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Forum - What do you think of the term 'Mumpreneur'?
What do you think of the term 'Mumpreneur'?
Fri, 01/04/2011 - 10:14 — Mark Williams
Some mums who run businesses hate the 'Mumpreneur' tag because they think it's a tad patronising. After all – why are there no 'Dadpreneurs'? Alternatively, many other mothers are proud to call themselves mumpreneurs because it shows their allegiance to the idea of a fast-growing community of young female business owners known for its creativity, resourcefulness, confidence and shrewd business sense. What do you think? Are you a 'Mumpreneur' or simply a woman with children who runs her own business?
Read how some site users responded last year when we posed the question – "Are you a Mumpreneur?"
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It's certainly a term that helps define a particular group of business people. They're Mums and they run their own business.
The type of business varies from a 'hobby' business - something to bring in additional cash to the household, that fits in around young children, to a fully-fledged successful business. I've met and worked with them all.
Many successful businesses have started from the kitchen table, so I don't think you can dismiss them - but I agree that a business is a business - whether it's run by men or women and whether you've got children or not. Mums may have their own challenges trying to juggle a business around a family, particularly with young children - but set realistic expectations, whatever size and stage your business is.
I have read this post with interest because my business name incorporates the word ‘mumpreneur’ - lawyers4mumpreneurs. I know that some people hate the name but it serves a useful purpose. It attracts the people who I am passionate about helping.
What does being a mumpreneur mean? To me it means that you are running your own business from home in order to be able to work flexibly around your children. Entrepreneur.com defines a mumpreneur as “a female business owner who is actively balancing the role of mom and the role of entrepreneur”.
I am a mumpreneur myself and that’s why my passion is in helping other women like me. After 12 years of working at a top City law firm, at ITV, Virgin and being director of a property company, I set up my own business law practice whilst pregnant so that I could continue to work whilst looking after a young family. It would have been an awful lot easier and financially more lucrative to continue in paid employment, but I did not want to hand my children over to nannies or full time child care. I class myself as a ‘mumpreneur’ because I work around my daughter - I work when she sleeps or is happy playing in her playpen and arrange childcare for when I have a meeting or a call I can’t schedule around naptimes – and by the way, this doesn't mean that the quality of my work is compromised one bit and clients will testify to a proactive, prompt service that equates to the service offered by any top class City law firm. However if I had chosen to have full time childcare and worked full time (or even part time) outside of the home, I would not class myself as a mumpreneur – I would be a business woman with a child.
The fact that we choose to (or have to) work around our children means that we are a distinct business group with our own set of needs and requirements. A fantastic community offering much needed support is evolving. Mumpreneur networking groups hold events at times avoiding the school run and in venues that offer childcare facilities. Mumpreneur conferences are being held to provide advice and support tailored to mumpreneurs. Many mums invent baby related products, so the mumpreneur community to which they belong is their ideal customer base.
For my part as a lawyer, mumpreneurs have their own requirements and needs in the provision of legal services. For example mumpreneurs need to work flexibly around the demands of their children, so they like the fact that it suits me better to schedule calls in the evening once the children are in bed. They prefer to deal with someone in the same position as them who will understand if we have to reschedule a call 3 times because of their crying baby or in some instances have to talk over a crying baby. They also need an affordable lawyer who is prepared to sick to a fixed fee as in the main, mumpreneur businesses are small, self funded businesses.
The female entrepreneurs who dislike the term don’t see why mums in business should be labelled as a subsection of business and think that the term is demeaning to them, making their business seem more ‘hobby like’ and less professional. I wonder whether these women actually work around their children or in fact have childcare that allows them to work independently of their children and just happen to be business woman who have children (not a mumpreneur in my view).
In any event, the perception might be that mumpreneur businesses are hobbylike, but a lot of my 'mumpreneur' clients are building fantastic businesses that any entrepreneur would be proud of. And for many mumpreneurs, success is not about building up their business to a million pound turnover. It is about being successfully balancing spending time with their children whilst still having something for them and keeping them intellectually stimulated and if that means that their business is kept to a small scale and ‘hobby-like’ whilst their children are young, so be it.
When I meet my clients, they don't introduce themselves and say "hello I'm a mumpreneur". It is just a name that has grown up to identify a group of people who have differing needs and requirements from those who don't have to work around their families. What else would you call them?
Suzanne Dibble
Business law expert
http://www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com
"In any event, the perception might be that mumpreneur businesses are hobbylike, but a lot of my 'mumpreneur' clients are building fantastic businesses that any entrepreneur would be proud of. And for many mumpreneurs, success is not about building up their business to a million pound turnover. It is about being successfully balancing spending time with their children whilst still having something for them and keeping them intellectually stimulated and if that means that their business is kept to a small scale and ‘hobby-like’ whilst their children are young, so be it."
Quiet applause.
