Mumpreneur Feature -Helen

The lovely Helen from Save Every Step is my mumpreneur feature on the blog today. Please take a minute to read her interview about herself and her fantastic business and then pop on over to her website and make your family stories!! You can also join Helen on facebook http://www.facebook.com/SaveEveryStep where she often runs competitions :O) Thanks so much for your time Helen x

Who are you?
My name is Helen Spencer and I’m clinging on to 44 by the fingernails. I’m a mum and a step-mum to four kids in total (mostly of the boy kind). There is often a lot of testosterone in our house!

What do you do?
I’m the Founder of family stories website, www.SaveEveryStep.com, a free-to-use place where you can lay out the memories of your family members’ lives on chronological timelines. Life, in the order it happens, in words and pictures, as a legacy for your children. Events are created by adding your narrative and media, then automatically added to your ‘lifeline’ in chronological order. Re-live childhood memories, remember a lost relative, or track the growth and development of your family over time.

When did you establish your business?

Helen’s Mum

I lost my mum very suddenly in 2006 and subsequently discovered that I was actually pregnant with my youngest son. It was devastating to know that her stories had gone with her, and that she would always be an ‘irrelevant’ face in black and white photos to my children, when she had meant to much to me. This led to a realisation that my own life memories would bear significance to  my kids in years to come, and that I had an obligation to capture and preserve my childhood memories (and all of the bad hair that came with them!) as well as the memories which we are making with the kids each and every day as they grow. This will be their legacy. A redundancy forced my hand, and the website was born!

What do you love about working for yourself?

Choosing my own schedule – sneaking in a dog walk or the odd exercise class is fine, right?

 Is there anything you do not like about working for yourself?
I found it incredibly isolating at first, after so many years in a corporate environment. It can also be hard to sleep!

Is there anything you would go back and do differently if you could?
1. Pay more attention to the significance of my incredible Mum, and ensure her stories were well documented
2. Be more realistic about growth of a business that does not have access to multi-million pound advertising budgets!

What advice would you give to a Mum considering starting her own business?
Be prepared for the long haul. It can sometimes feel like Me v The World. Ask for feedback and accept it objectively. Success is three parts hard work and one part luck!Whatever you think it will take, double it (especially costs).