9th November 2016

JHPR’s Wednesday Wonder Woman – Founder Dina & Partner Nathalie of Award winning blog, Kensington Mums

Every Wednesday JHPR spotlight a woman doing amazing things within her business field. As champions of startups and small business owners we will be selecting a wonder woman to profile each week.

Our Wednesday Wonder Woman this week goes to founder Dina Maktabi and partner Nathalie Bernadotte,  of Kensington Mums. The social media website was established in 2011 with the aim of sharing knowledge and experiences for mothers to be to learn from each other. Five years on, the business has grown into a large community of mothers and mother tonne, outside of Kensington and across London.

What is your business? www.kensingtonmums.co.uk is an award winning website connecting Mothers in their journey through motherhood.

 

How long has your business been trading? We are proud and incredibly excited to be celebrating our 5th blog anniversary this year!

 

What inspired you to start your business? Dina: I created Kensington Mums with the aim of helping my local community of Mums to connect and share knowledge and experiences with one another. At first, it started off mainly being my close friends, but after having my second baby, the idea of having a bigger network support came to mind and in a sense created a passion in me to help mums outside my group of friends’.

Being a mum is definitely the hardest job in the world and it’s vital that mums have support and know they are not alone. We support mums in their journey through motherhood, sharing tips, swapping advice and offering one another inspiration and motivation to make our motherhood journey a memorable one.

 

What has been your greatest business achievement? Dina: We are celebrating 5 years of Kensington Mums that’s one big achievement for our team and our community. Having found a great business partner to work with is something I am thankful and grateful for. Connecting Mums together in London where they have no friends or are first time Mums wanting to make new friends is a great feeling. To know that we have supported and helped a Mum not to feel alone in her motherhood journey is something we work on everyday. We feel very proud of all the business and brands that have supported us along the way as well.

Nathalie: Everyday is a business achievement. Every email we receive from a business wanting to collaborate with us, every time we receive an email from a mum saying another mum has recommended us. Every time someone shows interest in interviewing us I feel proud of what we do and how far we have come as a team

 

Best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given? Nathalie: To see any competition as positive for two reasons. First, if you have competition it means you must be doing something right and second, it forces you to be your best.

Dina: Do one thing at a time, and if you can’t do it, delegate it. It took me a while to apply this, but it eventually helped me lots and saved me a lot of time.

 

How is your business contributing to your community or society? A free-to-join network group, Kensington Mums is destination site that ‘keeps you in the loop of the local scoop’ with the latest trends and family outings. It features all the places to go as a family, the perfect shops for mum and baby, and things to do in and around West London. It is also bursting with recipes, swanky competitions and reviews to empower you in your choices in and around the area.

 

How has media coverage helped raise your profile? Be it social media or print media both are great ways to connect with the outside world, to make your story heard and to share your passion, what inspires you and motivates you. Being interviewed by various magazines and blogs out there has also been a great way to raise our profile.

 

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced along your business journey?Nathalie: Everyday tasks can be seen as a challenge when you run a business as well as being a full time mum. In order for your business to grow you must dedicate many hours to it but as a mum you just don’t have that time. I love being a mum and wouldn’t change it for the world but I do look forward to having more time to grow Kensington Mums once my children will be in school. (Then you will hear me sob about how much I miss my children and want them to be babies again). Biggest challenge is getting offline, as in todays society where social media is so powerful it’s hard to draw a line between work and personal life.

Dina: Biggest challenge is balancing my full time business and life as a mother/wife/daughter/friend. I am still trying to figure that one out! It really is multi-tasking as its best (sometimes in one hand and it gets really hard when kids are on half term). But generally do my work hours and meetings when the kids are in school and then I spend the afternoon with them with after school activities, playdates and homework.

 

Where is your product or service available? You can find us a click away at www.kensingtonmums.co.uk. KM App available on iTunes and Google Play and off course via our popular social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @kensingtonmums. And for any support, we make ourselves available at all times!

Photo credit: Boggio Studios (@BoggioStudios)

By JHPR

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