We talk to Victoria Casebourne from The Keepsake Co and VictoriaCasebourne.com

Victoria has been mum to The Keepsake Co for nearly a decade but when her new arrival came along in the shape of a beautiful baby boy everything turned upside down.  After a few months of adjustment and frantic juggling  she has finally come out the other end a much stronger person both in business and personally.  Victoria now spends her time working with other mums to help them find a way to build a baby-proofed income and to help them discover how to get more out of what they have.

 

What was the hardest thing about juggling a business along with a new baby?

 

It was the shock to the system in all honesty! I know my friends told me that I would not have time to have a baby and run a business but I ignored their advice thinking I knew best but I just completely underestimated how much time a little one takes up. I felt I was attached to the sofa feeding day after day and obviously when I was doing that I was unable to pack orders and help customers.  Don’t laugh but I sort of thought my baby would sleep in the corner for hours while I carried on working!

 

Did it get easier or is it a struggle now?

 

After I got into the rhythm and routine of being a new mum I carved out time where I could devote to The Keepsake Co, I developed systems and started to bring in help.  While I envied my friends who had 9 months off completely I do sort of think that my business kept me sane as I had something other than nappies and bottles to think about. I hear how some mums can loose who they are during motherhood and can completely see how that would happen – it is an all consuming time so having to check in to the business every few days ensured I kept my feet on the ground and my new Baby Brain ticking over.

 

What made you decide to move away from retailing yourself and spend your time helping other mums to find more of a work life balance?

 

Since becoming a mum I was forced to re-evaluate my priorities as I had so much less time than I did before. This was a really good thing as before my son arrived I thought nothing of working 7 long days a week as I enjoyed it so much but now I had something I enjoyed even more.

 

I think becoming a mum helped me decide on what was important and gave me a real focus on what I wanted to do with the limited time I had. Before I would have done both along side each other, but now I HAD to choose as I physically did not have the time to do both (unless I wanted to sacrifice time with my son)

 

I felt my strongest and happiest while I was working with other people helping them to build and grow their business so knew that was where my heart lay. I was able to pull on my decade of business experience and NLP skills to help others follow their dream which gave me an amazing sense of achievement.

 

What do you enjoy most about what you are doing now?

 

I love working with the mums I work with and following their journey. I mainly work with mums who are building their own local keepsake business so can pass to them all the lessons I learnt, all the short cuts I developed and help them with their own personal strategies. I can also use the established reputation of The Keepsake Co to help fast track their success.  I love their excitement when they get their first orders and helping them build on their dreams. There really is nothing I would rather be doing!

 

What would be the number one bit of advice you would give a new mum who is looking for a change in career?

 

Take some time out to really think about what you want to do, why you want it and what your perfect life would look like. Then set about working towards it in a logical structured way. Leave the ‘how’ to one side and just fully believe in yourself and that it WILL happen for you. I truly believe you can earn money from any interest or hobby and can build your working week to fit in around your priorities. You just need to know what that looks like in 100% clarity before you start building it.

 

I think the most important skill you can develop is one of un-wavering self belief in yourself and your ideas. If you have this and fully commit to finding a way to make your dreams become a reality then it WILL happen for you. 

 

If someone wanted to find out more what would be the best place to start?

 

I am running a free 14 days to M.O.R.E online group coaching session over on my own blog where I will take a group of mums through a journey of self-discovery so help them find their  own ‘why’ and design their dreams so they get to a place where they can start taking action towards it.

 

You can sign up to the challenge at http://www.victoriacasebourne.com/14-days-m-o-r-e/

 

You can find out more about The Keepsake Co’s creative business opportunities at www.mykeepsakebusiness.com

 

And you can shop with The Keepsake Co and their team of local keepsake businesses at www.thekeepsakeco.co.uk