Nobody likes a show-off but I’m delighted to let you know that Mumbler Ltd is a finalist at the 2017 Harrogate Advertiser Business Awards! (#sorrynotsorry)
The most fabulous thing is that it’s in the category “Family Run Business of the year” which also recognises the hard work of Commercial Director, my husband David “Mr Mumbler” Haslewood and our Franchise Director (and York Mumbler owner) Emily Pickard; my sister.
Mumbler has been around for almost 6 years now. In the very early days it was just a small Facebook chat group that I created to help me find out what was going on in my hometown for babies and kids. There was no big plan for it, and certainly no business aspirations. It just helped me to get through the sleepless nights with my newborn as the other friendly mums shared their tips, advice and collective wisdom.
The group grew beyond all expectation and along came the seed of a business idea- the opportunity to create something totally locally focused which would be extremely useful for parents and at the same time, a platform for businesses to advertise on. Harrogatemumbler.com was “born” in November 2012.
Harrogate Mumbler was the perfect business for me. It allowed me to develop and grow a new company whilst being a stay-at-home mum to my two daughters.
The business was such a success in Harrogate that we incorporated in 2014, and we began the journey replicating the Mumbler concept as a franchised business. The first 3 territories that we trialled in 2015 were Hull and the East Riding, York and Leeds.
2016 was a year of massive growth for Mumbler. Emily Pickard took the plunge and left her corporate job to join the company and now runs her own franchise in York along side managing the new franchisees into the business and being mum to her two daughters. More Mumbler towns came along, and we now have Ripon & Nidderdale Mumbler, Stockport Mumbler, Stratford-upon-Avon Mumbler & Wakefield Mumbler who have all built vibrant Facebook support and chat community groups as well as their website businesses.
Each Mumbler franchise is run by a very special type of person. They are all very different with different skills and backgrounds but each one is motivated and ambitious to create a business that they can be proud of. They are all working mums and they all run their Mumbler websites around their families. They share their expertise with each other and they help and encourage each other to do well. Each one is building a much needed community resource as well as make a living for themselves and their families.
The last quarter of 2016 and first quarter of 2017 so far have exceeded all expectations and we have new Mumbler Franchisees in 12 further territories in various stages of development. Look out for live sites in Crawley, Stourbridge & Kingswinford, Norwich, North Leeds, South East Leeds, West Leeds, Doncaster, Barnsley, Ryedale, Wharfedale, North Kirklees and Swindon coming very soon!
It is absolutely wonderful to be a finalist in the “Family Run Business” category at the Harrogate Business Awards as not only is Mumbler Ltd run by me and my family, it is a business for families and I’m incredibly proud of that. It is the families that use our Mumbler websites and Facebook groups that make us a success and I’m incredibly grateful to all of you who have helped us along the way.
You can see all of the 2017 nominees here
**Update** We only went and won didn’t we!? Thank you all so very much! Mumbler Ltd is absolutely over-the-moon-chuffed to be the 2017 Harrogate Advertiser Business Awards winner of the Best Family Owned Business.
Commercial Director David Haslewood, Managing Director Sally Haslewood and Franchise Director Emily Pickard with Ethos Asset Management
