Date: Jul 22, 2020

Have you ever wanted to start your own business, only to be deterred by the financial headache it would incur? Or wondered how on Earth single mothers are able to seemingly juggle it all - raising kids, running a business, and managing finances? 

Launching a business is a dream for many but getting started can be tough. It takes a certain money mindset to get going, this episode follows Carrie-Anne's journey in creating her super cool mama merch brand, Mere Soeur.  

Carrie-Anne talks about the key drivers as well as the main difficulties she faced when she got started, how she manages today and the importance of breaking stereotypes surrounding single motherhood.  

A woman on a mission  

When Carrie-Anne started her business, Mere Soeur, her baby was just 3 months old and she had just split up from her partner, forcing her to move back in with her mother. Carrie-Anne supported her child on just £400 a month maternity pay and with a child so young, it was not possible to work for an employer. Determined to better her situation for her and her child, she decided to start working for herself and began selling branded tote bags, using simple Vista Print designs and marketing the final products via her Instagram page. At the very start of her business, Carrie-Anne had only a couple of hundred pounds to work with, no website and little understanding of finance. It was through her sheer determination and sink-or-swim mentality that she was able to succeed in pursuing her own business – there was no notion of ‘waiting-for-the-right-time’ because for Carrie-Anne it was now or never.

The popularity of her tote-bags, which spread positivity amongst her Instagram community by dispelling the toxic stereotypes surrounding single motherhood, led Carrie-Anne to use her hard-earned profits to purchase branded mugs, which also took off, then propelling her to expand her product range even further. As Carrie-Anne’s success snowballed, the refreshing mama merch brand we know today, Mere Soeur, was born.

In spite of her success, Carrie-Anne has certainly faced challenges along the way. Being brought up by a working-class, single parent family that existed from pay cheque to pay cheque meant that Carrie-Anne had no notion of what a tax return was or what it meant to be self-employed. This lack of commercial exposure resulted in a five-figure tax sum that nearly wiped her out in her second year of business. However, with each set back Carrie-Anne has accumulated greater financial knowledge and strengthened her determination to extend the Mere Soeur brand. To date, Mere Soeur has appeared in Glamour, Grazia, Riposte and has featured in many other high-profile fashion magazines, with the business continuing to extend its reach and positivity.

Breaking stereotypes surrounding single motherhood

In its simplest form, Mere Soeur represents a sisterhood amongst mothers. It was this sisterhood of mothers on social media which both helped Carrie-Anne through the mental and emotional strain of single motherhood and encouraged her to start her own business. Carrie-Anne markets Mere Soeur products with this positivity in mind, designing clothes and bags that make mothers who are young and single to feel proud rather than ashamed. The power of the Mere Soeur brand lies in its subtly: it both connects and inspires the community of mothers that are in the know and live by its message.

You can listen and subscribe here:

Resources: 

• https://meresoeur.com/  

• Instagram: @mre.soeur

• Podcast: @alrightforamum_