Why The Nappy Lady
So why did I choose to start a business selling cloth nappies??
That is a question I hear a lot; my family, my friends, and random people at markets constantly ask me the same question. And for me it was pretty simple...
It started back pre- baby, my husband and I had just fallen pregnant with our son and I knew I was going to not want to go back to work once I had my little man. So my husband pushed me to starting my own business... at first I was against the idea as I had no idea about running a business and a successful one at that. And it scared me thinking about using so much of our savings and investing it in something that I didn't know I could profit from.
After a few days of my husband... lets call him papa bear.... convincing me to start something of my own, I began to think how cool it would be to run something from my spare room at home. However I had no idea what I wanted to do; sell clothes, start a day care, run a fitness class, blog, something with baking??? All things I loved but couldn't choose one.
Until one day I went into a large baby store to buy a bulk of cloth nappies to get ready for the arrival of my little one.(I have always wanted to do cloth for many reasons but ill share that later).
But when I went in to the store and saw the bundles of cloth nappies i was shocked.... one nappy i wanted to buy was $30. Thats crazy!
How can I afford to by 40 of these nappies at $30 a pop. So I bought one cause I felt a bit guilty staring at these nappies for ages and then not taking one, and went home and told papa bear.
That's when my ideas started to tick.
I wanted to start an online store specialising in AFFORDABLE reusable baby products, my main aim being cloth nappies.
So I had 3 weeks to try and get my business started before my baby was due, as I was on maternity leave I had the time to start up my own website ( I am not tech savvy so it took a lot of hours reading in how to put buttons there and photos here), I got in touch with the govt, got an abn, talked to multiple manufactures and found one that was a perfect fit for us and BAM it started.
I was lucky in the fact that i managed to set up my business before my little son (baby bear) was born, so I didn't have much to do accept the constant marketing when he arrived
.
I was always told that the first two years of a business is the hardest and most fold within this time. Yes I agree the first year was very difficult as I hardly saw a return as the big companies were so hard to compare with, but now into the second year, I am actually seeing some things come from my business. I'm not necessarily talking about major profits here, as I know that's not what I am going to be getting, but I have had some extremely great feedback from buyers.
As you may know I often go to markets....why??...... I love talking to people, i'm an extrovert, and I think that helping change the attitude that mothers and fathers have towards cloth nappies can be achieved by getting out there and talking to them about using reusable baby products and showing them that it really isn't that hard.
ANYWAY.... That's the story of how I got into being the nappy lady (people call me that at the markets). And we have managed to branch from just doing reusable nappies to do swim nappies, wet bags and breast pads... all reusable of course.
That is a question I hear a lot; my family, my friends, and random people at markets constantly ask me the same question. And for me it was pretty simple...
It started back pre- baby, my husband and I had just fallen pregnant with our son and I knew I was going to not want to go back to work once I had my little man. So my husband pushed me to starting my own business... at first I was against the idea as I had no idea about running a business and a successful one at that. And it scared me thinking about using so much of our savings and investing it in something that I didn't know I could profit from.
After a few days of my husband... lets call him papa bear.... convincing me to start something of my own, I began to think how cool it would be to run something from my spare room at home. However I had no idea what I wanted to do; sell clothes, start a day care, run a fitness class, blog, something with baking??? All things I loved but couldn't choose one.
Until one day I went into a large baby store to buy a bulk of cloth nappies to get ready for the arrival of my little one.(I have always wanted to do cloth for many reasons but ill share that later).
But when I went in to the store and saw the bundles of cloth nappies i was shocked.... one nappy i wanted to buy was $30. Thats crazy!
How can I afford to by 40 of these nappies at $30 a pop. So I bought one cause I felt a bit guilty staring at these nappies for ages and then not taking one, and went home and told papa bear.
That's when my ideas started to tick.
I wanted to start an online store specialising in AFFORDABLE reusable baby products, my main aim being cloth nappies.
So I had 3 weeks to try and get my business started before my baby was due, as I was on maternity leave I had the time to start up my own website ( I am not tech savvy so it took a lot of hours reading in how to put buttons there and photos here), I got in touch with the govt, got an abn, talked to multiple manufactures and found one that was a perfect fit for us and BAM it started.
I was lucky in the fact that i managed to set up my business before my little son (baby bear) was born, so I didn't have much to do accept the constant marketing when he arrived
.
I was always told that the first two years of a business is the hardest and most fold within this time. Yes I agree the first year was very difficult as I hardly saw a return as the big companies were so hard to compare with, but now into the second year, I am actually seeing some things come from my business. I'm not necessarily talking about major profits here, as I know that's not what I am going to be getting, but I have had some extremely great feedback from buyers.
As you may know I often go to markets....why??...... I love talking to people, i'm an extrovert, and I think that helping change the attitude that mothers and fathers have towards cloth nappies can be achieved by getting out there and talking to them about using reusable baby products and showing them that it really isn't that hard.
ANYWAY.... That's the story of how I got into being the nappy lady (people call me that at the markets). And we have managed to branch from just doing reusable nappies to do swim nappies, wet bags and breast pads... all reusable of course.
3 comments
Can you tell me what markets you go to please? Also am I able to pick up an order or do I have to order online? Thanks. Angela.
Thanks for the comment Catherine, will be in touch soon x
Wow so inspiring! I love cloth nappies and would love to make a business out of it. Do u make the nappies yourself or just design them? How does it work.
Just curious coz as I said I’d love to do something like this. Thankyou