Saira Khan: Tonight on the Money Programme; we’re in Downing Street to meet some of the most successful business operators in the UK.

Meet Britain’s Mumpreneurs; women who rejected conventional working life toiling for an unsympathetic boss.

Allison Pearson: I met a banker who told me that in her office you’d be better off coming out as a cocaine addict than as a mother.

Saira (commentary): Instead they’ve started their own businesses.

Erin Thomas: Welcome to my board room.

Saira: Thank you very much. And very compact it is too.

Saira (commentary): And they say it suits their kids as well.

Erin Thomas: I would hate to have to ask my boss if I could take time off to do the school run, for the school play, school sports day.

Saira (commentary): Mumpreneurs are now a major force in British business.

Anita Naik: They bring in £4.4 billion to the British economy; they’re the fastest growing sector of the small business community.

Saira (commentary): Every day more and more women are deciding that being their own boss is the best way to earn a living and raise a family. 6.30 a.m. in Nottinghamshire.

Tanya Rostron: Archie; are you ready to get up? Hello.

Saira (commentary): It’s a big day for businesswoman Tanya Rostron. She’s getting ready for an important appointment in London.

Tanya Rostron: Right; one foot.

Saira (commentary): But first Tanya has to get her kids organised. As well as running the home single-mum Tanya runs her own company employing eleven people.

Tanya Rostron: Plaits or bunches this morning?

Frankie: Plaits.

Tanya Rostron: There you go, Frankie, that’s yours.

Saira (commentary): Then it’s her turn to dress up. It’s important she makes the right impression.

Sam: Hi!

Tanya Rostron: Hi Sam, won’t be a second.

Saira (commentary): Friend and colleague Sam Bradley is going with her. Tanya’s firm Water At Work supplies water coolers to companies throughout the Midlands.

Tanya Rostron: Bye. Oh dear! Right...

Saira (commentary): Even on the train there’s no chance of a breather with a company to run.

Tanya Rostron: Apologies for the water yesterday. Yes, of course, and it will be with you about two o’clock this afternoon. OK.

Saira (commentary): Problem solved Tanya and Sam arrive at their appointment - in Downing Street. At number 11. It’s a gathering of illustrious self-employed mums and female entrepreneurs. Internet magazine, 'Mother At Work', is holding this annual award ceremony.

Saira: Jo, why are you here, why are you supporting this?

Jo Brand: I don’t know; I was just wandering past, I saw a lot of ladies. No, I’m presenting an award for exceptional working mum, rather hoping I’ve got it myself but I don’t think I have.

Tanya Rostron: So you know the water coolers with the bottle on the top...

Saira (commentary): Jo’s got no chance but Tanya has, she’s a nominee for the Mumpreneur of the Year. She got chatting to last year’s winner, Wendy Shand.

Wendy Shand: Did it help?

Tanya Rostron: Yeah.

Wendy Shand: I think it does. It’s very difficult to put a tangible, you know, you can’t say it created x many sales but I think it helps in terms of credibility and in terms of people treating you as a proper business...

Saira (commentary): Tanya and Wendy are among the rising number of women who run their own enterprises. Up by nearly 20 per cent since 2000. That figure now tops a million; many of them mums.

Speaker: We’ve been very impressed yet again by the high standard of entries this year and I know the judges had a very difficult time making their...

Saira (commentary): Tanya’s in for a long and nervous wait before she finds out if she’s won. So what’s the explanation for the growth in the number of mums running their own businesses? Most mums have to work these days to make ends meet according to Daily Mail columnist, Allison Pearson.

Allison Pearson (Columnist, Daily Mail): The brutal fact is that in order to stay home full time as a mum you probably have to be quite poor and on benefits or you’ve got to have a husband who’s earning a lot of money.

Saira (commentary): For most mothers, earning a living means working for somebody else and that’s often difficult. Allison interviewed scores of working mums to research her best-selling novel.

Allison Pearson: Work doesn’t tend to be that friendly to mothers. I met a banker who told me that in her office you’d be better off coming out as a cocaine addict than as a mother because at least they had a programme for recovering drug addicts.

Saira (commentary): Bosses are often unsympathetic.

Allison Pearson: The working mother is basically a highly-stressed creature giving off this, you know, intense, high pitch of stress and all it will take really to bring the whole thing tumbling down is a sick childminder or a sick child and then the whole thing collapses.

Saira (commentary): When I got married and decided to have children I realised that working for somebody else wasn’t for me. So, two years ago I set up my own business selling natural skin care products for babies. Then in April Zac arrived so I’ve just joined the ranks of the Mumpreneurs. I want to know; how do they do it. With Zac in tow, I set off to find out.

