Being a parent changes you in so many ways. In both body and mind. It empowers and emboldens you. It makes you realise that it’s okay to take risks. It shows you that you’re capable of more than you dared dream. As such, it’s not surprising that so many women are loath to return to their old jobs after having babies. They may yearn for new challenges and new opportunities, taking their careers into their own hands. As such, many turn to freelancing or entrepreneurship as a way to better manage their work / life balance and achieve their dreams.
However, starting up a small business is very challenging in today’s ultra-competitive climate. Especially if you have a limited budget. All freelancers and small business owners need to be conscious of overheads and the expenses that come with renting a big swanky office in a prestigious location can put a serious stranglehold on your profit margins.
Here are some affordable alternatives to office space for busy and cash conscious Mumtrepreneurs…
Virtual offices
You want to run your business from your spare room but worry that a residential address and mobile phone number don’t quite give the impression of business health and prosperity you need? You might want to consider using a virtual office. It gives your business a prestigious city centre address (you can even use this when registering with Companies House), and you can also combine this service with a virtual receptionist who will field and forward your calls or take messages when you’re busy.
Storage units
A storage unit might seem like an unorthodox place from which to start a business, but many successful enterprises have been built in one. As you can see by checking out Storefriendly Storage’s website, storage units can be warm, clean, safe secure and technologically advanced spaces. What’s more they’re quiet and free from noise and distractions. Perfect for harnessing your productivity.
What’s more, they’re also great for securely storing any commodities that your business may make its money from buying and selling.
Hot Desking
Can’t afford an office of your own but want the urban experience as you grab your Starbucks in the morning and make your way into a fully equipped, swanky city centre office with lightning fast wifi and a wealth of other facilities? You might want to try hot desking at a shared business facility in your home town. These are especially popular among small business owners and freelancers who want great facilities but for whom their own office might be overkill.
What’s more, you’ll also get to meet and work alongside like minded dynamic and interesting people. Also, they have free coffee.
Your local library
Finally, this might not be a great option for those who need to make a lot of outbound calls. However, if you’re looking for a safe, quiet and secure space in which you can work, you could do far worse than your local library. Plus, it’s completely free and you’ll have no shortage of books to read in your downtime!
When I kept my pregnancy a secret with my second child at the start of the first trimester, one of the parts I found the most challenging was coping with morning sickness. Trying to act ‘normal’ and avoid difficult questions can be hard when you feel so poorly, so I thought it would be useful to share my tips on how to deal with morning sickness at work.
Going to work during early pregnancy before any one knows you are expecting comes with a number of challenges. You may be waiting for your 12 week scan, you might not be ready to tell your boss yet, you may even worry about it affecting your promotion or have had a miscarriagein the past and therefore be more cautious about sharing the news too soon. Whatever your reason for not announcing your pregnancy, keeping your pregnancy a secret when your waistband is already starting to feel a bit tight can be tricky. Here are some hints and tips for how to deal with morning sickness at work that you may find helpful during those early days of pregnancy.
Eating wisely for Morning Sickness
Eating regularly can prevent nausea from kicking in, as often, it is the stomach acid on an empty stomach that causes you to feel nauseous or be sick. The concept of eating little and often is key here, as for the same reason, over eating is not a good idea either! Eating something small every half an hour to 45 minutes, even if a small handful of nuts or a satsuma, can really help. If you have meetings where you will be stuck in the same room for a while, take a little bowl of nuts of grapes with you if you able to do so.
When sitting at your desk, pick snacks that you can eat discreetly – lots of rustling and opening of packets is more likely to draw attention to your change in eating habits, particularly if you are not usually a grazer in the office!
There are lots of anti nausea measures available on the market which can really help cope with morning sickness at work including ginger sweets or dry crackers. It is also really important to drink lots of water as dehydration can exacerbate the symptoms. Take a refillable bottle to work so that you don’t have to keep going and refilling your glass and aim to drink at least 8 glasses a day. This ss also handy if you find you are urinating more often than normal as you can blame it on a H2O detox!
