Mel McGee, mother of three, understands motivation and the fearless attitude it takes to juggle family commitments against running a successful online business.
A qualified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner who has used her expertise in the corporate world, Mel ditched the rat race to set up her own business coaching mumpreneurs toward success.
Mel is fulfilling her ambition to nurture a nation of mumpreneurs with a book being published in early 2009.
Mel talked with me about business technique, motivation and the secret to running a winning business.
Sally Grant: Mel, can you explain what NLP is?
Mel McGee: NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. NLP works on the basis of modelling the excellence in others and using it for yourself.
SG: Not sure I fully understand! Could you explain a bit further…
MM: NLP specialists try to understand the cognitive processes of the human mind partially in individuals who have some kind of marked distinctions compared to the rest of us, for example entrepreneurs.
We seek to understand how this group of successful individuals and their specific thinking impacts their success, and then how we can model those strategies of thought for others to engender their own successes.
For example, if you met someone like Richard Branson or Anita Roddick and thought “there’s something about that person; they’re so charismatic, confident and successful, but why?” You might want to start being more like them.
NLP teaches you how to model these attributes and how to master the skills in a practical manner, eventually applying these skills to your own venture.
SG: Why do you think mumprenuers could benefit from this?
MM: There are so many women out there with great business ideas, but for many reasons they have convinced themselves now is not the time to take the plunge.
Equally, there are many women that have gone down the initial road of starting their own business, but haven’t got as far as trading or marketing because they feel they lack expertise.
Supermummy.com offers them a helping hand – imparting great business advice with the hugely beneficial techniques of NLP coaching.
SG: It seems women are slower on the uptake of starting a business, but why is this? Is it a confidence issue?
MM: Females wait to feel in themselves that they are very experienced, for example they might think: “I have had twenty years of experience doing this, now I can start my own business.”
They wait a lot longer than their male counterparts do.
SG: Is it not just about self-belief and having the guts to get started? Aren’t these the very basic ingredients all entrepreneurs need?
MM: All entrepreneurs need to foster self belief that’s independent of their outside peer groups. Self-belief has to be internalised and women traditionally are not good at doing this.
Habitually, women allow validation for their own abilities to come from outside forces. I teach women how to get better at self belief through NLP and how to have faith in their business idea, in turn making it a success.
Many women rely on others to believe in them, or tell them what a great idea it is in order for them to get started. This is not a successful cognitive strategy, as you may need too much validation from others to help you succeed.
SG: Okay, so how can your business help?
MM: My business is the only online coaching service specifically for Mumprenuers in the UK.
Supermummy.com connects other mumprenuers in the same boat, where they can share ideas and get support, it’s a bit like a private members club, connecting like minded mumpreneurs.
SG: So you’re trying to take the loneliness out of female entrepreneurship?
MM:Absolutely! People in generally are very influenced by their peer groups – whether that’s at home, in work, friends or family.
As an entrepreneur, it can be a very lonely place if you don’t have the support from a likeminded peer group, from the start. You can sometimes wonder whether you’re doing the right thing.
SG: Have you any plans to expand it beyond the online site?
MM: The next stage is coaching one-on-one, helping mums towards the goal of beginning the business and getting it going.
SG: Can you give any innovative techniques that you have employed, as a mumpreneur to run your business?
MM: These days you can get everything you need to support your business from the internet, while working from home. For example, I started working with a web developer who was based in the States. It was and still is of great value both in time and in money.
Being States based, she is six hours behind me, so when I need to get on with things in the evening (after the children are in bed) she’s available on my time scale.
SG: Any other techniques…
MM: I promote taking advantage and exploiting technology in your business, which saves both time and money.
I purposely set out to design my business so that there wasn’t any stock. From the day it launched it was going to be as profitable as possible.
I teach others to do the same – having a long and frustrating start-up process can be very disheartening, and very de-motivating.
SG: The myth is most businesses make a loss in the first three years of starting out. True?
MM: For most mums the start-up process can be hard, to then not see results for three years…well, the longer it takes to happen, the more opportunity other people or your partner have to say “well this isn’t working out is it honey, might as well go back to work”.
Speed is the key, the quicker you can be profitable, the better for all involved. With the right advice you can get up and running very quickly and get things moving.
SG: Do you have any advice for would-be mumpreneurs out there?
MM: Things won’t always go to plan! Learn to expect this.
