Is it ok to recommend your own business?

[ChairmumMiaow]

I'm just starting a very small sling hire and sales business and am only selling slings I own and use - so they're the ones I'd recommend anyway.

What's the mumsnet etiquette on recommending yourself like this? I'm not about to go round telling everyone to buy one of the (4!) types of sling I sell but where appropriate I'd like to be able to say 'if you want to buy one of those, why not buy from me?'

Obviously I don't want to do it if its going to annoy people, but I would like to make some money out of my business

TIA

Don't you have to pay for a small business ad? I think if you do that, it's not such bad form to mention it on other threads, but if you don't, it looks like you're using MN for free advertising, and that's frowned upon. It can work quite well - Lapin has an ad, and people mention her business on other threads - not sure she does that much, but others do.

That's really helpful thanks.

I'll sort one of those out, and just keep recommending the products I like rather than myself and hopefully people will find me

I started the business because I spend a lot of time at baby groups and just in the street talking to people who ask me about my slings - I was making money for other people so decided to try to make a bit out of it for myself, but mostly its because I love slings

Well, yes, if you say, well, I think sling x is really good for breastfeeding, and a poster asks where she can buy one, then you can point them to your ad, and word will spread. Good luck!

And other posters can recommend you if they know your web address!

Nosey post, but do slings have a huge mark up? It just seems like there are a million WAHMs setting up sling businesses.

thankcrunchie - its not too bad, but babyhawks for instance aren't good even though they seem to be selling well because they're american, don't have a UK distributor and the exchange rate is pretty crap! Anyway, a babyhawk costs me around 33-35 quid including tax etc, and sells for 50, but you need to take postage off that because everyone seems to offer free postage.

Its just a bit of a passion with me, and although its been hard getting stock (and I know I still need a lot more to offer decent choice) it does seem you can start up with around 1k if you can do a lot yourself (my proper job is running a web development company so we're doing the site ourselves with a bit of paid input from a designer for logo etc). One day I'll even get the site launched (trying to fix payment and get the last few product photos up this week)

At the moment, every sale is just going back in to paying off the stock I've bought, but I am having good fun!

thankcrunchie - should have said I think it works because slings are something that sell better with a chance to try them on (I've been lending mine to people I know at baby groups, and that works really well for sales!) So I think very small scale local sellers work well.

I'm joining up with other local small businesses to do stuff together - the nappy business that does the nappachino mornings in our area works really well - she's trying to add 'interest' to the sessions to get more people to come.

Miaow why don't you email me a link? My ladies would love to see what you've got on offer.

MarsLady - my site's not ready yet

Must stop reading mumsnet and get it finished!