A short while ago you may have remembered that we asked you all to take part in our Mumpreneur Survey to find out when and why you started your business, where you conduct your business and what hours you work. Well the results are all in and this is what we discovered.
When?
When it came to starting your business 38% of you did so after your first child, and an even bigger 40% after your second. This confirmed our belief that having a child changes a woman’s perspective on work, and also suggests that juggling a job and child-care with one child may be achievable, but with two can become impossible.
Why?
The most popular reason given for starting your own business was ‘Something I had always wanted to do’ at a high 59%, with the second most popular answer ‘Other job wasn’t flexible enough with hours’. Lots of people can have an idea, but sometimes it only comes to fruition when the circumstances and timing are right. For many women the desire and reality of working for somebody once you have children can be different even from your own expectations. Employers have strict guidelines when it comes to ‘work-life balance’ and ‘parent-friendly working’; however what these guidelines say and what mums in the workplace face as a reality are often poles apart.
39% of women we surveyed were still working for someone else whilst setting up their own business, but more surprisingly 61% were focusing purely on their own business. For some women, leaving the financial security of their current job whilst their new business is in its infancy, is out of the question. For others, who are on maternity leave or have already left work and got used to the absence of a second income, this can seem like a good time to try something new.
At what time?
The most frequent working hours are unsurprisingly from 8pm onwards with 71% of mumpreneurs using the evening time to run their business. A significant percentage also worked during daytime hours, whilst children are at school or childcare. Early morning, 6-9am and early evening 5-8pm were the least common times to be working, when most of us are busy with breakfast/school run and tea/bath/bedtime.
Where?
Nearly 59% of women we asked conducted their business mainly from home, with the second most popular answer the internet at 24%. 53% of women had an office or separate room to work in whilst an additional 39% said they had a dedicated space within the home – some of whom may be the 30% who said they worked from the kitchen or dining room table. Working from home is by far the cheapest and most convenient way to start your business, especially with wireless broadband and laptops. Interestingly many of the replies suggested that a dedicated work space within the family home was something they could only dream of, with replies such as “In the living room near my the children so I am available”, “Anywhere on the laptop, mainly in the front room, but even in bed!”, “Armchair or in bed(!) – wherever I can perch my laptop!” and even “The ensuite – honestly!!” amazingly common!
So have we unearthed anything revolutionary or surprising from our survey…..well, actually – no. However it is good to have had such a great response to the survey, and some actual data to back up what we suspected were trends in the growing mumpreneur workplace – i.e. that many of us are conducting our businesses with laptops balanced on our laps, whilst at the same time tending to small children, and working late into the night – but we wouldn’t have it any other way!
A really big thank you to everyone who took part in our survey – we reached the magic 100 responses (which made the data crunching easy if nothing else!).
