Scott Hinton
Lack of knowledge and experience can be forgiven and even embraced as signs of a humble leader. I chose to be honest about what I know and didn’t know.
Marina is the founder at BabyBoss and inventor of the Twosie, the detachable two-part baby vest that makes baby changing more convenient and less stressful. Baby changing can be awkward and stressful based on when, where and how often you’re doing it and your physical condition or that of the baby. With the Twosie, just detach the wet bottom part and replace it with a clean bottom part, so you don’t have to remove all the baby’s clothes. This means: (i) easy changing when out and about or travelling (ii) night-time changes without waking them, (iii) removes a source of pain and (iv) there are additional benefits for special needs children and babies in hospital. Each Twosie comes with one top part and two bottom parts – the detachable bottom part can be removed and replaced with a minimum of fuss.
Marina’s background is as a restaurateur / culinary arts. She specialized in pastry and worked as a restaurant consultant for a number of years.
In 2003 Marina opened her own restaurant in her hometown Ballinrobe, Co Mayo. From 2008-2011 Marina worked with an international company managing large culinary teams at different locations around Dublin before going back into business as a consultant advising restaurants. From 2011-2012 Marina was involved in establishing successful restaurants all over Ireland.
Marina has had quite the entrepreneurial journey. She opened a restaurant again in 2012 and then sold it in 2016 to focus on raising her daughter Anna. Now Marina is busy running BabyBoss with no plans of slowing down anytime soon!
Marina’s extensive experience as an entrepreneur (as well as being a mother) gives her invaluable insight into what parents need – which led not only to inventing the Twosie but also starting BabyBoss.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Marina Murphy: My background is as a chef specializing in pastry. In my mid-20s I started my own restaurant, Marina’s Restaurant, in my home town in Ireland. The opening hours were 8am-10pm and because it was my home town, customers expected to see me there all the time. This meant I generally worked a six or seven day week.
From 2008 to 2011 I worked for an international company managing large culinary teams at different locations around Dublin. I then worked for a couple of years as a restaurant consultant and was involved in establishing a number of very successful restaurants. In 2012 I again started my own business, opening a restaurant in Dublin,
I sold the business in 2016 to concentrate on raising my daughter Anna and she was the one that led me to come up with the Twosie! I’ve always had business ideas and have notebooks full of them.
From when I was 3 months pregnant with Anna, I suffered from sciatica down both of my sides. This meant no sleep and took its toll on me after Anna was born as I was left with chronic back and shoulder pain for 2 years.
I came up with the idea when Anna had a tummy bug. That day, I had to change Anna’s nappy 4 times in the space of an hour – this meant I had to remove all of her clothes each time, just to change her vest, when only the bottom part was wet. I searched online for a solution. When I didn’t find one, that was my lightbulb moment – a two-part baby vest that could help all parents and make baby changing more convenient and less stressful!
I have lots of other problem solving ideas for products for parents (I can’t say what they are in such a public forum). These products will be ‘mum-made’, deriving from my personal experience and I will be launching these in due course under the BabyBoss brand. The goal of BabyBoss is to make life easier and more convenient for parents.
I have learned a lot from my previous experience as an entrepreneur and business owner – about working ‘for’ rather than ‘in’ your business, about staff, delegation and work / life balance. But because my background is in food, I’ve had to learn a huge amount in the past few years about textiles (from tech packs to grading), baby clothing design, developing prototypes, sourcing a manufacturer, digital marketing and the psychology of selling online. It’s hard work, but getting great feedback from customers makes it really worthwhile.
Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? Did you ever consider giving up?
Marina Murphy: Starting a small business, particularly one with a brand new product which is not on the market, is very challenging. This is even more so in a mature market like the baby clothes market. It might be easier in the tech space where funding is more readily available. Apart from some funding from Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Board, all of the money which has gone into the business is our own. It is hard to put everything on the line, particularly in circumstances where most entrepreneurs don’t pay themselves a salary for the first few years. You feel undervalued – you work so hard without getting paid – I have often thought it would have been so much easier to give up and to open a coffee shop or restaurant! The challenge and risk of taking that leap into the unknown shouldn’t be underestimated – it is so much easier to work for someone else and take a salary! Of course, in the medium term there are upsides too!
Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. What’s the worst advice you received?
Marina Murphy: Fake it until you make it! There is a certain truth in this and a good way to improve your confidence can be to pretend you’re confident. However, people value transparency and authenticity – if you’re really faking it, people will see through you and won’t trust you. For example, there is no point in me pretending to know everything about finance – that just isn’t my forte and you can always hire the expertise of people you trust.
Lack of knowledge and experience can be forgiven and even embraced as signs of a humble leader. I chose to be honest about what I know and didn’t know. People are often too afraid to say they don’t understand or to seek further clarity in relation to an issue.
I also have a serious issue with the way customer service is going these days. It is becoming increasingly difficult to ask a question or make a complaint. When you do get a response, it is bland, insincere and often doesn’t answer the question you asked. My background is the restaurant business where the customer is always right and I take pride in the fact that BabyBoss delivers the personal touch.
Has the pandemic and transitioning into mostly online shopping affected your company positively or negatively?
Marina Murphy: Positively. Even prior to the pandemic, I made the decision to sell solely online from babybossonline.com when starting off and then looking at retail and other methods of distribution. The pandemic boosted our sales significantly. We have two key markets – parents and the gift market. When people couldn’t see each other during the pandemic, people tended to buy gifts and sales rose sharply. The trend is towards online for so many things and while there’ll always be a place for certain types of retail.
