ENTERPRISE:Having babies proved the catalyst for these parents to set up their own businesses. And, while it can be very challenging, it gives them the flexibility that is so valuable to have with children, writes GRAINNE FALLER
EVERY CHILD is different but there is one universal truth about babies – having one changes everything. All of a sudden, going out for a quick pint or even popping to the shop for a packet of biscuits becomes a lot more complicated than it used to be.
Sleep becomes like an addiction. No matter how much you get, it’s never quite enough and you always, always want more. Then there’s work. Babies don’t respect working hours or deadlines and bosses can quickly get fed up when the crèche calls yet again for little Ophelia to be picked up because she has a snotty nose.
Exhaustion and guilt are a dangerous combination. Most people put up with it, keeping the head down and working through it until, like everything else in the world of parenthood, it passes.
For some intrepid folks, however, having a baby brings out the entrepreneur in them. The internet has opened up a whole new world for mums and dads who, even in the depths of this recession, are setting up businesses and running them from home. They are willing to trade job security in the office for long hours, masses of responsibility, uncertain money but, crucially, flexibility. Are they hugely fortunate or just plain bonkers? See what you think.
Life is sweet
Nicole Dunphy, who runs a confectionary business (pandorabell.ie), lives in Limerick with her partner Gary Murphy and their three-year-old daughter Beth
“You need to be a little bit mad to run your own business,” says Nicole Dunphy. “I was working at RTÉ Lyric FM as a producer and used to run events and things but then, when I became pregnant, I decided to take a career break.”
Dunphy’s passion is food and she did courses in cooking and chocolate making. “I overindulged myself basically,” she says. “But it got to the point where I was either going to have to do something with all I’d learned or go back to the real world.”
Beth was born in June 2008 and by September the business was up and running. “The food definitely came first,” Dunphy says. “The business end of it sort of followed. I thought, if the chocolates and caramels looked pretty and lovely, things would be fine. Then I realised that I needed to get paid.”
It was a slow start. “It’s different to opening a shop,” Dunphy says. “It’s working now but it didn’t work immediately. There was a long period of, ‘Uh oh’.”
Now her clients include Avoca, Fallon Byrne and McCambridge’s in Galway. She’s also beginning to export her products. “It takes time to build,” Dunphy says. “I suppose I’m a little bit like a swan – gliding along looking calm with my feet paddling furiously just below the surface.”
She works from home for now. “I don’t know how much longer that will be feasible,” she says. “It does intrude on family life a bit.”
Beth is in childcare four days a week and Dunphy’s partner is also self-employed so they each take a Monday or a Saturday to work while the other looks after Beth.
“It’s hard to figure out how we’re ever going to take a normal person’s holiday,” Dunphy says wryly. “It never stops. I always seem to be looking at my phone. You’re inundated with people ringing one day and then you’re wondering why they’re not calling the next. It’s very busy but I still have to remember to down tools and pick Beth up at half four. That’s good for me I think.”
She has ambitions for the company. “I’m not out for world domination but I’d like to get to the stage where it’s not all falling on my shoulders,” she says. “I absolutely love it though. I love that I’ve pulled it off.”
Hip and happening
Leona Kinahan lives in Westmeath with her husband Cormac and their three girls Eabha (five), Emma (three) and 18-month-old Shona, and runs her baby business (hipbaby.ie) from home.
Leona Kinahan’s business idea came about because of her first child Eabha. “She had a lot of food allergies and very bad eczema so I was advised to wash her clothes in bread soda and to dress her in organic cotton clothes,” Kinahan says. “The problem was that all the organic cotton stuff was in greys and beiges and muted colours so I started looking elsewhere.”
In the meantime she went back to work but found the long hours tough. “My employers couldn’t give me part-time hours so I left,” she says. “I was still doing some consultancy work for them but started doing a lot of research into setting up a website that sold organic cotton clothes. It took a while because I had another baby during that time.”
She did it, however, and the site went live in October 2008. It was a steep learning curve. “I had decided to stock the site with things I found useful as well,” Kinahan says. “I found that people were more interested in those basics like baby slings and bandana bibs than they were in the organic cotton clothes. I loved the clothes and I was pushing them initially but I quickly realised that I needed to refocus a little.”
