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Forum - Are you a 'mumpreneur'?
Are you a 'mumpreneur'?
Fri, 05/03/2010 - 14:26 — Kate Horstead
A recent survey by BT Tradespace found that 15 per cent of women have started up their own businesses since having children, while one in ten mums aspire to become entrepreneurs. As with all new trends, this has led to the coining of a term to describe a woman in this situation – the ‘mumpreneur’. How do you feel about this? Is it reassuring to know that you are part of a group with a name tag, or just plain patronising? Do you like the word ‘mumpreneur’ or is it just indescribably grating? Does it make you feel like you are part of an exciting new subculture, or would you rather be left to go it alone without being burdened with a tag?
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It is very interesting to read all the comments posted so far, this discussion was brought to my attention today after I had posted a blog on the very same subject http://partroot.wordpress.com/.
No one wants to deride any achievements gained in business, I am am sure anyone who has achieved success and sees others doing the same would agree. This subject however has brought about a healthy debate.
I am a mum to 3 small boys and am veru proud of my mumpreneur title. Without having had my children, I would never have started my own business, I would have continued my employed life and thought nothing of it.
Many people unlike the term 'mumpreneur' as they feel it brands them as not being serious about business. To me it means the exact opposite.
It takes an awful lot of determination and dedication to start a business from scratch and then continue running it whils doing all of the everyday things that come with being a mother.
My day starts at 6.30am and ends at about 11.30pm and during that time I have to work on my business, clean a house, get washing and ironing done, do 3 school runs, cook dinner for 5 and look after 3 children.
I am VERY proud of my mumpreneur status and shout about it at any given opportunity!
The main issue for me is the irrelevant categorisation of a business owner (who happens to be female, and a parent). People tend to mean well by using the term to recognise the challenges mums often face, but I think it's generally unhelpful.
Most of the business owners I know who are also mums don't work in parenting-related industries where the term might be a plus for marketing (like a maker of homemade baby clothes, for example), so the term doesn't have any benefit for them. In fact, it could be to the detriment of their professional image since, after all, in the term "mumpreneur", "mum" comes first, potentially leading the less enlightened wondering if they should trust their custom with a person whose priorities lie elsewhere.
Personally, if you ask me about my myself in a business context, I'll probably tell you, "I run a public relations and copywriting agency working primarily with SMEs". Of course, I make no secret of being a mum (in fact, in a personal context, it's something I'm very proud to be), but then, I also make no secret of wearing glasses to read, I don't just don't put it on my CV.
I'm a "granpreneur" if anything, starting up a business at retirement age. I think "mumpreneur" is handy short-hand for people who are involved, either running their own business or offering support services, as I do. Of course people will use it in a patronising way and some businesswomen will take it the wrong way. Is it better or worse than being a "yummy mummy"?
To be honest, I'm not sure I like the term "entrepreneur" to begin with - it makes me think of slightly shady deals with articles that have fallen off the back of a lorry, or financial scams selling shares in a gold mine that doesn't exist! Something slightly disreputable about it, I don't know why.
So long as the Government is giving special assistance to this group, I wouldn't care what they called me! Where do I sign up?
I think the term 'mumprenenur' is a bit of a fad and it will undoubtedly go out of fashion.
But, if it was not for motherhood I would not be doing what I am doing - launching a baby product that is going down a storm - and so I will happily be a mumpreneur for as long as it is fashionable as my former career and experience pre-motherhood speaks for itself and always will.
It is a great way too to network and meet people going through the same thing - I have to say it is a very different experience being an entrepreneur who gets up and goes to an office and works than it is being a mother, handling childcare and everyday life and a business. The term mumpreneur is a great way of creating a sense of unity and empathy amongst women all doing a similar enterprise be it large or small and having to deal with family life.
And if men want to get in on the act they can be dadprenenurs - it's an equal opportunities world after all ;-)
I am won Female Entrepreneur of Year in the the O2 X Awards, before becoming an entrepreneur was a full time mum to four children . I am happy with the to be refered to as a mumpreneur. There are a lot of mums creating amazing businesses, a lot do not have previous business experience but are learning as they go, creating empowering support networks with other mums in business.
Our entrepreneur in @FishbowlTwo (http://www.inafishbowl.com) is Marcela. She's a mum, a business woman and many other things. Asked what she thought of the name "mumpreneur", Marcela responded via Twitter:
"I really dislike the term mumpreneur- it sounds patronising to me...My partner helps with the business &kids...is he a dadpreneur??"
A good point I think.
Psychologically, grouping people helps us to make sense of the world and understand traits based on our own pre-supposed ideologies, stereotypes or, to use their technical term, schema. The thing with the term 'mumpreneur' is that it is combining two mutually exclusive ideas which don't need to be linked at all. You would call a man a tennispreneur just because he was an entrepreneur who played tennis now would you?