So, what do we have here? Oh, so this is where Mummy works is it?

Wendy Shand: Hello!

Saira (commentary): And where better to start than with last year’s Mumpreneur of the Year, Wendy Shand.

Wendy Shand: Gentle, gentle, gentle.

Saira: He’s got really small hands hasn’t he?

Saira (commentary): Wendy, who’s got two children, started a business, Tots to France, in her spare bedroom. Now, three years on, she’s converted her garage into an office and has taken on two staff. A former teacher, Wendy always wanted to run her own business and after a family holiday the idea took shape.

Saira: So how did Tots to France start?

Wendy Shand: Well, we went on our first holiday; we stayed in a self-catering cottage in the Lot-et-Garonne region of France. It ticked all the boxes for me as a grown-up but it just didn’t tick the boxes for me as a mum and the, I suppose the most important thing was that my little boy fell in to the unenclosed swimming pool. And that was really an eye opener. That was the turning point for me.

Saira (commentary): Barnaby’s accident gave his mum her bright idea.

Chloe: Good afternoon, Tots to France...

Wendy Shand: Hi Chloe, it’s me.

Saira (commentary): Her firm is an internet-based letting agency, which rents child friendly properties in holiday spots including the Dordogne.

Wendy Shand: My job when I get to France is to see the houses, to vet them, to check for their safety, to check for, to check they’re as nice as they, as they look and try and pre-empt any questions that, or problems that holiday makers might have.

Saira (commentary): Wendy has nearly 40 holiday homes on her web site and the owners of this house want to know what they need to do to meet her safety requirements.

Wendy Shand: Ah, look at this. Oh, that’s beautiful isn’t it? What I will do is I will go through it, room by room, and just have a look and see the sorts of things that would be a problem for parents who have small children and babies.

A dishwasher here, presumably.

Saira (commentary): Nothing is risk-free but there are the obvious areas like the kitchen and the stairs that can be childproofed.

Wendy Shand: A microwave, ok, then under the sink, this is normally where all the baddies are, it’s got all the cleaning equipment in, that just needs a cupboard lock. Ok. There we are.

Clearly they, they need to be gated in some way, shape or form. And there’s the windmill.

Saira (commentary): And now crucially the swimming pool. 16 British children drowned in pools according to the latest annual figures.

Wendy Shand: And that withstands the weight of a five-year-old?

Homeowner: Yes.

Wendy Shand: Ok.

Homeowner: That’s the French regulations now.

Wendy Shand: Much better. Much, much better than the alarm I think.

Homeowner: Yeah.

Saira (commentary): Back in the UK Wendy uploads the pictures on to the website. Almost a third of all businesses started by mums are internet-based.

Wendy Shand: If there was no internet I would have to have a high street presence, shop, you know, it would be a completely different thing. We need to be able to tap into the worldwide market that we reach now.

Saira (commentary): Today Tots to France has a predicted turnover of nearly half a million pounds.

Saira (commentary): What are the key advantages of being a mumtrepreneur?

Wendy Shand: Well, I can organise my time to suit me and the children, so I have clear periods of the day when I work and I have clear periods of the day when I’m with the children. I have the freedom to do that.

We’re going home.

Saira (commentary): Wendy’s husband, Rob, is a harrier pilot in the Royal Navy and he’s often away from home.

Saira: Do you resent the fact that he can walk out of the house, do his job, whereas you’re doing your job as well as being a mum?

Wendy Shand: I do have moments when I’m, when I’m feeling frustrated and I, you know, if you, if this was a man running this business it would be a very different affair, you would be off left, right and centre and I would still be holding the children. But, we can’t have it all really.

Saira (commentary): Over dinner Rob was candid about the burdens falling on Wendy.

Saira: Rob, in terms of support, what support have you given Wendy?

Rob Shand: There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of the burden of all the domestic work and looking after the children falls to Wendy and that’s the nature of, of me having a full-time job and her being a mum who wants to look after the children and I don’t think it’s fair but it’s just the way it is unfortunately.

Saira: Maisie, would you like to be a businesswoman just like Mummy? What would you like to do?

Maisie: Princess.

Saira: Would you like to be a princess? I think you’re already a princess.

Maisie: Well, I do ballet.

Saira (commentary): For Wendy, it was essential that for her business she didn’t rely on a set location or have high overheads and that’s why the Internet has played such an important role for so many mums because it’s given them the opportunity to combine motherhood with business.

Anita Niak: Come on, let’s play, why don’t we have a go on the computer?

Saira (commentary): I also learnt why being a mumpreneur appeals to so many women.

