You know those images that make it look that working from home is a dream job?
That running your own business is a breeze with you making money online and escaping the rat race?
Well if you have your own business you will know that this is totally untrue but if you are thinking about starting your own business I hate to break it to you – but running your own business is hard work – day in day out. Week in, week out. Month in month and out and if you make it – year in year out!
But if you can make it work, then the rewards are AMAZING and all the hard work is so worth while – you just need to BELIEVE in yourself and be determined and you can get there.
When I started my own business (The Healthy Mummy) back in 2010, I knew it was going to be hard work – but I had absolutely no idea just how hard it actually was to run a business and that most business’ don’t make any profit for 2-3 years.
It was year 3 before The Healthy Mummy broke even and when I started the business I had no idea about this – literally no clue.
I had taken a huge risk to launch the business. I quit my job at 6 months pregnant (with my first baby), sold my house and invested the money into my idea – which when it first began was helping mums to get healthy and lose weight through healthy eating plans.
And luckily, my house sale money carried me through the first 3 years when the business started to turn a profit and I had (and still have) an amazing husband who believed in me.
My financial skills when I began the business were shocking (thankfully they have now become better) and accountancy has never been my strong point.
Instead my passions have always been in building my business, creating awesome customer experiences and listening to the customer every single day – then creating amazing ideas and products that delivered on what the customer needed.
My passion and motivation that I had when I began the business back in 2010 has only grown stronger and I feel so lucky that I am the Founder of The Healthy Mummy and all it has now become.
I also feel so very very lucky that running the business has afforded me the flexibility to be around for my two boys – something that was the driving force for me taking the huge risk to begin my own business back in 2010 – I have always wanted to be there for them and this is a huge motivation for me every single day.
This year the business will turnover $16m (a number which totally blows me away). I have always reinvested all monies back into the business as I strongly believe that to create the best business possible the business must constantly innovate with new products and services and listen to what the customer needs – as well as invest in awesome staff.
For me the customer is the most important person in the business and I want to do all I can to create an experience she loves and products she is happy to use and recommend.
If we make something and it isn’t good enough then I will make it again – but better and I won’t stop re-making it until it is perfect.
I am also now very lucky that The Healthy Mummy has an amazing team of women who are driving my own vision for the business forward and the mantra of ’empowering mums to live a healthier life” echoes through all parts of the business and the products we create.
I could write so much on every stage I have spent on the business as I have been hands on throughout – and remain so to this day and I have learnt so much along the rollercoaster ride.
I plan to share as much as possible in this blog to empower other mums in business so please fill out the information below so I can write about what you want to know
Thanks for reading
Rhian x