to get a bit depressed at the 'woman beats recession' stories that are about really shit businesses that haven't even started

[Heroine]

I an getting a bit bored of the 'I was made reduntant and now I am starting my own recession beating bead-selling/ironing/wardrobe consultancy/dating agency business that hasn't even started, is doomed to fail and only possible because a) I can pump my large redundancy payout into it and b) because my husband is not redundant, but somehow I providing hope for any women who is not a lazy arse to make a fortune out of 'doing something she loves'

They really are patronising in the extreme and I am sure only there because you can get a nice pretty made-up shot of someone runnning a crap home-made dreamweaver business.

Ihate the way these articles are written as though any daft woman silly enough to work in something as unfeminine as a real job is a silly thing who just isn't as clever as the golddigging sponge and her fantasy business..
oh it makes me fume there are so many at this time of the year... nhmph

I've not seen those. I've seen masses of women's stories - maybe it says more about what I read, but I don't believe so.

I'd say that 'downsizing to start a business' is a whole different rhetoric, which is interesting in itself.

Pat on head.

Who's a clever girl then?

I agree with LRD.

I run a business.

I started it because I wanted to run a bookshop.
I started it when I did because I was getting noting from my relationship and wanted to own my own thing there and then.

I left him, but still had the business.
Now i'm with my DH, who, yeah, has a job and basically supportd me.

My business has just entered its 3rd year and I hope to support myself by the end of this year.
I'm approximately breaking even this year (well, that's a blatant lie, because I haven't made back any of the money i originally put in, but the year was break even, if you don't take that into account)

I agree that it's the tone of the article that can inspire the rage in me. I would agree some of them are patronising in the extreme "Tara Farquar-Smarty-Pants-Smythe lives in a converted stone barn in the Cotswolds where she make jam. An active member of the WI, Tara says her husband Jeremey, an investment banker, pays for is very supportive of her new business"

That said, I have a good friend who runs a cupcake business, in addition to her salaried job. She does it very much for her, as something she enjoys and the money she makes is a bonus. Women like her and Michelle Mone or Tamara Mellon (Ultimo and Jimmy Choo founders respectively) are much more my thing. But it's all relative isn't it? Small business, small profit.

We don't see so many men's stories, I think, because traditionally a large proportion of men have always set up their own businesses. Imagine the article to cover that: "Dave Brown lives in a maisonette in Slough. He has set up his own plumbing business"

Being anything other than a money-eating-machine is not bad at all for only the 3rd year nickel

agree with op, LRD and maighdlin. It's not the women doing this that's annoying(why would it be? their life, their, as it were, business) it's the media slant. which has, at its heart, the idea that if you pesky women insist on working then the least you can do is something domestic that allows you to pick the kids up from school.

hope it will be.

TBH not expecting to make back the original investement for a long while...

Yes hatwoman encapsulates my objections nicely.

(and wehen I said approximately breaking even, that really meant a shortfall of about £10k....)

For me, with the current govt and economic climate, there is also an undertone that if only all the women who are about to be made redundant from their public sector jobs had enough get-up-and-go and gumption, they could easily make millions from a cupcake business run from home. So stop complaining, if you wind up skint it's your own fault for not having the multi millionaire husband top business ideas of the women featured.

YANBU

Where's cat and her story?

Until you've tried to run a business, however twunty its product or target audience, you're not really qualified to slag off someone trying to make a go of things.

So what if their businesses are doomed to fail?

At least they've tried to find something to do with their time that's a bit more positive than moaning.

Even businesses deliberately run at a loss (usually to offset the other partner's earnings) require a fair amount of time, energy and brainpower to keep ticking over.

I like purits's point about the "fluffy" nature of the businesses featured, which prompted me to question the motives of "journalists" featuring such businessess: surely "fluff" makers are (a) more likely to advertise than widegt makers and (b) produce more interesting "freebies", eh?

ISNT also made an excellent cynical point about the normalising effect of such "success stories" being out there. A bit like old-fashioned Soviet propaganda!

Completely missed the point there, I think, thomas!

It's nothing to do with criticizing these women, or their choices of business, it's to do with the way they're picked up and reported in the media. Mrs. Cupcakes in a pinny is better than Dave the plumber with his bumcrack, because Dave is doing what normal men do, and Mrs Cupcakes is a brave little woman venturing out of her natural domesticity to earn a penny for her impoverished family.

Spare a thought for the real business owners who have to compete with these women on price and valuable resources. E.g. the cupcakes cost £1 to make and they sell them for 75p since hubby will pay the mortgage, whereas those selling them at £1.20 and needing to pay the mortgage go out of business.

There was a huge article like this in the free magazine on the tube (Stylist I think?) this week. Really irratating as I actually would love to do something for myself but am crap at creative stuff (other than being a decent cook - although my cupcakes suck), it just feels like there are no options out their and I wouldn't have a clue as to what to do or where to start. Seems that this particular magazine class women with businesses into fluffy gingham, Pashley riding lovelys or ball-breaking, shoulder padded Apprentice types. What made me laugh the most though was the offer for some senimar at the end at £40 a pop that seemed far more concerened with the plush hotel and lovely champers than actually starting up a business.

there god I have some sort of typing disease I think.

at red dragon. well put.

Thanks

nickel, I remember you talking about your bookshop on one of the threads around Christmas (hazy memory of the context though).

notherngirl - the economic term for this is "dumping" and it's a very big WTO issue! However, I would imagine most of these cupcake-sellers do not sell across national boundaries, so probably a more "appropriate" thing to do would be to write a stern letter to the cupcake sellers, threatening to report them to DG COMP (European Commission directorate of Competition) for dumping and market distortion. DG COMP sounds more scary than the UK's Competition Commission, although you could reference the latter, too!

Oooh, I am all afire to write a letter, only I have work to do!

PS LRD - Taking it further, Cupcake Woman is impoverishing her family* and enriching the Big Supermarkets, a web of cross-subsidies which really makes my moral compass spin!

• and independent (not independently wealthy) tradespeople

Also report to Department for Work and Pensions for working below minimum wage, or HMRC for under-reporting profits, as "no-one would be idiotic enough to operate at a loss".

Off now, lest I start operating at a loss, too!

Mr Plumber has to support his family and hence the flat they live in. Mrs Cupcake doesn't and can therefore sit next to her aga and smile sweetly.

Perhaps we should be teaching girls more to start and keep a thriving business, one that can support themselves. Then they might strive a bit more.

And very few businesses are profit making immediately. Sounds as if nickel is doing it well and thoroughly and building up a client base (local school woman story from other thread a good indication)

Would also love to hear igetmoreloves story.

LRD , normally when I talk about my shop, it's moaning that I haven't got any customers

main regret about my business is taking this building because it's too far down the High Street. This end of the High Street is always quiet, and i could get many more customers up the otherend (or even in the middle) - the rent was a lot cheaper down here , but I really believe now (with hindsight) that the higher rent would have been cancelled out by the increase in passing trade.

oh, yes, HoodedCrow - i have some very, very lovely (and spendy! ) regular customers!