Anita Niak: You want to do this, can you press this one?

Saira (commentary): Anita Naik wrote a book about it.

Anita Naik (Author, Kitchen Table Tycoon): 75 per cent of women that become mumtreneurs basically say that they’ve got a much better work life balance. Not an easier work life balance but one that’s more flexible than say someone who has to go to work every day.

Tanya Rostron: Well thank you for coming to Water At Work.

Saira (commentary): Next stop, the firm run by the woman who hopes to succeed Wendy Shand as the Mumpreneur of the Year.

Tanya Rostron: This is where the bottles get turned around and they get...

Saira (commentary): Tanya Rostron supplies spring water to work places throughout the Midlands.

Tanya Rostron: Welcome to the bottling plant, Saira.

Saira: Fantastic!

Saira (commentary): This is where she buys her supplies.

Saira: It’s so small.

Tanya Rostron: Yes, it is small. We’re bottling about 20,000 litres a day.

Saira: But I’m a bit confused because is this the spring?

Tanya Rostron: No, this is where we pump the water to, to do the bottling.

Saira: Right.

Tanya Rostron: I’ll take you out and show you the spring; I think that will surprise you too. You’re probably picturing a beautiful scene with the water cascading down the rocks, yeah?

Saira: Yes, that’s what I would expect from my spring water.

Tanya Rostron: Ok. Well, do have a look and this is a gorgeous spring water.

Saira: Are you having a laugh, Tanya?

Tanya Rostron: No.

Saira: No. No.

Tanya Rostron: Yes. Gorgeous isn’t it?

Saira (commentary): It might look like an outside lavvy but in fact this is the top of a bore hole.

Tanya Rostron: The water comes up here, goes away in the big pipe that you can see and then into the bottling plant through the filtering process.

Saira: Now, I get it. Yes Zac; I feel a little bit cheated but it all does work and come together.

Tanya Rostron: And it all is lovely.

Saira (commentary): Tanya’s spring water is naturally purified through an aquifer lying deep below the lush Leicestershire countryside. It’s back to work for Tanya. At peak demand, her company delivers to a hundred work places a day. She maybe the boss but as a mum she knows how to multi-task.

Saira: You make forklift driving look very glamorous Tanya.

Tanya Rostron: Going to try it?

Saira: Before you became an entrepreneur, a mumtrepreneur...

Tanya Rostron: Forklift driver.

Saira: Yeah. What did you do before?

Tanya Rostron: Before that I worked for, well, I did a degree in business studies and then I worked for Bass. I was Head of Marketing for the Bingo clubs.

Saira: When you were in the corporate environment, did it used to annoy you when mothers perhaps had to take time off work to go and pick up their children or tend to them?

Tanya Rostron: Yeah, it’s so hard when you don’t realise what people are having to do, how they’re having to cope. So, if somebody had a meeting at seven o’clock at night, fine, seven in the morning fine and in fact to me if somebody wasn’t doing those hours maybe they weren’t committed to the company, which now, sounds horrendous, I know.

Saira (commentary): Then Tanya’s life took a new turn.

Tanya Rostron: I was made redundant from Bass. I realised at that point, I would have been 34, that if I wanted to have another life, if I wanted to get married and I was looking to do that and have children I couldn’t combine that with the sort of career which I’d had before.

Saira (commentary): She saw a gap in the market back in the 90s.

Tanya Rostron: Water coolers were really a sunrise industry, they were only just starting to develop around the country and having lived in the East Midlands for a while I knew that East Midlands tended to be a little bit behind. There was an opportunity for me perhaps to be one of the first companies offering this product in Nottingham.

Saira (commentary): Then along came her kids. Daughter Frankie, now aged nine and Archie, five.

Saira: Tell me about the juggling process because I’m in that position right now and I’m finding it really difficult.

Tanya Rostron: It is difficult at first, when you’ve got your little baby, you’re trying to make calls, you’re trying to set the company up, you’re feeling guilty about absolutely everything. You’re guilty because you’re not with the baby, you’re guilty because you’re not doing the housework. But Frankie was great; I’d have her in a little rocky chair, I’d be rocking her on the desk, slightly more vigorously if she woke up when I was on the phone.

I didn’t want her to be with a childminder all the time; I wanted to have the opportunity to, to have my baby with me. And, it worked, it was great.

Saira (commentary): In the first year, Tanya was supplying water coolers to three hundred locations. Her business grew steadily but then two years ago, a serious setback.

Tanya Rostron: We got up to 1,100 coolers and sadly that was when I was started going through a divorce and for any woman going through that, for any person going through that, it’s so traumatic. The team managed the company really for me during that period, managed it brilliantly. We just plateaud, kept ourselves at a good state and now we’re moving forward again.

