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The Benefits of running a Digital Business

I’ve always loved the digital aspect of running a business – creating the websites myself, setting up Facebook and Twitter and managing the social media campaigns. For the last 7 years I have been running community focused small businesses in West London. The businesses all revolved around mums and being a new mum myself meant that through the businesses I built the most wonderful network of friends and colleagues, and really felt part of the community I was living in.

Everything changed in 2015 when we were given the opportunity out of the blue to move to Abu Dhabi for my husband’s work. Not wanting to turn down such an incredible experience, we packed up and headed to the Middle East, two young children in tow. Abu Dhabi’s population is 85% expats, so it wasn’t hard to find likeminded friends and immerse ourselves in the experience. However sacrifices did need to be made and to take up this opportunity meant that I needed to take some time away from my businesses in the UK.
For the first few months I was all consumed with the move – settling the kids in to a new school, learning about new processes and a new culture. However as soon as I started to have some headspace again, I got itchy feet, and realised how much I missed having a focus and a purpose, separate to being a mum and dare I say it, a housewife.
I decided to embark on some online digital marketing training to develop my skills. It was brilliant to have a focus again and something that was ‘mine’, and investing in myself really did make me a happier mummy.

After completing my training my eyes were well and truly opened to how many opportunities exist to build an online business. The benefits of running a digital business are HUGE when it comes to being a mum and having to work around the family. You can create your own schedule, whether that’s working around childcare or grabbing a few hours every evening. You can live anywhere in the world and still work on your business. And I love the fact that you can work from the comfort of your own home, a coffee shop or even on a beach with a latte in hand.

My own experience inspired me to create Making Mumpreneurs, which is a website dedicated to empowering mums to build digital businesses. I share information about online training courses, similar to the ones that I took, as well as tips and inspiration to help them on their journey.

The most exciting thing about my new digital business is the scalability. My audience is currently 50/50 UK and UAE, but my aim is to become global and help mums all over the world. This kind of reach would not even be thinkable before the likes of Facebook and Twitter, but now it is highly achievable.

Believe me, it’s never too late to re-skill and re-invent yourself as a digital entrepreneur, the world is your oyster!

Erin Thomas Wong
Founder of Making Mumpreneurs

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