Once again, drinking coffee on board an airline carrier has proven a hazardous business.

This time, no person got injured (luckily!) but nevertheless, there was certainly some havoc: CNN reports today that an United Airlines flight on route from the US to Europe had to divert and make an emergency landing in Canada, after the pilot accidentally spilled a cup of coffee on the navigation instruments.

Let’s hope he did not have too much sugar and milk in that coffee… or it could prove an expensive spill!

Anyone from United Airlines interested in discussing how we can prevent this happening again?

(many thanks to MTB for the tip!!!)

Today, we had the opportunity to participate as an exhibitor at the congress ‘In voor Zorg!’ (in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Big thanks to the organisers! And many thanks to my friend Nienke for helping me out on the stand today.

It was very interesting to present our hot drink safety solution to some of the the 800+ participants, who came by our stand.
And encouraging that professionals from home care organisations and senior homes reacted very positively and definitely saw the use of the Safetea™ mug in the care.

The theme of the congress was innovation and efficiency in the care of elderly and handicapped people. Certainly pertinent, since care services has to deal with the dilemma of double-digit budget cuts, as the government restricts the funding, and growing demand; as the population steadily ages.

Can Safetea™ contribute to innovation and efficiency in the care of elderly and handicapped?

We think we can: Safetea™ makes it possible for elderly people to manage to enjoy tea or coffee without assistance, in all safety.
The time that the nurses would have spent assisting, if the coffee would have been served in an open mug, is thus either saved or freed up for other things — thus potentially contributing to higher efficiency and quality improvement.

Now all we have to do is make good use of all the tips and feedback we got today, and work out how we have to tweak the mug so that it really meets the needs for elderly.
We will do our homework there, and run some tests to get it right. Luckily, several organisations we met today offered the possibility of field testing with their employees and clients — excellent!

Then we will be ready to make our contribution — perhaps not more than a safe cup of coffee, but hopefully with the potential of contributing something to a better care for all.

In the period 2001 — 2006, over 50,000 elderly people sought medical care in hospital emergency departments across the US because of scald injuries. This is reported in a scientific study published on medscape.com.

Worth attention: elderly had a worse prognosis for recovery than younger patients after scald burns because of age-related factors and other medical conditions, and therefore needed more extensive medical treatment to recover.
Two thirds of visits were made by women.
Most (76%) of the scald injuries had occurred at home; and 42% were associated with hot food and 30% with hot water or steam.

As the authors conclude: the findings in this report highlight the need for effective scald-prevention programs targeted to older persons. It seems that also Granny needs a MummyMug™.

It’s time: the yearly Kind&Jugend trade fair in Cologne is about to start tomorrow. During 4 busy days, everyone who’s anybody in the baby and toddler outfitting industry will meet, network, make deals and show off their latest inventions.

We’re not an exhibitor this time, but are certainly looking forward to reconnecting with all the fabulous people we’ve met during the participations in 2008 and 2009. So, Cologne, here we come!

RyanAir claims to serve the best tea and coffee at 30,000 feet, and having tried a fair few brews at high altitudes, I’m inclined to agree.

However — also RyanAir has now experienced the hard way what that seemingly innocent and deliscious cuppa can do:

last week, a RyanAir plane en route from the UK to Poland was forced to make an emergency landing after a woman had scalded herself badly on a cup of tea, and needed immediate treatment. She then decided to take the train for the onward journey.

It seems not only parents are in need of a hot drink safety solution — RyanAir; we will come to your rescue: a Safetea™ mug with your logo is on its way.…!

Report by KAufmann Foundation Anatomy of an Entrepreneur

The very definition of an entrepreneur is for many someone who simply goes their own way, and define their own path to success.

And no venture, and no entrepreneur, is precisely like the other. But why do some make it and others, in spite of the best of intentions, do not?

I came across the 2009 report “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur” by the Kaufmann Foundation, based on a survey of 549 company founders across a variety of industries. The study seeks insights into high-growth founders’ motivations and their socio-economic, educational, and familial backgrounds. Key findings are sum up what successful entrepreneurs seem to have in common, in terms of background, level of education and motivation.

As an entrepreneur in the starting blocks of scaling up my business, I was of course curious to see if I fitted the picture and have what it takes.….

So here goes:

The average and median age of company founders when they started their current companies was 40.

Tick! OK, I was 35. Not too far off the mark.

95.1 percent of respondents themselves had earned bachelor’s degrees, and 47 percent had more advanced degrees.

Tick! With a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree under my belt, I fall in the latter category.

52 percent said they ranked among the top 10 percent in High School.

Yes Sir. I did. Can’t deny I was one of those bookworms with the glasses. Quite surprising finding though, I had the stereotype idea of the free-thinking entrepreneur that went so much against authority when growing up, that his or her talent wasn’t seen in school.

Less than 1 percent came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds.

Tick! I certainly lacked nothing when growing up, and got the chance to travel, study, play and sport. But extremely rich: no. Extremely poor: luckily for me, no. 

