Fiona Lewis of Mumpreneurs Online
Tell us a little about the person behind the business? My name is Fiona Lewis and I’m a mum to three boys. I began working as a teacher in 1994 and gained experience in both Australian and overseas schools. During the late 90’s, the internet emerged and I was excited about this new medium as a learning and teaching tool. It wasn’t long before the children in my classes were engaged in creating e-books which were uploaded online so that their parents and friends could enjoy their children’s achievements. Back then, there weren’t any fancy programs to create e-books in this fashion, so I had to teach myself how to write javascript. This heralded the beginning of my interest in creating content online.
The head of the IT department in the school I worked had noticed my blossoming interest in IT and the Internet. He approached me to trial the running of an online portal for the school. I happily took on this challenge and after a steep learning curve, trained the other teachers to implement it throughout the school.
In 2000 I married and my husband I began to plan the future – our dreams included children and a family home. It didn’t take long to work out that my teaching salary was going to fall well short of helping to finance these dreams. My experience with the Internet awoke an entrepreneurial spirit within me. So in 2001 when I commenced a Masters Degree, I chose to major in Management and Human Resources. Whilst I was passionate about teaching, my experience with the Internet was instrumental in my choosing to major in an area outside of education because I felt even at this point my future career path lay beyond the classroom.
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And now a little about the business itself? I established an Internet Marketing Consulting business back in 2008 (Internet Marketing Profit Centre) and have been very successful in developing this business. Mumpreneurs Online has been established in Feb 2011 as a portal for Mums who are looking for ways to develop a business from home. The focus is on showing mums how they can use the Internet as the main portal of running a business.
How did you come up with your business name? The term ‘mumpreneur’ describes the growing group of entrepreneurial women who are developing businesses from home as they search to find work family balance. Therefore, ‘Mumpreneurs Online’ is targeted towards these women who see the Internet as being a major vehicle in the success of their business.
What made you want to begin a WAH business and how did you get started?
In 2002 I had my first baby – a son. I took 12 months maternity leave and only months into my return to work, I fell pregnant again. Then came the arrival of our second son – 2 boys, 18mths apart!!
My husband and I both agreed that we wanted to have one of us at home to care for the children, rather than put them in care. We realised a financial sacrifice would come with this, but felt it was the best thing for our family.
However, it didn’t take long before we realised that we really did need more than one income. And so the journey began for me to look for something I could do from home around the children. Over the next 4 years I tried several things – from family day care, MLM and Tupperware. None of these things left me feeling fulfilled – nor did I think they were the right ‘fit’ for me.
Eventually in 2007, I went back to full-time teaching. Initially I rejoiced at being back in the school environment. I loved having a reason to ‘dress up’ in professional wear and I also relished in the interaction with others. The class I had that year was just gorgeous and I did what I usually do when I teach – put my heart and soul into everything I did for the class. The problem with this was that I was spending ridiculously long hours at school 7.30am – 5.30pm and then had extra work to bring home. I would arrive home exhausted – but thrilled to see my kids.
My kids were equally excited to see me and wanted to spend quality time with their Mummy. This is where the problems began. I started to notice the language that was coming out of my mouth:
Son: “Mummy, can we play a game?”
Me: “Sorry darling, Mummy has a headache”
Son: “Mummy, can you read me a book?”
Me: “Just a quick one, Mummy has lots of work to do”
Son: “Mummy, can we walk to the park?”
Me: “Sweetie, Mummy’s really tired”
Do you see what was wrong with this picture???!?!?
I was giving all my energy and attention to OTHER people’s kids and had nothing left for my own. I was constantly stressed about keeping up with the demands of the school and the responsibility of a class of children. And to top it off, in order to pull off these crazy hours (and my husband worked in the construction industry so left home at 5:30am), the kids had to be dropped off at care at around 7am and then picked up at 6pm. Even THEY were exhausted!
After 12months of this crazy existence, my husband and I decided it had to stop. The family simply was not coping. Strangely enough, nature intervened and we discovered we were going to have another baby.