Confiding with a colleague about your Pregnancy
Find a trust friend or colleague – whilst you may not want to tell your immediate boss, it may be helpful to confide in someone – a trusted friend or colleague, so that there is someone you can speak to or ask for help if you are feeling really out of sorts. They can also divert attention and change the subject if the smell of someones lunch time snack is making you heave at your desk!
If you have Work related outings or meals out, this colleague can also assist with purchasing non alcoholic drinks, although it may be easier to offer to be the designated driver if you normally like a large glass of wine with your dinner.
If the works do is normally a heavy night for alcohol, why not get there early and confide in the waiter / waitress, asking that they ditch the vodka in your drinks for the evening! You won’t be the first person to do this and at least this way when drinks are served to the table it is far less obvious that you’ve made a different choice.
Plan your work day around your pregnancy
If you are experiencing bad nausea or morning sickness at work, planning your work day can make a big difference. Schedule your work meetings wisely. If you are able to manage your own diary, choose the timings of your meetings to suit when you feel at your best. For many mums to be, morning sickness is true to its name and is better by lunch time, but for others it can kick in more in the afternoon when you start to feel tired. If you feel worse in the morning, try and avoid having a meeting first thing.
Allow yourself longer to get to meetings, that way you can buy in some time to go to the toilet on the way.
Combine trips to the bathroom with trips to the printer, that way you can come back with paperwork in your hands and not have colleagues wondering why youve been to the toilet AGAIN for the second time in 10 minutes.
What if you do feel sick in the office?
If you do get morning sickness at work and feel like you need to actually vomit, go to a stall and put your head between your knees for a bit. A breathing exercise like those on mindfulness app Calm are a great way to reduce your anxiety levels as often the fear of being sick can make it worse. The iWatch has a great breathing exercise on it which is easy to do in just a few minutes and very discreet with no sound.
Try and take regular walks away from your desk, even if it is just to stretch your legs. If you can, get outside during your lunch break. Simply sitting outside and getting some fresh air can help reduce the nausea symptoms.
What if the morning sickness gets really bad?
If your morning sickness at work gets really bad, you may want to visit your GP to see if he can recommend anything to help. You may also want to reconsider whether or not to tell your boss or a colleague. The relief I felt when I finally told my boss was immense. Having just one person in my immediate office that could distract others or divert attention was really helpful!
Finally, remember that pregnancy is a protected characteristic under the equality act and therefore you are not allowed to be treated unfavourably as a result of your pregnancy. There comes a point at which the best option for everyone may be to advise your manager of your pregnancy.
*AD – This post is in collaboration with Mumsnet & Profile Pensions*
When you think about retirement what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
For me it’s finally losing those Sunday night blues. Going to bed on a Sunday evening knowing that the Monday is mine to do whatever I wish.
Learning a new hobby perhaps – photography, golf, maybe a foreign language? Travelling the world maybe? Booking on a Mediterranean cruise or finally taking a trip to Oz to visit family – something that’s always been put off because of work commitments or the pitter patter of tiny feet. Relaxed mid morning Pilates followed by an afternoon playing tag with the grand kids, combined with lazy mornings in bed reading the paper (if newspapers even exist by then!)
The list goes on.
When we daydream about our retirement, which lets face it at aged 37 feels like an absolute lifetime away, we always think about how wonderful it will be, not for once stopping to think about how exactly we are going to fund this dream lifestyle which we long for. Whether we will actually have enough to live on; whether we have saved adequately enough during our working lives to make the most of every new day we have ahead of us.
We vaguely remember filling out the forms that were passed to us on the first day of our brand new job (and a fair few new jobs after that), ticking the boxes (most likely for the minimum contribution) but if someone asked you how much money your pension would give you each week when you reach retirement, would you even have a clue? Probably not. I
Along with will writing, financial management and healthcare, looking after your pension is a crucial part of getting older!
