to wish there was just one place on mumsnet to talk about MAKING money

[Lovelyideas]

as opposed to not have it, not having enough of it, dealing with specific investments, trying to get back to work, being a freelancer.

I have been chugging along earning between £25 and £40k for 12 years, now I have the possibility of earning considerably more, and I wish there was a place you could go to feel entrepreneurial and talk about things like delegation, scaling things up, marketing, tax, etc.

If this was mansnet, there would be tonnes of places to talk about making money :(

if anyone else wants to make money, or is going about making money in an interesting way, or is tired of not making money and wants to get serious about making some, please wander over and chat.

[Lovelyideas]

Queen, at the risk of outing myself horribly but never mind...

As a first step, I've teamed up with a law firm on a revenue sharing model
I'm running a couple of my clients through them (which is great because I can get paralegals to do my clients' stuff at good reasonable rates), still working for my own (this is all allowed nowadays, wasn't in the past, thank heavens for modernisation) and also working for the firm's clients. We are building up the whole IP strategy/IP practice stuff.

It's fab, and they are great people with a great vision and the interests of their clients (who are mainly tech) at heart. Their clients are fab too - the kind of tech. stuff I'm just intrinsically motivated to do. [REALLY EXCITING! I get to wear a hard hat, all that good stuff]

The only problem is the money...

In the past, I probably didn't leverage my network as much as I should have done because (i)see post above on child with SN and (ii) I was at an earlier stage of a big learning curve. Some of my earliest "champions" have even retired!

So there is real opportunity. I am building up the expertise of the paralegals, benefitting from having other freelancers as colleagues, and need clients to pass to them so I get better rewarded.

It goes without saying that growth needs to be slow (for quality) but steady

[JamieLannistersFuckButler]

ok, I will keep on trying. I might wait till I'm back from hols so I can nurture it a bit - will PM those interested from this thread.


Lovelyideas please count me in too.

[QueenJuggler]

Aha! Well, having used tech IP advisors, I can confirm that it is indeed a lucrative market with plenty of scope for scaling!!!!

What does your model of scaling look like? Is it just more business for you to handle? Or hiring a workforce that you train to do the same thing? (sounds like the latter from your post). And how fast to you need to grow, and to what size? Is there a business you are modelling yourself on?

Personal recommendation is critical in this industry, FWIW, even for larger outfits.

[Lovelyideas]

tech advisor! intellectual property exploitation stuff....

everything i know I have learnt from working with folk like you :) in very agile businesses.

I'm now at risk of doing what I do bloody well (i) for younger men (ii) for not enough money. I'm experienced enough to work strategically now so need to think about stepping up.
[for those upthread annoyed by the jargon, "strategically" means that people can come to you and say "we're doing this please implement it" and you are able to say "actually I've seen this before and I'm not so sure this is what you should be doing - I notice your CEO/COO had doubts - I share those and think you should do Y instead of X"]

Anyway, the Biggest unknown/fear is marketing. I've done very well from word of mouth alone for a decade but it's differnet when you want to grow a certain amount in a certain time... and when you want to get a cut from the implementation work that less experienced but competent folk do for your clients....

[QueenJuggler]

Paradise - depends on what the business is, and what your definition of scaling up is. For us, it meant looking at sourcing new capital inflow (VC and angel investors) to fund product development, finding help with IP, legal, HR and tech advice, major recruitment, building business networks and marketing strategies to eventually sell on the business, none of which we had to do in start up phase. So it's not always that simple.

OP - we used ukbusinessforums for general advice and contacts in early days, and an industry specific forum (we work in tech) for more specific advice. I also use an industry specific and a company specific forum for my day job (I run a large division of a FTSE100 company). There's probably a forum for your industry - what's your business about?

[Stratter5]

Mansnet

So the rest of the Internet then.

[ParadiseCity]

All this 'scaling up' and 'taking to the next level' makes me feel like siralun.

To get bigger surely you just do more of what your business does. So you might invest in more stock or more staff or whatever. Or you might sell apples alongside your oranges.

Its not rocket science. Hard work yes but all fairly obvious imo.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Sounds good. August is a crap time for doing anything.

