Small business owners who struggle to work while they look after kids during the summer holidays are being offered an online course to help their sales moving.
Many self-employed parents are forced to scale back their businesses during the lengthy school summer holidays while they have to entertain young children.
This leads to a fall in income, expansion momentum and a backlog of work to deal with in September when school begins again.
But Melissa Talago, who runs Campfire Communications, believes her virtual Summer Camp kit will provide parents with the guidance to keep their business ticking over.
Melissa, who is based in York, said: ‘I know from personal experience how difficult it is to keep business momentum going when you are a sole trader and a parent.
‘With kids off school anywhere from six to nine weeks, many ‘solopreneur’ parents have to scale back their business and simply keep it ticking over. Forward planning or strategic thinking falls way down the list of priorities.
‘But this has a knock on effect as they end up using September to play catch up instead of earning any real income. My Summer Camp aims to change this so they can hit the ground running once the kids are back at school.’
There are an estimated five million micro businesses in the UK, many of which have been set up by parents looking to work flexibly around their children.
The virtual Summer Camp includes a series of one-on-one consulting calls coupled with bite sized exercises and in-depth content will let business parents strategically plan, learn and prepare, while still spending time with their children.
Attendees will have three calls taking place in early July, late July/early August and late August, with a series of exercises to do in between.
They will also get a full month of email support during September and all the tools they need to promote their business including an 11-module course on how to do their own PR and a bespoke press list.
Techniques and skills learned from the course can also be applied during Easter and Christmas breaks, as well as future Summer holidays, meaning self-employed parents will be better equipped in the future to keep their income coming in while look after their children.
The Summer Camp will start on 1 July 2015 and is now open for registration.