If you’re one of those people who buries you head in the sand every time the words, pensions, savings or retirement are mentioned then you definitely won’t be alone. Even as a HR Advisor (and let’s face it someone who should know better) I haven’t paid nearly half as much attention as I should about saving for my future. I know what pensions I have, and I have the original paperwork. I even file my annual statement away every year (yay me!) but can I tell you how much money I may have? A rough estimate at best. I’ve taken steps in recent years to save more after realising I’d be VERY old to retire comfortably, but in all likelihood, it’s still not enough.
Worryingly, the UK now not only has a gender pay gap, but a gender pension gap too, with many men saving far more adequately for their retirement than women. With women more likely to take time out of the workplace for maternity leave and raising their children, these gaps in employment leave many of us with far less money to live off when we retire. Ironically we also live longer too, meaning our retirements may end up looking far less lavish than the one we imagine!
Why do we resist pensions so much?
I’m not going to try and gloss it – Pensions can be confusing, and unless you have money to spend on a financial advisor, trying to get your head around the topic can be a bit of a minefield. As a result, we push it to the back of our minds, add it to the ‘later’ pile, and tell ourselves that we have plenty of time to think about it. With over 10,000 different pension schemes and 40,000 different funds, combined with the ever changing landscape of pensions (e.g. shifting of retirement age, introduction of auto enrollment) complicated fee structures and big piles of daunting paperwork sent through the post, the lack of knowledge is somewhat inevitable.
What are the risks?
If you are a woman who contracted out of the State pension in the 80s or 90s (and let’s face it, maybe you don’t even know whether you did!) then you are most at risk of having a poorly performing pension. Pension schemes that were set up pre-2000 (before the pension reform changes were implemented by the government) also come with a greater risk of high fees, or your money being invested in funds which are less effective in getting the best return on your money.
If you’ve moved jobs, taken career breaks or started with new employers, chances are you may also have a number of pension schemes with different providers. Add a few house moves into the equation, and you may have lost contact with your providers, meaning ultimately you don’t have the first clue about what money you have or how much it’s projected to provide you on retirement.
What can you do about it?
This is where Profile Pensions comes in…. a whole of market, impartial pension advisor offering accessible advice to everyone, with no cost to sign up and learn more.
Using their pensions health check, Profile Pensions can not only help you track down any lost pensions, but check out how your pensions are performing, with the goal of making all of their customers (over 20,000 to date) be better off in retirement.
Not only do Profile Pensions cut through the jargon and complexity of pensions, but their health check is incredibly simple to use. An easy sign up process with limited personal details required, and a choice of channels for contact (from post, online and over the phone).
As part of their Pensions Health check, they look at a few key areas including:
Investment strategy – How your money is invested and how that compares against the level of risk you’re willing to take (this is likely to change the closer you get to retirement!)
Fund manager performance – Seeing how your invested money is performing and the funds track record to see if it’s performing as expected.
Fees & charges – Checking how much pension fees you’re paying and if the same benefits could be provided elsewhere for less. These small percentages can equate to thousands in retirement.
Flexibility – When you can access your pension (e.g. whether you can gain access to funds early from aged 55)
Consolidation – When you have multiple pensions, it may be more effective to combine them into one place. Profile Pensions will check what is best for your personal circumstances and advise accordingly.
Is it worth it?
What if I told you that Profile Pensions can improve 94% of the pensions they review?
That reducing your pension charges by 67% can save you over 11 THOUSAND pounds over 15 years?
That increasing the growth of your fund by just 1% a year could give you £13,659 more towards retirement over 15 years!?
By filling in one quick form, and letting Profile Pensions do all the work, you could be just a few steps closer to getting the retirement you picture in your head. You don’t pay a penny unless Profile Pensions can save you money and you decide to implement their recommendations, and even then, it’s just a small percentage, and far cheaper than the average cost of financial advice.
As an impartial service, you know that the advice you get will be bias free and in your best interests. So what have you got to lose?
How do I check my pensions?
If I’ve convinced you to start a pension health check why not firstly look at how much you may need in retirement by completing the basic pension calculator, then sign up for your pensions health check to see how your pensions are performing and see if Profile Pensions can save you money.
