How I started a business with $50

Frances McInnes, successful business owner of Breastmates, speaks about how she started a home business in the hope that she can inspire other mothers.

My business Breastmates fills a niche market for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, providing products that they may need when they breastfeed baby. My site is very well known around New Zealand, I receive a lot of web traffic.

There are about 19,000 unique visitors per month (as at May 2009) and the conversion rate is high. Projected turnover will be close to a million dollars for this year.

I am proud that I am able to bring “breastfeeding to the masses” and to advertise mainstream, and show that breastfeeding is normal.

My business started from very humble beginnings. With no investment capital or experts, it has taken about four years to grow from scratch and it has all been “DIY”.
This is how I did it….

When I had my first son back in 2004, I started making some washable breast pads to use for myself rather than buying disposables, to save money. I gave some to my antenatal class and sold a few extra pairs on Auction Sites, solely because I had some left over from the square of fabric. They all got snapped up so I kept on making them to earn a bit of cash, as our family had been reduced to one income.
As a bit of a hobby I played around with creating a website for the breast pads. We had Frontpage on our home Microsoft Office software, so that is what I used to develop my webpage. It was just luck that I had chosen the name "Breastmates", as now the name encompasses my whole brand and does not limit me to just breast pads.

After having picked the name, I needed a logo. When I was a child, sometimes I would put faces inside the "a" letters etc when making title pages, and that is really how I ended up getting my logo with the nipples inside the 'B' of Breastmates. It was simple for me to create the logo, I just used Microsoft Word to get the letters, and the drawing tool to do the nipples. Back then I didn’t even know what Photoshop was, let alone how to use it.

I still use the same logo now, and it is the centre of our brand and is recognizable. It’s a cute way to show that our business is related to breasts and it still fits perfectly! The only modifications to the logo have been making it display better in digital format.

At that time, I didn’t realize the full potential of what I was doing and only dreamed of being a WAHM (Work at Home Mum).

I brought a domain name for $40, and then found free webhosting at Yahoo Geocities. I only had a small amount of web traffic back then so it could handle it. We didn't even have a printer - I used to write out receipts in a carbon-copy type receipt pad!

After I had sold a few more pairs of breast pads, I used some of the profits to register the Breastmates trademark through the IPONZ office. I notified the Inland Revenue Department that I was now self employed, and easily became a Sole Trader under my existing IRD number. Since then I have actually also become GST registered, and have also formed a limited liability company.

When my son was about 6 months old, I went to a local baby shop to enquire about breast pumps. The lady at the shop couldn't really answer my questions and I left the shop feeling more confused than when I went in.

I came home and starting thinking........it was my light bulb moment...... and now here we are with Breastmates Specialty Breastfeeding Store.

I have added more products to assist with breastfeeding - items that I like and use myself! I've found suppliers for products and have moved into retailing. I have undertaken product training and have skilled myself in being an expert in the inventory that I sell. One of the key points for customers shopping from my store, is that I am a mother too, and actually use the products that I sell.

Plus I also know that it can be hard to go out shopping for baby gear when you are heavily pregnant, or with a newborn, or lugging toddlers around too so that is why I now have such a range of products. Everything from maternity bras, breast pumps, and nursing clothes etc.

I now have two children, who have grown up around the business. Both are boys, but they will be very skilled in lingerie and feeding products when they grow up!

In hindsight, I would never have had the courage, confidence nor capital to jump straight in and do this. So its been ideal that I have been able to grow slowly and really understand my market and customers needs.
I absolutely love what I do, and how my life has evolved.

What’s next for Breastmates? Well with over 64,000 babies born during 2008 we have a big market to fill.
Current developments with Breastmates include a major website revamp , and outfitting a studio store in Cambridge which will also be a new distribution centre.

www.breastmates.co.nz