. Could the British Parent Bloggers get involved with advertising for this company? Is there an opportunity to do a giveaway via my VIP list? Would this person make a great mumpreneur interviewee?

For me, my blog is more than just a collection of articles, I want to try and do other interesting things, often I’m not really sure what, but I think leveraging could be the answer…

What are you doing with your blog? (Guest articles to erica.littlemummy@googlemail.com)

A great way of undermining Mummy’s confidence and self-esteem is to ensure that she never gets to spend any intimate moments with Daddy. This is easy to achieve during the day, it’s simply a matter of yelling out whenever they kiss or cuddle. Some self-sacrifice may be required however, I remember an occasion when they were so wrapped up in their hug that my moan didn’t register with them; I had to throw myself to the floor and pull a chair on top of me in order to break their embrace.

When Mummy puts me to bed she and Daddy seem to think they have the green light for coitus. Fools! To thwart their lusty plans I have installed tiny Fisher Price video cameras in the eyes of some of my cuddly toys which I leave in strategic positions around the house: Ted watches over the kitchen table for signs of unhygienic activity; Ellie Funt keeps her beady eyes on the sofa for saucy snuggles; Quack the Duck patrols the bathtub borders and Wag the Dog peers out from between their bed pillows. Using the live feeds from my plush night-watchmen (I like to think of them as my Closed Circuit Teddyvision) I can spot any signs of friskiness and deliver a timely and libido-shattering howl from my cot.

(more posts like this…)

If you want to be able to sit and relax in the company of young kids you need to know they are safe. Some ideas for child-proofing your home include:

1. Put covers over electrical sockets
2. Fit window locks
3. Invest in a stairgate
4. Attach cupboard catches or locks
5. Use a “finger shield” to prevent doors closing on little fingers
6. Turn saucepan handles towards and the back of the cooker and use the back rings
7. Keep medicines, alcohol and cleaning products out of reach
8. Avoid using tablecloths to prevent toddlers pulling things down on top of themselves
9. Move furniture away from windows to prevent kids climbing up and out
10. Never pass a hot drink over a child’s head and keep hot drinks out of reach

(more posts like this)

Ma Maw’s cheesecake… comes out of a packet. Fortunately I’m somewhat more sophisticated than that, which is just as well following a recent boast to the ladies at the local playgroup that I would make a cheesecake for all the adults when it was next my turn to do snack for the kiddies … me and my big gob!

Anyway I did and I did, so I couldn’t not … here’s the recipe and the reason why you should make it for all your friends:

Yer gonnae need:

500g packet of plain digestive biscuits
250g butter, melted
750g cream cheese (philedelphi or shops own will do, but beeter cheese = better cake)
3 eggs
220g caster sugar
180g sour cream
2 tsps finely grated lemon rind
60 ml lemon juice

22cm springform tin (that’s one that the bottom comes out of … but you already knew that didn’t you!)

What yer gonnae dae:

1. Line the tin with foil;
2. Whizz the biccies in a processor until fine crumbs before adding the melted butter and whizzing a bit more;
3. Press the biscuit mixture over the base and sides of your tin, it’ll need to come at least an inch and half up the sides … but go for two! This bits a pain in the posterior but it’s important to get the base right otherwise the whole thing is going to fall to pieces!
4. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
5. Beat the rest of your ingredients to within an inch of their lives, if your cheese (like mine) is cheap add a wee bit extra lemon juice … if your arms are still aching from the fish pie you may use an electric mixer … Pour your cheesy mix into the biccie base and bake in the oven for about an hour, until it’s set. Alternatively you can leave it until the top starts turning brown like I do … but that means it’s burnt!
6. Leave it to cool in the oven with the door ajar (keep curious toddler elsewhere at this point), once it’s cool carefully stick it in the fridge overnight.

As I’ve said I made this for the local playgroup and some of it ended up being delivered to some of the local chaps laying slabs in the community garden thing … for two weeks after making it people were stopping me in the street to thank me for the cake!

