Kerry Precious wanted to make the most of being a mum to her two beautiful children and knew that she needed flexibility with her work to allow her to spend time with them and watch them grow. With a degree in business, she used her e-commerce skills combined with her love for unique, quality, baby products to launch Baby Roo. Kerry is passionate about creating baby products that are comforting, luxurious, soft and stylish: beautiful items that are made to last. Here she talks about the inspiration behind her business idea and her plans for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
Since having my two children, I have come to realise that a full-time job is not how I want to spend my children’s school years and the rest of my life. I want freedom and the flexibility of working for myself.
I want to be around for my children and watch them grow and to be a good role model. Already my eight-year-old daughter speaks of mummy and Baby Roo at school in conversation and the hugs I get when she tells me how proud she is of me are very special.
I have a business degree and one of the modules I studied was for entrepreneurship. I really enjoyed all aspects of this and from a young age thought this was the direction I would eventually take.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
It was all about timing that started me on this journey. After a few years of suffering from postnatal depression and some other life issues, I came across some online learning material about e-commerce. I had a light bulb moment and everything after that fell into place. It provided me with the focus I needed to help overcome the depression I was going through at the time and brought some positivity back into my life.
A future with e-commerce meant I could work for myself from home, be there for my children and use my business degree.
I started selling on multiple e-commerce platforms within Australia and as business productivity started to increase, I decided to launch my own website. I realised the importance of brand awareness and not putting all your eggs in one basket!
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
My biggest breakthrough was being able to design and create then launch my own website. I learnt so much about this whole process. I decided not to outsource this as I really wanted to understand all the processes involved to get a website up and running and then being able to manage it on a day-to-day basis.
