Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
Balancing work and family is definitely a juggle. Balancing the yin and yang takes work and a conscious effort to remember both are important.
There have been many nights and early starts of working on the business and remembering every small step will lead to the desired outcome. There have been times when I have had to step back from the business to refocus on family, which is always so important, especially over the homeschooling Covid period, but I have continuously kept going with small steps in the right direction.
To get the right balance through each phase of the business, I have had some key principles and goals to achieve. Last year was all about product development and set up. This year the focus for the business is about building more awareness, commencing the US market strategy and sales process and providing additional products to support families.
When I can outsource, I do, to ensure that the best outcome is achieved for the business, but there are many stages where as the owner and creator of the pillow that my effort is required, as I truly love and believe in the business.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
There have been several challenges along the way including identifying Australian manufacturers who could assist with building the product aligning to the value of duopillow, as well as willing to back and support a new concept and business.
Throughout a year of Covid where contacts and discussions were a lot more difficult, we were able to secure partnerships with high-quality, environmentally-conscious organisations. These partnerships have allowed us to also expand into providing standard size pillows aligning to the quality and design of our original co-sleeping pillow.
Obtaining intellectual property in key countries has not been easy with the learning process and working through key processes and challenges, but we have gotten there!
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The cons of the business are not being able to switch off as you form such a personal attachment with the business. It is not like a normal “day job” where you can leave it at work and be back the next day. Sometimes that can be exhausting but the pros definitely outweigh this!
The pros are loving and doing something that feels so worthwhile and innovative. duopillow is paving the way for so many families to feel more supported both emotionally and physically.
duopillow is more than a pillow for me; it is about building a community to support new parents, sleep-deprived parents, parents with special needs kids, parents who believe in gentle and attachment parenting, parents trying to bed transition or those that have tried other sleep techniques which haven’t work. duopillow brings us all together – to understand that parenthood does have kids’ sleep challenges, but with time, most kids do sleep independently.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
To continue to build a community for families, understanding they have many choices in how to parent.
To establish a presence in the Australian and New Zealand market, including distributing into the retail world as well as continuing in the ecommerce space.
Our hopes and big dreams are working towards the path of expanding to the US with a large population and to some, a surprisingly high number of co-sleepers. We are excited to launch there soon. We are also excited that duopillow has been announced finalists in a couple of categories for the Ausmumpreneur awards!
Head to the duopillow website to find out more and join their communities on Facebook and Instagram.
