Enterprise Nation

Congratulations to Justina Perry! She's winner of the 2008 Home Office of the Year Award. Read Justina’s entry and drool over the description of her home office sanctuary space!

MamaBabyBliss

How are you promoting your business, being efficient and increasing your profitability?

MamaBabyBliss is dedicated to the well-being of mothers and babies. I set it up in 2007 providing baby yoga and baby massage classes, pampering treatments for mothers, and pre- and post-natal yoga classes. However, as most of these activities are locally based, I was always going to be limited in scope. I also wanted to find a way of letting all mums and babies benefit from a bit of pampering, regardless of where they were. So I used my knowledge of what mums want for themselves and their babies and created the MamaBabyBliss range of natural products, which are now sold online and in 27 retailers, including in Germany and Hong Kong.  It is this expansion of my offering that is helping me generate revenue and ultimately grow my profit.

To promote the business – in particular the products – we focus on PR as we feel this generates more credibility with the target market and is more cost effective than advertising. We also use our network of mums at the classes to ‘spread the word’ –blogging and reviewing products on sites, even writing articles about their experiences. We don’t pay the mums but give them products and treatments to sample!

With a limited marketing budget we can’t be everywhere, so we’ve targeted key media partners who we feel add the right weight to our brand. We’ve been fortunate to be chosen as the natural skincare partner in highly selective publications eg. You and Your Family (sponsored by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists), Mum Plus One (MIDIRs – Midwives Information & Resources Services) and Emma’s Diary (Royal College of GPs). This has been fantastic for generating brand awareness and is excellent brand endorsement, which has helped us get into retail.

How are you successfully combining your business with your domestic life and maintaining a healthy environment both in and out of your home office?

I run my business from my home, which we have adapted to incorporate a home studio/treatment room.  It is a beautiful, calming space that was specially created for MamaBabyBliss. By running my business from home, it allows me to be more flexible, working around my children and cutting out a commute.  When you’re a working mum, every minute counts so by getting clients to come to me, I can fit more in. It also means that I can work in the evenings if I need to but still be in close proximity to my family. It can be hard trying to fit everything in, but running my business from home gives me the freedom to be with my children and husband when they need me.

My family is completely integrated with the business and are very involved with it, after all my youngest daughter Alana was my inspiration for setting it up. Despite being only 3, she knows exactly what MamaBabyBliss is about, what I do and why I do it. And I love that.

Finally, my ‘home office’ is my sanctuary.  Not many people are as lucky to have a built in chill-out zone as part of their place of work.  I do yoga and meditation in the studio in the mornings so that I  have time to clear my mind and focus on what I need to do in the day ahead. 

How are you making the most of technology to improve your business and your lifestyle?

Although I run my business from home, I am often on the road visiting retailers, meeting press or talking to potential partners.  My Mac and Blackberry are my life. They’ve enabled me to go out and about and still feel like I’m in the office – and able to stay in touch if my family needs me. I don’t feel I need to be in at my desk to do a day’s work. I honestly couldn’t function without either of them.

Our website has helped spread the message that mums need pampering and acts as a virtual shop front for our product range. By creating an online shop, we’ve been able to sell our products to anyone in need of some TLC, not just those mums near a retailer. This helps build our brand nationally (and even internationally) and helps add to our bottomline.

I am now beginning to ‘employ’ other mums, who like me, are therapists who want to be able to work around their children. They will help expand my range of pampering services and yoga/massage classes across the country. Although it is still early days, we are, and will be, using online tools to help us communicate virtually as the network expands.

• MamaBabyBliss