In lockdown 2020, we (The Two Laura's) had a crazy idea, (like many others) of setting up a baby business with £4k worth of savings between us. Nearly two years later, we're on the up having secured contracts with Next, Debenhams, Superdrug & more...but it hasn't been an easy ride, there have been a number of highs, lots of lows & a hell of a lot of winging it to get to this stage!
Not forgetting, we're both mums with 3 children between us.
Running a business as mums means you already have the odds stacked against you....it's a lonely journey and we've found it hard to get honest, raw insight into what it takes to run a business, as well as a family.
In this podcast, we share the journey of what it takes to grow a 7 figure baby brand and why you should never give up, even when you experience 100's of no's!
Oh & so you don’t get bored of us we also interview well known female business owners & entrepreneurs based in the UK who share their 'winging it to the top' moments from running a startup to success.
So if you’re a female entrepreneur with a side hustle or if you’re running a startup like us, then this podcast is for you!
Lessons Learnt So Far From Running A Startup From Scratch
In this episode of 'Winging It To The Top' with Laura & Laura we talk about some of the key lessons we've learnt so far running a startup from scratch, how we've had to pivot when things have gone wrong (basically on a weekly basis)!. We also talk about how we try to optimise different revenue streams and make small tweaks that'll make a huge difference. Running a startup is a constant learning curve, it's about adjusting and testing, making those little tweaks that finally start to hit and lead to more momentum.
26 Jan 2023
Running Before You Can Walk Saying No & Trusting Your Gut
It's so easy to get carried away in business, everyone is trying to become an overnight success nowadays and it's so easy to get sucked into false hope in the early days. For example, professionals that you work with telling you they can help you grow and scale your business, get you 6 x ROAS on your ads, can get you in the media and triple your revenue. We've been suckered in so many times and a lot of that has to do with running before you can walk, thinking that working with these people is the golden ticket to success when in actual fact it isn't; it's the accumulation of lots of things over a period of time that get you to the end goal, and for most companies that takes years!
We've learnt the hard way and are here to tell anyone who is starting out or growing their business, to not throw their money away, to take it slow (we know that's hard sometimes) and to test different things on a small budget to see what makes your audience tick.
16 Jan 2023
I'm No Harry Potter, But I Have A Magic Stone
We are back with Season 2 of 'Winging It To The Top' with Laura & Laura! We had a little break over Christmas to unwind & relax and we're now ready to take on 2023 with everything we've got. In this episode, we reflect on 2022 and how we're re-setting our mindset and productivity so that we can have a successful first quarter. Whilst there is a lot of worry about the state of the current economy, we know e-commerce is set to grow rapidly over the next 5 years, and we want to be part of that growth.
We talk about the tools and strategies we use to keep up momentum, ultimately to keep our head in the game (it's so easy to let self doubt and other negative thoughts creep in) - these tools include Laura M's magic stone - yep, we'll try just about anything to keep a positive mindset!
15 Dec 2022
Sophie Baron On Starting Mamamade From Instagram, Raising Money & Making Confident Business Decisions.
Sophie Baron, is one powerhouse of a woman! Mamamade was founded from her kitchen table and launched officially online in 2020; in just 2 years Sophie has employed a team, successfully raised over £385K in the company's last funding round, launched new products and has generated over £1.2m in annual recurring revenue. In this podcast we talk about Sophie's journey launching and building Mamamade, starting from just an Instagram page to becoming a real brand, adored by celebrities like Rochelle Humes & Lucy Mecklenburgh. We cover all the usual struggles when running a start up, employing a team, 'letting go' of tasks that as a founder your used to doing, raising money and of course juggling motherhood.
Sophie is so modest in what she's achieved so far, but the growth the brand has seen in the past 2 years is phenomenal and is credit to her commitment and dedication - if you want to hear from a female founder who is on the journey and absolutely smashing it, then this episode needs to be on your listen list!
1 Dec 2022
Joanna Jensen, Founder Of £40m Brand Childs Farm - On Being A Working Mum, School Fairs & Trade Shows In A Transit Van To Ocado, Boots & Beyond!
This week we got to interview the truly incredible Joanna Jensen, Founder of children's skincare brand Childs Farm. We were having a bit of an off day on Wednesday but after speaking to Joanna about her journey creating and building Childs Farm we felt inspired & motivated to keep pushing on.
