News / Start-ups
Mum launches business after Facebook success
A Facebook group to help local mums get back into fitness after having children has proved so popular that its founder has launched it as an official business.
‘This Mum Runs‘ was started by Mel Bound, a mum-of-two and qualified personal trainer, in September as a Facebook page to find other mums for company on runs.
It attracted hundreds of women within days and now has more than 1,300 members in Bristol and has debuted a Bath chapter.
Funding from Run England and BANES Council and entrepreneurial support from the accelerator programme sponsored by RBS and KPMG, Entrepreneurial Spark, has now enabled Mel to leave her job as global account director with an international brand engagement agency to operate as a business.
Mel said: “I have been blown away by the response to This Mum Runs. The community continues to grow every day and there are so many amazing stories of personal achievement and new friendships that have developed.
“The whole community, while based around running, is also one that creates headspace and time for women to put the worries of the day to one side. It also creates friendships and encourages a freedom and confidence that helps people to believe they can achieve what they want – all they need to do is take that first step.
Earlier in 2015, the group became involved with the Bristol Girls Can campaign, part of Sport England’s ‘This Girl Can’, that was all about taking the ‘gym bunny’ perception out of fitness and engaging with ‘real’ women.”
“It was around about then that things started to click and I realised there was genuine enthusiasm for grassroots organisations to help people – and women in particular – so they could take a bit more control of their own fitness. Running is particularly good because all you need is a pair of trainers and a sports bra and you’re off.”
The company aims to remove the barriers for women to start running by offering free social runs, paid-for programmes and coaching. A core reason the concept has gained popularity is that the timing of traditional running groups do not work for mums as sessions happen at children’s bedtime. A This Mum Runs survey of 225 Bristol mums found that more than three quarters (70%) feel they are too busy to get out and run even though they want to, while four in 10 struggle with juggling childcare and time to exercise.
She said: “I can totally relate to the lack of time issue as I was working in a full-on, full-time job with a lot of travel and was away from my family at the same time as facilitating a lot of the activity of This Mum Runs. I realised something had to give – so I now focus on This Mum Runs full time.
“Mums tend to put their own needs last and statistics show women still do significantly less exercise than men, clearly this is something that needs to change for everyone’s benefit.”
To date, she has built a team of 19 coaches. Plans are in place to grow this to 50 coaches by spring 2016 and to launch further groups in Somerset and Devon, supporting mums struggling to find the time and confidence to get into fitness after having children.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
