I recently posted a comment saying starting a business means teaching my daughter options to gain financial freedom, and in these current times of uncertainty with cost of living going up and up, it is important that we all think about ways to generate multiple streams of income. This is something I was never taught, wish I had been, and determined to teach my daughter from a young age so it becomes second nature to her. We all want the best for our children, and to make life that little bit easier by having less pressure around finances has to be better.
Whilst starting Nia Ballerina was never planned, I feel fortunate to have found a gap in the market and created a business producing diverse ballet products because I wanted my daughter to have a music box with a black ballerina so that it looked like her. I now see the business as an amazing opportunity for both myself and my daughter's future, and at the same time my daughter is seeing her mummy start and develop a business that she can relate to, and wants to be involved with.
This is what I love most about owning a business, how much my daughter is involved with the process, and watching her evolve. My daughter is particularly good with anything digital; editing videos, graphics and of course TikTok and is teaching me new skills. I love working with my daughter, getting her opinion on product designs, and we have so much fun making content, which is evident in the videos we have made.
My daughter has really grown in confident from taking the lead with the shows we exhibit at; being able to set-up the exhibition display, and is brilliant at talking with customers and telling our story. The one thing I tell people when they ask me, "what are you most proud of?", I always say what I am teaching my daughter. Running a business is not easy, takes patient and investment of both time and money but hearing my daughter tell me how proud she is of me makes it all worth it.
I started Nia Ballerina in 2016, and have learnt so much during my journey, some good lessons and some not so good lessons but realise all lessons are part of the learning journey and as long as you learn from your experiences there is nothing wrong with making mistakes.
One simple way to teach children from young is getting them to save their hard-earned pocket money, and setting specific goals. Nia Ballerina has created a beautiful money box, which will look perfect in any little girl's bedroom, and makes saving fun!
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Sharon McBean, Founder at Nia Ballerina