NIKKI Bardis came up with a clever solution for a common problem babies face — and mums are going crazy for it.
A VICTORIAN entrepreneur raked in $100,000 in 10 weeks after discovering a simple solution to a common problem faced by new mums — bald babies.
That’s right. Because babies spend so much time lying down, the friction caused by rubbing the backs of their heads against the bedding often causes hair loss.
Nikki Bardis came up with the solution — silk cot slips — and mums are going crazy for it. “Ask anybody that has a child, they’ve noticed bald spots,” the 34-year-old from Mount Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula said.
Ms Bardis, originally from Scotland, recalled that her grandmother swore by silk pillowcases — so she bought an adult one and tucked it into the bassinet as an experiment.
Silk pillowcases were growing in popularity — one Australian manufacturer is predicting sales of $50 million in the next few years — but Ms Bardis realised there was a gap in the market for a range just for babies and toddlers.
But the idea kept coming back to her.
After her second baby arrived, she began seriously considering the product. The 34-year-old had already seen success with her business Beach Candy, a line of Turkish beach towels, so had experience with textiles.
She sold Beach Candy last year and used the money to bootstrap her new business, SilkyTots. “It took me a lot of time to get on top of everything, a lot of sample runs to make sure everything was absolutely perfect,” she said.
Ms Bardis started by playing around with samples from her local Spotlight before trialling prototypes with Chinese factories.
SilkyTots finally launched in May this year. By August, 10 weeks later, she had amassed 5000 followers on Instagram and completely sold out of stock, with back orders for the $85 cot slips now piling up.
Ms Bardis has now done more than $120,000 in revenue and is on track to hit just over $500,000 in the first 12 months. That’s without factoring in US and UK expansion.
She credits the “mum market” word-of-mouth.
“Everyone wants what everyone else has and they all trust each other’s opinion,” she said.
SilkyTots also makes silk pillowcases for toddlers and children who get “matted, bird’s nest hair” and is moving into bedding, silk sheets and doona covers.
Ms Bardis said her message to any parents with an idea they think could solve a problem was simply that “you need to be confident, follow through and do something about it”.