In this episode Joanna tells us all about her personal pain points which led her to creating the UK’s number one baby and child personal care brand. From developing a groundbreaking natural formula that cured her daughters’ sensitive and eczema prone skin, to creating beautiful packaging that was personal to Joanna and her family to then marketing & selling the hell out of it!
We get to hear about Joanna's early days selling the product at school fairs & trade shows to quickly launching into mainstream retailer Boots in 2014 - the journey definitely hasn't been an easy one, so many personal sacrifices were made to get to the top and you certainly get an insight into the passion and dedication it takes to get a business to that point, in Joanna's words 'you need the skin of a rhino.'
In March 2022, Jensen sold Childs Farm for £40m and although still a part of the brand, she's now a keen angel investor and can be seen supporting female founded businesses through her role on the Advisory Board of Buy Women Built (BWB); a recently formed Powerhouse uniting many female founders to drive awareness of their excellent brands in the UK to consumers and investors.
This episode with Joanna is for all of the women hustling and running small businesses - you've got this!
24 Nov 2022
Emotions, Brain Fog & Crappy Emails
Detaching yourself from the business when you go home - so hard right? It's something we are seriously working on! Trying to walk away after a long day and focusing on family life instead of work is so difficult sometimes but is so vital for so many reasons.
There can be days in the business where we have a set schedule and tasks to complete and we can be completely de-railed by an email that pops up that takes priority over everything else we are focusing on; this usually is to do with protecting the brand in someway.
We've come to realise this is all part of the 'Winging It To The Top' journey, but seriously look forward to the day when we have a much wider team to take some of these things off of our hands!
18 Nov 2022
Siobhan Freegard OBE: On why mums kitchen table businesses work, acting on your gut instinct and hitting and first million members on Netmums.com
In this episode of 'Winging It To The Top' with Laura & Laura we are joined by the truly inspirational Siobhan Freegard OBE, founder of Netmums.com (http://Netmums.com) & Channelmum.com (http://Channelmum.com)
Back in 2o00, Siobhan had the idea of taking the quote 'it takes a village to raise a family' online, by creating a support platform for mums and mums-to-be.
From her kitchen table; and just when the internet had started arriving in people's homes, Siobhan launched Netmums.com (http://Netmums.com). Fast forward to 2010 and Netmums had reached 1 million members and 5 million unique visitors each month, steadily becoming the biggest parenting website in the UK.
We sit down with Siobhan to discuss what it took to create such a phenomenal business; the highs and lows of the journey and how she juggled being a working mum.
In this episode you will see Siobhan's passion come through (something she talks about a lot) and the key ingredient that helped her on her journey to success.
11 Nov 2022
Introducing One Hell Of A Dragon......Sarah Willingham!
What an exciting episode of 'Winging It To The Top' with Laura & Laura this was to record! We were joined this week by one of the most influential business women in the UK and honestly one of the nicest people we've ever met, the lovely Sarah Willingham. Sarah has provided us with so much support and advice since we started our business journey back in 2020 and has been a sounding board for us when we haven't known where to turn. In this episode we get to hear all about her journey to the top, from the early days at university, to working in pubs to eventually owning her own hospitality business & beyond....and YES we did ask her the question about Dragon's Den that you guys all wanted to know about!
1 Nov 2022
Being Cringey All The Way!
When we say we've done some cringey stuff whilst we try and grow Babbico -honestly you really wouldn't believe how humiliated we've been at times! We've really had to step outside of our comfort zone and have done some real outrageous things to try and get ahead. From sending cheesy hand-written letters to well known entrepreneurs, to being on TV ( and royally f*ing that up), to pitching ourselves like we are a couple of celebrities - all of this to see the business thrive! When we say we'd sell our soul to grow Babbico, it is genuinely no word of a lie.
In this more light-hearted episode we talk all about the above in the hope that our listeners will find it amusing! The good news is, next week we will have the pleasure of another guest who is well known for her stint on BBC's Dragon's Den - any guesses on who it may be?
21 Oct 2022
Retailer Truths, Ups & Downs
For many brands an overarching goal may be to win retail partners. We've seen it on Dragon's Den numerous times; one of the first questions an entrepreneur is often asked is 'have you spoken to any retailers about your product?', a polite way of asking have you got any retail partners committed to buying what you're selling.
We always knew we wanted our business to be B2B as well as B2C but have learnt a lot of lessons along the way when it comes to working with the big players!