It was very challenging in the beginning and Kinahan’s husband Cormac was away working for most of the week. “He changed jobs last year so he’s around much more now but that first while was very, very tough,” Kinahan says.
With nine hours of childcare a week, Kinahan has had to squeeze a lot into a very small space of time, although her extended family helps with childcare when needed. “I work two evenings as well,” she says. “It’s very hard to walk away from it. There have been days when the girls have been on the floor in the office with their colouring books while I’ve been catching up.”
Time is always going to be an issue however. “I’d love to do more,” Kinahan says, “but there just aren’t the hours in the day. I’d like to expand outside of Ireland but, for now, it’s not feasible.”
There is a pay-off. “The girls got chicken pox a while back,” Kinahan says. “Having the flexibility to be with them was brilliant.
“It was stressful because I still had to get through all the work but it was great not to have a boss to constantly answer to.”
Wall-to-wall work
Caroline and Ruairi O’Byrne live with their children Georgia (five) and Joshua (two) as well as three goats, two guinea pigs, two dogs and a kitten in Co Galway. They run a mural-painting business through their website featurewalls.ie
Timing was everything for Caroline and Ruairi O’Byrne, who are both artistic. Ruairi has a background in interior design and animation. He had been in the business of renovating cottages and had just managed to sell his latest project before the market collapsed.
“We got pregnant after that,” says Caroline. “It was madness when I think of it, considering there was no money coming in but time was moving on and we really wanted another child.”
In anticipation of the new arrival, they moved their daughter Georgia out of the nursery and into her own room. “We painted Georgia’s room with fairies and woodland and she loved it,” says Caroline. “Friends saw it and started asking for murals for their children. We then did up a flyer and got a great reaction to that.”
They set up a website and, very quickly, business started coming in. With a new baby at home, it was a challenging time. “People stay schtum about the tiredness you feel during those first six months with a new baby, don’t they?” says Ruairi. “It’s like this big secret nobody talks about.”
Childcare is crucial. The real ace up their business sleeve is the fact that Caroline’s parents live down the road. “It’s not that often that I just have to drop them off to get something done but knowing that I can is just so valuable,” Caroline says.
It quickly became clear that they had hit on something special. Early on, they got a call from chef Conrad Gallagher, who wanted a set of five portraits of famous chefs for his restaurants. “That was a huge confidence boost for Ruairi in particular I think,” says Caroline. “I think if you’re organised and professional, you get busy,” says Ruairi. Indeed, work has flowed in from all quarters. “We did a nursery for Cecilia Ahern’s little girl, we’ve done stuff for Diageo, the HSE, various hotels and things. It’s far more varied than we expected it to be,” says Caroline.
“I sometimes wonder if there’s anyone in the world who works as hard as we do,” says Ruairi. “It’s relentless. We’re so lucky though. We’re doing ideal things. It’s not a stress when life is like that.”
A gem of an idea
Lisa Clinch lives in Malahide with her husband Daragh and their three daughters, Ella (five), Faye (four), and Jody (two). She runs her business The Jewellery Tree (thejewellerytree.ie) from their home
Lisa Clinch's third daughter was seven weeks old when a business idea fell into her lap. "I was bridesmaid at my sister's wedding," she says. "It was a challenge to get into the dress to be honest."
As a thank-you gift, her sister gave her two charms imprinted with the fingerprints of her eldest two children. "I thought it was a lovely idea," Clinch says. "There were plenty of places in the UK making jewellery imprinted with children's hand, finger or footprints but there was nothing like that in Ireland."
After doing some courses in the UK, she began making jewellery for family and friends. Gradually word spread and she decided to set up her website. The initial idea was to make jewellery charms imprinted with a child's hand or footprint, but this was just the beginning. "I didn't want anything about handprints or babies in the title of my business because I wanted to have scope to expand," Clinch says.
There's an enormous amount to do. "I have to make sure I have enough supplies ordered in as well as actually making the jewellery, doing the accounts, managing the website and looking after the marketing – it all falls to me," she says. "Also keeping three little girls away from my stuff is a challenge. You know little girls and sparkly things."
She juggled work and her business at first but the time came when she had to choose. "I realised that I couldn't keep working for both. I was exhausted and the whole thing was making me miserable," she says.
