A Mumpreneur is born: part 5 - moving into profit

This is part 5 of my mumpreneur story – the earlier parts are here…. part 1, part 2, part3, part 4

As I came to the end of my PT training I felt a bit backed into a corner – I had spent all my available money on training for something that I didn’t feel right to teach.

I hadn’t managed to get slim and fit myself. I didn’t really know what to do next – I wanted to at least be slim by the time I finished my training – otherwise I might just have to give up and go back to work, and then how would I face my husband, who had invested in me for nothing?

Weight Loss

I decided to ‘cheat’ a bit. The fitness industry is very much against very low-calorie diets, but I wanted to give myself a kick start and a confidence boost. So as a last resort I signed up to do the Cambridge Plan, after a friend I met online had a huge success losing weight with it.

I know it’s shallow to think that your personal appearance could have such a big impact on your self-confidence, but I knew I wouldn’t feel right working as a personal trainer if I looked overweight. That was still my plan at that stage – because I didn’t have a better idea.

The diet was a revelation for me. The first week is tough but after that I lost weight steadily over the twelve weeks I did it. I lost nearly three stone, which did wonders for my confidence. However, the thing which really got me thinking was the job of the Cambridge consultant.

Over the 12 weeks I was there I learned that Cambridge is a distributorship business, just like Usborne – so I understood how it worked. The setup costs are really reasonable – well within my reach. You get to coach and encourage people one to one – a skill I had learnt with the NCT and with my Personal Trainer qualification. I knew that I had a real talent in that area.

However, I felt much more confident teaching weight loss with Cambridge than I did teaching fitness, because I had done the diet successfully myself – whereas unfortunately good fitness habits still elude me today…..

The best part of all, is that my weight loss efforts inspired my husband too, and he also lost more than 2 stone with Cambridge. So when I told him I was thinking of adding Cambridge to my PT business he was very supportive.

By the time I got to my goal weight I knew I wanted to be a Cambridge consultant, with or without the PT business. I did the training and set up my new business in September 2008. Apart from a few little hiccups at the start, I knew very soon that this was exactly the thing for me.

I set up my consulting room and carried on my new business with the children in the sitting room next door. I finally felt like a proper mumpreneur.

Mums at the school who wanted to lose weight brought their children with them, knowing that mine was a child-friendly weight loss class. The business was immediately profitable, plus I felt a buzz that I was really helping people. It was the perfect fit.