Yup, how to make friends and influence people through the power of cheesecake, I also chalked it up as a ‘nice matters’ thing which I’ve been trying to live up to

Oh, and unless you have a particularly large family this really is one for friends and not a pudding for a family of four … not considering it’s 12 decent sized portions, if you run a nice wee cafe maybe serve it with fresh figs
(More posts by Man About the House…)

I’m all for encouraging computer literacy in children, as long as they spend most of their time climbing trees, throwing balls and generally annoying the neighbours.

After all, it’s a techno-whizzy world, and they need to be able to take an active part in it, eventually.

But I’m not looking forward to the time my two are savvy enough to think up rude things to google for.

A friend of mine discovered, after looking at the search history, that her son (aged eight) had been googling for “gels bums”.
Not surprisingly he didn’t find what he was looking for.

He’s since been heard complained that google is rubbish and he doesn’t know why everyone uses it so much. A quick search for “gels bums” reveals that he probably found out lots about creams, lotions, and gel pads, and not much about bums.

Another friend knew it was her son who’d been googling when she saw “sexcey girls” saved in search history. He’s a teenager, but not a very good speller.

At some point, young people are bound to use technology to satisfy their inevitable curiosity about the world and its forbidden pleasures.

What Ben’s fixated on at the moment is spy equipment, and as his spelling isn’t up to words like security camera, remote control recorders, adjustable transmitting frequency or surveillance system, he just googles “spy stuff”.

He came downstairs yesterday and said he’d found a remote recording device for sale on some dodgy gadget website.

“It’s only £13 Mum, come and look.”

I went up to look and it was $24.99.
“I halved it,” he said, displaying a hitherto untapped knowledge of currency exchange rates.

I’ve only just got used to them logging onto CBeebies by themselves, now they’re thinking up new ways to use the computer, ways which I haven’t shown them.

One of them - I reckon it was Hannah, since she smiled and said “I didn’t know what the button would do, so I pressed it” – managed to download some online shopping website which inserts its own toolbar into Explorer.
So I had to uninstall the damn thing.

I think it might be time to pass on this creaking old computer, which freezes at the first sight of Outlook Express plus Internet Explorer plus Very Important Piece of Writing that hasn’t yet been saved; and buy a new one for the exclusive use of grown-ups.

The only question will be – where do we put the old one?

It’s nearing the time when we’ll need to position the computer safely downstairs, within range of easy and frequent checks, while they use it.
If Ben starts looking up “gels bums” I want to know about it.

But our wireless connection doesn’t cover the whole house.

That means a signal booster, retailing for anything between £30 and $99 (I’ll have to get Ben to change that into sterling), as well as another PC.

The other option, of course, is to keep their sticky little hands away from “Mummy’s computer”, a solution which will be less viable as they get older and start wanting to use it for school work as well as browsing for spy gear and Barbie bollocks.
(more posts like this…)

Q1. What is your business called and what does it do?
My business is called KeepStakes. I run an online business selling engraved garden plaques, personalised to mark special occasions, such as christenings, weddings, anniversaries or memorials.

Q2. How did you come up with the idea?
I started to think about setting up a business when I returned to my proper job as a Training Consultant after taking 10 months maternity leave to look after my two wee boys Finn (born in 2004) and Jared (born 2003).

I did return to work between my pregnancies, however, I hoped it would be for a short time as I was keen to have a small age gap between my two children. Happily for me, and to the dismay of my manager, pregnancy two happened when I had been back at work for a month. I managed to work July 2003 to June 2004, so I was an asset to the company for nearly a year between the boys, and actually quite enjoyed it, however I always knew I was finishing for another extended ‘holiday’ and that kept me chirpy. I have really enjoyed spending the past 10 months at home with my boys and my return to work this time was not so buoyant. For the few months in the run up to my return, I spent hours trying to hatch the perfect plan to work less hours and make money by doing something I really enjoy. I knew I wouldn’t be able to replace my ‘proper job’ salary overnight, but my aim was to start small and aim to make enough money to leave my job by the time Jared goes to school (which gaves me a two year window). I have this idealistic vision of me walking the boys up to school, going home and working on my business and then being able to go back and pick them up after school and take them to a wide range after school activities.

