Hi! I’m Lowenna, owner of Family Health Hub. I am Mum to two boys aged 9 and 13. We live in Sydney and love getting out in nature. I’m a scientist by background and I love helping other Mums understand about the biology of health. Like all of us busy Mums I try every day to get the right balance between work, family and me-time!
Tell me a bit about what you were doing before you got in contact with Business Jump?
I was, and still am, working 3 days per week, and I love my job. I was not looking to replace my job with my business. But I had a dream to have my own website, and to help busy Mums get health information easily. For me Family Health Hub was going to be a side project of passion.
Why did you want to start your own business, what is your why?
Over the last several years of talking with other Mums at daycare, pre-school and primary school, I realised that when they face health challenges, whether for themselves or their children, it took a long time to build up the knowledge that they needed to fully understand their health issue. I wanted to give them a head start, by doing that research for them. I wanted to empower them with a broad range of knowledge so that they could improve the health of themselves and that of their families.
How long had you wanted to start a business before you actually took action and took the
jump?
I’d been thinking about it for a couple of years. With my career background in science and academia, I didn’t have any experience of business at all. I made use of all of the fantastic information that Nat provides online to really get to know what her business could offer me. The price tag was a big barrier to jumping in for quite a while. But I had been tossing up between doing another degree or course, which would be a similar price. In the end I took the jump and I have no regrets! The amount that I have learned and the experience that I have gained is way more valuable to me than yet another degree or course. I have had so many unexpected benefits from joining the Business Jump family too, and I love that. The community of online business Mums that I have met is just priceless.
If you hadn’t of started your own business what do you think you’d be doing right now?
I would still be dreaming about having my own website! And I wouldn’t have realised what an amazing community of Mums is out there in the online business world. Mums that are just like me, and so supportive and friendly.
What have you done differently because of Business Jump that you wouldn’t have done if
DIY’ing?
Having Business Jump provide a framework was a great starting point. And also having the information from Nat about different income streams. I don’t think I would have been able to make it work without that framework and the ongoing help that Business Jump provides within the BJCO Group.
Tell us about your business?
I have created Family Health Hub so that I can help busy Mums improve the health of themselves and their families. I provide scientifically-backed information about various health issues that we all face every day. This includes common school and daycare illnesses as well as that precious commodity self-care! In the Facebook Group I have a new focus topic every couple of months, with interviews from health professionals. There’s plenty of opportunities to ask questions or get more in-depth information about various health topics.
How did it feel when you got the reins to your business to take out into the world?
So exciting! I had finally realised my dream to have my own website! What lay ahead was a very steep learning curve but also a lot of motivation and passion that I hadn’t felt for a project in quite a while.
How many hours a week do you work on your business?
Roughly 17 hours per week, and most of that is doing little bits in little gaps of time throughout the day, around my family life and my job.
What are some of your most special ‘business wins’ you’ve had to date?
- Setting up my Facebook Group has been very rewarding. I love the community of Mums that has formed in the Family Health Hub Group. They truly inspire me to keep striving every day to bring more and more health information. When they tell me about the positive impact Family Health Hub has had on their lives it just blows me away, I am so thrilled.
- Becoming comfortable doing Facebook lives! I am not naturally good at speaking spontaneously, but I have pushed myself to do this and now I enjoy it! I especially enjoy interviewing health professionals in my Family Health Hub Facebook Group
- Setting up my online shop and seeing income, yay!
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
I would love to have a very organised and repeatable system that would allow me to run my business more in the background without having to keep creating content from scratch. Having been through one year of business I can see this as achievable going forwards. I would love for Family Health Hub to be the first port-of-call for Mums looking for health information and advice, a resource that is really useful to them and helps them to solve health issues that they or their family may be facing.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to someone thinking about starting their business?
Have patience! Setting up a new business is very hard work. Having to learn everything from scratch (such as using WordPress, creating social media posts, setting up a mailing list) takes a lot of time and determination. But focus on “baby steps” forwards and with time you will be amazed at what you can achieve!
Where can we find you?
URL – www.familyhealthhub.com.au
Facebook – www.facebook.com/familyhealthhub
Facebook Group – www.facebook.com/groups/familyhealthhubprivategroup
Instagram – www.instagram.com/familyhealthhub.au