Tanya Rostron: Sally.

Saira: Hello Sally, how are you?

Saira (commentary): All Tanya’s management team are mothers.

Tanya Rostron: And Sam.

Saira: Hello Sam.

Saira (commentary): Operations Director, Sam Bradley, has just had a baby girl.

Saira: Is that your first one?

Sam Bradley: Yes. Ruby.

Saira: Ruby. How old is she?

Sam Bradley: She’s one next month.

Saira: One next month.

Saira (commentary): Tanya insists she’s now a family friendly boss but what does that mean?

Fiona Gray (Water At Work): If you’ve got children, you know, to take to school, you can drop them off in the morning and then it doesn’t matter if you’re five, ten minutes late, you just ring in, oh, I’ve got stuck in traffic. Oh, that’s fine, you know, just get here when you can.

Saira (commentary): I enjoyed meeting Tanya; she’s friendly, she’s efficient and she inspires loyalty in her staff. She proves you don’t have to be a tyrant to be successful. We’ll catch up with Tanya at Downing Street where she hopes to win Mumpreneur of the Year. Others won’t be quite so fortunate. Julie White dreamt of being a successful Mumpreneur when she gave birth to her son Samuel three years ago.

Julie White: The idea behind it was that we could actually go out into lady’s homes with a really good quality selection of products.

Saira (commentary): Her company organised social gatherings to sell the goods, a tactic pioneered by Avon.

Julie White: I set about doing the same thing but with baby products because there wasn’t anyone doing it. We used to sell these really beautiful raincoats; this is the fireman raincoat, so the hood’s actually got the little hat on as well and with Fire and Rescue on the back.

Saira (commentary): But after three years the business was getting into difficulties.

Julie White: We weren’t selling enough, we weren’t making any money and we got to a point where we’d lost direction as a business, as a business partnership.

Saira (commentary): Julie lost her company and was left out of pocket by a £100,000. But she reckons failing is also learning. She’s keen to pass on the benefit of her experience.

Julie White: Do your homework, make sure there’s a need for what you’re going to do, there’s a market. Think about how you’re going to get to that market, who’s going to know about what you do and how you’re going to tell them. But equally know how difficult it is, know that it’s quite tough, know it won’t be quite how you may imagine it is.

It will be very, very hard work, more than you’ve ever imagined in your life.

Saira (commentary): Despite the hard work not all mumtrepreneurs are going to succeed but this is a trend that seems unstoppable and many more are going to have a go. Mums are making inroads into business all over the UK and in many different types of industry. Finally, I went to see mum of two, Erin Thomas, in Annaghmore, Northern Ireland.

Erin Thomas: Welcome to my board room.

Saira: Thank you very much. And very compact it is too. Erin, what do you do exactly?

Erin Thomas: I run a haulage company.

Saira: How did you get into that?

Erin Thomas (H&T Transport): Well, I was pregnant at the time and we just said, you know, let’s go for it, let’s do this on our own. And I knew at that point, as well, that maybe working a nine to five just wasn’t going to work.

Saira (commentary): She started up six years ago, when she was pregnant with her first child, Jessica. Her husband David is a lorry driver so haulage seemed a natural choice.

Saira: Well, how was the first year? You know, you’ve just had a baby, you’re running a new business, I mean, I know it’s really full on. How did you cope?

Erin Thomas: Yeah. No, the business grew and grew, in the first year we started off with one lorry and David drove it during the night and I drove it during the day with baby and....

Saira: You drove it during the day with a baby.

Erin Thomas: With baby.

Saira: Tell me, how does that work practically.

Erin Thomas: It was no different, as far as I was concerned, it was no different to going for a drive in the car.

Good boy!

But it was just a little bit bigger and perhaps I had a deadline but I mean the same paraphernalia came along, you know, the baby changing bag, the baby car seat. Bottles, bottles, crisps, fruit, you know.

Saira (commentary): Erin’s company H&T Transport now has 14 lorries. Some playfully decorated. On occasions Erin still drives a lorry herself. With new baby Brian tagging along. But that’s not all.

Saira: So what’s your role in the business?

Erin Thomas: Oh Saira, I do, I do absolutely everything and anything, whatever’s needed. It’s, you know, it can start off with admin, anything to do, sort of servicing, maintenance, it’s important to know these things.

Saira: You do everything.

Erin Thomas: Yeah.

Saira: You do the PR, the marketing, you change tyres.

Erin Thomas: Yeah, yeah, change tyres, change nappies, yeah.

Saira (commentary): Erin showed me all the things she has to do around the place. And she couldn’t help expressing a little bit of resentment.

