Teen Mum to Entrepreneur
Never did I think I would become pregnant at 18. I had spent the last 7 years studying my GCSES where I achieved 10 A-Cs and a business and management national diploma at A level as I always knew I wanted to start my own business. I had been working part time while at college in order to gain experience from working in cafes, bars, promotions, restaurants and pizza houses to babysitting. I had jobs from waitressing, pot washer, data imputer, tele marketer, customer service assistant and babysitter. So when I was 17 and met a guy who was 26 none of my parents and grandparents were very happy, they all said he was too old and it wouldn’t last. Luckily I stayed with him as he made me happy and after 5 months of us being together I discovered I was pregnant. I hadn’t been expecting to fall pregnant but knew I couldn’t go through with having an abortion as I did like children and had dreamed of being a mum one day just not so soon.
When I was 4 months pregnant me and my partner moved in together and that was quite difficult, its strange going from living with family to living with a boy/bloke for the first time as they aren’t the tidiest of people and when you are living with someone 24/7 you really learn everything about them including bad habits. Obviously I wasn’t the easiest person to live with but we both worked full time so didn’t have to be with each other every minute. I feel you could love someone enormously but being with them all the time would drive you mad.
When our son was born it was quite difficult as in the last year we had met, moved in together and had a child. It wasn’t so easy but we did cope with help from parents. I went back to work part time and my son went to nursery when he got to 6 months old. However after returning to work a month later we realised I was pregnant again and when our daughter was born we looked into me going back to work. We realised the huge childcare costs would mean we were worse off working so I had 6 months of maternity leave to look for something else.
During the 6 months I spoke to lots of local parents and realised there was a gap in the market for party supplies and planning in the local area. It took a long time to research suppliers, build the website and start receiving orders and after the 6 months had flown by I handed my notice in at work.
My partner supported us financially for another 6 months while the business took off, It was a very steep learning curve for me learning about search engine optimisation, writing for the website, advertising, marketing and press releases. After the 6 months the website starting taking more and more money and in the last year has progressed to selling over 100 themed party supplies so I am glad I got pregnant as a teenager as it has helped me achieve my dreams quicker than I would have done if I hadn’t had babies – I would probably have still been working in the call centre for someone else and never have taken the steps to following my dreams.
Article written by Gemma Dawson, Owner of GD Party Supplies who provide a huge choice in party supplies and fancy dress. One of the products catered includes tinga tinga tales party supplies .
