PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSHUA MORRIS. HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY STEPH LAI/RELOAD AGENCY. STYLED BY ELLA BLINCO JURY. SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE GRUMPY BARISTA – 34 HENDERSON ROAD, ALEXANDRIA. *AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS78 marieclaire.com.auMARCIA LEONE
ERICA STEWARTHolding her 10-month-old daughter
Poppy Valentine on her hip while
wearing a Keepsake the Label
mini dress and six-inch heels, Marcia
Leone, 37, is the epitome of chic.
You wouldn’t know that she’d just
changed a dirty nappy in the back
room. It’s just another day in the
oice for Leone, who started her
blog Not So Mumsy as a “creative
outlet” while on maternity leave
with her son Archie in 2011. “I was
struggling with being a new mum
and having to leave my son at
childcare. I wasn’t ready to go back
to my marketing job,” says Leone,
who decided not to return to her
full-time position when she started
making an income from her blog. It
was the right decision – Leone now
has 160,000 Instagram followers,
50,000 unique hits on her blog
every month and her own sleepwear
label. While being able to work
around her kids sounds like a dream,
Leone admits being a mummy
blogger has its challenges. “There’s
no downtime ... If you want to
launch a business on maternity
leave, make sure it’s a passion
project because otherwise you’re
too tired,” says Leone, who hasn’t
had more than a four-hour block of
sleep since her daughter was born.
Her secret? “Cofee. Lots of cofee.”“Starting a business is like having
your first child again, except the
hard bit goes on for longer,”
admits Kristy Chong, who started
Modibodi period underwear when
her third son Isaac was born four
years ago. While on maternity leave,
Chong decided to test out the
market for her product – a period-,
leak- and sweat-proof pair of
underwear – having spent $20,000
developing a prototype. “I was only
working on the brand part time, but
mat leave gave me the opportunity
to test the business idea – while also
looking after my baby and two
older boys,” she says of the early
days she spent building financial
models, investigating the textile
industry and expanding the
product line. When Chong was
confident in her product, she
started working on the business full
time in 2015 instead of returning to
her corporate job. In the past year,
Modibodi has quadrupled its
sales and is expected to turn over
$10 million this year. Chong, now
40, says the hardest part of starting
a business is having patience. “You
need to be patient, go easy on
yourself and break challenges
down into small steps,” she says.
Solid advice for entrepreneurs and
new parents alike.When Erica Stewart looks back
on 2010 – the year she spent
her maternity leave working on
her website Hard To Find – it’s a
blur. But she vividly remembers
breastfeeding her newborn
daughter Charlotte while replying
to business emails in the tiny
playroom of her terrace house in
Sydney. “They were tricky times.
In the beginning, I was running
the site, curating pieces, managing
spreadsheets, liaising with web
developers and implementing a
marketing strategy – oh, and raising
three kids. It was ... overwhelming,”
says Stewart, whose multi-tasking
helped the business take of. So
much so that Stewart didn’t return
to her job in publishing – and her
husband also quit his job to become
a stay-at-home dad. “Having a
parent at home takes away a lot of
that mother guilt,” she says. Today,
Hard To Find is a multimillion-dollar
business and Stewart has swapped
her kids’ playroom for an oice in
Sydney with 20 staf. Now in her
40s, she’s most proud of the
example she’s set for her children- especially her daughters. “I’ve
shown my kids you can be a mum
and a successful businesswoman.
I want my girls to know that they
can conquer the world,” she says.
KRISTY CHONG
Founder of Not So MumsyFounder of Hard To FindFounder of Modibodi47% OF MUMS DON’T RETURN TO WORK BEFORE THEIR CHILD IS TWO*
@WORK