So in pursuit of this dream, I researched ways to become a WAHM. My starting point was my obsession with selling stuff on ebay. Just old tat which had been lying around the house, but I was constantly amazed by the amount of money that I could generate from selling things that would have previously ended up in the bin. The only problem with using ebay as a sole income provider is that I am running out of things I don’t need. A brief foray into buying goods to sell on for a profit ended rather disastrously with 7 massive boxes of greetings cards from Costco still sitting in the corner of my bedroom. So my plan evolved into creating something that people would want to buy.

Step one was coming up with an idea. I have always enjoyed ‘crafty’ things and I knew I wanted to make something. Finn had recently been christened and a few friends had mentioned to me that they had struggled to find an unusual gift, so I started to make a list of personalised Christening/naming presents.

A friend told me about a fantastic Christening gift that she had received for her son’s Christening. It was a homemade gift that comprised of a wooden chopping board, cut in half, with a stick nailed to it and an engraved plaque glued to the board. The detail on the plaque was her son’s name and the date of his christening. The wooden stake was designed to be placed in front of a newly planted tree to make the occasion. I loved the sentiment of the gift and tried to find something similar on the internet. Surprisingly, I could not find anything remotely like it so, with my friend’s approval, the business opportunity was born.

Setting up the business was step two. I have another friend, Laura who has had a successful WAHM business for several years. She was a major inspiration as she has a really successful business selling baby slings on the internet. She manages to balance running her business and caring for her children (who are just slightly older than Jared and Finn) and is living proof that it is possible to be a ’supermum’. Laura has been my mentor and I have really benefited from her advice and experience as I have gone through the process of setting up my company.

So over the past year I have learned all about weatherproof metals, laser cutting, engraving, gift packaging, tax, data protection, website design and advertising. It has been a very busy period and it is difficult to balance my day job with KeepStakes, but it is amazing how I can always find a little bit if energy to do things for my own business and in June 2005 I officially launched the website.
I have been pretty obsessed with making this work and have discussed it relentlessly with friends and family. It is through discussions with friends that the purpose of the gift has expanded from solely baby related, to wider celebrations and memorials. It is equally suitable for celebrating a birth, wedding, housewarming, significant birthday or the one that was a surprise to me, a few people have requested a plaque to mark the grave of a dead pet. The enthusiasm I have encountered for this product has kept me motivated to make these plaques more widely available. I am always so excited when customers take the time to contact me to provide positive feedback. I am really happy that people like them, I really hope I can realise my dream of picking my two wee boys up from school. It would also be nice if I made a million, but nothing is more important that having enough time to appreciate the wonder of your children growing up and I just hope I can be around more to enjoy it.

Q3. What were your start-up costs?
The main cost were a laptop and engraving machine and an initial supply of plaques. These items came to approximately £800. Marketing literature, product photography and gift boxes came to another £300. I was really lucky to have a talented friend who designed my website for a couple of curries!

Q4. Did you need to raise finance to start-up, if so how did you do this?
No, I used savings.

Q5. Would you consider yourself a leader? What are your strengths?
I would not necessarily consider myself to stand out from the crowd in any way other than my determination. My advice is to pick a business idea that you enjoy and then you are motivated to work hard. I am stubborn enough and so keen to not miss spending time with my children to make sure this business works. I love not being answerable to anyone other than my customers and am motivated by customer feedback. I feel very much in control running my own business.