Ignore the sniping at the beginning of the thread. You just got a few folks backs up with your choice of wording but anyone who gets it will get it :)

[Lovelyideas]

moving,

yes, exactly!

ok, I will keep on trying. I might wait till I'm back from hols so I can nurture it a bit - will PM those interested from this thread.

[MovingOnUpMovingOnOut]

Start a thread and I will come. I have a small business that has been ticking along for a couple of years and now I'm in a position to move it on to the next level.

I'd probably join under a name change though so I can be 'out' and talk about my business and things I'm doing/going to/opportunities.

To be honest I could do with a support network of people who are not all in the same industry as me and who have a range of skills and experiences and associated differing viewpoints... while still appreciating the difficulties of juggling work and family life and maybe not wanting to be the next Richard Branson but equally not working for less than their worth and building a solid business.

[UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea]

There's lots of people like that on MN and IRL.

I will say though that you can still be nice and successful in business, just don't call me a 'girl'.

[Lovelyideas]

Thanks Queen, I reluctantly take your point
Any pointers to other forums?

[AStreetcarNamedBob]

If this was mansnet, there would be tonnes of places to talk about making money

Never a truer statement OP

[Lovelyideas]

Thanks lone
glad the course was worthwhile

[QueenJuggler]

DH and I have started-up, scaled and sold two businesses in the last 10 years, both for a decent amount of money. I found plenty of advice on MN, but, TBH there are better places for it, ones dedicated to the topic. It's like trying to get really detailed advice on a medical diagnostics problem if you're a doctor - you wouldn't do it on MN. Not because there aren't enough business owners, but because the proportion of them as a percentage of total MN users is low, and thus the likelihood of them seeing your post amongst gazillions of other posts is low.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Lovely the PG qualification is totally industry specific, I found it by typing my industry and business management courses into the net.

[GetAHaircutCarl]

You've done well then unexpected.

A week or so ago I was told by a poster that I should not have been working by the pool on holiday as my DC would be sad that I was not in it with them. I got a little sad MN face too .

My DC are almost 17!!!

[Lovelyideas]

Uiitba

I don't accept it doesn't exist but happily admit that it can take a few goes to articulate it properly iyswim?
which is why I still love mumsnet - you get to figure out the question

[Lovelyideas]

May I PM you about that post grad qualification?

[UnexpectedItemInShaggingArea]

There are loads of successful, professional women, both employed and business owners on Mumsnet. You just have to start the right thread.

I've had good discussions about investment, scaling up etc. on these boards. No one has ever suggested I spend more time with my DC.

I think you are seeing a problem where it doesn't exist, and unfortunately coming across as slightly patronising.

[Lovelyideas]

lonecat

Wow lots to think about there.....

appreciated x

[Lonecatwithkitten]

As a business owner who has scaled up and is still scaling up, I think the tricky things is it is often very sector specific in what you do. I often give advise on the self employment board. So you need to go looking in your sector.
What have I done:
A post graduate qualification in sector specific business management this has been costly and time consuming, but has massively assisted in the scale up and future scale up. The study of strategy has really helped me think about how I do things.
I go to all the sector specific business workshops, I might only take one idea, but that is all I take.
It is very similar to start up in many ways as you need to generate new ideas and push them forward mini start ups within the main business.
I set myself targets and lay out project plans to push ideas forward. Remember for entrepreneurs only one idea in four succeeds so you gave got to give a lot of ideas a try to push things forward. To be really successful it needs to come from inside you so you have the passion and the drive to carry it through.

[Lovelyideas]

:) toast

[thatstoast]

No more nice girl part time sounds like a great name. Maybe a thread rather than a section.

I never really figured out what xenia did other than own islands and shout at people who wanted to make a few hundred per week instead of per minute.

[HeddaLettuce]

but sadly no one has directed me to the kinds of discussion I'm hoping to have

They have, but you seem to think that you are so unique that no-one else does what you do, and couldn't possibly talk about it in the relevant sections.

If you start a thread on what you want to talk about, in the right section (which you have been directed to multiple times) you will find many people who are doing the same thing.
Not sure how that can be made any clearer to you.