Small business heroes: Mumlin
Direct Line for Business spoke to Katy Hymas about the challenges of running your own business and juggling a family.
Small Business Case Study: Mumlin
Katy Hymas is no stranger to running a business.
8 years after graduating from university, Katy founded her very own PR agency, Cherry Pie PR, to great success.
But when she was pregnant with her twins, Katy decided that she wanted to start a business that could provide financial stability, but which she could also fit around her primary role of being a Mum, on top of her 'other' job at Cherry Pie.
How did Katy start her business?
Katy came up with her first product idea very organically when she found that there was a real lack of comfortable and stylish alternatives to muslins, a product which she was about to start using regularly (what with a baby on each shoulder!).
Katy decided early on that she wanted other people to take her business as seriously as she did and have confidence that her brand was one which would be sticking around.
With this idea firmly in mind, she went about setting up several crucial business aspects, including the legal structure of her company, VAT registration and taking out business insurance, early in the process.
Learning on the job
Despite her previous success in setting up Cherry Pie PR, Katy has never been aware of any rule book when it comes to business - so she’s very much blazing her own trail.
She has never experienced serious levels of doubt or suffered a crisis of confidence in her ability or product because taking little steps forward don’t intimidate her. Neither is she afraid to reach out to people who can help move her business forward - with LinkedIn and other such digital networking tools playing an integral part in the growth of her business.
That said, Katy says her biggest challenge has been and continues to be to 'keep on keeping on'. When doors have closed in her face, time and again she resolves to be a bit more creative, to try a bit harder and to work around the issue.
What's next for Mumlin?
One product invention, a book and numerous awards later, Katy still feels like she is a few years off the end game and the perspective that comes with that. She knows her goals, is highly motivated and very confident that each step she is taking will help build the ‘bigger picture’.
But while she is knee deep in the chaos of her growing brood and business, what she calls ‘spinning plates’ and ‘survival mode’, she can’t see that bigger picture clearly quite yet.
For the time being, Katy is concentrating on the next little step in her business's development - making lots of money from it.
She says that lots of mums look at her achievements and assume that, what with all of the great PR she and her business has generated, she has reaped the financial rewards. But Katy explains, she is still working hard on that.
Katy is proof that it is possible, that small steps forward are all that are needed, and the guts to ‘keep on keeping on’.
To find out more about starting and running a small business head over to our Small Business Heroes video hub.