The original MIB group still runs today, and there have been many strong business and personal relationships formed as a result.  Often people will seek to join, but because of the profession exclusivity rule, as well as a limit on group member numbers there has not been spaces – until today!

Welcome to Mums in Business^® – we’d love to have you! Join Today.

Lissette Burke

I am passionate about business growth, and really want to help mothers be successful, happy and excited about all aspects of their lives.

With 4 children, a husband, a cat, a dog, a business and a growing property portfolio, I know about the juggle!  I know sometimes it feels nothing ever gets 100%, and I also know that that’s ok, and with good people around us, mums get stuff done.  And that’s why I created Mums In Business^®.

Along with business, property is also a passion, and I have been involved in Real Estate since 2003, most recently as the Operations Manager for my husband’s real estate business. Prior to Real Estate and life before children, I worked in Banking and Human Resources, and a lifetime ago I started my working life as a hairdresser.  

My favourite things to do when I’m not working is walking the dog on the beach with my dear friend, playing (and losing) board games with my children, and our six-weekly Gin Club event.  Being at home alone with no noise is the absolute best, and if I’m creating uninterrupted in the kitchen, I am very happy.

MIB has been helping women with the juggle of business and life since 2016, and I am very proud of what we have created.

Camilla Watson

Camilla is the principal and founder of Corlight™ Programmes, specialising in working with individuals and companies to manage stress, initiate change, and achieve balance. She provides one-to-one counselling and life coaching and also runs classes in the community on anxiety, stress and depression, and related subjects like parenting strategies and building self confidence and self-esteem.

Camilla began her working life as a business analyst and corporate trainer in the finance industry however motherhood, with difficult pregnancies and very prem babies, intervened and eventually led to her retraining and building her own business. Along the way she has learnt all about kids with high anxiety and health challenges, and how to (try to) keep her life in some sort of balance. With her husband of forty years she has built and decorated three houses, extensively renovated one, and broken in and developed four gardens (three from scratch, in clay). Through her own self-development journey, she found her ‘inner artist’ in her 40’s, and now exhibits her textile art and has pieces hanging in private collections around the world.

Camilla has been heavily involved in community support and volunteering. She was on the Establishment Committee for Adventure Kindergarten and involved with school parents’ associations and women’s support organisations for many years. She is particularly keen to support mothers who often shoulder the major burden of family responsibility. Her wish is that society (and government) would one day respect, nurture, value, and support mothers as they truly need to be supported, and fully believes the motto; “If mumma aint happy, aint no one happy.” Her personal mission is to change the world; one mumma at a time.

Helen Schaefer

I’ve been in business now since 2005 when hubby and I had our first venture in Johnsonville, Wellington as part of the Quinovic Property Management group.  It seems so obvious now, but for most of those years I really didn’t feel I understood the reasons we had been successful, and been a top performer in the franchise group. 

We built up that business over 8 years before selling and moving to Papamoa Beach, BOP for a lifestyle change.  Then it was time to get into a new business again.

As before, we repeated the way we work, with my husband being the one to rely on to get stuff done on a day to day basis, and persist in challenging times.  Meanwhile I did what I was best at, investigating new opportunities, initiating change and implementing efficiencies. 

My overwhelming drive was to find out more about business, and give myself some context for why our Quinovic experience had been so positive.  

This led us to start our 2^nd business as part of the Fifo Capital Franchise – meeting and helping businesses who needed a cash injection to support rapid growth, or overcome some type of temporary hurdle.  We met all kinds of business owners across a wide range of industries, as well as learning about their financial business challenges and opportunities.  After the first year, my husband primarily ran this business and I started to look around for a second business I could run myself. 

So, in 2015 I bought a business that was primarily bookkeeping – even though I knew nothing about bookkeeping myself at that time!  Why?  A couple of reasons. Firstly, research taught me that bookkeeping can be a highly profitable business and it has an element of passive income, in a way similar to Residential Property Management which I was familiar with.  And secondly, what better way to learn more about business?  Within 6 months I completed a certificate in bookkeeping, and then a Diploma in Accounting to give myself the knowledge I felt I needed.  And it’s been onward and upwards from there.

Renamed Living Business, we are now a team of 6 – all women working part-time flexible hours from home, with different skills including Bookkeeping and Payroll Administration as well as consulting on Xero, Payroll and some other apps. 

The highlight is achieving work life balance, not just for myself but also for the team. I’m also very proud that the team has only grown over time and we have all stuck together.  

Having extra time has allowed me to volunteer for the Business Mentors NZ network over the past 3 years, assisting a range of business owners.  And more recently I am also volunteering a few hours a week at a local Hospice Shop which I really enjoy.  

Sarah Hughes

Sarah has been a family lawyer for over 25 years, and for the past 16 of those she has run her own family law business.

With three teenaged children, Sarah has been juggling family and business since her twin sons were 12 weeks old, and with no family close by, she created a village with the support of a fantastic nanny, kindy and school mums, and colleagues and peers.

This is what Sarah believes a mum’s business networking group is about – creating a support system to allow us to achieve our goals both in business and life.

The principles Sarah lives by are the Hughes Family Motto ‘Don’t be a di*k’, and “what other people think about me is none of my business”.

At Mums in Business^® we’ve been developing our culture since day one, and have created a place you’ll want to be.  Your MIB meetings will be one of the highlights in you calendar, and here’s why:

We CELEBRATE your wins with you – we want you to succeed.

We are CREATIVE – collectively a group has a multitude of experience and is full of ‘out of the box’ ideas.

We prioritise DIVERSITY and we value what makes you different.

We show EMPATHY – we’re all in the same boat – mums juggling business and life.

We are ENERGETIC – each group is full of vibrant and dynamic businesswomen eager to succeed.

We are FAMILY FOCUSSED and keep our meetings to times that work with school and childcare etc.

We are FLEXIBLE around the occasional need for your children or charges to come along to meetings.

We are FRIENDLY – members are more than peers, and we create meaningful relationships.

We have FUN – if it’s not fun, then why do it?

We GIVE quality referrals to help your business grow.

We are INCLUSIVE and as long as you identify as a mother, and you are in or represent a business, you’re welcome!

We are KIND and we will never intentionally hurt anyone’s heart.

We are PROFESSIONAL and will manage all of our referrals with the utmost professionalism.

We show RESPECT by giving you our full attention when speaking.

We SHARE our fabulous ideas and advice and failures for you to learn from.

We SUPPORT one another with business referrals, encouragement and friendship.