Mums That Mean Business Featuring Pudding and Chops

It’s time for another ‘Mums That Mean Business’ where each week we feature fabulous Mums who have started up their own business. So whether you are looking to discover new products or maybe a little inspiration to start something of your own, it’s going on here every Wednesday.

Just incase you missed last weeks – Mums That Mean Business – Fiddle De Dee

Featuring this week is the lovely Laura and Josie who jointly run Pudding and Chops.

 

1. TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOURS.

I am Laura, originally from Ireland but moved to Cheshire back in 2010. Im married to Stuart and have two daughters Amelie(3) and Nessa(1). I work part time as a Fleet sales specialist alongside co-owning Pudding & Chops where we design and sell ‘Alternative’ Milestone cards.
Josie is the other half of Pudding & Chops and is married to Ben and has two sons Grayson (3) and Myles (1). Josie is a full time teacher and also blogs in her spare time. She is currently a MAD blog 2016 finalist too.

 

2. WHAT MADE YOU START YOUR HOME BUSINESS?

How did we come about? Essentially we are two (overtired) mums , who have become close friends after bonding over tears, tantrums, vomit and multiple poonamis – from our children Myles (Pudding) and Nessa (Chops) not us – obviously, although there have been a few tears now and again. We decided to make an idea a reality and create alternative milestone cards to capture those “real” moments and milestones in the first moments of pregnancy through to the first years of having a baby.

 

3. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS, WHEN YOU STARTED, WHAT YOU MAKE ETC

We design and sell alternative milestone cards. We began in April this year, starting off with baby milestone cards and we have recently launched our pregnancy milestone cards. Our cards depict the humorous side of pregnancy and parenting, we hope that they will help new parents & parents to be through those first few weeks/months. Rather than help create ‘Pinterest perfect’ memories we wanted to record the reality of becoming a parent, its not glamorous or easy, there are days when all you want to do is hide in the toilet so you can get a break from changing yet ANOTHER set of clothes because baby has decided to poop all over his/her best outfit or times when you yearn to be back at your office desk only if it is simply to enjoy having a hot cuppa.

 

 

4. WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL DAY LIKE?

Typical day begins with getting the kids up and fed. Then if we’re not working we usually organise a play date. When I say play date I mean the 4 of our kids get together and reek havoc!! Our house generally end up looking like they have been burgled and ransacked! Whilst the little ones ‘play’ we set about our to do list. This can be anything from shipping out the previous days orders, contacting our wholesale customers and online retailers and contacting media organisations with press releases etc.

Josie focuses mainly on the design side and when she isn’t designing she handles the social media side of things. I look after all our accounts, budgets, sales and marketing, speaking with suppliers and wholesale customers as well as some social media input. We compliment each other as we both bring different skill sets to the partnership so it works brilliantly. Once we have sufficiently worn the kids out we go about our own daily lives until kiddies are in bed and we once again hit the social media circuit, tweeting, re-tweeting, loading pictures on instagram, running facebook competitions etc, its a constant cycle but in order to increase your presence out there it has to be done. Then we finally shut our laptops down go to bed and begin it all again the next day.

 

5.WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER MUMS CONSIDERING WORKING FROM HOME?

Be brave and do it! If you have an idea in mind, research it and if it feels right go with your gut. So many people who I look up to for inspiration are stay at home mums and they all say the same thing, that they were so happy they took the plunge and went for it. It is hard work and relentless, most of your spare time if not all,will be taken up with business matters. But it’s YOUR business and that makes the world of difference. I hope that our business continues to expand and grow. And one day our children will see us as successful independent women who weren’t afraid to do something that made them happy.

 

Thanks so much for sharing your lovely business with us Laura & Josie, and some fab advice too.

You can connect with Pudding and Chops on the below channels. It would be great if you could pop over and take a look.

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Pinterest

Etsy Shop

Ebay Store

Are you amum with a business that you would like to share with us? Or maybe you know somebody who would like to feature, then please do email me at stickymudandbellylaughs@gmail.com and i’ll send you all of the details.