Rosie Luik is a mum of four, author of equally as many books, a fireman’s wife, a speaker, an Australian model, an altruistic surrogate to twins, and the founder of Mum Network; a business dedicated to representing and empowering mums to follow their dreams. Mum Network was founded in 2019 in Brisbane and now represents Mums from all over Australia. Rosie’s story can be found on her website and you can find out more about Mum Network here.
Here we sit down with Rosie, to learn a bit more about her journey as a female entrepreneur.
Q. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
Rosie: As with a lot of entrepreneurial endeavours, they evolve. After having some success with modeling and the earlier days of social media, I had a strong desire to share my experiences, utilise the connections I had made, and share the benefits of my social media following to help mums find themselves after having kids; I didn’t know what that looked like at the time but I knew I wanted to support Mums to follow their passions, achieve their goals and help contribute financially to their family whilst doing so. My desire is to make sure that when a mum took that tough first step out of her comfort zone that she had a strong support network and cheer squad around her to help celebrate her successes, offer support when things don’t go to plan, and share experiences to help learn and grow; something that I had very little of when I first got started.
Q. How did you get started?
Rosie: After a long battle with complicated health issues resulting in very nearly losing my life, a previous family business that suffered a long, slow death from the GFC, financially we did not have a lot of depth to get started. However, a great quote I’ve always liked to share is to just take the first step in the right direction, and even if the steps are small just keep going. Also, rather than waiting until you have everything perfect and ready to go, just get started from wherever you are and with whatever you have available to you, then adapt and overcome as you go.
Q. What was your biggest startup challenge? What steps did you take to overcome it? What did you learn?
Rosie: As mentioned, financially I did not have the resources to do all the things I wanted to do and when I wanted to do them. Obviously, it is so much easier to just throw money at a new project to make it work, expedite growth, and make the decision-making process a lot less stressful. However, not having this safety net was a benefit in the long run as I had to learn how to think outside the box and get creative to achieve the things I wanted to achieve.
Q. What is the most memorable thing you’ve done since you started your business?
Rosie: One of the most memorable moments for me was locking in that first client, sending that first invoice and then the subsequent milestones after that, your 50th, then 100th, then 200th invoice, and so on. The first client quashes some doubts that you may have at the start and helps you realise your business can grow from an idea and concept into a sustainable business model. After a rough couple of years for everybody, can now move into the growth phase and allow me to work on other areas of the business that align with the core values and foundation of Mum Network to support as many Mums as possible and hopefully create many more memorable moments.
Q. What is one book you recommend, and why?
Rosie: My heart and soul connected with Samantha Wills and her book “Of Gold and Dust”. It spoke to me at my core; her book was incredibly inspirational from both an entrepreneurial and spiritual perspective. I regularly refer back to it as it also helps make me feel a lot less isolated as I continue to make my way along with my own business and life journey and supports the realisation of how the two are interconnected.
Q. What are your top 3 favourite online apps, tools or resources and what do you love about them?
Rosie:
Online bookkeeping app- As I’ve found with a lot of entrepreneurs, we are good at doing “the things”; being creative and getting things done… not so good on the bookkeeping side of things. Having an app connected to my accounts program helps me keep track of things when on the move, talks directly to my accountant, and provides confidence that the accounts and admin side of the business are being taken care of without keeping the old proverbial boxes of receipts lying around.
Instagram- Not only for looking at nice pics, following people’s journeys, getting a feel for markets, trends, and what people are connecting with, connecting with people all over the world and genuinely supporting each other, Discovering new products, places, and companies
Canva- A great way to get the image of your brand up and running, have your proposals, correspondence, and media looking professional and appealing. It is also very easy to navigate and use. I also love the back story that Canva is a successful Australian start-up, created by a couple of entrepreneurial friends who grew and expanded their company globally, and is now worth billions.
Q. In terms of legacy, what is the mark you’d like to leave on the world?
Rosie: Legacy is to have an amazing network of Mums that have been able to follow their passions and goals, to achieve genuine happiness within themselves however that may look for each individual. To also show my kids that even after extreme adversity and obstacles, you can get up, dust yourself off, try again and achieve.
Q. In one sentence, what’s the best advice you’d give to someone just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey?
Rosie: Just use what you’ve got to get started and take the first step out of your comfort zone; baby steps in the right direction are better than not moving at all; grow, adapt and overcome along the way and when obstacles present themselves, be creative to find ways around, under or over them, or just plough through them with sheer determination.
As a footnote, be kind along the way, stepping on people to achieve your goals, save face or gain an advantage is not necessary, there is room for us all to succeed.
To keep up to date with Rosie and her journey, connect with her on Instagram and on Mum’s Network Instagram.