On a personal level the pandemic certainly made things challenging. Myself and my husband were both working from home and when the schools were closed our 6 year old, Anna, was there too and had to be entertained and home-schooled. I know most parents feel guilty at having to work and not being able to give their children enough attention. I certainly did. But you become more resilient and learn to cope. You understand the importance of the outdoors and exercise. You value the simple things more. In many ways, I hope to keep some of the habits I developed during the pandemic.
In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Marina Murphy: The Twosie is unique. There is no other product like it on the market and the concept has been patented. I like to say it is ‘mum-made’ and born out of experience, something other brands cannot match. In addition to the benefits of the Twosie I’ve already mentioned, other features include it’s eco-friendly nature. It is designed with sustainability in mind and is made from the highest quality 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton and all of the packaging is compostable or recyclable.
The Twosie mirrors the following key trends: (1) There is a growing demand for convenience-based and time saving products. (2) The trend of ‘premiumisation’ means buyers are willing to pay more for products with added benefits / value. (3) Sustainability and ethical credentials are becoming increasingly important in B2C for developing a brand and delivering sales. (4) The trend of gifting continues to grow, with people buying more expensive gifts and doing so more often.
The idea of the Twosie is so simple and it really came from just thinking about things in a slightly unconventional way. The reason things have been done a certain way for decades doesn’t always mean they should continue to be done that way!
The Twosie is inclusive – it’s for everyone. I’ve been contacted by so many mothers of special needs children and children who are peg fed. The Twosie is ideal for babies in hospital as it allows easy access for tubes etc. Last year I was contacted by one mum, Edel Murphy, in relation to her son Jonah. Jonah is now 5 but nearly didn’t make it. Heart problems meant he was receiving palliative care. But he made a miracle recovery. He still has complex needs and is peg fed. Edel has to change his vests at least 4 times every day and as often at night. He also has autism and has developed an aversion to clothes coming on or off over his head making changing his clothes and wet vest a sheer battle.
Edel said that the Twosie would be a game changer for them and so I have developed the Jonah Collection of Twosie, to fit children from 2-7 years. This project is something which has delivered so much joy to me and I value it more than almost anything I’ve done. It puts things in perspective.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Marina Murphy: Creativity. Problem solving ideas have always been one of my core competencies. I loved being creative in the restaurant business and when I worked as a chef and sometimes I miss that side of things now. That’s why I love coming up with new ideas for the business now.
Determination / resilience. Being an entrepreneur means regular setbacks, mistakes and problems. If you’re too cautious and are anxious to avoid mistakes, you won’t make enough progress. It is important to be dogged and to keep working hard. I’m not saying you shouldn’t acknowledge your mistakes – of course you should – but recognising your mistakes and changing course is so important in business. Pride can be overrated.
Authenticity. I’ve already spoken about the value I place upon it and I can’t emphasise it enough. It’s at the core of everything I do.
How important do you think it is for a leader to be mindful of his own brand?
Marina Murphy: I think it’s not important at all. A leader is a person not a brand and I think a leader being mindful about their brand is a kind of selfishness that can take away from the key goals of the business. I understand that the CEO or founder can sometimes be the face of the business that appears in the media, but he or she is portraying the branding of the business, not their own personal brand.
A leader makes mistakes, gets tired and sometimes has a bad day, just like everyone else! I think we sometimes lionize and worship leaders too much. They often tend to have some bad traits too!
What’s your favorite leadership style and why?
Marina Murphy: I look back at some of the organisations I worked in and autocratic leadership styles were so common. All of the bosses and most of the chefs tended to be male. Restaurants involve high pressure, particularly during service, and so there tends to be lots of shouting (sometimes out of necessity) and people can be aggressive.
In my view, it’s important to practice a number of different leadership styles, depending on the scenario. Sometimes it is necessary to be a pacesetter and to motivate people to hit targets, sometimes you have to be affiliative and look after people. My favourite leadership styles are the democratic or participative leadership style and the coaching style. People are what make an organisation tick and a positive culture in an organisation is so important – these must be at the heart of every leadership style.
Do you think entrepreneurship is something that you’re born with or something that you can learn along the way?
Marina Murphy: I’ve always wanted to work for myself. My father had his own building company and was a farmer and two of my siblings have their own businesses. However, it’s definitely not something your born with! I don’t believe it’s in your DNA, but it is something which you can pick up at a young age – sometimes it’s a parent or relative who is the catalyst, sometimes it might be something you see on the TV. I also think you can pick it up along the way. A lot of the people who I’ve come across as entrepreneurs never had any intention to work for themselves when they were younger, but they had an idea or personal circumstances lead them to start out on their entrepreneurship journey.
We hear a lot about successful entrepreneurs and it’s important that they share their stories and inspire younger entrepreneurs in particular. However, sometimes I think we can learn more from failed entrepreneurs and the mistakes they made or where they went wrong. Ultimately, most businesses and most entrepreneurs aren’t successful. We also need to recognise the role luck plays in success – it isn’t simply a case that all successful entrepreneurs are geniuses! Entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged, but people also need to be informed of the risks and then make an informed decision as to whether it’s right for them.
What’s your favorite “life lesson” quote and how has it affected your life?
Marina Murphy: A mistake that makes you humble is better than an achievement that makes you arrogant. When you make a mistake, and you learn from it, that gives you lessons for the rest of your life. It will make sure that you will not repeat that same mistake all over again. Achievements don’t actually make you a better person or make you any happier.
In Ireland, all of this tends to be the way people are brought up. You’re not allowed to get ‘above your station’ and arrogance is looked down upon.
Every entrepreneur makes lots of mistakes in business in the same way everybody makes mistakes in life. You can be too hard on yourself and learning from mistakes is what matters.
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.
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