ACPR Blog

–Winners from the BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur competition prove that successful businesses are bucking the trend–          

Two businesses established by mums specifically catering for parents and families are amongst the  20 winners of BT Business’s Essence of the Entrepreneur competition.  Holiday Nanny, based in Lincolnshire, provides families with a properly qualified and vetted nanny for their holiday. Since starting the company in 2007, founder Nicola Grant has grown it enormously, and now works with over 140 different families and many top travel companies including Kuoni, Cadogan Holidays and Elegant Resorts. NetMums, based in Middlesex, was founded in 2002 by three mums and provides an online yet localised community for parents and families completely free of charge. It currently has over half a million users. Both these businesses are committed to making life easier for families, and creating networks for parents to talk and share ideas through experience. (more…)

Read my guest post on the Womanwise Marketing blog about How Giveaways Can Make YOUR Business A Winner. It is full of tips on how I obtain great competition prizes and use them to generate sign-ups for my newsletter.

The Future Friendly Awards recognise unsung heroes who are making the world a greener place. They say, “We’re looking for people who have promoted sustainable living - whether it’s simply by example, making it easier for people around them to live sustainably, or by inspiring others to ‘do their bit’. This could be an individual, a community or a group that has made some positive change to their everyday lives - and even better, reached out to others to help them change their lives too.

“Maybe, like one of last year’s winners, you’ve developed a sustainable allotment for your community to enjoy - or have you set up a group to teach your local residents how to live a more sustainable life?

“Or perhaps some friends have used new media or other media channels to spread your sustainable living message? You may have created a blog, a performance, a song, a forum for exchanging views or a short film that has encouraged others to make small changes to live a more sustainable lifestyle.”

If you know someone who:

• inspires others to make a difference, even in a small way
• leads by example
• is passionate about sustainable living

..then make sure you nominate them for the Future Friendly Awards 2008. Of course, if you feel that you or your group fit the required criteria, then you can nominate yourself into the awards too! Enter here by 23 January 2009

BT Business launch free business mentoring programme

Following Small Business Week, BT Business in conjunction with Peter Jones, announces a free mentoring programme to help UK small businesses succeed. One business will have two half-day sessions with Peter Jones and an additional five businesses will win mentoring sessions with senior executives from the BT Business Senior Management Team, including Bill Murphy, managing director, Robin Mackenzie, marketing director and Mick Hegarty, strategy director.

This is an excellent opportunity for a small business to get valuable free advice from leading experts and draw on the skills of influential entrepreneur Peter Jones and senior executives from within the BT Business Senior Management Team. The mentors will be able to demonstrate the diverse skill set needed to run and manage a successful business and deliver bespoke mentoring to businesses. (more…)

Do you love chocolate? The CHOC Chick Starter Kit is the ideal first step to making chocolates.

With enough ingredients to make around 80 chocolates, the Starter kit is ideal if you just want to see what all the fuss is about and also make fantastic presents!     CHOC Chick Kits include non-roasted raw cacao powder, raw (cold pressed) cacao butter and a white sugar replacement, agave syrup. And because you make the chocolate at home, it’s really up to you which extras to add (obviously no preservatives or E numbers required!).

If you’d like to win, visit www.chocchick.com and find out how many different size kits are on sale. Then email antonia@acpr.co.uk with your answer and CHOC KIT COMP in the title. COMPETITION ENDS 10 JANUARY

MumsClub, the business club for mums, has announced the winner of the 2008 Mumpreneur competition.
Melanie Riddell, the Mum behind www.sizzlingscience.co.uk had the most original and inspiring business idea. Her business provides fun and interactive science workshops for children.

Melanie beat off stiff competition from other mum owned businesses to be crowned ‘MumsClub Business of the Year 2008′ and has won a whole package of prizes for her and her family. (more…)

Do you feel like you’re living off chocolate? If you, enter this month’s competition from ACPR to win a book that every busy woman could do with. Find out more here.

It is well worth entering awards: look at all the publicity around the ITV mumpreneur awards. You can raise your business profile even if you don’t win. Why not get someone to nominate you and your business for Practical Parenting’s Amazing People Award: Businessparent of 2008. Good luck, and do let us know how you get on.

You  find out about how other mumpreneurs do it in our new Mumpreneur Profile slot on Family Friendly Working. First to be featured is Nanette of Lily Rose designs. If you’d like to be featured on the site, answer the questions here and email them to antonia@acpr.co.uk.

The competition to win a set of reusable bags closes on the 31st - click here for full details and to enter.

Have you signed up to http://giantpotential.ning.com yet? It is a great place to meet other women in business, and there are nearly 1000 members. If you haven’t joined yet, do it now. Antonia Chitty of www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk is offering a selection books including the essential Guide to Promoting Your Business and parenting books from White Ladder Press and Need2Know for the 1000th member. Sign up soon or you’ll miss out.