Where it all began
Bear and Moo - from the beginning...
When Regan was born in 2015, we wanted to use cloth nappies. I couldn't justify $30 a week on nappies when my grocery budget was $120 a week - I would rather buy food! There was so much information out there, it was overwhelming, but we found a routine and made it work!
Fast forward to 2018, I was 2 kids in cloth nappies deep and really wanted to find a way to make some extra money for our family, while still being there for the kids.
I was intrigued by ecommerce but wasn't sure on a product idea. The more I thought about our cloth journey, the more I thought there had to be a way to make it affordable, cute as f*ck, and simple for people...and that's where the business began.
I didn't know much about starting a business so there was a lot of watching videos, asking for help, joining Facebook groups and just trial and error. I came up with a business name - Bear & Moo is named after my boys (Hadley Bear and Mister Moo - don't worry, Maddie is our Poppet so she got her own brand too!). Once I had the name I built a website, secured social media names, sourced product and designed a logo in Canva.
I went from 'hey, I could sell cloth nappies' to preorders in 5 weeks. I was packing orders in the spare bedroom, the courier picked up from our house, and I got such a buzz from the orders coming through. I still do. Every Shopify notification on my phone makes me smile!
We've come a long way since then.
It has been a really natural growth - word of mouth has been our biggest growth source and our customers are gold. We've got some amazing customers who have been with us since day one and we are constantly trying to evolve and grow to continue to meet the needs of those same customers - providing everything they need on their parenting journey now that their kids are a little older.
We've outgrown the spare bedroom, and the house; we have a warehouse (that's almost bursting at the seams!) and I have an incredible team of staff. We sell a hell of a lot more than just nappies now, and have huge goals to keep growing!
Five years in and I couldn't be more proud. I'm proud of our team, our customers, my family who've helped us on this journey and I'm proud of how far we've come.
It's been an incredible journey full of fun, laughter, highs (and a few lows), but we truly wouldn't be here without you all.
From my family to yours - thank you so much for your amazing support.
Hannah
xox