Stuck for fun activities?

Read how Mum Sam Willougby turned her own experiences into her wonderful website whatson4littleones!...

Name - Sam Willoughby

Location - Hampshire

Family - Alice (2)

What is your background?

Before having Alice I was a project manager for 8 years mainly in financial services but I also spent 18 months working for a well know classified ads company.

What inspired you to set up whatson4littleones?

It was a grey weekend just after New Year 2006, you know the feeling! I was desperate to get moving with The Baby Sleeping Bag Company and things were not happening very fast so I was thinking through having Alice and that there must be another gap that I could fill. Then I remembered how hard it was to find out what classes and activities were on in the area - in fact my friend, Juliet, had been the one that had found out about most of the groups, mainly by word of mouth! And that was it really...www.whatson4littleones.co.uk was born.

We have 4 main aims:

Our website had to be comprehensive - activity organisers have a lot of space to cover every aspect of their activities.
The information had to be complete - we take each county in turn and spend a lot of time finding all the activities that are running.
All information had to be accurate - it was crucial that we gave the people who run activities the ability to update their details at any time - so much on the Internet is out of date!
Our website had to be easy to use - our search is on the home page, and every page, no need to register or click through layers of pages!

You also run another company - The Baby Sleeping Company Limited with a business partner? Please tell us about this company too!

The Baby Sleeping Bag Company came before www.whatson4littleones.co.uk. It's taken us a year to find a manufacturer that can produce our designs at the required quality, we needed to be happy to put our own children to bed in one of our Dream Bag baby sleeping bags!

Maria and I both were huge fans of baby sleeping bags and it was a product that we knew nothing about even when we were pregnant. But the ones available were so expensive so we thought that there must be a way to produce a good quality baby sleeping bag with all the features you expect in some lovely designs but at a sensible price.

We even commissioned our own designs by a talented children's fashion designer! That was lots of fun, turning our ideas into artwork and then having samples made up. We're so excited about receiving our first delivery and Dream Bags will be ready for sale in August 2006. Take a look at www.thedreambag.co.uk

How did you find out about the first listings for whatson4littleones?

Before the launch we spent ages searching the Internet and calling halls to find our what was on. We started in Hampshire as I had the local knowledge. Our first advertiser was a free listing to the charity pre-school that I am on the committee for. Listings came thick and fast after that.

Our biggest surprise was how many visitors come to the site every day, over 100 a day from the 1st month and this is growing steadily, we often top 200 visitors a day now. We also have some lovely feedback from parents who say how useful the site is!

How has the site grown?

After 4 months, we're at over 750 activities mainly across Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Surrey and Sussex. We're also going to be issuing a newsletter to people who register their email address with us and more new things will be appearing in the Autumn!

You run a charity scheme as part of the site - how does that work?

Being on a charity pre-school committee has made me realise how hard volunteers work to keep pre-schools like ours running so it was very important to me that we supported community groups. We give free listings to parent and toddler groups and charity pre-schools and charity pre-schools can also apply for a donation. We have already made our first donation with another planned in the Autumn.

You have now started recruiting sales staff to work for the site - how did you know it was time to move into this area?

We receive many emails form Mums asking when we are going to cover their area. We can't get around the country fast enough! We've learnt a lot in the past 4 month so ironed out any teething problems. We are really pleased that we can now offer flexible roles to others.

What can sales people expect when they work for whatson4littleones?

We'll always be fair, keep people informed of what's going on and other opportunities will be available to the right people as the site grows! Read more about the job opportunity here.

What was your first piece of marketing activity?

We have an advert in BabyGROE magazine which is given to expectant Mums by their midwives. It appealed to us as BabyGROE is a free magazine, it's advertising is ethical and created by a charity. They also have regional pages so we could advertise specifically in the South of England as that is where our website covers initially.

What is the best free bit of PR or Marketing the company has had?

It's amazing how many people have offered to help promote us and we really do value every single one! In terms of scale, a feature in Baby Hampshire magazine due out in August. But what I love the most is when advertisers ask us for our flyers as they think the site is so helpful!

What has been the biggest hurdle to you've had to overcome in terms of business success?

I think we underestimated how long it takes to build a reputation and for people to get to know who you are. But our name is now getting know 'out there' and we have a lot of activity organisers coming to us! And we have some solid support from some of the nationwide franchises now who really rate what we are doing.

Did you have a good support network around you when you set up the site - in terms of childcare?

My husband, Robin, is a star Dad and although he works full-time, always puts Alice to bed and cooks dinner - during this time I catch up with my emails! He also puts up with me doing some work at the weekends!

How do you separate working time and family time?

It is hard, harder that I thought! Your own business is an extension of you. I'm getting better and force myself to switch the PC off!

What has been the biggest benefit of you being self-employed to your family?

Spending as much time as I want with Alice whilst still achieving something for myself and applying all the experience that I have.. plus learning new skills!

What is the best bit of business advice you've been given?

It's not so much given but I've learnt a lot from my business partner Maria! Without her support and drive it would have been hard to do this by myself. She's picked me up when stuff has got too much - she's fab!

Any other comments/advice you think would be useful to Mums thinking of starting in business would be fantastic!

Having a business partner really helps, someone to work through ideas and problems and to share the load emotionally and financially. Do your research, don't over commit financially and rise above the negative comments that you will get!

Go for it!