Tell us your name and a bit about your family? When did you become a Mum and to whom?
I’m Vanessa, married to my husband for just gone nine years. We have two children. My daughter is our eldest and was born in January 2012 with a head full of long dark hair which she never lost. My son followed in October 2013, he wasn’t quite as lucky in the hair department.
What’s your business called?
The Hair Helper
Can you describe it in one sentence?
The Hair Helper is a hair accessory organiser for little girls, storing all clips, bands, bobbles, and even the hair brush.
When did you become a Mumpreneur and what inspired you?
We started the design process for our product at the beginning of 2015, the inspiration behind our product was my daughter with all her hair and copious amounts of hair accessories with no-where to put them.
How did you fund your start up?
We have used savings, and completed each stage as we’ve had the funds.
How do you manage working around your children?
This is something that I’m still learning to juggle. For the most part I work while they nap or have quiet time in the afternoon. If need be, I will carry on working in the evening. I don’t tend to work weekends, as we have actively chosen to guard that time for family and rest.
Can you describe a typical day, what tasks do you have to get done, how do you manage your time?
A typical day will start with the nursery run for my eldest. That will then either lead to an activity with my little boy or catching up on housework. Just before lunch we collect my eldest from nursery, then it’s home for lunch and their down time. I will then quickly have some lunch, and set to work whether it’s answering or sending emails, packing orders, writing for our blog, preparing social media posts, filing etc. The afternoons will be quite relaxed and are very varied depending on what needs to be done – sometimes it’s a walk to the post office to send off orders, other times it can be a walk to the library or playground.
What challenges have you faced in your business and how have you overcome them?
The biggest challenges have most probably been financial – it’s not cheap to develop a product. We’ve shopped around to find the best deals possible. And other times, we’ve simply had to wait on doing things until we’ve had the means to.
What’s the best thing about being Mumpreneur?
I love the flexibility of it, getting to decide my own schedule and plan business around my family.
What are your plans for the future?
We plan to make our product available to retailers. If the first Hair Helper does well, we would love to look into the possibility of developing more products.
What advice would you give for someone just starting out in business?
If you believe in your idea, and you have researched, weighed up and considered advice along the way…go for it!
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
We will be attending the Pulse London tradeshow in May, and look forward to meeting potential retailers for our product.
https://www.facebook.com/The-Hair-Helper-1641336276081459/
Thehairhelper.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehairhelper/
Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/thehairhelper/
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