But are we wrong to assume this term is one of negative connotations? Take a look at Marcela's story, which features on the Start Up Donut blog and also on http://www.inafishbowl.com. She has been through so much and has come up against so many problems and, at times, the issues she has been dealing with have been directly linked to the fact that she is a mother (namely, she missed her children and was afraid they missed her when she was out working). Yet, she continues to strive for success in her business and her children continue to thrive. In this sense, can we use the term 'mumpreneur' as a positive for women who maintain their position as a mother and continue to provide, care for and spend time with their children whilst starting and running a business? Can it become a term indicative of power and self-reliance?
Like many other new mums I found myself in the situation of being unable to continue along my previous career path for many reasons. My business was set up out of necessity rather than wanting to follow the latest fashion.
I find the term useful for networking and finding support online in forums, via twitter etc as you can instantly find people facing the same issues as yourself.
On the other hand I do not refer to myself as a "mumpreneur" in real life or when networking with other business people as I often find the term being used in a patronising manner. I like to think I am a succesful business woman and a mum and don't think the two need to be combined.
I am an entrepreneur, a business woman and a mother - Coining all those into one buzz word, I feel, devalues the quality of each. I have always worked, even when my children where very small, through neccessity rather than desire so I never had the luxury of starting my own business due to the associated risks.
I managed to run a full time career, travelling in Europe and working at executive level, with seeing two talented girls through education and after school activities. It was like having two different, highly stressful jobs at once and it equipped me with coping, strategic, planning and time management skills that would rival those of a military general.
I was forced into starting my own business when redundancy threatened my daughters' university educations. Someone has to pay for it, and with employment at an all time low I took the plunge into doing my own thing. I recruit and search at senior level within the automotive aftrermarket parts distribution sector. So far, it has been successful and my key driver is to ensure that my kids get the very best opportunity to be successful in life.
So the fact that I'm a mum is certainly my driving motivation, but the business I'm in or the clients I deal with has nothing to do with my children. If I presented myself as a "mumpreneur" in the male dominated automotive environment they would think I have gone barking mad, and give the business to someone else. Please don't apply the buzz word to me! It is likely to be bad for business.
The term 'mumpreneur' says to me 'by mums, for mums', which sort of implies that businesses run by mums are cutesy and cottage industry with limited scope/vision, not proper businesses at all - I don't like it.
I personally feel proud to be a mum and an entrepreneur, the collaboration of the two words is inevitable and isn't meant to cause offence or degradation so although I have no plans to go around calling myself a "mumpreneur" I feel proud of my lifestyle, family and work life and thinks it can only be a good thing :)
Jenny
Web Design in Wrexham
I am mum and have just recently set up my own business. The term 'Mumpreneur' is a trend that will pass to be replaced by the next trend - it doesnt define who I am or my business intentions.
Yes, it does feel patronising, that's true.
Yet this is part of a trend that is leading to more recognition and support for this group ...who tend to run micro businesses, which have been sidelined as 'lifestyle' businesses in the past. The Internet has given these working mothers a voice and so politicians and policymakers are starting to do something to help. In fact Labour is making female entrepreneurs a centre-piece of their new business support policy, having decided that the UK should try and follow the US culture of a higher proportion of women running businesses (and I bet they also want to follow the conflicting European models when it comes to the social stuff like being around to bring up the children!).
Like so many things, there is a strong opt-in element to the mumpreneur story: you can take advantage of all the support groups if you like, or ignore them, it's up to the individual.
On balance I think the term does more good than harm to working mums - which is how all the mums I know describe themselves, without a second thought about it being patronising.
For the most part, I do shun the word, but I also simply refuse to be labelled as a "mum" anyway. I still have my own identity and am NOT an extension of my children!
However, I do understand and appreciate where the term has come from. It is not to do with excluding others, and trying to be a niche group based on the ability to have (and have had) given birth. It comes more from the fact that a lot of entrepreneur networking is done at times that are not convenient for mums i.e. breakfast meetings. It also recognises the fact that these entrepreneurs are also the main care givers of the children and therefore have to factor school holidays and sickness into their work life.
As a niche group, I dont have any issues with it. I am however opposed to the term "mumpreneurs" in todays modern society and think, if anything, the term "parentpreneurs" should be used.
I agree with the previous comment. I think "mumpreneur" is taking women and putting them to one side to classify them differently its not helping them at all.
They are entrepreneurs no need to take that away from them and reclassify them. In my opinion anyway.
Agree with what Sean has already said.
Whilst "mumpreneur" is more than likely a phase that will pass - Tagging women who have children, who have their own business as a "mumpreneur" makes me feel like their not being taken as seriously others. Some how get the feeling that the classing a woman who has her own business and children as a "mumpreneur" gives the impression that we are all working from our kitchen tables and are doing it more as a hobby than anything else.
Ok so some of us do start off working from our kitchen tables, but we work as hard as anyone else who has set up their own business. So why re-class us?
We are entrepreneurs and business owners.
Whilst I am not a mum, I have a fuddy-duddy, mumsy type association with the word - school runs, sticky fingers, buggies, arts and crafts and the such. I don't think it does working women any favours at all. @women_power