A Profile of a Top Home Business Owner

Bumptastic

&

Mind Body Birth HypnoBirthing

Name:  Sarah Brownsword

Location:  UK

Type of business:
Maternity wear and accessories website and I'm a HypnoBirthing Practitioner

What does your business do?
We sell maternity wear, underwear, breastfeeding clothing and accessories, pregnancy piercings, bump tattoos and the ExpectantSee Pregnancy Screensaver, which we are also the distributors of in the UK.

I also teach HypnoBirthing childbirth education classes.

When did you start your business and why?
I started in 2004 because I wanted to work from home and be able to offer clothes and accessories for pregnant women via a website at reasonable prices.

After finding a lack of interesting and innovative pregnancy products available in the UK I started importing products from abroad. So far we have the Pregnancy Piercings and ExpectantSee and will be offering more this year.

I qualified as a Hypnobirthing Practitioner in 2005 after using self-hypnosis to have my second daughter in 2003 and finding there was no-one offering classes like this in my area.

How many people are there in your company?
1

What's the toughest part of running your business?
Having to do everything myself - buying, selling, marketing, customer service and even the website.

What's fun or makes it all worthwhile?
Sourcing new products and bringing them to the UK market. The satisfaction when people start buying them and magazines start featuring them.

As far as the HypnoBirthing, empowering women to believe in themselves and their bodies and seeing the wonderful positive births they have.

What would you do differently if you had to start all over again?
I would try and secure more funding right from the start and not leave writing a business plan until after trading for over a year!

What's next for you and your business?
We're in the process of securing more exclusive distribution deals with manufacturers abroad so we can bring more products to the UK market. I also hope to continue with more HypnoBirthing classes.

What advice do you have for others just starting out?
Find something that you're passionate about and use that as a focus for your business. Sign up for a local free business course and get all the advice you can. Above all never stop believing in yourself.

Previous jobs or businesses?
Children's Manager in a bookshop. Before that I was a Teacher in Indonesia and France.

Education or School of Life?
BA (Hons) Degree in French and German

Contact info:
Sarah Brownsword

Website:
http://www.bumptastic.co.uk  and  http://www.mindbodybirth.co.uk