A Mini Guide For Mumtrepreneurs: Coping During A Global Crisis
8 minute read
You may not be familiar with the trend called mumtrepreneurs (or mompreneurship), since it is still a relatively new trend.
This is a new trend in entrepreneurship which picked up some pace following the growth of the internet that allowed entrepreneurs to do business out of their homes instead of having to go to offices or have physical stores.
Are you a mumtrepreneur? And is this global crisis having an impact on your business?
The chances are that you too have felt the results of the pandemic. Keep reading to discover what you need to do to weather this storm in the best possible way.
Overview:
What Is Mumtrepreneur?
A mumtrepreneur is a slang term that describes a woman who is starting or already running her own business while also having an active ‘full-time’ role as a parent.
Obviously, this term is a combination of the words ‘mum’ and ‘entrepreneur.’ What is typical of these women is that they generally run a business in their home rather than a commercial building.
These ladies have family duties and work duties, which make it quite difficult to keep track of all tasks on a daily basis. A mumtrepreneur has to find a good balance between running a business and raising her children.
Small eCommerce business models are usually what these women aim at, since they can handle all the operations at home and still be there for their families.
The increasing number of these ladies just goes to show that there is a growing trend and a sign that the startup space is becoming more egalitarian and inclusive.
Step-By-Step Advice For Saving Your Business
There is no need to emphasize that the last couple of months have been difficult for most businesses. The whole world is facing major difficulties due to the pandemic that is still present to some degree.
If you are looking for the best way to overcome this difficult situation, here is a step-by-step walkthrough that should help you endure and survive these tough days.
1. Prioritize Cash Flow Management
During these trying times, you have to focus on great cash flow management. When this area of your business fails, it brings down almost the whole operation. It is not poor profitability that kills a business, it is poor cash flow management.
To improve your whole operation, focus on your business’ cash flow management process and identify areas for improvement. There are ways to improve this process and the most notable ones are the cash flow movements optimization and creation of cash reserves.
- Optimizing cash flow means maximizing your cash inflows and minimizing your outflows. Having accounting software such as Xero in place might just do the trick. This software offers an invoicing feature that gives you the ability to issue and chase outstanding invoices automatically.
- When it comes to cash reserves, you have to save consistently in order to create solid cash reserves. This means that every amount counts, no matter how small. To conceptualize a savings goal, take your largest monthly expense and work toward that amount. Once you have achieved that, double it.
2. Importance of Time
As a mumtrepreneur, you should recognize how important every minute is. When you need to handle business processes and family duties, you realize how difficult multitasking can be.
However, this is where automation can really help. Automation allows you to utilize cost-effective ways and manage your business in the current environment where resources are scarce.
- You can automate internal processes such as payroll management or even invoicing if you decide to give cloud-based services a chance. This will considerably save time and allow you to focus on more important matters.
- Additionally, you should try to digitize documents. This kind of upgrade will also save you time in the long run. Digitizing files makes them simple to search and send whenever you need to.
3. Build Brand Loyalty
In this crisis that is affecting all of us, we need each other more than ever. What this means for you is that you need to work on your relationship with the customers and boost your brand loyalty.
- Try to re-evaluate how your business interacts with customers. To be precise, you should check your social media and email marketing strategies, and also see what people talk about on discussion forums.
- If you can, try to implement a communication line where customers can seek assistance or have their questions about your business and products answered.
- Also, since people are spending more time at their homes these days, you should really take advantage of social media platforms. Publish quality content and try to inspire people using social media platforms as your channels.
- Finally, do not forget forums and communities where people from your industry gather. Make sure that you are present on them and that you interact with customers. This will not only increase your visibility but you will also give out the impression of being an authority.
4. Make use of the Hong Kong Government’s Funding Schemes
For all of you mumtrepreneurs residing in Hong Kong, you will be glad to hear that the government of the region is about to launch the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) and Distance Business Programme (D-Biz) in response to COVID-19.
These government-funded schemes are aimed at Hong Kong’s SMEs in the short-term through financing. If you are seeking more tangible support, you should definitely utilize these schemes for a range of purposes.
- ESS was created to help the region’s employers keep their staff, since most of the employees would otherwise be made redundant due to the pandemic and its effects on businesses. Under the ESS, the government is willing to cover half of the employees’ salaries for six months in two tranches.
- D-Biz was created to help businesses adopt IT solutions that can facilitate remote working. This is especially helpful for businesses that can function completely remotely, as no one can really estimate how long this pandemic will hold out.
That is why each D-Biz applicant can receive total funding of $300,000 to adopt three separate IT solutions as outlined by the government. Consider implementing automation and you will soon realize how useful this program can be to your business.
Final Thoughts
The worst has passed. Even though no one can claim when we will see the end of this crisis, there are ways that you can help yourself and your business.
Make sure not to neglect either one of your two main obligations in life. Of course, your family is always the top priority, but that doesn’t mean that you should let your business fail.
There are resources you can use and processes you can either change or optimize to better handle the whole situation. Go through this guide again to get a clear idea of what you need to do to make things better right away.
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