Quite simply a Mammoth Monday Mummy Mentor!

Joanne Dewberry 

As a Mum of 2, under 3, I am in total admiration of Joanne.

Joanne Dewberry is a Mum to Charlie (b.2007), Megan (b.2008) and Olive (b.2011).

She started her little business just before the birth of her second child Megan in 2008. No mean feat I promise you! Being a Mum is a Full time job in itself.

Joanne decided to quit her profession of Childcare  and stay at home and look after her children. What’s the point of looking after someone else’s children when someone else is looking after yours? But 6 months into being a Mum Joanne was missing the mental stimulation of her managerial role her previous job gave her.

Surrounded by the world of toddlers and disheartened by the party bags that Charlie her son had received at parties filled with too much chocolate and ill-aged appropriate toys, she decided she could do better and so Charlie Moo's was born.

Not a natural crafter and with no sewing skills to add to her list of skills, Joanne soon discovered how therapeutic sewing could be. Along the way she has learnt many new business skills, which she is passionate about sharing with small business owners and in particular mums. With 3 children under 5 years herself, Joanne understands the constraints on mums in business. Her passion and dedication earned her the title of Dorset Business Mum of the Year 2010 along with numerous other business accolades in the past 3 years.

Along the way, while building her thriving business, Joanne has helped and supported small business grow with her mentoring, advice pamphlets, her blog www.joannedewberry.co.uk where she provides small business training, advice, networking in areas of social media, marketing and juggling children and business. Now to add to her successful portfolio, she has written and had a book published.  

Crafting a Successful Small Business is designed to help talented crafters take that step from hobby into manufacturer. Joanne shares her knowledge and skills she has gained throughout starting and successfully running Charlie Moo’s- named after her son Charlie and first daughter Megan (named Moo as a baby).

Her simply written guide to starting a business from your crafting hobby is a MUST have for all crafters wanting to know how to make it happen. The transition from a hobby to making a business is a scary one. Most aesthetic crafters are tremendously talented in their art or craft but hopeless at running a business (from my experience anyway). So this logical step by step guide that covers how to sell your products on and off line, how to correctly price your product for your market (often one of the hardest bits to do-Pricing your own products), how to develop your unique brand, how to visually merchandise your products to fit your brand and how to use social media to market your product.

Joanne looks closely at a variety of very different crafts and how each small business deals with the above questions. With snippets and case studies from the likes of - Viv Smith from www.poppysparkles.co.uk, Laura Renton from www.thatssewlaura.co.uk, Jamie Fry from www.unclebundle.com and Andrea Palluch from www.skinbistro.co.uk .Through her love of social media, she has also gained input through many crafters and other social media participants. What I loved about Joanne’s book was her honesty at pointing out where she felt certain crafters were going wrong. What’s the point of selling your wares for pocket money? You simply make crafters who sell their wares at properly priced margins, priced out of the market. A lose lose for everyone!

As well as the bible of knowledge, Joanne has also added craft activities to this happy book. All crafters like to delve into another craft after all.

WOW!!!! She certainly deserves to be our Monday Mentor! And Joanne’s book will certainly be given as a Christmas gift to all my aesthetic friends who make beautiful products.

What makes it even better, is we feature in Page 64!

Quite simply WOW!!

You’ll find us in the “Where to sell” section of the book.

To purchase your copy click here.

 So, Joanne, firstly thank you for creating such lovely, unique party bags that our little ones love. And secondly, thank you for being an inspirational Mummy and for caring enough to share your skill and business skills with us all. Your no-nonsense plain English book is essential reading for anyone thinking of starting a successful craft business! And thank you for including our small successful business u-ni-k.