15.2% of founders had a sibling that previously started a business.

Tick! My  brother has a rent-a-doctor business, Addoc, that he started a few years’ earlier than I took the plunge. For him, it is a sidejob next to his ‘day job’ as a surgeon, but nevertheless, his ambition and guts certainly inspired me.

69.9 percent of respondents indicated they were married when they launched their first business.

Tick again. Yes, I was married and I can’t stress enough that without the support — and salary, let’s be honest — of my husband Han ten Broeke, I would never have been able to even think about quitting my job to starting develop a product full time. And those times when things seem to not go my way no matter how hard I try, he is the one who inspires me to take that extra step. Again, again and again.

59.7 percent of respondents indicated they had at least one child when they launched their first business, and 43.5 percent had two or more children.

This certainly challenges the stereotype of the entrepreneurial workaholic with no time for a family.

As far as I am concerned: Tick again. Stronger: without my daughter, there would never have been a business idea. Thus — no business.
Having a child also made me long for more flexibility in my professional life. Having a business does not mean working fewer hours, for sure, but I can much more easily combine this workload with family.

The majority of the entrepreneurs in the sample were serial entrepreneurs. The average number of businesses launched by respondents was approximately 2.3.

Nope, here I don’t fit in. With a past as a diplomat, I was about as far from an entrepreneur one could come, I guess, when I started this venture. Let’s hope this is not an indication that I have 2.3 businesses to go before I may count myself successful.….!

74.8 percent indicated desire to build wealth as an important motivation in becoming an entrepreneur.

Oups. Tough one. Hand on my heart, I found it so difficult — in the beginning — to admit that yes.… I WANT TO MAKE MONEY! Why? After 10 years in development aid, it was very hard to wear the hat of someone who thinks in terms of profit. It’s simply a bit of a dirty characteristic in my old circles. Also, MummyMug of course has a higher benefit than being a money maker: I sincerely do it also for the kids that will be saved the pain of scalding burns, if their parents are smart enough to use my invention.  but this said, and certainly since I have investors on board, and since I realize how enormously hard it is to make that profit: yes, I want to make money. And yes, if I do: I will have deserved it!

Only 4.5 percent said the inability to find traditional employment was an important factor in starting a business.

Tick tick. I left my lifetime safe employment at the European Commission for my dream.No lack of employment in the past thus!

Entrepreneurs are usually better educated than their parents.

Nope, I’m not! very proud that my father has even two degrees — in business adminstration and in medicine. My mother is not far behind with an advanced teaching degree.

Entrepreneurship doesn’t always run in the family. More than half (51.9 percent) of respondents were the first in their families to launch a business.

I kind of am. My father is since a few years working as an independent consultant, after he got tired of the realities of employment in the public healthcare in Sweden. But while I grew up, my parents were both working in the public sector and I’m the first one trying entrepreneurship at the scale MummyMug™ necessarily entails. 

The majority of respondents (75.4 percent) had worked as employees at other companies for more than six years before launching their own companies.

Tick and no tick! Does 10 years’ work experience, albeit in a very different field and for a public institution count.…. ?

Last but not least: Networks count. Professional networks were important to the success of the current businesses for 73 percent of the entrepreneurs in the study. In comparison, 62 percent felt the same way about personal networks.

Certainly agree. Networks are everything. Without them, you don’t get forward and you have nothing to fall back on when need be.

All in all — that’s quite encouraging, actually. At least if I can prove to make something out of this good start in life that I got ;-)
Who lives will see…

And in the meantime, tell me: what is your outlook?

CE-marking: not the most interesting subject for a creative entrepreneurs, who’d rather spend time on design, marketing plans and challenging online conversations.

But for anyone who plans to lawfully introduce a product on the EU market, like we do, CE-marking is of course not an optional subject to tackle.
You simply have to know which norms that your product must comply with, and make sure you take the necessary steps to met the standard — or you could be facing a costly recall and see your dream disappear from the market faster than you can say ‘hepp’! That is a risk no entrepreneur should take.

For MummyMug™, we started looking into this quite some time ago, and I must say that the quest for the answer to the magic CE question has been long and winding.
It has taken me through erratic google searches, discussions with various labs, institutions and experts; and even some brave attempts to chew my way through dense source texts of EU legislation.

I’ve had different answers from different experts and been pointed in all sorts of directions, leaving me feel more confused each time — and not one step closer to where I had to be: with a well-structured Technical File ready for inspection should someone ask for it.

In the end, the solution was just around the corner: with fellow entrepreneur Han Zuyderwijk who runs the online business CE-Marking.net from a base in The Hague.

Han  has a really fresh approach to CE-marking that can save everyone in product development a lot of money: the Do It Yourself CE-Certification.

Han is an experienced CE-marking lawyer, who used to work for the Big Established CE-Marking Laboratory. Over the years, he saw how the CE-marking industry created a kind of mystery cloud around the whole CE-marking process, making clients feel that CE-marking is something very complicated — which it is.

