We All Start Somewhere
It can be daunting setting up a business, from finding the right idea, bringing it to life and then growing to create a sustainable business. I am here to share, that it can be done. Even if there are a few hiccups along the way.
Let me share with you how my baby business Serene Baby all began.
8 years ago I was stuck in a job which bought me zero joy, I knew I wanted to help people but didn’t know how, or see a way out of my current job. After a very close family was taken ill very quickly, It made me realise how short life was and that I needed to get my arse in gear and do something about it. One evening I wrote down all my ideas, qualifications, who I wanted to help and I started brain storming and researching, this Is how I cam across baby massage, and I knew this was the path for me, as I could help so many parents and babies. I had a terrible experience attending baby classes and new I wanted parents to have a different experience in my classes, so from the very beginning I knew that Serene Baby’s core would always be small intimate class sizes and giving parents support as well as teaching a fantastic skill, this is my WHY.
Once I did all my training, I continued to work part time and started to build my business one day a week. My first course I had 1 parent book on, now some people may think, what’s the point of running a course with 1 person? But this is so important to know. Even though I was making no money, in fact I made a loss as the hall hire was more then what I was making, I was still making a difference to that 1 mama and baby. I did the full course and continued it as 1 :1 session, with consent I was able to share images of what my classes where like, ( social proof is so important) I moved to a different venue and tried to fill another course this time having 3 bookings, again not much profit at all, but at this early stage of my business it was about helping parents and starting to get my name established.
Left - My first ever client.
Before my first client, I had run a case study course ( to get my qualification) I took lots of photos and reviews to help with promotion.
I soon started to see an improvement in bookings but realised I needed the admin time to promote, so with my husbands support I left my part time job to teach 3 days of baby classes and 2 days to work on behind the scenes of the new business. At the early stages I wanted to teach in lots of different areas so I had classes running in 4 different locations using halls as my venues. After a year this was not viable as the hall fees where to much and the pressure to get several bookings in different areas was to much. I learnt from this and scaled right back staying to one location, I also started to teach from my lounge 1:1 sessions to give extra support to parents.
I continued to receive feedback that everyone preferred the relaxed vibes from my lounge at home then in a big draughty hall, So I moved to teaching solely from home, which I loved, my anxiety lowered so much teaching from home and I was able to create a safe and cosy environment, and never had to rush any parents out, they could stay and connect after class which was so important to me,
From Hall……………
……to home
Being able to teach from home was the best decision I made for my business and gave me the boost I needed, with out the pressure to fill up a hall, the bookings started to really flow through, and the seed of thinking about converting my garage into a home studio had begun
Just as I headed in to my 2nd year in business and I was starting to get fully booked classes every month….Covid and Lockdown happened.
I had to pivot, I lost ALOT of money, everyone wanted to have refunds and I had a huge retreat day planned which I could no longer run. I cried for awhile, then pulled my big girl pants on and got to work! On the day before full lockdown while the kids were at school, I made videos of baby massage & yoga to use as online content, I also made online courses, to continue to teach online. Teaching online while home schooling was HARD, I could of stopped running classes, but I knew these parents still needed support and more so during lockdown, so I continued to teach online.
Once lockdown lifted I was back to teaching in a hall, as I had continued to run my business and was still present on social media my business was able to recover and I was able to fill classes up again.
I managed to save enough to create my vision of making my home studio, The Serene Studio.
The Serene Studio,Wootton, Bedford
On the 6th June 2021 I opened up the studio, this has made such a difference for my business . I am fully booked at least 2 months in advance. I could extend and have bigger classes, but what makes Serene Baby so unique are our intimate classes and the attention we can give each of our families,
As the business grew, my Sister Nim joined Serene Baby setting up her own home studio and growing her business in Moggerhanger. She has now been established for nearly 4 years.
Due to parents not wanting to leave our classes, we expanded and offered music classes, messy play, starting solids workshops, toddler classes and our Baby Spa.
Not all of these sessions have stuck around, we invested money into building different classes but as the business grew we realised we needed to go back to our core and Why. It was hard to stop some of our classes knowing we wouldn’t see so many of our families again, but we had to do what worked for us and where our hearts truly lied which was Baby Massage & Baby Yoga.
So here I am juggling family, Serene Baby and now Empowerher Vision. (Is there such thing as balance? That’s a whole other Blog Post)
I hope by sharing my story you can see how far I have come in 7 years, it may not have been easy, I have worked extremely hard to get to this point with nothing falling in my lap and I continue to work hard, with never being complacent.
With passion for what you love, consistency and perseverance you to will have a thriving business.
Need help, or support with an idea, struggling to get bookings? or feeling stuck within your business? lets Chat!
Sareena
