The Mumpreneur Experience!

Thanks to all of you who sent emails and messages of support and, of course, voted, for Arabella Miller in the recent ITV This Morning Mumpreneur competition.
Lots of you have asked me what the whole experience was like, so here it is!

I entered the competition after learning about it from an online business networking forum, Mums Club. I had to fill a form in with details about Arabella Miller - after a couple of weeks I was called by This Morning and invited to a hotel in Manchester for the Regional Heats.

I had misunderstood what this part of the competition was all about - I thought it was an interview with the programme makers (doh!), so I got quite a shock when I turned up at the hotel to see that I was going to be filmed. The format was that everyone had to appear individually in front of a panel of three entrepreneurs, Tim Campbell, Judy Naake and Emma Harrison and give a two minute pitch live to camera and then answer questions from the panel.

I have to say I was very very nervous. How people do Dragon's Den, I'll never know! The worst bit was walking through the doors into the room - you faced cameras head on and then turned left to appear in front of the panel. My intro was shown as a clip to promote the heats - my voice is very squeaky!

I did quite a quick pitch (I was too worried about running out of time) and then answered lots of questions about Arabella Miller. The panel were great and very chatty - instead of a 10 minute session I was in there for over 30 minutes! At the end the panel had to give a yes or no - with three "yeses", I was through to the shortlist and had to wait until the end of the day to discover my fate.

Filming continued throughout the day - and at the end, the shortlisted mums had to go back in front of the panel in two groups of three to hear the result. When it was my group's turn I was convinced that I wasn't going to get to the final. I thought that they were commiserating the losers before the winners iysim! It was fantastic to get the news I'd got through - although I'd signed a confidentiality agreement in advance which meant I couldn't actually tell anyone!

Between the Heats and the Live Finals all the finalists met in London for a training session with Emma Harrison. It was really great to receive her advice for our businesses. She was very inspiring. Part of this day was also filmed and broadcast before the Final.

So, onto the final.
Ron and I travelled to London the day before the Final and were met at the station by a car to take us to our hotel. We went out that evening to our favourite restaurant to celebrate.
The next morning we were picked up by another car at 8.00 a.m. and taken to the studios. We were met on arrival and taken to the 'Green Room", and then into make up (lots of fun).
Just before the programme started I had the opportunity to sit on the sofa and run through some mock questions with the floor manager and practice the pitch (or "plea" as the crew called it!). I managed to do the whole of my practice pitch looking at the wrong camera and I also changed a lot of what I said as a result, that's why I am using cue cards when we did it live - I couldn't be confident that I would remember all my words!

The time from then went very fast - I saw the other guests, X Factor's Girlband, opera singer Katherine Jenkins and Roger Moore being shepherded in and out - and then it was the Mumpreneur's turn! Fern and Phil were both lovely and did their best to keep us all calm. The studio is much smaller than it seems - they make the most of all the available space too. After filming I presented Fern with some clothes for her little girl, Winnie - the Flutterbye dress and a matching t-shirt.

Although I was disappointed not to win, I did get a lot out of the whole experience. Arabella Miller had some great media coverage as a result. I also made some great friends - who I'm working with now in lots of different ways. The best thing had to be the support I had from friends, family, and lots and lots of people I didn't know at all!
Thank you all very much for all your support. It is truly appreciated.