About Funky Angel
We are the longest established website for business mums, home workers, women in business, mum entrepreneurs, and families balancing work and family. We believe in a whole life approach to business, concentrating on the achieving the best life/family/work balance we can, with an emphasis on building networks and relationships as well as making money. We don't think that there should be any prescribed notion of what families do or don't do, how they are structured, or whom you call family. If it works for you, we are happy; if it doesn't, we'll give the resources you need to change that.
We think every child has the right to be have a 'good enough' parent on hand when they need it and that every parent has the right to have the time and energy to raise their child in the way they want to while still having enough money to live on and the opportunity to use their skills and intellect in a way that is best for them and their family, whether that is part time, home working, franchising, party planning, what ever works for you.
We also don't believe the propaganda that the modern family is failing, and we don't subscribe to the nonsense that mothers are always to blame. We think the modern family is doing just great and that parents have never done a better job. We also believe in flexibility, happiness, love, and balance. We know you do to, and we call it the 21st century family.
Our aim is to offer you as much information and expertise as we can, whether that is about work, life, business, finance, home, family, travel, health and wellbeing. We all work from home, which means Funky Angel is a truly virtual cottage industry, one of the many 21st century cottage industries. ... isn't the internet a marvelous thing?
So who are we?
Claire Burdett
When I was little I dreamt of being a writer. I wrote my first book at six and I had my first pay check from a publication the same year (only a £1 book voucher, but a girl has to start somewhere!).
I edited school magazines, and was involved in television, magazines and radio at university. I had a lot of my work published in print, and then on the web (see my portfolio). After leaving university I worked in medical advertising and then medical publishing as an editor, and then worked as a lifestyle, health and food writer and editor in publishing, first books and magazines and then electronic (CD-roms and internet) for many years, and then moved back into marketing and advertising as a copywriter and marketeer. You can access that expertise via our new Funky Agency.
In the meantime life has continued apace.
I had two girls (see below), had success and many adventures, got divorced and trained as a life coach, wrote some books, and seeing there was a gap in the market for a family-orientated business site that acknowledged that being a mother and running a business wasn't mutually exclusive, launched Funky Angel in 2003. My dream was to offer the resources working mothers and fathers need for all the areas of their lives in one place so they didn't have to work so hard to find it. To make life easier, in fact. I love it when dreams come true, as all your fabulous feedback testifies!
I now work from home as a writer, journalist and editor, raise my children, and run my business. My dream is to write more (more books, stories, articles...), travel more, and expand Funky Angel to help even more of you business mums and home entrepreneurs achieve the life you deserve.
Cecily
When she was littler she loved a bear called Lumpy almost to the point of disintegration (him, not her), her favourite food was chocolate, and the best thing that happened was having a book written all about their adventures. Her goals were to be as tall as Daddy, learn to read really well, and stop having Bambi moments and tripping over her own feet.
At 11 she is nearly as tall as Mum but still quite a bit shorter than Dad. She devours books. Her supermodel build still leaves her prone to the occasional Bambi moment, especially when she is on yet another growth spurt.
Her current ambitions are to interview lots of celebrities for Funky Cherubs, be a business woman running her own successful company (not sure doing what yet) and travelling the world. She still loves Lumpy, and now takes him on trips to see Brownie Clubs and Infant Schools whenever she can. If you'd like him to visit (with chocolate biscuits, obviously) get in touch. We find that the 5-8 year old age group love him the most, and enjoy "drawing" the sequel to his "chocolate, chocolate and mooore chocolate" adventure. Since he gets very very mucky, this inevitably involves him going in the washing machine ("his least favourite thing") and then being hung on the line by his ears to drip dry. Poor bear. We shall have to write that sequel one day...
Felice
When she was littler she loved drawing and painting, liked catching frogs and newts gently in her bare hands, and fell in love with a very large stuffed dog called Charlie who arrived in Father Christmas' sleigh. Her dearest ambitions were to have a cat and a dog of her very own, and to be an artist.
At 8 she has a cat (a fluff purring machine called Jasper), more frogs and newts than we can count, plus fish, and some dwarf hamsters. No dog as yet, but soon, very soon - we are currently interviewing for the position! Her drawings and paintings get better and better, and one of her proudest moments last year was collecting her winning 'funky blonde' Art Gallery t-shirt in school assembly. And she still wants to be an artist. Or a vet. Or maybe a fashion designer...
Frank Tyson
Frank is a highly experienced and incredibly talented designer and creative, who has spent a lifetime working in publishing and advertising for such giants as CDP and Richard Desmond. He has been responsible for many well known adverts for high-profile companies such as Honda and, most recently, Sky and the Rugby Premier League, and is a specialist in creating highly successful advertising campaigns.
His publishing work has ranged from magazines, children's books (he designed and partly illustrated Funky Angel's "Lumpy Loves Chocolate", as well the cover for "The Funky Angel Guide to Being Happy"), through to one of his most recent projects, a photographic book of the Caribbean Spice Island, Grenada, for the Grenadian Tourist Board. Frank is a brilliant logo and brand designer, and is the designer responsible for the fabulous Funky Angel logo, as well as our Coffeetime and Strawberries for the Soul logos and icons.
He has three children - two teenagers, Jake and Nick, and an 9-year-old daughter called Mia.
Noella Mingo
Noella has been obsessed with beauty and skin care since she was a young thing and she is the Beauty Consultant heading up our Funky Spa, our online resource centre offering lots of tips and information about beauty and health to help keep you all in tip top condition.
Noella worked for the Body Shop for many years before launching her own highly-successful career as a make up artist and beauty writer. Following the birth of daughter, Ava, three years ago, Noella started experimenting at her kitchen table, creating a range of bespoke beauty products, which can be found at www.skinessentials- london.co.uk. These have proved a huge hit since their launch just before Christmas 2006, and her best-selling OLIVE OIL DEEP CLEANSER won the Independent Newspaper's "Best Buy” award last year.
Rhian Wheeler
We met as strangers at a networking event and within two months were fast friends who had designed and launched Funky Angel's first website, all done remotely over long telephone chats and many emails...phew! Rhian is a very experienced web designer who worked in advertising for many years before launching Ruby Design. She has always played an active role in the evolution of Funky Angel, and is one of the Consultant Team in our forthcoming Funky Agency.
Amanda Vlahakis
'Truly' a kitchen table inspiration, Amanda launched her design company Truly Ace just over six years ago and her creative design abilities, not to mention her IT knowledge and her consummate ability to combine business and family (two babes, one of each flavour, ages 4 and 7), have since been celebrated in many forms of media, including The Sun newspaper. She is one of the Consultant Team in our forthcoming Funky Agency.
Kay Double
Our very own funky glamorous granny, Kay is an experienced project manager and PA and lends us her skills in a consulting role these days. She is mother of grown up Claire and Simon, whom she raised as a single mother, and is now a doting grandma to the next generation!