Whatever You
Do, Please
Don’t Call Me a
Mumpreneur
Amber Daines
What’s in a word? “A rose by any other name
Mumpreneurship is one of those words that
would smell as sweet” or so goes Shakespeare’s have crept into our everyday language since
famous quote from ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
around 2009. In essence it’s harmless and in
some ways a sign of the evolving nature of the
Full respect to William Shakespeare but this line Australian and global workforce.
made me ponder if this always the case? Would
my success as a business owner with seven
The Australian Bureau of Statistics show that
years under my belt really feel as sweet if I was women make up 33% of small business owners
routinely stamped with a modern buzz word or and the number is steadily climbing. This is
term such as mumpreneur? I think not. And a
being fuelled by the growth of women who
quick poll among some fellow business women decide to launch their own business after
on Facebook before I penned this article shows having children. In the UK, a 2010 survey by BT
me I am not the only one.
Business of 1286 mums found that 15% had
started their own business and another 10% of
Truth be told, I’ve actually not been called a
those surveyed were planning to.
mumpreneur officially or at least not to my face.
I have however rejected a media opportunity
My story is a bit different perhaps. I started
last year, where I was to be featured alongside
my communications agency well before I even
a few others so-called mumpreneur which
considered having kids. I did it for the sake of
intrigued and infuriated me. So this is an old
my health. The idea was to just try my hand at
battle that I now am tackling publicly.
some freelance work over the Christmas period
after leaving my last full time job in 2007,
Why? Labels can hinder, can limit and can
convinced that no regular pay packet was worth
stereotype. If I was called “just a mum” or
the stress of being bullied and not treated with
“David’s wife” 99% of the time when I was
respect at my workplace. It was a scary time
introduced to new people, I’d be equally
and I literally had $1000 in the bank.
frustrated. It’s always easier to pigeonhole folks
we meet and trying to find our own tribe is part From there Bespoke Communications
and parcel of human nature. I get that. But it’s
thankfully grew fast, and when I did have a
also sometimes damaging to one’s own selfbaby in 2009, it was certainly packed up with a
limiting beliefs.
clear plan of how I was going to maintain and
build a PR business and raise a child with