“A sleeping baby is a happy baby, and a happy baby is a happy family.” With this as her guiding inspiration, a Filipino-Australian emerged to be a successful entrepreneur in a foreign land.
Sleepy Hugs, the sleep suit that gives babies that secure feeling and improved sleep, was borne out of the need for AusMumpreneur awardee Malou Villarreal to address the sleeping problem of one of her two sons.
After a lot of testing of what products best suits her second son, and learning that she is not alone in this situation—that a lot more moms have the same problem as hers —Villareal decided to create a product that combined a number of features and functions where other products fell short.
Thus, she gave birth to Sleepy Hugs.
“It helped my baby sleep better and in turn gave me back my sleep [and sanity]. The Sleepy Hugs is designed to help babies transition out of a swaddle wrap and gives security to help babies cope with their ‘moro’ reflex or startle reflex,” Villarreal, the founder of Baby Loves Sleep and creator of the Sleepy Hugs, told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview.
In the early years of Baby Loves Sleep, her mother helped sew the prototypes. When her son turned two years old, Villarreal launched her business online with the first ever Sleepy Hugs sleep suits. “Now in my third year of business, I have since designed and created four other products in the sleep wear range,” she said.
Villarreal has tapped a distributor in New Zealand and recently exported the products to Canada and USA. “My product brands have also been nominated for awards in Australia and the United Kingdom,” she beamed.
Villarreal recently bagged the Award for Product Innovation at the AusMumpreneur Awards Conference. She said the award is meaningful not only because it recognizes her business achievements but also acknowledges her dual role as a mother and an entrepreneur.
Being a mother and an entrepreneur is not an easy task in the land Down Under because Villarreal needs to juggle between caring for the children and maintaining the household, and running a business.
She said she does not have the luxury of having household helpers in Australia, unlike here in the Philippines, so she and her husband have to share in doing the household chores.
Villarreal said one of the biggest challenges in her business is building and growing the business from the ground up, and literally on a shoe string budget. Nevertheless, Villarreal continues to persevere, focus and work hard. By tapping a good manufacturing supplier, she was able to produce her first line of baby sleepwear.
“I have since extended my baby sleep wear range from a single product to five products that cover babies from newborn through to toddler stage. I have also recently launched my very own brand of silicone baby teethers that are the only teethers in Australia to carry the Baby Safety Australia tick of approval,” she said.
Describing herself as a passionate entrepreneur, Villarreal’s motivation for success is her family. She admits the life of an entrepreneur is like a roller-coaster ride and, likewise, she feels the pressure of running the business. Nevertheless, she tells herself to push on.
Villarreal is aware that committing mistakes are part of the game and she needs to be prepared when they occur.
“Mistakes are inevitable and you need to be prepared when they happen, but it’s important to learn from them and never stop learning better and smarter ways of doing things,” she said.
An optimist, Villarreal describes herself as a “glass half-full” kind of individual. She loves to take calculated risks and pushes herself to the limit to achieve her goal.
“I love collaborating with other unique brands that complement my own product brand and I love supporting other mom entrepreneurs. I believe in giving back to the community and hope that someday, I can give back something meaningful and significant that will make a difference to people’s lives,” she said.
Image credits: ausmumpreneur.com