Here’s a little visual summary of how my business has changed over the past 13 years.
Initially I was making products for my baby Angus, and selling extras. I had a little stock pile in the cupboard in the spare room. I was selling on Trademe, and it was nice to have a little bit of pocket money while I was on maternity leave. Trademe was a great way to learn about customer service – because I never wanted to get those red face feedback.
I had always been arty-crafty with my clever mum. She gave me a sewing machine when I was pregnant with Angus.
I started adding a few extra products, and found some suppliers. Things like baby lotions and nipple creams, which I stored in cupboards. I was dabbling into coding a very basic little website. I bought a domain name for $40 and found free hosting (back when Yahoo Geo Cities was around). I started selling Hotmilk when they first launched, they were one of my first big brands and stocking their bras really helped my business grow.
I was working part-time at my old job, and dabbling with my hobby business, and being mum to my gorgeous son Angus. We had another baby Lochie (great market research!) and I went on maternity leave from my job. The business kept going slowly, we had a couple of orders each day which was ok to handle with a baby and a toddler. I would walk down to the post office each day with the buggy loaded up with kids and a few parcels!
In 2009 my family relocated to Cambridge. Buying a different house meant that I had separate office area where I could work, and held stock. But moving away from Auckland also meant that I didn’t have my old job to fall back on. I resigned and decided that Breastmates would have to be my real job. (Thanks to my husband for not pressuring me to find work in Cambridge).
FYI in my old job, I was an engineer….. but that’s probably a whole other story. I had always had strong entrepreneurial instincts – even when I was a kid I would be making cards and art and selling them, or organizing big garage sales etc. Even though I had gone down the path of engineer, rather than business, deep down I should have done creative art and design! That’s always what makes me happy….. fastforward to today and I’m combining business and creativity anyway!
I kept adding products, developing a few bits’n’pieces myself, and needed to squeeze them into this same space. My customer base was growing and I was reaching more people. It wasn’t always about selling products – it was about making an impression on someone’s day in terms of our delivery service, regardless of what a customer was buying or spending. I was growing a community around me on Facebook etc, which was good when I felt lonely at home doing this.
But things were getting too busy trying to have boys at home and giving kids/business my full attention at each moment. So they went to daycare 1-2 days a week…. eventually they were going 5 days per week, but like everything we built up that change over time.
Eventually put shelving in the garage too, and took over that space. Thank you to my husband for giving me that space, and kids growing up around the changes.
So a few years went by. (They went by so fast!!!) I was working from a cosy creative home office with a shelving setup in the entire garage. This is when I started getting other ladies working with me to help with packing parcels. Still at my house. I worked long hours, often until 10 or 11pm at night, as I was designing new clothing ranges. Always drawing, doing specs, working on webpages etc. Probably because my computer was so accessible. I wish I hadn’t worked like that….. it was part of the reason my marriage broke down. I just had such a determination.
As I started increasing my own range of Breastmates branded products and people kept liking my designs, I decided to design bigger collections. That was a big risk – so much more stock to carry. I needed more space. So I moved everything out of home and into a warehouse in Cambridge.
I am strong, and have moved a lot of boxes.
Now I get to come to work every day, and have a great little team around me. I love every day. It doesn’t ever feel like work. I can’t believe 13 years have gone by – how did that happen!? There are always new things to be doing, and every day is different. I LOVE making a great impact on customers, and giving people a great experience with my brand – that is really what drives me. I want people to feel great and get compliments when they wear my clothes. When I get home, I focus on my children (now 13 and 9) and do my own creative projects – very rarely work related!
Sure some days are hard, and very busy or very stressful. It hasn’t been easy. I have worked really hard at this – but I DID IT, I never gave up. I started it from scratch – with no investment or funding – just working working working. I often feel a lot of pressure on my shoulders in terms of keeping customers happy, having the best products, making the right decisions, and providing for me and my boys. But I am happy.
Its not often that I look back and reflect, as I am always looking forward. But I am so proud.
Dreams do come true.
