Last year, apart from having so much fun with this amazing business mum’s diaper bag, (review here) I had the chance to interview her as well.
So this is rather late, but is also an excellent time to share because Priscilla is having a final sale on all her diaper bags! Pop on over to Multiwear.co to check out the options still available!
And now… to the fun and wisdom that she graciously shares:
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
I give thanks for the day and pray for the day. I feel like it makes my encounters with people more meaningful.
What are some tips you have for running a business alongside having children?
It helps to be a multitasking kind of person and a jack of all trades type because there are so many things you need to do in a business.
How do you balance business life and having a family?
It is really hard. I have two daughters that play well together so it helps that they are often occupied with each other. With the baby boy, naps are often when i get things done but sometimes its hard when the girls are loud and it wakes him up. That can be challenging. But having a baby and nursing him sort of builds in time to just be with my family. Last year was my first year back at teaching so over the summer most of the time i was occupied with doing summer activities with the kids but I still had some extra time to work on my business so having a job that allows me that flexibility is good. What does time management mean or look like for you?Ugh I’m a designer and we are like architects or worse than them in that we are night owls and we work really hard and put in a lot of hours. There is no secret that I know of to time management. But the reality of it is that if you are spending tons of time on social media or something else, you’re cutting into time for family or fitness or whatever else you are committed to. The hardest thing for me to do is stop working. I worked really hard before I had my 3rd child, it was my sort of nesting because I knew that having a 3rd was taking on alot more responsibility. So right now I’m in an adjustment phase trying to learn to do it with 3. I also go between feeling very committed to fitness and committed to keeping the house clean. I would say if anything that the fitness has been hard to keep in my schedule especially while trying to run a business but I have been biking the kids to school to try to offset that.
Two things that stop most people from making the leap to being self-employed are taxes and the fear of a lack of a stable income. Any myths you can debunk?
I am not a risk taker and I’ve tried in the past to launch my own business so I was pretty leery of doing it again. But I went into it much more confidently and willing to do things that before i was too shy or scared to do. The odd thing is that having a simple yard sale for my parents when my mom was passing was my defining moment when i realized that peddling my wares was actually sort of fun. I always kept a job while doing my side hustle and I was also asking myself the same question. You see shark tank and it seems like these people go all in and it’s easy. I learned that everything comes in at a drip pace. There’s no one thing that will make you a success, it’s the combination of many small things happening at the same time. I just made sure that i had the capital to buy product or whatever was needed for the business. So you start small and build up as it grows. But I’m still small and I like it. I’m not sure that becoming a well known or big brand will happen but I’m just happy to be where I’m at and I take it step by step. I know that going all in would lead me to success or failure sooner but to me that is super stressful. I prefer the slow route.
In a market saturated with diaper bags and nursing accessories, what is your niche and how did you find it?
I originally wanted to do bags but was told i need a cheaper accessory. So the cardimom was just supposed to be a departure point and it was so successful it sort of became my business. The bags were crowdfunded but I had my son right when they were funded and I haven’t had the time to market them and yes it is much harder to market them. But everyone who has tried it has said its got everything they need in a diaper bag. I love that it works after babies as a gym bag which i would not say is the case for the myriad of bags I have tried before. My niche as a designer has always been being able to give it the look and the features that make you wonder why you didn’t have it sooner. I enjoy studying the problems people face and finding solutions to them through the design.
In your business statement page, you mention that you are not just a mom, and brava to that! Multiwear.co is distinctly not a name that would immediately bring up mom-baby products to mind. Was this intentional, and if so, are there plans to provide products for juggling life (not necessarily as a mother) in the future?
Yes I wanted to make a brand that speaks to how products for moms are used by them in many phases of their life so I did not want to go with a name like googoobaby. Which is what most baby or maternity brands do. And I have designed for so many different lifestyles that I wanted a brand that could grow into many things. Moms are so many other things so their products should cater to that lifestyle of going from one thing to the next.
Do you have advice for new-time mums who are worried about keeping their career skills current for when they eventually return to the workplace?
I would say there is no better time to cultivate skills for a career than as a stay at home mom or working mom. Just find something that you like to do and if you want to return to a 9 to 5 job, document what you have done and learned with examples that you could use in an interview. Although i am a designer I have had people reach out to me with marketing jobs because I have all those skills from my business. There are so many things you learn doing your own business.
Favourite workout?
I do Ballet Beautiful when I can. When I get into it I’m doing it every day. Lately I’m doing so much home improvement stuff that my body is already burning so many calories I haven’t been able to do the ballet. But it is good for me. I’m dealing with plantar fasciitis so I have to be careful. Teaching doesn’t help because it is all standing. But the muscle definition goes away when I’m not doing ballet. I will be back to my workouts pretty soon.
Favourite way to unwind?
Just cuddling with my children, my son especially.
Best-kept secret (restaurant/tea place/anything) in your hometown?
Hmm we have a pretty tasty crepe and thai restaurant in our town where everything is yummy. They have thom kha soup which when done well is one of my favorite things to eat out and theirs is pretty good!
Very inspiring!