Throughout these years, I enjoyed blogging about a variety of topics and became curious as to how I could improve the ranking of these blogs. I picked up a few basic internet marketing skills along the way and saw gradual improvements. I also played around with adding affiliate products here and there on my blogs and thought it was pretty cool when the odd sale came through from time to time. I could see the MASSIVE potential for making a good income online – but I was held back by my basic knowledge of internet marketing.
It was now 2008 and I was determined to find something I could do from home. It’s strange how the universe answers you sometimes, because in April that year I bumped into a childhood friend whom I had not seen for many years. As we chatted about what was going in our lives, he mentioned that he had become a successful Internet marketer. It didn’t take ling for me to discover that he was being quite humble about his success. When I did a little bit of digging on the Internet, it became apparent that he was an EXTREMELY successful internet marketer – amongst the top in the world.
I asked him if he would share with me some of what he knew. I attended his Internet Marketing Workshop and my eyes were opened to the secrets of attracting traffic and gaining front page ranking in Google. It was a challenge I was determined to conquer!
I continued my training through him and learnt very quickly how to develop a successful online business. Through casual conversations with friends, I mentioned what I was doing and it didn’t take long before a few friends were asking me to help them with their websites and market them so they too could enjoy front page rankings on Google.
From there, a few referrals came along. Most of these people were fed up with their current website developers/marketers and wanted someone they could rely on. As you can imagine, I jumped at the chance of fulfilling this need and started my own internet marketing and website development consulting business. I had finally found a flexible, profitable business model that fit my criteria of working anywhere, anytime, around my children!
Nearly two years down the track, I’ve now spent tens of thousands of dollars educating myself in online and offline marketing and received hundreds of hours of professional training from some of the top marketers in the world. I’m loving the journey of being an entrepreneur and the freedom it gives me.
However, almost every day I find myself having conversations with other Mums who are currently in the same situation I was in or who have also been through it – so it got me thinking… and it became clear to me what I had to do.
I had to help other Mums just like me develop a business they could run from their computer, using the internet.
Hence the birth of Mumpreneurs Online. A blog designed to share information about making money on the Internet – specifically targeted towards women.
What motivates you to keep your business going? My children are my inspiration. After returning to full time work outside the house for 18 months, I realised that I would not be able to prent my children in the way I desired if I continued that crazy existence. Now that I work from home, I have the flexibility I desire, the income we need to stay comfortable financially and most importantly the time, energy and attention needed for my boys.
Do you have a current best-selling product or service? Have just completed writing a book in which I have interviewed 12 mums who have been successful in developing businesses that they run through the internet. Some of these women are now multi-millionaires, while others enjoy the extra part-time cash they were looking for. The book is due to be published in August through an international publishing company Global Publishing.
How do you advertise your business and which methods have proven more successful? Mumpreneurs Online relies heavily on Internet Marketing techniques to drive traffic. As it is a relatively new site, much of the traffic comes through referral sites and viral marketing techniques. The goal is to eventually rank for the highly competitive keyword phrases in this niche – in fact, in the space of the first 6 weeks, the website is already enjoying some page 1 and page 2 rankings.
How do you juggle your family and your WAH business? Any tips for other WAHP’s? One thing I have come to realise is that it is important to try to be truly present with your children when it is family time. I found that if I tried to work whilst also being with my children, I didn’t do justice to either task. For this reason, I no longer try to juggle work and being with the kids at the same time. I have scheduled my working hours so they don’t clash now with dedicated family time, such as the mornings (before school), and then from 3-8pm. I mostly work from 9.30-2.30 each day and then catch up in the evenings when needed.
And finally, what advice would you give to anyone wanting to start a WAH business? Start with the end in mind. Have a clear picture of what you are wanting to achieve – the amount of hours you plan to work, the level of income you wish to generate, the type of tasks you seen yourself doing. But most importantly, just do it! Realise your dreams, because they are truly possible.
Do you offer any discounts to Support a WAHP fans? Please see http://www.mumpreneursonline.com/makeover for full details on the competition – a chance for one lucky mumpreneur to win a $16,000 business makeover
Business Name: Mumpreneurs Online
Website URL: http://www.mumpreneursonline.com
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Location: Sydney, Australia