Pensions may never be our favourite topic of discussion, but one thing I know for sure is that the time passes far quicker than we imagine. Whilst I may still feel 18 in my head, and like to think that 30 years ago is still 1970, it’s time to accept that I’m rapidly approaching 40, and if I am lucky enough to reach retirement age, I damn well want to make sure I enjoy every day that I get! By investing just a bit of time now, I can make sure that my pensions are giving me the best return possible when I leave the office for good!
For more information on the benefits of a pension health check please read this useful blogfrom Profile Pensions to find out more
Us bloggers love a flat lay don’t we? Photographing our shopping hauls? Lets do a flat lay! Showcasing our new planner for 2020? Ooh lets do a flat lay! Tackling our to do list? Not before we’ve taken a photo! I jest, (I’m not quite that bad) but whilst flay lays are a great way to showcase products, look beautiful on the Instagram grid and make fab blog featured images; they can be time consuming to create, and that perfect flay lay can take far longer to put together than we’d have our followers believe. If only there was a way to create the perfect flat lay scene more efficiently! To not have to worry about finding the perfect floral, to brew the perfect cup of tea, or find the only tidy spot in our homes in which to take a clean, crisp shot. Battling with sunlight glare, shadows gallore or dark and dingy mornings where everything just ends up looking dark and boring.
I recently came across the website Design Bundles, which offers a wide range of mockups and photo templates, allowing you to quickly and easily create effective yet simple blog photography, flat lays and imagery with minimal technical knowledge. From iPad mock ups, to book mock ups, tshirt designers to popping your own personal prints in a scene of your choice, the opportunities are endless! Design Bundles offers some designs which are completely free of charge to download, with the rest being very reasonably priced. Once the template is downladed, you can use for as many images as you wish.
I recently used the Design Bundles scene creator to show just how quick and easy it is to create 5 featured images for my blog. With some blog content, it can be hard to find featured images that fit, so creating a flat lay with the blog title is often a great way to make it stand out.
The top view scene creator is a flat lay lovers dream – it comes with 5 different backgrounds, and 40 moveable props and objects, which you can resize and rearrange to create a different scene every time to use on your website, blog or social media. The files are downloaded as PSD and PNG files, and can be used with or without photoshop knowledge.
Here are the images I created…
Image 1 – Nail that To Do List
Image 2 – Summer Vibes
Image 3 – Gender Reveal Yes or No?
Image 4 – The Working Mums Club
Image 5 – Autumn Vibes
These images were so so easy to create, and I love the overall effect. It was super easy to rearrange, resize and even readjust the angle of the objects so that they appeared in the right scale and angle. I think the finished result is really effective, and has the added bonus that i didn’t even have to clear any floorspace to create them! Win win!! 😀
If you’re hoping to simplify your blog imagery in 2020 I would definitely recommend having a browse!
Every day, more and more people walk away typical nine-to-five style of employment in favour of something that offers just a little more freedom and choice. Over the last several years more and more people, myself included, have discovered the benefits of freelancing. However, many people find that the freelance life offers a lot more challenges than they were expecting. For every person who finds a new lease of life working as a freelancer, there are just as many who find themselves going back to traditional employment because the challenges were simply too great. From seasonality, a lack of consistent work to upredictable cash flow issues, making the switch to freelancing can be feel like quite a risky jump, however if you are dead set on giving the freelance life a try, here are just a few things that you’re going to need to do.
Get yourself a decent website
If you want to work as a freelancer, then you’re going to need clients. There have always been plenty of different ways in which clients make contact with people that they want to work with but in the modern age, few are more significant than the internet. Google searches comprise by far the largest portion of how people connect with freelancers in the twenty-first century. Because of this, if you don’t have a halfway decent website, you’re never going to be able to attract any clients. It’s not enough just to have a website; you have to think of it as the first exposure that many people will have to your business. What impression do you want them to take away from it?
