You’ve come to the right place.
We caught up with busy mum-of-five Mary Dawes, below, the owner and creator of First Aid For You, a first aid training site for everyone, including kids, to learn a few secrets to her incredible success.
What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever got?
If you have an idea that you think will work, go for it! Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams. Following this advice has seen me start First Aid For You, which is now highly successful, well beyond my wildest dreams!
What’s the biggest secret you’ve learned to having a successful business?
Delegate, in a family as large as mine (thankfully!) there’s plenty of people to delegate tasks to. Everything from helping with the accounting, scheduling first aid courses and general administration to helping with my children (breakfasts, lunchboxes and dinners!) and school pick-up there’s always someone who, thankfully, is willing to assist, just so I can continue following my dream.
I love every day, as it’s completely different to the next, whether it’s juggling family life, with teaching people first aid skills or in the office completing administration tasks and working with our PR agency, there’s always something to do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What’s the best money habit every successful woman should adopt?
Invest in yourself. Whether it’s courses on self-improvement, learning new skills to further build your business or perhaps a new outfit for work, everything you invest in yourself will, I believe empower you to continue with your business.
I think you’ll be hard pushed to find someone who says a course that’s going to help your business grow isn’t a great investment. Do some research and look at courses that are relevant to your industry or growing your business and pencil these dates in and work towards putting aside the money to attend. These courses are also a great opportunity to network and meet new people. It’s win-win!
What’s the secret to keeping balance?
Again, it’s delegation. We have a whiteboard at home with everyone’s name on it and the task / duty they’re assigned each day, even some of the older kids are now involved. It means that if everyone pitches in to help, there’ definitely time to “play” after all the work is completed.
What’s your message to would-be mumpreneurs?
DO IT!
Make sure you have a plan, it most definitely doesn’t have to be polished, but do your research, talk to a financial planner and (this is a big one) have a list of goals pinned somewhere you can see it each and every day. This will remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and while there will be days when you don’t achieve everything you want, just remember Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The 2016 St.George Banking Group AusMumpreneur Awards are in Melbourne on August 14. Nominations for the various categories close on June 30.
