Snugglings was featured in a recent article written by a local aspiring writer. We asked for permission to reprint it on the blog because we think it's great!
Is it just me or does there seem to be a baby boom going on? I can count on both hands the amount of professional women I know, in their early to mid-30s, who are pregnant. Most of the women I know in this group have the same thing in common – they are already thinking of their career after their maternity leaves and benefits run out. Most are not in a financial position where they can take years off work to raise their children - but then there’s the enormous cost of daycare to consider. It doesn’t always make sense to return to the same job only to have 60% of your earnings go to daycare. Besides, most of the moms I know want to be with their children in their important first years.
Is it possible as a new mother to start a business where you can work at home and be close to your baby? Meet the mompreneur – a label that has increasingly become part of my vocabulary. But the word is not new: according to the website entrepreneur.com, the definition of a mompreneur is “A female business owner who is actively balancing the role of mom and the role of entrepreneur.” I wanted to learn more about these moms who were thinking outside the typical 9-to-5 routine. How did they juggle the daunting duties of starting a business from scratch while caring for their children at the same time?
I sat down with Alexandra Weaver, a mompreneur and the co-founder of Snugglings, a Vancouver company that designs and sells beautiful pouch baby slings and accessories. Before speaking with Alexandra, I browsed the company website, www.snugglings.com, and was amazed at the detail, quality and affordability of the products. The company’s mission states that it has been “green from the get go” and all the products “are designed and manufactured in Vancouver, British Columbia under fair working conditions and without the carbon footprint associated with overseas manufacturing.” Not only are these attributes all very important to me – I’m also intrigued because I have a lot of baby showers to attend in the next six months!
Alexandra got the idea for creating Snugglings when her son was three months old and she was on maternity leave. She was already dreading going back to work full-time and putting her son, Nicholas, into full-time daycare. She thought that there had to be some way to stay at home with him while using her skills and education to bring in an income at the same time. Alexandra was fully immersed in her new role as a mother, and she became increasingly interested in finding unique, well-made, sustainable clothing for her child – inspired by presents of children’s clothing from her brother in France.
She started thinking that she wanted to make clothing that was sustainable, durable, made locally, had visual flair and wasn’t mass-produced in a factory. She expressed her business ideas to her husband Dan, who suggested that she start a company. Her initial thought was that she was not a seamstress and didn’t know the first thing about making clothes. But Dan noted that this didn’t matter – Alexandra knew what she wanted to make, and had good taste, marketing experience and great transferable skills. He also advised her to contact their neighbour who had a degree in fashion design and was also a seamstress.
She e-mailed the idea to her neighbour, who was on board right away. The two began brainstorming and quickly created their first product, a pouch baby sling made out of microfleece. They showcased their sling at a baby-wearing prenatal class and sold two right away.
Alexandra’s advice to aspiring mompreneurs is to treat your business as a full-time job. She has met a lot of mothers who think that starting a new venture means looking after their child full-time and dabbling in the business part-time. “It’s a lot of work” she says, “When you’re a mompreneur, you don’t start working until your child takes a nap or goes to bed in the evening.” Translation: late nights and very early mornings. Another tip, she says is to research your target market and make sure your business is viable.
But the biggest reward, says the mompreneur, is that she’s still the one who looks after her son. “I get to see all his milestones being reached, I don’t have to worry about calling in sick when he’s sick or finding someone to pick him up from daycare if I have to work late,” she says. Sounds like an incredible reward to me!
Visit Snugglings during May at their pop-up retail location at 4421 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. For more information go to http://www.facebook.com/snugglings
