Business & Baby on Board

Author profile: Johanna Baker-Dowdell

As a child, Johanna always wanted to know what was happening in the world around her and asked lots of questions. Imagine her delight when she discovered you could make a career from sharing stories.

Johanna studied journalism and public relations at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales. She worked at several newspapers before trying her hand at marketing and public relations.

A four-year working holiday in the UK combined Johanna’s love of writing and marketing with travel, and inspired her to start her own business when returning to Australia in 2005. Since then Johanna has become a mum to two beautiful boys, who have added a new dimension to her life – and business – experiences.

Johanna built her freelance work and ability to build relationships and tell a great story into a business and launched Strawberry Communications in 2007. She is also studying a PhD in journalism with the University of Tasmania, investigating how social media texts are used by newspapers as news sources in reporting crisis events.

www.strawberrycommunications.com.au

Book synopsis:  Business & Baby on Board

Millions of entrepreneurs operate a business from home, taking advantage of digital developments such as cloud computing and social media to take their destinies into their own hands.

More and more of these start-ups are run by mothers looking to create a balance between spending time with their children, enjoying fulfilling work and paying the bills.

After starting her own business while at home caring for a baby, Johanna Baker-Dowdell decided to write Business & Baby on Board to help other women who are keen to try it for themselves.

Johanna shares the lessons she learnt first hand starting her business as a new mother along with those of a series of expert business mums, creating an informative how-to guide for women looking to plan, start and build a successful business.

Business & Baby on Board is filled with true stories and expert tips to provide inspiration to mothers who want to have it all: the family, the lifestyle, and the career.

How has producing Business & Baby on Board benefitted Johanna?

When I left full-time work to become a mum more almost nine years ago I thought it would be nice to freelance while my son slept. As I became more confident in my role as a mum and a freelancer I started writing more about my own experiences as a working mum, weaving my stories into conversational articles about time management, social media marketing and me time. These were well received and several people suggested I take the content and turn it into a book

Initially I dismissed the idea, but the seed had been planted and I started thinking about what it would be like to write a book about starting and running a business while also bringing up children. I used the crowdfunding platform Pozible to raise the money I needed to self publish my book Business & Baby on Board. My campaign covered the funds needed for editing, cover design and printing. I contributed the rest of the funding because I wanted my supporters to know I had committed money too.

The campaign was a success (in fact it was overfunded), and I learnt a lot along the way. In running a crowdfunding campaign my book came to the attention of electronic publisher Editia. Managing publisher Charlotte Harper found my campiagn while fact-checking her first book CrowdfundIt! She asked to see my sample chapters and loved it so published the ebook version of Business & Baby on Board. This meant I got the best of both worlds – I know what it’s like to self publish, but I also know what it’s like to be an author for a publishing house

Since publishing Business & Baby on Board I’ve spoken at several events about crowdfunding, self-publishing and promoting myself as an author. The book has led to paid speaking engagements, media opportunities and business credibility as well as book sales and ebook royalties. I’ve also been considering using the same format to profile successful business mums around the world.