Having taken the plunge and given up her banking job in January, in February she realised she was pregnant with their fourth child. The next few months will be a matter of feeling her way along. "I won't be taking maternity leave as such," she says. "But you don't know what kind of baby you'll have. I could have the sleepiest baby in the world or the complete opposite. I won't know until it arrives."
For now, she is training someone in to keep the business ticking over for the first while at least. Despite the challenges Clinch is happy with her set-up. "I couldn't ever see myself not working," she says. "This ticks a lot of boxes for me. I love the design element and coming up with new ideas. It fell into my lap to a certain degree. Between work and nappies, there wasn't a lot of head space to think about what I might have wanted if it hadn't."
Dressed for business
Gillian Ryan, who set up stylemama.ie in April, lives in Dublin with Amy (10), Matthew (20 months) and her husband Kevin
"I had four weddings to go to when I was pregnant with Matthew," says Gillian Ryan. "Maternity clothes, especially ones that you'd wear to a wedding, are so expensive. I ended up spending a fortune on dresses that I only wore once.
"I had encountered the same thing when I was pregnant with Amy. That was when the idea of a dress-hire business started forming in my head."
Ryan had worked in sales for years but took time off after having Matthew. "My little boy didn't sleep for about 14 months so I had no energy for anything, but the business idea stayed in my head."
She built up a large collection of maternity dresses and converted, what was to be the playroom, into a showroom. "I wanted everything to be just right before I started offering any services," she says.
The website was very important. Once it went live, word spread quickly. "I was very surprised," Ryan says. "I got five or six calls in the first week. I suppose it was April so we were running into wedding season and from there it just got busier."
A lot of business is generated by word of mouth. "It's really important for me that my clients look very, very nice," Ryan says. "It's good advertising."
Ryan has called to people in their homes but she finds they prefer to come to her. "If I have a client coming and she's size 14, I have to make sure that all my size 14 dresses are ready to go," Ryan says. "People have travelled quite far to come here but for them it's a better option than traipsing to four different shops." A four-day rental costs from €60.
Only three months in, Ryan already has an eye on expansion. "I'd like to get my own dresses designed and made," she says. "I know what works and what doesn't in terms of maternity dresses now. I'd also like to provide options for work dos and weekend dos – you like to look your best when you're pregnant and not necessarily feeling that great."
Cool clothing
Kevin O'Leary runs Freshmilk Clothing (freshmilkclothing.com) with his friend Cillian Moore. He has a six month-old son Leon and his wife Bijal is pregnant with their second child.
It's been a hell of a morning and Kevin O'Leary is tired. "We're just back from visiting my wife's family in the UK so Leon has had two weeks of constant attention," he says. "He couldn't make a meg without a crowd of people cooing over him. He seems to have gotten used it and now that he's back to reality he's not pleased."
O'Leary doesn't work from home but it is on mornings like this that the flexibility of being his own boss comes in handy. "Someone said when we were starting out that if this all goes belly up, I'd find it very difficult to work for anyone again. That's very true," he says.
Last year was a different story. "I was in a job but very stressed. I didn't feel I was being well treated," O'Leary says. "In January of 2010, after thinking about it over Christmas, I left."
The recession loomed large but O'Leary's friend Cillian Moore was in a similar position. The pair decided that they could have a business and so Freshmilk Clothing was born.
O'Leary and Moore are constantly coming up with fresh designs and logos for the hoodies and T-shirts they sell and Freshmilk Clothing has grown from there. "Leon has definitely helped to inspire our baby collection," O'Leary says. "This morning's antics will probably give me some ideas."
Favours from friends as well as their own savings got the business off the ground. O'Leary bemoans the lack of government support for businesses such as theirs. "We left jobs that were filled by other people and we're making our own way," he says. "It's just a shame that there isn't more out there. We're not looking for a pat on the head but a bit of support would go a long way."
It's going well so far. "Business has been very steady," O'Leary says. "I suppose when you're self-employed there's a bit more work to be done. There's a constant struggle between staying on and getting something finished or going home and spending that window of time with Leon before he goes to bed. Then, in the evening, I would tend to take the laptop out and work for another hour or so. That causes a bit of tension sometimes."
With another baby on the way, the ante has been upped but O'Leary has no doubts that he made the right decision. "Things are going well. The business is growing in ways I couldn't have foreseen even a few months ago," he says. "There's a great sense of pride in all this."
