Business Interview - Smiley Tots Clothing

Business Name: Smiley Tots ClothingTell us a little about yourself- Behind Smiley Tots Clothing are two Mums attempting to work at home with the support of their brave Smiley husbands and five adorable Smiley Tots.We initially met while pregnant with our beautiful Oct 07 babies though an online forum however it took almost 2 more years before we actually met face to face – although it felt like we had been friends forever anyway.Our sewing adventures came about through a love of Modern Cloth Nappies and the urge to create Christmas outfits for our precious babies. A few nappies, a couple of dresses and some shorts later it was suggested we go into business. A joke and a laugh later, Smiley Tots Clothing was born and since then we’ve been on a rollercoaster learning curve establishing our very own work from home business – definitely a lot more complicated then agreeing to go into business togetherWhat products/services do you sell? Currently we sell handmade clothing for children up to size 6. Our clothing range includes pants, shorts, appliqué t-shirts, our super cute Pinny dresses and Aunty Jo creations hand crochet beanies. There are also plans to release a reversible pinny dress. We hope to release our Smiley Bums Modern Cloth Nappies in the near future, which are currently at trial stage. Smiley Tots Clothing also stock Oooh Baby Clips (including super cute AFL bows).What makes your product/service unique? All of our products are made with high quality clothing and materials. We like to think we are different from other things on offer out there as we have developed our own patterns and use our own creativity to come up with products that will hopefully appeal to a lot of different peopleDo you have a website? We have recently launched our website – www.smileytotsclothing.comCan people purchase your products other than online? No, all of our products can be found at www.smileytotsclothing.com or at Smiley Tots Clothing on Facebook. We hope to attend a few markets throughout the year around Perth - and maybe some country WA location as well.Do you have any special/competitions or discounts that you would like people to know about? Currently we don’t have anything special happening but we will always announce our specials, discounts and competitions on both our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Perth-Australia/Smiley-Tots-Clothing/107756032588794?ref=ts and our blog http://smileytotsclothingau.blogspot.com/. Do you have a favorite product? Jayne – at the moment I really love our little appliquéd hats with ears. I think they are adorable!Peta - I think it would have to be the flannel pants. They are so soft and look super cute - perfect for a smiley tots winterAny advice for anyone else starting their own handmade business? Establishing a business has been a huge learning curve for us. It’s not as simple as making a product and then selling (we wish it was though).Make sure you talk to others who have their own business, find out what you need but don’t get turned off cause it sounds too hard. Now that we have our website up, every step of the process has been stressful but worth it. Anything else you wish to tell everyone about? We enjoy making all of our products. We buy our material in small lots which means that there may only be a few pieces that are the same. Please come check smiley tots clothing out if you want your little smiley tot to wear something that is handmade and unique.