I’m equivocal: as a media type (I’m one of the editors behind the Donuts), I find the term ‘mumpreneur’ very useful shorthand for a certain kind of business owner. But I think it’s more than just a marketing label: I’m pretty sure the reason we talk about ‘mumpreneurs’ is because full-time mothers are easily overlooked and frequently patronised by the rest of society. Nowadays, it’s relatively easy to start and run a small-scale business alongside other commitments, but there’s very little support available. The term ‘mumpreneur’ enables business mums to band together, support one another, get attention and attract support from elsewhere. So it’s very functional.
Of course, mums are a lucrative market, too, for publishers and so on and I fully understand why some people think it’s patronising. But the fact that many mothers running businesses use the term ‘mumpreneur’ to describe themselves suggests that it’s less patronising than it is powerful. Without it, would we even be aware of the large numbers of full-time mothers starting small businesses? Would many of them even have had the confidence to do so?
I think it depends on how you define the word.
I run my business around being a full time mum my children are bump on board, 2years and 4 years .. I don't have a conventional working environment. Emails are snatched between soft play and baking cakes!
Last year I was named Dorset Business Mum of the Year .. which was a great honour and I believe inspired more mums in my local area to aim to juggle young children and a business. And yes I'll be the first to hold my hands up and say I use the term to my advantage. Lots of local radio stations call me up when they have a mum/money/business story they want an 'expert' opinion on and I'm happy at the moment to go with this.
However if my children were 7 and 8 and at school full time and I was running a business mostly between the hours of 9-3 then I wouldn't like to be labelled a mumpreneur. I think the term mumpreneur really does 'mean' those mums sat at soft play on their laptops or discussing profit and loss charts while hundreds of children run round screaming behind them!
Glad to see that I'm not alone in my loathing of the term and my sense that it indicates that anyone wh does use it isn;t taking themselves serisouly enough.
When I first heard the term Mumpreneur, I found it quite embarassing. However, it's all about the perception that goes with the term. I was interviewed by a newspaper on this subject yesterday.
If we are Mumpreneurs, then we need to fight to change the perception. At present, as pp have said, it's seen as people baking cupcakes in their kitchen as a hobby (there is nothing wrong with this). I am not this. I have just launched a very serious copywriting business. I have been in the communications industry for 11 years and I take this role every bit as seriously as any I have had prior to having children.
After having met and talked with several Mumpreneurs - whatever they think of the term - I have found some incredibly driven, focussed women who have set up businesses and happen to be mothers. That is what I want the term Mumpreneur to come to mean.
I have to say I find the term very strange; however, I also find it strange that there are 'women in business' awards and various other discriminatory style things. Gender, Race etc. shouldn't make a difference, particularly in today's society when you are running a business.
I, a business woman with no children, very much dislike the term. Why do some women feel the need to define themselves by motherhood, when first and foremost they are their own person? When I do have kids eventually, and I do plan to, you will never hear myself utter this term about myself. I don't know about patronising, it just sounds plain cheesy and in the same line of thought as Darren, a tad like your business is a part-time hobby...
I have to say that as a woman in business without children I do feel rather left out!
Does it make me a worse business person?
Do I have an easier time of things?
I know my answer to these things!
We do seem to like labels don’t we!
I must confess I can't stand the term either. As much as anything else it's ugly, and personally I think it's patronising too. As pp says, why would anyone choose to call themselves that? I'm a proud mum to two gorgeous children, but when I'm working I wouldn't dream of dragging my family situation into things. I have a job title, I use that - it should be enough to give an idea of what I do, and I really don't think my reproductive history is necessary!
If you're female, and in business, I don't care whether you're a Mum or not. I've asked people in real life and on Twitter and all I've spoken with agree that while the term is popular it's incredibly patronising.
Mumpreneurs need to realise that while they use this ridiculous term to describe themselves and/or their businesses they will not be taken seriously. People who are in business are business people, regardless of their gender.
I agree completely very well put!
I recently wrote a blog called "Mumprenur why would you call yourself that?" http://bit.ly/eotwXl
I just think it's the most ridiculous title any woman in business could give herself. Unless you are happy to be perceived as a little coffee club member.
In business perception is so important, I will do business with anyone that I think is able to do the job to the level I would expect. This for me is where " the term" (which I will now refer to it as) is so belittling!
It makes me think, what is this person's priority, fulfilling a level of service to clients or looking after little Jonny when the school calls to say he has fallen over in the playground?
Of course your family should take precedent, just don't let me know that it will. It's all about confidence. Would you walk into a board room and call yourself a small home based business, working out of my spare room preuner? How would that be perceived?
If you are doing business with other people that use "the term" great. Maybe it gives you a sense of belonging, comradery, amongst yourselves? take it anywhere else, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
You think I am alone in this opinion. Trust me, some woman hate the term, some men hate the term. Just call yourself by your name. Drop the naffness and just be you.
By the way, just for the record I do business with many woman, so before I get a tide of abuse from the feminist movement and accusations of sexism, understand what I am saying. Business woman and Business men are on the same level, so don't sell yourself short by making yourself sound small and on the phone with kids running under your feet.
And by the way, it's not just "the term" that is silly, when I was handed a card saying "Serial entrepreneur" on it. My perception of that person, was so negative, I'd be kicked off this site for telling you what I thought, but that's another story.