AXA - Be Life Confident

• More than a third (34%) of new and expectant mums look to set up their own business from home to combine child care and income generation

Britain’s new mums have emerged as an entrepreneurial force to be reckoned with, as a new report reveals that more than one-in-three (34%) of these ‘mumtrepreneurs’ are looking at starting their own business from home, enabling them to combine child care with developing a steady income stream.

The survey, commissioned by AXA Protection among 1,354 new and expectant mums, found that on average, those polled are generating £467.91 in earnings per month from home-based business ventures, equivalent to £5,614 a year.

In addition, more than a third (34%) of the women polled say they currently work from home or are looking to work from home, spending an average of 18.4 hours a week on these money making activities, equivalent to around 2.5 days in an average 9am – 5pm office environment.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, with an additional 21% of women polled saying they are actively considering retraining or using existing craft based skills to earn money from home, with 10% saying they would consider re-training or using existing heath / holistic therapy skills to earn an income while working from home.

In addition, around 8% are considering looking after other people’s children in return for payment and 4% said they would consider retraining or using existing sports based skills (e.g. pilates or yoga) to earn an income from home, with 25% saying they would consider returning to their previous job if they could work remotely from a home office.

“It is interesting to see how many new and expectant mothers are looking to start their own businesses from home and also the level of contribution that they are currently making to family incomes through home-working activities,” states Iain Mallon Head of AXA Protection.

By undertaking this activity, these entrepreneurial mothers are making a significant contribution to both the economy and their family’s financial wellbeing.

“While clearly good news, we would encourage families to ensure they have the necessary income and critical illness policies in place to protect the income generated by these home entrepreneurs. While many companies will provide life insurance or death in service benefits for their staff, entrepreneurs and the self-employed are reliant on providing these themselves and as mothers contributions to the family income become increasingly key, so ensuring that the right protection plans are in place to safeguard this income becomes ever more important.”

Among the least popular money generating schemes was retraining / using skills like accountancy or business consultancy to earn money from home (1.9%), and using retail skills (e.g. buying and selling goods on eBay or developing a mail order business), selected by 1.4% of those women surveyed.

Needing the money was cited by more than one-in-four (26%) of the new and expectant mothers questioned as the reason either working from home or considering doing this, with a further 20% stating they don’t want to give up their career but needed to combine work with child care. A futher 9% of those questioned said they had always wanted to start their own business from home and 8% said they were motivated by the high cost of child care or lack of child care places, making it imperative that they have to work from home.

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* Research was conducted by on online poll of 1,354 new and expectant mothers conducted by BabyWorld, the UK ’s leading online site for new and expectant parents in July 2006.