Two years ago, single mum Sharon kindly took part in our Christmas appeal, sharing her experience of the cost-of-living crisis. Since then, she’s been busy setting up Smooth Scribe, a family business venture, with her teenage sons. We caught up with her recently to hear how it’s given her a new lease of life:

One of my twins has always been an entrepreneur. At 5 years old he’d be rallying the whole family to make bracelets or anything that he could sell. And for the last few years, his constant refrain has been ‘Mum, can we set up a business?’

There came a point where he was old enough to take some responsibility. So I agreed we could set up a business.  We decided to sell stationery. We all like stationery products and thought we could sell to friends at school and work.

It was very much a family venture – I’m the legal director, but my son did all the legal forms and set up the website. His twin brother took responsibility for logistics and processing orders. I put most of the money into it, but I encouraged them to put in some of their own money too, so that they felt it belonged to them.

At the time a lot of the big stationery and greeting cards wholesalers would give you the first £150 worth of products free if you were a limited company. So we were able to get started without a huge initial outlay, and we started making some sales.

But before long, my son had his next big idea! He said: ‘Mum – you can draw. Why don’t you try and make some greetings cards, so we can sell our own stock?’

I’ve always loved art although I hadn’t drawn for years. I could have studied it at university but didn’t, and always regretted it. But my son kept encouraging me, so I started designing. As a family, we’ve always loved nature. So understandably, I started drawing a hedgehog collection – by hand first of all, but I also use a digital drawing programme on my iPad.

I wasn’t very confident at first, but after a while I started to realise, I can do this!

By this point we’d been going for about a year, and suddenly it was clear what our USP, our gap in the market should be! We decided that Smooth Scribe was going to be environmentally friendly and sustainable, and we were going to give something back, to the community or another worthwhile organisation. That’s why we’re supporting the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the Beaver Trust with a proportion of our profits.

Now the boys are in their GCSE year they’re not so involved in the business, so more of it is falling to me. But I absolutely love it! For now, it’s still just a side hustle alongside my teaching job, but I’d like to find a way to scale it up.

As a single parent, it’s difficult to know what you’re interested in anymore.

It’s hard to meet people as a single parent. When you come out of a long-term relationship, you suddenly realise that the future you’d planned looks very different. It’s a real ‘What now?’ moment.  We’d also been living abroad until about 7 years ago, so I didn’t have a community around me. For the first 2 years after my divorce I had a lot of social anxiety.

Being a mum and a teacher, it feels like I just give all the time, and by the weekend I’m so tired from it all. But the business has given me a different purpose. I find the drawing really relaxing, and then going to craft fairs and events has been a way to expand my community. It’s helped me to be excited about things that I enjoy doing again. So it’s not just about the money. It’s given me my life back.

Getting ready for when children leave the nest

I’m coming up to that transition of the children not needing me. They’re 16 now – they could potentially leave home in 2 years. So what happens when they go? What do I do then? Over the last year that thought has scared me a bit. As a single parent I think you’re much more focused on them.

But starting this business has shown me that there are other things that I can do and that my whole life isn’t solely focused on my children. It’s been a way for me to explore who I am and have confidence again.

Have you got your own business idea?

Here are Sharon’s top tips for getting started:

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