Business & Baby on Board | Strawberry Communications: Writing & PR

A Decade in Business: Reflection and Refocus

September 28, 2016 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

A photo by Christopher Sardegna. unsplash.com/photos/CMOa3H1SXG0

This month Strawberry Communications turns 10. I had been freelancing on and off for six years before I started working for myself full time, but once my eldest son was born I knew I didn’t want to be working for someone else five days a week. My work experience and entrepreneurial spirit drove me to go it alone and I registered the business in October 2006.

My business has gone through many iterations in that 10 years: from being a purely freelance writing business initially, to combining my own clients with freelancing for other PR businesses. From there Strawberry Communications was predominantly operating as a PR consultancy with two additional consultants supporting me and it’s now back to mostly writing, with just me at the helm.

A fluid business

There have been many reasons for these changes: responding to industry demand, working around my family and my own desire for change. During the past 10 years I’ve worked around one, and then two, small children, after which I ran the business full time while my partner become a stay-at-home dad. Next I combined running Strawberry Communications with baking business, Stanley & Nelson, and then with studying part-time. For the past two years I’ve been studying full time and working in the business part time. I expect to be finished my PhD within the next six months and so now I’m starting to think about what I’ll do post study.

Reflecting on 2015

December 23, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Reflection for me is something I don’t spend a huge amount of time doing, however at this time of the year I do like to look back over what has happened in the previous 12 months before planning for the New Year.

So, in the spirit of welcoming a year anew next week, here is my 2015 reflective post. I hope you’ll join me and share the highlights of your own year too via a comment here or on social media.

I set “focus” as my word for the year. While I’ve been very focused in some areas (training and trekking in Peru), I’ve let a few other aspects slide more than they should (I wanted to write more for pleasure and my PhD supervisor is nodding about now). So I’ve got some work to do to catch up in the next year, but here’s a run down of what did happen in 2015.

Johanna interviewed for The Mumpreneur Show

September 3, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

I was recently interviewed by Petra Jones for her Mumpreneur Show podcast about generating PR for small businesses, writing Business & Baby on Board and running a business with a family in tow.

Listen to the full podcast by clicking through below.

Filed Under: Business PR Tagged With: business, Business & Baby on Board, Business PR, Johanna Baker-Dowdell, Petra Jones, PR, small business pr, Strawberry Communications, The Mumpreneur Show, writing

Business & Baby on Board in top 20 for ‘SMART 100’ Readers Choice Index

May 29, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Business & Baby on Board has been named one of Australia’s most innovative products, in one of the largest and most audacious innovation awards of its kind in Australia – the Anthill Magazine ‘SMART 100’ Index.

The business book written by Tasmanian entrepreneur Johanna Baker-Dowdell was not only ranked in the SMART 100 Product Winners, but was also ranked 16th in the Readers’ Choice list.

“I’m thrilled to have the book I worked so hard to produce recognised by Anthill as an innovative product, but to have the extra recognition from the magazine’s readership is really icing on the cake,” Johanna said.

Business & Baby on Board named in ‘SMART 100’ Index

May 20, 2015 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Business & Baby on Board has been named one of Australia’s most innovative products or services, in one of the largest and most audacious innovation awards of its kind in Australia – the Anthill Magazine ‘SMART 100’ Index.

About Business & Baby on Board

Business & Baby on Board is the mum’s bible for starting out and succeeding in business. These women are mistresses of their own destinies with an armoury of skills that can be utilised while they are bringing up the baby.

The innovation initially came to life when author Johanna Baker-Dowdell’s blog posts about running her business, Strawberry Communications, around children attracted followers and comments, with readers asking for more content like this.

“I was encouraged to write the book Business & Baby on Board because while there were many books and guides to help people wanting to start a business from home, there wasn’t much available specifically to help entrepreneurial mothers,” Johanna explained.

Christmas Gift List for Mumpreneurs

December 15, 2014 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell 4 Comments

It’s 10 days until Christmas and you’ve been busy ticking off items from your Christmas list to make sure everything is perfect for your family’s festivities next week.

That’s great, but have you considered yourself in this equation? If you haven’t, it’s time to sit down with a tea, coffee or cold drink (or something alcoholic if that’s what’s needed) and pick something from this list for you. Yes, you!

Busy mumpreneurs should be rewarding themselves for everything they have achieved in 2014 and this list makes it easy to do just that.

1. Practice self care – the five minutes you’re taking to have a drink and read this are not quite enough. As Helen Butler from Clutter Rescue explains in her interview with Howard’s Storage World, self care could include booking in some time for a catch up with a friend, a facial at your favourite beauty clinic or reading something in the sun sans children. Watch Helen’s interview for more ideas (and some organisation tips too).

My self care picks are: Mary’s Skin Care, The Little Black Dress Project, Business & Baby on Board and Juice Plus.

All you want for Christmas is… something that makes you get out of bed in the morning.

December 11, 2013 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

Your inbox has been crammed with emails about ordering presents in time for Christmas over the past few weeks. And your letterbox has probably been filled up multiple times with brochures too. It’s Christmas and everyone is trying to get their product or service in front of you to ensure the gift you buy is from them.

If you’re extra organised (unlike me) you’ve already done all your Christmas shopping and you’ll be sitting pretty about now. But, I’m not writing about the presents you’ve researched and bought for your family and friends. I’m writing about what you got for yourself.

“Nothing,” I hear you say (I know because I’m the same). Well, I have a solution. My solution is something is so inspiring it’ll make you want to change course. If you’re a fabulous woman with an entrepreneurial side, let me introduce you to my book, Business & Baby on Board.

Mumpreneur profiles the experts in ultimate guide to combining motherhood and business

August 2, 2013 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell 2 Comments

Vivacious Australian publicist and journalist Johanna Baker-Dowdell wrote Business and baby on board, a working mum’s bible for succeeding as an entrepreneur, over four years while juggling her own start-up and young family.

The book is filled with true stories and tips to provide inspiration to mothers who want to have it all: the family, the lifestyle, and the career.

It features case studies and advice from 20 high profile businesswomen, including Boost Juice founder Janine Allis, Red Balloon founder Naomi Simson, writer Kaz Cooke and Carman’s Kitchen founder Carolyn Creswell.

Johanna’s own heart-wrenching story of how she overcame a health scare which threw the family and her writing and public relations consultancy Strawberry Communications into crisis mode is a standout among the case studies.

Crowdsourcing Part 2 – the Book Cover

February 20, 2013 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell 5 Comments

Striped Background (left) & Pink Spot (right)

My book about starting and running a business around children, Business & Baby on Board, is almost a finished product.

Since I crowdsourced funding to publish the book it made perfect sense to me to also crowdsource the cover designs. You can see from the two covers above the woman and her baby with the cityscape is central to both, with the titles and background providing the difference. The talented team at AJD Creative designed both covers.

I uploaded both designs to my social media networks and asked my friends and family what they thought. Here’s how the 97 votes played out:

[Read more…]

Filed Under: My Stuff Tagged With: AJD Design, book covers, Business & Baby on Board, crowdsourcing, Editia

Advertise in Business & Baby on Board

December 5, 2012 By Johanna Baker-Dowdell Leave a Comment

My book, Business & Baby on Board, will be going to print very soon and I have just a little bit of time left to sell the last ads in the book for those businesses savvy enough to know business mums are a discerning bunch.

The Huggies MumInspired Report (March 2011) revealed 70% of women thought more about starting a business since becoming a mother.