Q6. Have you done any courses or learning programmes to help you run your business?
I have a degree in psychology, a masters in Occupational Psychology and I am CIPD qualified so I have 20 years relevant experience in dealing with people and understanding how to approach different markets. I have also designed and delivered a number of customer service training programmes and understand that customer service is the area where you can differentiate yourself from the rest. I am proud to offer an unrivalled customer service and my numerous testimonials reflect this focus.

Q7. How many hours a week do you spend working on your business?
More than I imagined I would. I am totally focused on giving up my day job next summer (August 2007) and I am the only one that came make it happen, so I wrk on the business for a minimum of 2 hours each day, more if possible. I use the time when I come home from work and when the boys are in bed.

Q8. What advice do you have for other mums considering starting their own business?
I really feel like I am following a dream. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. I have wanted to work flexibly since I got pregnant with Jared. It has taken more than two years to make it happen. The ability to dream is one of the qualities possessed only by humans. So dream, and put a deadline on it, make it a giant dream, a tiny one, an old one, a new one, a hobby related one, a change of life one, a stupid one, a stroke-of-genius one, or just whatever… just continue to dream on… then, just go and do it!

Oh and if you want to buy a gift for a special occasion…

You can visit my website at www.keepstakes.co.uk
(More posts like this…)

We’ve had a bit of an arty day today, so art is on my mind. I’m afraid I can’t take credit for these creatures though. We found them lurking in the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery when we visited this morning.

We went to see the Picasso exhibition, which features beautiful prints from the Histoire Naturelle series. From a five year old’s perspective we saw spiders, toads, frogs, dragonfiles, butterflies, horses, cows, birds and about ten other animals\insects that I can’t now remember. From my perspective it was a real treat to see an element of Picasso’s work that I had never come across.

There was the added interest of seeing the beautiful pottery exhibits in the Animal Fantasies exhibition, which was featured alongside.

Art Galleries are great for children and we are lucky to have one that welcomes them (and I mean, REALLY welcomes them) . My five year old has been used to visiting our local gallery ever since he was two years old and he loves it. The trick I find is to crouch down at their height and ask them what they can see. Behind the fun that you can have spotting new things is the more serious element of of the communication process. Engaging in conversation about the colours, shapes, sizes, content and materials used helps to develop a wide ranging vocabulary.

The Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery is a real gem. Not only does it have regular exhibitions that are accessible to children at a level which they can interpret, but it also has an art lounge which has a drawing table and lots of wooden toys and books to keep their interest. There is currently an extra creative corner, which focuses on the exhibition and encourages children to create animal drawings or to have a go at creating a plasticine model.

Having the opportunity to engage in art & craft activities helps children in many ways including sensory experiences, communication skills and even developing their sense-of-self, not to mention the importance of developing their fine and gross motor skills. Of course, these kind of things are a key feature of early years and primary school experiences but providing extra opportunities outside an educational setting is always beneficial.

The Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery certainly provides such opportunities and with an entrance fee of just £1 per adult (children go free), it is an excellent experience all round. It also has a comprehensive range of reference books and magazines available in the Art Lounge, where you can even relax with a tea or coffee.

At the start of the post, I said that we’d had a bit of an arty day. Being inspired by the gallery as ever, on the way home we popped into the local art shop to buy a new watercolour set…so I’m now off to have a dabble with the paints…wish me luck…as I am certainly no Picasso…
(More post like this…)

This was an interview I did in 2006 when I had an acute interest in women who started their own businesses after becoming a mother. I still think it’s as interesting today as it was then and feel it deserves another outing here at British Parent Bloggers. If you have a post on blogging or parenting that you think deserves a second shot with a new audience please email me at erica.littlemummy@googlemail.com.

Q1. Give a brief description of your business and how you came up with the name.

I design and paint art for children including limited edition, personalised name prints, posters, canvasses and door name plaques.

I know it’s a bit corny but doesn’t every new mum who starts a business try to incorporate their child’s name? I’m no exception, my daughter is called Katie and our little pet name for her is Katiepie, it’s as simple as that.

