Meet San-Mari, a momentrepreneur whose desire to save money on nappies turned into a business. She also likes to give clients the personal experience by visiting moms and explaining how the nappies work.
- Tell us about yourself, a bit of background. I’m 30 years old and I grew up on a farm near Tshipise. I’m the farm girl not worried about make-up or wearing dresses. I eventually finished my Hons. in Chemistry at NWU in 2008. Moved to the Big City of Johannesburg for my first job as a formulation chemist. Met my husband here and 11 months later we were married.
2. What were you doing before you started this business? I worked as a Development chemist for an International Epoxy Flooring company.
3. What prompted you to start your business? It was never in my mind to quit my day job and start my own business. I just came back from maternity leave and my little girl started getting really sick, so we as a family decided to take her out of school and decided that I would take care of her at home. Soon we realized that buying disposable nappies are expensive so I looked into using cloth nappies as a way to save us some money. Well, long story short, I fell in love with modern cloth nappies and decided to start selling them as well.
4. Is your business full time or part time and why? I’m really not sure myself, it’s supposed to be full-time but I still take care of my little girl.
5. How do you juggle the responsibilities of being a mom with your work? Oh my word, there is a lot of juggling going on in our house, but family comes first, and even when I get an email/query from a mom I just give them a quick response saying that I’m just busy with my little one and as soon as she gives me a gap I will get back to them. And I must say they all understand.
6. Do you have a business plan? If so, can you share a bit about your strategy to make it successful? Business plan not as much as a business model/concept. When I started cloth diapering I realized that all the modern cloth in South Africa is sold online and I wanted someone to chat to and I actually wanted to look at these modern cloth nappies before I buy them. So my business model is not like another online store but more of a go to person or a person that will come to you. I go to Mommies and show them how modern cloth nappies work. There is still a lot we have to learn about modern cloth nappies and some moms are just put off by the idea, but once they see the nappies and I explain to them how easy it is to use, they want to try it as well. I also do demos per area in Gauteng were moms can get together and ask all their questions regarding cloth diapering and these demos have been a huge success. You will also find me showing off modern cloth nappies at various markets in Gauteng
7. How do you get clients/ market yourself? I am active on Facebook, but mostly the nappies market themselves; when other moms see the cute nappies your child is wearing, they refer them to Happy Fluff.
8. What’s your biggest challenge right now? Keeping my almost one year old busy.
9. Did you need a lot of money to start off? And how long was it before you made a profit?Because I do these demos and markets I did buy some stock to showcase so there was an initial layout of money needed. They say the first 100 days of a business it the toughest and it’s so true; I would say it was only after 4 months that I could help pay some of our household expenses. As any other business there are the “good” and the “not so good” months.
10. What makes Happy Fluff unique from other brands?
I hope that the moms that buy from Happy Fluff get the feeling that I look at all their cloth diapering needs before making a recommendation. And that I answer all their cloth diapering questions. At the end of the day I want Moms to know how to use modern cloth nappies (bonus if they buy from Happy Fluff). I hope Happy Fluff is more of a personal experience and not a quick online shop. I make the time to travel to moms with my suitcase full of different nappies.
Share with us your social media links and website.
https://www.facebook.com/Happyfluff123
If you would like to be a part of this series please email heather@samomblogs.co.za
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