Having had a long career in Insurance I left for a break and whilst looking for another job I fell pregnant with my daughter. I decided I didn’t want to go back to a full time job but I was one of these people that needed some buzz as well as being a full time mum and I can never sit still!
When my daughter was about 18 months old, I met up with a friend for lunch and a bit of shopping and she had a son the same age. Slight problem was she forgot her pushchair. We joked that wouldn’t it be a great idea if there was a place where you could rent one for the day? That comment sat with me for near enough 6 months!
Lying in bed one night I couldn’t stop thinking about it, ideas were flooding out of me and I kept thinking ‘I might of hit on something here’. I got up and wrote down the ideas. Within a week I had built my first website and had my first order and what a buzz!
The company was launched in October 2008 right in the first talks of recession and I did argue with myself whether it was the right time to launch into a new business but I kept coming back to the thought that by providing a service where people could rent a pushchair monthly would help ease families cash flow.
Rentabuggy now provides top selling pushchairs on a monthly basis and we also provide holiday rentals including travel cots, highchairs, sterilisers and more. We cover both services Nationwide and the unique point of the holiday rentals service is we deliver your products direct to your place of stay and then collect them when you have gone taking the stress out of travelling and packing the car trying to squeeze everything in.
Rentabuggy has grown in 18 months and the beauty of spending time with my daughter when I choose is something I would not want to give up now but that doesn’t mean to say it has not been hard work. I can honestly say it is only in the past 18 months that I have retrieved a good work v life balance. I love the fact that I get to see the stages of my daughter growing and we talk daily about work and she knows it brings in money to give her clothes and buy food. I want her to grow up understanding the value of money and how you have to work hard to achieve it but also to see the benefits it can reap in. For example last week I was on a BBC2 programme and I was a judge on a panel, she loved it that her mom was on TV!
Once piece of advice I would give to anyone looking to start a business is go for it. If you don’t you will only wonder ‘what if’. One thing with business is it is a huge learning curve. Don’t worry if you get something wrong, pick up and move on. We only succeed by learning our mistakes.