Q2. How did you come up with the idea behind Katiepie Designs?

I have been arty all of my life and after spending years working 9-5 in various, mundane office jobs I turned my hobby into my work. I went back to college when I was 26 to study art and design and spent a few years selling my art, but also worked part time to supplement my income. I painted in various mediums and also spent some time painting children’s murals, before going into interior design and soft furnishings. When I had my daughter, I painted some art for her nursery and so Katiepie Designs was born.

Q3. Did you have any start-up costs, if so how did you raise the finance?

I didn’t have any huge initial start-up costs as I was working from home, producing my own art work and I already had an office/bedroom at home. I did pay someone to design my website as I wanted a professional looking site, which has since been upgraded. I also spent a few hundered pounds on business cards and marketing material but my main outlay in the first year was advertising. It is very expensive and it didn’t always give me the return I was hoping for. I’d spent a few hundred pounds on an advert or offer a few hundred pounds worth of my work as a competition prize and anticipate that I was going to be inundated with orders. Sadly this rarely happened. This financial year I am more aware of what works for Katiepie Designs and my money will be spent more wisely. After a few months I also had to invest in a new PC, printer and some new art materials.

I was quite naive in that I thought it wouldn’t cost me a lot to finance the first year and that I could earn a bit of money while working round my daughter. Things aren’t quite as idyllic as that in the real world and I soon realised that I had to spend money to make money and if I was paying out for nursery fees for Katie then I would have to sell more than a few paintings a week to pay for it. Saying this, I didn’t want to borrow money and used savings and interest free credit cards to finance my first year.

Q4. Do you employ staff or do you do all the work yourself?

At the moment I do everything myself but I find that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I am at the point now that I will need to consider taking someone on if I want to expand my business and increase sales.

Q5. How many hours a week do you spend on your business?

At least 40 hours a week but generally more. I could spend 100 hours a week working and there would still be things on my to do list. Basically, I work every spare minute I have.

Q6. How do you manage your childcare?

I don’t have any close family nearby who are able to help out looking after Katie, so I have to pay for all my childcare. Initially, my daughter went to a childminder for 4 hours a week while I was researching the business and she is now at nursery for 2 full days, 8am-5pm and two half days 8am-2pm. My nursery is very flexible and I often put Katie in for additional sessions if I have an exhibition coming up or I’m particularly busy. I hated leaving her at first, but she loves it and happily wanders off now with not even a backward glance. My husband is a teacher so in the school holidays we cut her nursery time down and Aidan looks after Katie while I pretty much work full time.

Q7. What strengths do you think it takes to run a successful business?

Determination, belief in yourself and your business, a risk taker, good organiser, ability to delegate, ability to work alone (in my case), to be a jack of all trades, to be able to juggle twenty zillion things at once and the patience of a saint when people (naming no names) think that because you work from home, it isn’t real work. When in fact you never turn off and will probably work harder than you ever have in your life!

I’m not saying that I have all (or even any) of these traits but they are what I think are important if you decide to go it alone.

Q8. What have been your most successful marketing strategies?

This is a difficult one as I’m still learning what works and what doesn’t and it’s obviously different for every business. Setting up and monitoring a successful marketing strategy also takes a lot of time, effort and money.

As my website was going to be my main marketing tool, it was essential that it looked great and was easy to navigate. I also produced a leaflet/brochure to send out to those responding to adverts and to give out at Baby Shows/Exhibitions. The Katiepie logo is my own artwork and this appears on my business cards which makes it very distinctive. People only have to glance at my business card and they instantly remember what Katiepie Designs offers.

