Claire’s shyness and lack of self-confidence was holding her back from moving her accountancy business to the next level. With a little help from successful mums the numbers are now adding up!
I’m Claire, I have two ridiculously active kids – Alice who is 6 and George who is nearly 2. We live in Orpington and I started my working life as an academic (a Biological Anthropologist – a job title I always had to explain!).
During my late pregnancy with Alice, it became very clear to me that my ambition to continue my chosen career path did not gel well with both the expectations of academic life or us being tied to a specific location due to my husband’s job. Keen to restructure around our new normal – I went back towards accounting, as that had been my original bachelor’s degree. I retrained, I researched, and I decided that being self-employed was the way forward in order to juggle both parenthood and work.
I set up Ammonite Accounts, to provide bookkeeping and outsourced finance solutions to small businesses (but particularly female-led businesses!)
“I’d struggled with my self-confidence and shyness, but the course helped so much. We did lots of practical work which made me realise that I COULD actually do this!“
Claire
However, self-employment was a totally foreign concept to me. None of my family members or close friends had their own businesses so there was little advice available. It was almost impossible to pull out the relevant and useful information from google searches too! I’d seen an advert for the Successful Mums Business Start up and Enterprise Course and decided to apply.
I’d struggled with my self-confidence and shyness, but the course helped so much. We did lots of practical work which made me realise that I COULD actually do this! We were encouraged to network, my confidence was building and I was overcoming my shyness! With a fresh mindset, I was excited to market my business.
Other key elements of the course were, how to sell yourself, identifying your target audience, and how to timetable your working day.
The course was a great way to learn all the important tools that you need to go it alone, get advice from people who know, and it gave me the opportunity to make new friends! I’ve also started to figure out how to balance work and motherhood!
If you’d like to know a little bit more about my business, I AM Ammonite Accounts. I can help with as little or as much of the financial side of things as you may need.
My website is www.ammoniteaccounts.co.uk, I’m (sort of) on Instagram and Facebook as @ammoniteaccounts, and feel free to email me at