Business Hour
Almost two years ago following the birth of her first baby, Carla Lett was disappointed to find a huge lack of up to date information for baby and parent groups in her area
Instead of wallowing at home, it sparked an idea for an online directory and today Carla, 31, has one of the fastest growing directories with more than 15,000 groups, classes, events and businesses listed, it is a one stop shop for everything from pregnancy to preschool.
This mumpreneur is even on the radar of infamous Dragon, Peter Jones, who named her runner up in his quest to find the most ambitious company in the country.
Carla grew up in Lytham and qualified as an accountant in 2016. “George was a surprise pregnancy and he arrived shortly after my wedding that I was planning before we found out we were expecting,” says Carla.
“Sadly, a week before our wedding my dad suffered a heart attack and, after much deliberation, we went ahead with the big day. Thankfully he made a full recovery but couldn’t be there to walk me down the aisle.”
Life hadn’t finished throwing challenges at Carla though as she was then diagnosed with placenta previa which resulted in George being born seven weeks early.
“When George was born he wasn’t breathing and had to be resuscitated. He was whisked to neonatal and it was quite a traumatising few weeks. Once we had both recovered, we were allowed home to get on with the next chapter.”
Understandably, Carla was in a state of shock after the lead up to her wedding and the birth of George so she started mybump2baby.com as a blog initially about her experiences and as a kind of therapy.
“When we first came home with George I didn’t want to leave the house. I didn’t want to do anything and I’m just not like that. It was post-natal depression and I had to do something about it. I tried to pull myself together which is easier said than done.”
“I found a class on Google for me and George to go to. I got us both ready and prepared myself for the journey there. When I arrived, there wasn’t any class. The details I had found were out of date and my efforts were wasted.”
“I burst into tears. It had taken so much to come, mentally and physically I was so disappointed. When I calmed down I thought I don’t want this to happen to other parents so I talked to my husband about creating an up to date directory.”
As an IT engineer, Carla’s husband was able to give her some advice to get the idea off the ground and two years later it’s growing rapidly.
“Every business that is listed on the site can be found through Google too because I have invested in the best search engine optimisation available. I publish reviews on products, days out, holidays and they’re all 100 per cent honest. The site even finds the five cheapest parent products on the market as well as any offers suitable for parents and lists them.”
It was earlier this year that Carla saw that Peter Jones and Sage were on a quest to find the UK’s most ambitious company in the country and so she applied.
There were more than 500 entries and Carla didn’t expect to hear anything at all after her application. She was shortlisted to the final 100 and interviewed by a panel and was then whittled down to the last eight.
“As a finalist, I was invited to an event with Peter Jones and it was amazing. He talked about the businesses he has launched and he made me feel really good about the decisions I have made with mine. I had the opportunity to chat with him and he actually knew about mybump2baby.com I couldn’t believe it.”
“I was incredibly humbled when he announced to the room that I was an inspiration and offered to pitch my business to Emma’s Diary to see if there’s some kind of collaboration we could do in the future.”
Carla’s site has more than 45,000 visitors per month but its maintenance is high which doesn’t leave her much spare time.
“When I do get some time to myself, I love a glass of Prosecco and going to the gym and in the future, I would love to take on some voluntary work.”
“I hate the idea of anyone being lonely, mental health is something close to my heart, it needs to be talked about and hopefully the site is a place parents can find like minded people and in turn grow their own communities.”
