UKStartups

I agree completely with Darren. It just sounds unprofessional. At the best, it’s irrelivent – if you’re a good businesswoman and a mother then the two should be separate.

Mumpreneur hints that you’re mixing motherhood with business. It conjours visions of a stay-at-home mum selling tacky trinkets on Ebay while she looks after the kids all day.

Besides, it doesn’t roll of the tongue, either.

This sort of gets my blood boiling a bit; yes, running your own business can take up all of your time and it’s hard to juggle being a parent with this. But that’s my point, it’s not just ‘mums’ who do this, and it’s certainly not just people who run their own business: parents who have full-time jobs also find it really hard to manage their time and give their children the best possible start.

So yes, in a nutshell, it annoys me because it does nothing to recognise fathers who are running their own business and family at the same time. And it’s really just a sham ‘trendy’ term which can actually have negative connotations as discussed above.

I don’t want this to sound like I am being negative toward mums who run their own business, because I think it’s great, but I also applaud mothers and fathers who are keeping down full-time jobs and or /full-time study.

Hate it, hate it, hate it and not just because I’m not a ‘mumpreneur’.

I agree with the comments already made – being a business woman and a mother don’t really have a bearing on each other if you want to project a professional image.

Women have run businesses and been mothers for decades but, as usual, it’s the terms coming from the US that are seen as easy ways to move business forward.

I have to look after a home, husband, dog and elderly father who lives 250 miles away and run my two businesses, but I wouldn’t want that to be titled and used as part of my business marketing strategy.

If I was looking for someone to work with me and they told me they were a ‘mumpreneur’ I may be a little concerned that they were letting me subtly know that their children would come first and client work second.

The phrase makes me think of a housewife in track bottoms and a baby-food stained Guns-n-Roses T-shirt with a squealing 18month old perched on her hip and a mobile pressed to her ear.

I salute all women who juggle home and work. I couldn’t do it.

The conversation on twitter began by me saying how much I hate the term Mumprenuer for the simple reason.

It creates a perception of a small fry business. I won’t repeat what I said on twitter this morning, but I am pleased that as many hard working woman in business, hate this nonsense term as much as I do.

Respect to woman in business, juggling so many tasks, then doing a simlar amount of juggling at home. (If only we fellas could multi-task so well). I just wish such people would stop cheapening their efforts by calling themselves M.P

I didn’t mean that in a ‘I don’t need you anyway’ way, what I meant was, if you are actively using the term mumpreneur as a form of marketing for your business, then that’s the business you will attract, other ‘mumpreneurs’,

I don’t use it as a form of marketing and therefore don’t attract that target market.

Hope that’s a bit clearer

First let me say, I am a business woman, and I am a mum, and do not wear trackies and don’t have food in my hair or sick down my top, I run a business and being a mum is seperate to that.

I’ve posted over on http://www.helenstothard.com/whats-in-a-name/ so I’ll just paste my comments here….

Ok, I think I need to explain where this started.

The comment was made that the term Mumpreneur raised doubts when used in-line with your business, and that if x person was looking to hire then they would raise the question as to where your commitment lies, business or children. i.e if your child fell over at school, you had to go and collect them, would your business suffer..

I could not understand the connection, and why the doubts would ever surface. Surely, any successful business would have contingency plans in place in order to support their clients no matter what? It’s like saying, because you’re a mum you can’t run a business? that’s how I saw it.

I don’t use the term mumpreneur in line with my business, in fact I don’t really class myself as a mumpreneur, or an entrepreneur for that matter. I’m just doing my thing, and doing it well. I run a successful business, who also has children, a husband and a life.

It is a label, and yes, use it for your business if that’s the market you want to target, I know business owners who do this and do it well. The chances are, if you don’t like the term mumpreneur will not require the services of that business anyway, so why does it matter?

So for me, the argument wasn’t about the term ‘Mumpreneur’ it was more about the comment made about ‘commitment’ to clients.

Hope that made sense!

So mumpreneur is a marketing label, to target other mums running a business? Nothing to do with being a mum who runs a business? Like a tradepreneur, a trader only selling/buying from traders?

IMHO it’s a non-namer and can’t understand why there has to be soooooo many labels for everyone running a business.

My mentor/accountant takes this view: being called a small business is just a label economist stick on to you because of their beloved statistics and pigeon holing. Don’t stick the label small business on yourself – be big!

What’s in a name? What’s in a label?

Karin H.

I think this term is used to identify women who manage to run a business as well as caring for young children (mine are all grown up now). Like any label it’s up to you whether you accept the one bestowed on you by others (or even yourself). Mother, small business manager, librarian, blogger, granny, wife, dog lover. These are all roles I have which may at times conflict. No matter what you call me I’m still ME.