How did you come to start shop for tots?
Since having my kids, I have developed a passion for trying to find beautiful, unique, practical and safe products. This quickly turned into an obsession, but with no time to make it to the shops (or desire to as I had twin babies in tow), I turned to looking online. Even though there were plenty of online stores out there, I was unable to find ones that had a complete range of products, not just clothes or toys or gear. As I have some business experience, my family and I ran the leading supplier of educational products to schools and parents in Australia, so I decided to use the experience I had gained with my passion and so Shop for Tots was born.
How long has shop for tots been running?
We are brand new - 17 days to be exact. Can you describe your average day? My parents look after my twins, Orlando and Sofia, for a few hours in the morning, so I check my emails and process new customer orders. In the afternoon I get to play with the kids, spend time with my husband over dinner, then get back to my computer which is where I spend the rest of the night, normally until midnight.
What are you excited about for winter?
When we get stuck indoors there are a couple I like to do, I give the kids a new puzzle to keep them quiet, then I have a big sort out of the kids toys and art work. So I have fulfilled my own desires, by getting in some beautiful puzzles from Melissa Doug and some storage from Fiona Kate. ( thank you)
Your least favourite task?
Spending hours doing data entry for new products, we have 70 columns of information for each product, so it takes considerable time.
Do you have story about a day or customer you would like to share?
We had a beautiful email sent to us by one of our first customers, who happened to be from Denmark. He searched the internet for a couple of hours trying to find good quality toys to send to his nephew in Hong Kong. He couldn't find any online stores in China who sold anything other than plastic mass produced toys, then he decided to stretch his search to Australia and found us. He emailed us saying how impressed he was with our site and our range. He also said that he liked to support start up companies and that he would be buying from us 3 - 4 times a year for birthdays and Christmas presents. He was our second customer, so we were over the moon to hear his response.
Where is your favourite spot to sit during your work day?
I like to sit in our office, my desk is in front of a big window overlooking our kids cubby house and our back garden. Our garden has a few big trees in it which are home to some pink and grey galahs, if I need a break from the computer screen, I do enjoy gazing out onto our back yard.