Sometimes, it has not been as fulfilling as we had envisioned, or it's made us realise that whilst it's always good for credibility to be associated with brands like ASDA, Next, Debenhams etc. no one will ever be able to get your brand to where you want it to be, but you!
For any business owners looking to expand into the B2B market we hope this episode of 'Winging It To The Top' provides you some insight into what you can expect.
14 Oct 2022
Timelines, Hitting 30 & Being Patient
Do you ever feel like you're on a timeline to get married by a certain age, have children by a certain age, or move out by a certain age? We have both felt those society pressures at times & even more so running a business - we have almost sometimes felt embarrassed talking about Babbico, when outsiders tell us 'you're flying' and ask us 'how's it going' as their expectation is that in the space of 2 years we should be millionaire's - something that most business owners will know, is not realistic.
That pressure of feeling like you should be doing better than what you are can be really detrimental to progress and can have you procrastinating about why things aren't moving quick enough. In this episode, we cover this topic in further detail, in the hope of letting others know how important it is to not to compare your journey to others; it really is about staying in your own lane and working towards the goals you've set, as the way you measure success will really be completely individual to you.
5 Oct 2022
Investment, No’s & Dragons Den
Pitching for investment has to be one of the biggest hurdles a business owner will ever face - trust us we've done it, 100's of times! It's not the most enjoyable experience in the world but sometimes it is necessary for company growth. In this podcast we drill deeper into our experience raising money, starting with all the basics - company loans, overdrafts, invoice factoring & then finally equity investment. This includes all the no's we've faced along the way (there have been far too many to count)!
We're also excited to let you know that we have our first podcast guest lined up for November, so less of us two rambling on! This guest is an ex dragon from Dragons Den, she's also been an amazing mentor to us for the past 2 years and is just one extremely kind lady! Stay tuned....
27 Sept 2022
Mental Health, Dark Days & Coming Out The Other Side
Mental health is something we often hear entrepreneurs who have ‘made it’ talk about in their podcasts & interviews, but we felt not many of them spoke about it whilst on the actual journey, which is why we wanted to share our experience on the subject.
From really down days, to feeling like we literally couldn’t go on, our mental health has been strongly impacted whilst running Babbico. We are lucky enough to have each other and a great support network around us that we can call upon when we feel like we’re hitting rock bottom, but we are aware so many others do not have this type of support.
We want anyone running a business to know you are not alone, when you feel like those dark days are becoming more frequent and those happy moments are far and few between, please know we’ve been there! The struggle is real & being aware of your emotions is the key to getting through the other side. As the saying goes ‘if it was easy, everyone would do it’ - the morale of the story is that business is seriously not easy!
16 Sept 2022
Deliveries, Down Days & Angle Grinders
In Episode 4 we are giving you all an insight into our crazy week of deliveries; including our biggest delivery so far which we were totally unprepared for - oh the joys! We also touch upon how very easy it is to let feelings of fear creep in when running a business, and when the heat is on how this can have a huge effect on your confidence as a business owner - all very normal feelings but important not to let fear de-rail you from running an amazing business.
7 Sept 2022
Partners, Mum Guilt & Crying In The Bedroom!
Episode 3 - we’ve made it this far! This week we’re chatting about stepping out of your comfort zone as a business owner; doing things that literally make you cringe & basically selling your soul, because that is genuinely how much you want your business to succeed! We also touch upon the support network around you, and how sometimes the people closest to you aren’t always the one’s rooting for you. On top of that we’ve got the usual - mum guilt and tears. We hope you love Episode 3 - this is certainly our favourite so far!
31 Aug 2022
Mistakes, Handshakes & Choosing The Right Business Partner
We're back for Episode 2 of 'Winging It To The Top' chatting about the pros of having a business partner, as well as the challenges of such a close relationship!
There are bound to be ups and downs along the way, but ultimately, your business partner (if you pick the right one!) will have your back through the hard times and will be your back bone when you need it the most.
Teaming up with someone in business is not easy, and for us, making sure we are on the same page in terms of company ethos, brand values and our own values is super important to driving Babbico forward.
21 Aug 2022
Highs, Lows & Poo Explosions!
Welcome to Episode 1 of the 'Winging It To The Top' podcast where we cover a few key highlights of our business journey up until this point, including some highs, major lows & even poo explosions! Be sure to listen to the end for some of our favourite 'winging it moments' too.
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