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The History of Business Mums
From Simple Beginnings
By Tash Hughes
It is commonly believed that the first five years are the hardest for a small business, so the Business Mums Network (BMN) is ready to soar!
Melissa Khalinsky started BMN in June 2002 with friends as members and pretty low short-term expectations. Five years down the track, BMN has helped over 3,000 members and many visitors, and looks quite different to those small beginnings.
So how did BMN start?
Melissa had been working in the computer industry until she became pregnant and lost her job in 2001.
“I wanted to be at home with my children rather than have a full time job, and I loved the idea of working for myself,” said Melissa. “So I was thinking about starting a business of some sort.”
Six weeks after the birth of her first son, Nathaniel, Melissa wanted to attend a small business seminar. However, the organisers of the event told her she wasn’t welcome with a baby – she could come alone or not at all.
At around that time, a business advisor also told Melissa she could only succeed in business if she put her children into child care and worked a 9 to 5 week.
Luckily for so many other mothers, Melissa ignored this advice. Instead, she went home and had the first version of the Business Mums website live in an hour!
What was BMN like in 2002?
“I know Melissa through a forum in the USA. We communicated sometimes and she invited me to BMN when she started this forum,” said Dorin Ng, one of the friends who originally joined BMN.
However, within six months, there were over 100 members in the network and most hadn’t known Melissa before joining. By then, Melissa had added a party planners’ directory and some business articles to the website.
“I was astounded! I expected to start it off slowly but people were finding us and obviously they had a need for a network like this,” said Melissa. “There were some American sites around but not everything they said was relevant for Australian businesses.”
Memberships
Initially, there were no membership fees for BMN.
Melissa expected to grow the membership base and use paid advertising on the site to cover her costs like the American sites. However, Australians wouldn’t pay for online advertising back then, unless the site was a known brand and attracting thousands of visitors.
To continue running the site and pay to promote and build the network, $50 Standard and Party Plan memberships were introduced in 2003.
As the site began to offer more than the boards, it become clear that $50 wasn’t enough to cover BMN’s costs so a new membership structure was introduced in 2004. Having three different levels of membership meant people could choose their financial investment and what they wanted from their membership.
Elly Taylor joined in 2003 and has been in a number of different member categories. “By far the best part for me is the forums. It's great to have advice, moral and technical support a couple of clicks away. In writing my book [about couples as parents], getting ideas, experiences, quotes and feedback has been invaluable.”
The current membership rates have been in place since early 2005 and include the magazine, banners on the BMN site, event and advertising discounts and access to the discussion boards. Some people have joined purely for the promotional opportunities and others for the boards; obviously those who make use of both aspects get the most out of their membership!
An evolving network
Slowly, BMN increased the number of resources available to business mums. More business and business-as-parents articles and member profiles were added, along with a business directory for members and paid advertisers.
As an active participant on the boards and in her network, Melissa has been able to understand the needs of her members and thus evolve the network to suit those needs.
In 2005, there was a marked change in BMN as Melissa launched a new look website and took the network to a new level.
Some of the key features of 2005 were:
- The monthly enewsletter became weekly
- The party plan and business opportunities enewsletters were started
- Coffee Break was added to the website to give business mums a chance to unwind and have some fun with brainteasers and quizzes. Brain teaser prizes also offered more promotion opportunities for members.
- Running five weekday workshops
- Holding a social BMN lunch in Melbourne
- Introducing an online shop to promote members’ products and provide a source of quality business aids
- Adding feature profiles to the website to further promote Gold members
- Increased awareness of the network in the media
“How has BMN changed in the last few years? Intro of the magazine and chapters, media coverage, more members, more "buzz" generally I suppose,” said Elly. “I love watching new boards being added as members show an interest in a particular direction, and how Melissa asks us what we want and like.”
New support channels
BMN started as an online support system for Australian parents starting or running a business. However, not everyone enjoys online forums and sometimes face to face contact works better than writing a message.
So Melissa developed the concept of BMN Chapters, with the first chapters in Melbourne and Sydney starting in 2006. Each chapter can operate in a way to suit the members, but the general pattern is a group of business mums meeting regularly to discuss their businesses. Guest speakers are often invited to chapter meetings, and children are accommodated for in some way.
All members are welcome to start a chapter in their local area, and Melissa aims to have a chapter in every Council area of Australia before BMN’s 10th birthday party!
Offline resources
The Cocktail newsletter was introduced as a monthly newsletter mailed out to paid members but it was a lot of work. Melissa struggled to get enough contributing writers and finally, after twelve months, the final edition was sent out in December 2003.
Melissa noticed members changed their membership level with the removal of Cocktail and there was interest on the boards and in emails for offline resources. With this knowledge, Melissa developed the Business Mums magazine to give members and subscribers another means of getting information about business.
The Business Mums Magazine’s first edition was in September/October 2006. By edition three, the magazine had added a colour cover and was sent out to over 70 subscribers plus many paid members.
What the future holds…
As we celebrate five years of BMN supporting and encouraging mothers to follow their business dreams, it’s also exciting to consider where the network is going from here.
The boards are buzzing, more articles and online resources are being planned, more chapters are starting and the shop is stocking more business resources. And, of course, there is the inaugural BMN Conference in September this year. The Conference is going to be the showcase of how a network can teach members new skills and allow them to develop relationships that help them as business people and as women.
The sense of community and sharing at BMN is what has made it special and kept it going strong for five years, despite various challenges. The knowledge gained and Melissa’ attitude of learning from her members will ensure the next five years will be just as inspiring and exciting.
Thanks to
Tash Hughes joined BMN four and a half years ago, and has no plans to leave this supportive network! As a professional writer, Tash has worked with BMN and many members to produce clear communications, informative articles and effective webcopy. You can contact Tash on the boards at BMN or through her website at www.wordconstructions.com
Article published in Business Mums Magazine Issue 5, June July 2007
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