{Momentrepreneur} Meet Leila: "With coffee or jungle juice we make it work!"

This week we feature a mom who is an event organiser of Pop-up Boutiques for local brands with a particular focus on locally produced goods in Cape Town. Her name is Leila Bardien and you can find her website here: Homemade CPT.

Tell us about yourself, a bit of background.

I’m a mom of 2 little boys, who loves enjoying the many beautiful experiences that life has to offer.

What were you doing before you started this business?

I spent 15yrs in the textile manufacturing industry as a Quality Expert.

Is your business full time or part time and why?

Currently our business is part time. We believe in quality and unique concepts to create memorable experiences.

How do you juggle the responsibilities of being a mom with your work?

It’s super hard for us at the moment since my sister-in-law (business partner) and I both had babies this year. But with some coffee or jungle juice and message communication, we manage to make it work.

Do you have a business plan? If so, can you share a bit about your strategy to make it successful?

Yes, we have to plan super carefully and stick to budgets. We also have to ensure effective marketing for events. Lastly, it is important to make sure all resources are used effectively. We rent out our event installations to contribute towards income.

How do you get clients/ market yourself?

We market via social media predominantly. We have made use of PR as well.

What’s your biggest challenge right now?

Finding brands that match our profile and have the same vision.

Did you need a lot of money to start off? And how long was it before you made a profit? We needed quite a bit for startup since installations are not cheap as well as venue hire. We are currently marginally above break-even point. The journey continues.

What makes your business unique from other brands?

The concept and service on offer. We offer business exposure for small brands, with digital artwork, we market on social media and we ensure our events retain a beautiful cohesive aesthetic setup of quality local product available, for an awesome shopping experience.