Erin Thomas: I’ve been called out in the middle of the night because a grown man can’t do this and I actually find it really embarrassing to be a man and have to ask me to drag my two children out of their beds.

Saira (commentary): But she doesn’t mind all that much.

Erin Thomas: I feel quite empowered by it, I quite like it that they phone me really.

Saira (commentary): Erin’s main job is organising the loads and deploying the drivers.

Erin Thomas: All right, I’ll see you later. Give me baby.

Saira (commentary): Including her husband David.

Erin Thomas: Goodbye.

Saira (commentary): It’s all about teamwork for David and Erin.

Erin Thomas: Bye Daddy.

Without, you know, being able to bounce ideas off him and get his feedback and get his opinion and what shall I do about this and what do you think about this. I think that’s, you know, it’s so, so essential. David is my absolute support, my absolute rock.

Saira (commentary): Whatever Erin’s got to do being a Mumpreneur means that she’s always around to make the most important pick-up of the day.

Erin Thomas: Have a good day sweet? Yeah. What did you do?

I would hate to have to ask my boss if I could take time off to do the school run, for the school play, school sports day because, you know, it is frowned upon, they don’t want you taking time off and I think being self-employed you have total flexibility over your own hours.

Saira (commentary): But when on earth does she get time to manage the business?

Erin Thomas: The children will go to bed anything around sort of eight, half eight and I’ll go straight up to the office, I’ll catch up on my e-mails, I’ll write some letters, maybe write a to-do list for the following day and, no, just follow up, you know, maybe follow up invoices and accounts and, yeah, I can keep going maybe till about midnight, one o’clock.

Saira: Well, it’s obviously working for you because you’ve got the biggest smile on your face, you’ve managed to keep Brian under control and he’s a very active little baby.

Erin Thomas: He is a physical, yeah.

Saira: You just seem so relaxed and comfortable. Are you putting it on, what is it?

Erin Thomas: No, it’s lots of coffee, glass of wine. No, it’s what I enjoy doing and I’m just very happy at the minute.

Saira: And even more importantly.

Erin Thomas: Jessica is picking up the most important skill of all which is that women can do absolutely anything. She’ll tell you that, oh girls can become lorry drivers, they can fly aeroplanes, they can ride motorbikes. Our Jessica is the best power washer; she can wash lorries, wash vans.

Erin Thomas: The way I would sort of judge my success is just my children and how they’re growing up and the role model I’m providing for them.

Saira (commentary): I found Erin really inspiring. I mean to be a successful Mumtrepreneur she proves that you don’t need a big flashy board room or a grand car, you just need to be organised and have a lot of drive and believe in yourself. She is a really good example of a woman making it in an industry that’s dominated by men.

Tanya Rostron: Yeah!!

Saira (commentary): For some Mumpreneurs are showing us all a new way forward.

Allison Pearson (Columnist, Daily Mail): I think this takes the debate on; it’s not having it all, it’s having some of it side by side, you know, it’s being a good mum, being a good worker simultaneously. The hope maybe with the Mumtrepreneur movement is that it will put pressure on more conventional organisations to damn well buck up their ideas about flexibility and if people see that they’re losing terrifically good women to those kind of enterprises then maybe it will bring about a culture change amongst the dinosaurs.

Saira (commentary): I’ve been inspired by all the mums on this programme and what they’ve taught me is that whilst it might be hard work you can combine devotion to your business with devotion to your children.

Back at Downing Street, Tanya is nervously awaiting the result of the competition.

Speaker: And I believe that it’s fitting that the best Mumpreneur winner will go forward to compete on a national stage. So, on that note, it’s time to announce the winner of the best....

Saira (commentary): Will she be Mumpreneur of the Year?

Speaker: The lady in question impressed the judges with a steady growth of the company and the willingness to learn new skills such as driving a fork-lift truck. And I’m delighted to announce that the winner of the Best Mumpreneur category of 2008 is Tanya Rostron of Water at Work.

Saira: Tanya, well done, congratulations!

Tanya Rostron: Thank you, I’m really, really chuffed. Really happy.

Saira: Now listen you two, what are you up to now? What are you going to do?

Tanya Rostron: Shopping.

Sam Bradley: Champagne cocktails definitely.

Saira: Celebration.

Aston: www.bbc.co.uk/moneyprogramme

Saira (commentary): But Tanya’s a mum and she can’t afford to get too carried away. At the end of a long day there’s always something else to do. And something else to celebrate.

Tanya Rostron: It’s going to be a 101 Dalmatians.

Archie: Yeah!

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Content last updated: 13/08/2008

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