I did a lot on advertising in my first year to try and get Katiepie Designs known and to test the water and see what worked for me. I have advertised in parenting magazines, google, exhibited at Baby Shows - large and small events, sponsoring competitions in parenting magazines and websites, sending out press releases to parenting magazines and other publications, advertising on parenting websites, shopping sites and leaving leaflets at local nurseries, playgroups etc. and passing out my business card to anyone who will have it! It has been a very expensive learning curve but a year on I am still getting business from adverts that were placed when I started out.

But undoubtedly the majority of my business comes from the search engines. It’s not cheap but this gives you an almost immediate return. My ideal is to appear on the first page of the organic listings for specific search terms relating to my products so that you get the hits to your website but don’t have to pay for it! I have started to appear on the organic listings as I found out while I was on holiday. I was still getting orders though despite not advertising and it was then that I realised that if you typed in certain search terms on the search engines that were relevant to my work, my website appeared. I was ecstatic!

I have also done really well at baby shows, but again they are very expensive to participate in and often the sales comes in months after you have exhibited, particularly due to the fact that a lot of people attending are still pregnant! Shows are however excellent for getting to your target market and I participate for exposure to the public and the press.

Q9. And finally, do you have any advice for parents considering starting their own business.

Do it!

My parents both worked full time and I was always under the impression that work was a chore, something that had to be done, even if you didn’t enjoy it, just to bring in money. When I was younger, despite being a great art student at school, no-one ever encouraged me to study art in further education or go into it as a profession. I therefore spent many years working in jobs that didn’t satisfy me, getting bored with a year and moving on. I started studying marketing at evening classes while working full time and when I successfully completed the course I told my tutor that I always wanted to study art, and she simply said ‘do it’ and I did, so at 26 I returned to study art and design and have never looked back. I now realise that you can enjoy work, it doesn’t have to be a chore. I think that is so important when you have children, that you, as a parent should be happy in whatever you choose to do, be it working for someone, or setting up your own business or being a full time mum. If you’re not happy, it will rub off on your kids.

If your kids are toddlers or older, make arrangements for childcare. Katie is 2 and trying to work for any longer than 5 minutes with her around is very difficult. She gets frustrated because she wants my attention and I get annoyed when I turn round after writing an email and she has decorated the carpet or the walls with paints, pencil or waterproof markers! It’s not fair on anyone.

I am quite a forthright person, sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. You have to very determined that you will succeed and really believe in, and know the business you are getting into. Research the market and make sure that there is a market for your product or service.

It can be lonely setting up on your own but I have found some great friends and met some amazing people and got some good advice simply through talking to people. Starting from the guy who owns the small local shop where I bought my PC, my web designer and printer, who have all become friends. I’ve spoken to people exhibiting at baby shows and people on ‘mums’ websites. A guy who contacted me from one of these websites giving me free advice on sales and marketing, helped me through a really tough time last year, I felt like packing it all in and he was amazing. I had never met the guy before, it really restored my faith in human nature. I know it sounds a bit weird, we did eventually meet at a Baby Show I was exhibiting at and he was a normal, regular guy, and I met him, his wife and his lovely newborn baby. I also met Julie White, from Truly Madly Baby (She appeared on Dragon’s Den and won funding to start up her party plan business) on a ‘mums’ website as she was starting up, she sells my products now and we have become friends. So I guess, my advice is don’t be afraid to talk to people, ask questions and get as much free advice as you possibly can.

Use your local Business Link, they can advise on everything from sales and marketing to employment law and tax. My local one also runs courses on book-keeping etc.

Don’t underestimate how much time and money you will have to spend on the business to make it work. I very rarely get time to myself and am constantly trying to juggle too many balls at once and I always have a ‘to do’ list as long as my arm. Saying that, I am happier and more fulfilled doing what I am doing than in any other job I have ever done. I am also very proud of what I have achieved and still get a little buzz when people ask me what I do and I say ‘an artist’.

Littlemummy: Please go and visit Katiepie Designs, the name plaques would make a beautiful gift and are very reasonably priced.

Thanks Helen for the insight into how you got started and how you make your business work.