But what he really did not like, was that the established laboratories all seem to have agreed on a well-kept trade secret: namely giving clients the impression that there is no way around hiring the expensive The Big Established CE-Marking Laboratory to get the CE-marking organised. And luckily, there certainly is away around that costly process.

Han’s recipe is simple: he starts with stating the simple truth that in almost 90% of the cases, the CE marking regulations allow products to be self-certified for CE marking.

In other words, you can simply do the CE marking yourself. He does not say it is easy, but for a very reasonable fee, he does provides a rich resource base, a professional scan and a practical toolbox with templates and checklists to help you help yourself: to structure your work and process, with everything from understanding the basics of CE marking, mapping the norms applicable, make a plan for conduct and properly document a confirmity assessment and setting up the necessary paperwork for your Technical File, that eventually will result from all this hard work that lies ahead of you.

Because hard work it is: using CE Marking.net is no shortcut. As for so many things that come an entrepreneur’s way, choosing for Do-It-Yourself-CE Marking means simply roll up your sleeves, put in the hours and the effort and get it done.

What makes CE Marking different is that it takes a fresh perspective to something that seems completely impossible at first sight. And perhaps even more beneficial is that CE Marking.net empowers you to know your game, know your product and become even sharper for the next product you hopefully will develop sometime in the future. Not putting it in the hands of an expensive consultant that will bill you every time you call.

And the service helps you save up to 80% of the cost you would have had by using a 3rd party.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why CE-Marking.net should be standard included in your entreprenurship toolbox.

I just had a lovely email exchange with Louice, who runs 2 volunteer led baby and toddler groups in a Berwick-upon-Tweed in the North of England. 40 families use the group she has started to get together, support each other and have fun.

Precisely what playgroups are all about — see my previous blog posts on coffee morning / playgroup safety, what to serve and other tips.

Due to safety reasons, Louice avoids serving hot drinks to parents in her groups. Smart.

But she inquired about the MummyMug™ to be able to instead serve hot drinks safely — smarter!!

As they operate on a shoestring budget, we have discussed a cooperation whereby we could consider sponsoring the group with mugs once it reaches the market.

Let’s hope we can make that happen! I can’t wait to hear the stories and see the pics from the happy faces of Mums and Dads finally being able to enjoy their tea again. Thanks again Louise for getting in touch!

I’m very proud: today, the MummyMug™ is featured in Collezioni 03 Baby, a stylish, glossy Italian magazine and catalogue for baby fashion and parenting essentials.

Absolutely gorgeous photography, fantastic presentation of fashion and accessories for the 2010 Spring and Summer season.

Certainly worth an on-screen flick-through!

In a special section, the MummyMug™ is presented among other cool products and a fundamental detail for the smart Mums.

‘Home at last! And time to relax with a cup of coffee. MummyMug™ comes to the rescue, a mug with a special lid, spill proof, to avoid any little accidents. Mum can sip at will, leaving a safety valve to do the rest… because mums also deserves a moment’s peace and calm.…

… or otherwise expressed, sounding even better in Italian:

.. anche le mamme meritano un attimo di serenita tutto per se!

In the last couple of weeks, I have had the privilege of being featured on three online platforms for women — for Mums, for female entrepreneurs and for those who count themselves in both categories.

I was featured with a Mumpreneur Profile on Antonia Chitty’s FamilyFriendlyWorking website.….

.… m y sto ry was presented in a great blog post on MumsLikeYou last Friday (6,000+ users and 40,000 — 60,000 monthly hits).…..

.….and I was presented as the Member of the Week of the booming network driftig.nu for female Swedish entrepreneurs, with 6,000+ members and a real treasure of encouragement and inspiring advice.

Of course great exposure for me and the MummyMug™ to a revelant audience within networks much bigger than my own. The features generated about 500 visits to this site and many interesting comments and new leads to help me build my business.

I can only say — thank you! And I herewith return the favor. Please visit the sites above. You’ll not regret it.

Of course it did not happen by itself. Yep, I did make the first cold call contact with the women behind these sights and I simply asked for the possiblity of being featured. They were all quick with feedback, generous with their time and with their support in terms of lending me access to their platforms.

This is Online Sisterhood in action. The more I explore the online communities for women, by women, I see example after example of women investing their time and energy in unselfishly helping some other woman to find advice, to connect, to build their business, find online friends or a great buy. And, as study after study on the tremendous online engagement of women, this engagement is creating real and mutual value; for women personally, and for their businesses.

Isn’t it funny that we women, who often in the ‘offline’ world are known for the absolute opposite to the generosity to each other and without willingness to help each other further on the career ladder, are engaging so generously, and at such a massive scale to complete strangers online? Perhaps is easier for us women to show this generosity to each other when we are meeting in the virtual world, free from the inherent competition that occurs when women work or live side by side offline. What do you think?

Whatever the reason: online, it’s a brave new women’s world.