Learn to be disciplined with your time
It might seem as though part of the fun of freelancing is that you can work anytime, anywhere. While this is certainly true, it’s also important to be aware that the novelty of getting up at noon and working from your bed is going to wear off pretty quickly. Not only that but clients will have time frames that they want you to work within, and if you don’t meet those deadlines, then there could be serious consequences. If you mess up at work, your employer may have to speak to you and might get in trouble, if you mess up as a freelancer then you’re just going to lose that client, as well as any clients that they might send your way. Its often said that for every good experience people tell 2 or 3 people, but for every bad – they tell 8-10.
Legitimize yourself
When you’re working for yourself, especially at the beginning, it’s easy for people to see you as an amateur. This can make it difficult to make people take you seriously. However, there are always things that you can do to solve this. For one thing, using a service like PhysicalAddress.com can help to make your business look more legitimate. It also protects your privacy if you dont feel comfortable publishing your personal details on your site, but allows official contact information to be shared online. Similarly, you might want to think about how your branding impacts how people see you – does your logo represent you well?
The reality is that working for yourself from home or setting up your own business aren’t just “better” or “easier” options. The only real difference between those options and working the traditional 9-5 is what it is that you want to get out of your career. That’s something you have to consider extremely carefully when the time comes to choose what you really want to do with your life.
Some things however are worth the gamble! The things you regret in life may be the choices you didn’t make!
Self-employment has its benefits, from flexible working hours to the freedom of being your own boss, but the risk of financial uncertainty in retirement certainly isn’t one of them.
If you’re one of the 4.8 million people in the UK who trades this way, there’s often nobody to help you choose the right pension plan, no permanent employer to share responsibility for your contributions, and fluctuating earnings come with their own monetary headaches. But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some great pension options out there for the self-employedand these top tips will help you on your way to choosing the right plan.
Why it’s important to set up a pension if you’re self-employed
If you’re self-employed, you’re entitled to the State Pension like everyone else, but for the current tax year that will amount to an income of just £168.60 per week.
Although the sum you actually receive could be higher if you’ve worked for someone else in the past, many contractors and sole traders are concerned they won’t be able to get by on this income alone. Indeed, figures from IPSE suggest that 67% of self-employed people are seriously worried about how they’ll cope financially in retirement.
It’s never too soon to start thinking about the pension options available to you. Keep in mind that paying into a pension scheme early could significantly increase your retirement income when the government tax relief of 25% is factored in.
Let’s say you were to pay £100 per month into a pension scheme (at the standard savings growth rate of 5% and charges of 0.75% per year) from age 40. The government adds an extra 25%, giving you a pot worth £46,000 by the time you’re 65. But if you were to pay the same amount in from age 30, your pot would be worth £70,000 by age 65.
Things to consider when setting up a self-employment pension IPSE’s research indicates that just 31% of self-employed Britons are paying into a pension plan, and that, quite frankly, is alarming. If you’re among the 69% who isn’t, most experts would suggest that you change that pronto, and here are the first things to consider…
Track down any previous workplace or personal pensions: It’s always worth looking into the possibility of consolidating any old pensions you have and combining them with your new plan so your investments are easier to manage. If you’re having trouble tracking them down, check out the government’s Pension Tracing Service.
The type of pension you want: Personal pensions are popular among self-employed professionals and they generally come in three forms: standard personal pensions, SIPP’s and stakeholder pensions. Which of the three you should choose depends on your needs, circumstances and appetite for risk. Be sure to thoroughly research each of these product types and weigh up their pros and cons against the alternatives. The government’s NEST scheme, for instance, is open to the self-employed and could be an option if it’s a straightforward, no-frills pension you’re after.
Find an independent pensions expert: Seeking expert advice beforehand is highly recommended. Not only can an independent pensions advisor help you choose the right product, they will carry out a free review to establish how your investments are performing and provide ongoing advice when your plan is up and running.
If you think you have been mis-sold your pension, you may also be entitled to mis-sold pension compensation. With the gender pension gap being wider than ever, it’s time us women in particular started paying closer attention to our future, and ensuring that your pension is performing appropriately is a crucial first step.
Hi, I’m Lucy, a thirty something mum of two from Birmingham. A memory maker, tradition keeper, stationery addict and Mr Men fanatic. HR Advisor by day and sleep deprived Mama by night!
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