A greener life

How and why did you start your business?

I’ve had an interest in organic food and natural products for about seven years. A couple of years ago I started getting concerned about the reports that were coming out about plastics leaching into foods. My kids were still quite little, and there was all this information coming out about how BPA (Bisphenol A) was leaching out of plastic food containers and bottles and that it affects young children.

I’d been studying nutrition up to that point (I’m about halfway through a diploma of nutrition through a Sydney college that I do via distance education, but I’ve dropped it for now, even though I’ll get there eventually).

My initial concern was with the plastic leaching into food, but the reason behind the business is two-fold. Landfill is also the other issue that I cover heavily in any articles that I write, so our use of plastic is a two-fold issue: it’s about health and also the health of the planet.

I started looking at stainless steel drink bottles and things like that, then things like a stainless steel water jug that had a lid, just really basic things…stainless steel containers that I could use for the kids either for school or daycare, or when we went out, to put their food and snacks in.

Before having kids, I was a chartered accountant. I worked for Price Waterhouse and a whole raft of corporate businesses. I was a finance director of a hotel and casino at the age of 27 so lots of things happened really fast. But I got sick of people being treated like just dollars on a page. I wanted to work in an environment where I was treated like a person and not just a disposable entity. I started a consultancy business, which went quite well. After having the children, I was trying to get back into the workforce but didn’t want to go back to working for corporations. I wanted to do something I really loved, that allowed me to work from home.

What’s been your greatest achievement so far?

Surviving having two caesarians (laughs). Probably the media coverage that I’ve been getting, my business was nominated and was a finalist for Best Eco Friendly Business Award (Mumpreneur Awards). I’ve only had the business for two years, so that’s good. I’m happy to a certain extent with how the business is growing, but I wish I had more than 24 hours in a day (laughs).

Because I’ve still got my three and a half year old at home most days, when she’s at daycare, I’m trying to work on the business but also run around madly trying to do all things you need to do without the kids.

Starting a business is such a learning curve – it’s mindblowing what’s out there, especially when you’ve been distracted by small children for a few years and you’re trying to get back into the latest technology. The business is going well and starting to grow at a faster pace now over the last three months, but lots more work is going into it - you get out of it what you put in, really.

Do you find balancing work and family a challenge?

Absolutely! Anybody who doesn’t must be mad (laughs). I don’t know, I guess it is a challenge but I wouldn’t try to do it if I wasn’t passionate about the business, and passionate about staying at home with my kids as much as possible. It gives me flexibility, to an extent, as long as I get up at three or four in the morning, it all works really well (laughs).

That throws your body out of whack a bit and the end of the week is always exhausting…I just find the only way to get stuff done is to do it in the middle of the night! I don’t do that every day – I’d really like to but there are some mornings when the alarm goes off at four and I just can’t get out of bed. But it’s probably happening most weekdays, and then on the weekends I try not to do it because I need to catch up on some sleep.

I don’t think I can operate like this forever. My youngest starts school in a year, so after that I will hopefully revert to more normal hours.

Who inspires you and why?

A lady called Cindy O’Meara who’s a nutritionist. She inspires me; she is a very motivated, passionate lady, who has a wealth of knowledge and continues to research things and spread the message whether it’s to a group of five people or five hundred people. She travels the country and still manages to you know, have Sunday breakfast with her family and do all of those things, so yeah, I find her very motivational.

Tell us about the charity work you’re involved in.

I support the National Breast Cancer Foundation in October each year, so any pink products that I have in stock, I donate a percentage of those sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Some plastics are regarded as toxins that have been linked to things like breast and prostate cancer, so that’s why I support them.

There are a couple of not-for-profit organisations that I work closely with here in Townsville. One is The Umbrella Network, a group of ladies who have pulled together the services around Townsville for all sorts of disabilities. They all have children with some form of disability, or autism, or ADHD, so they know what it’s like to try to find services within the Townsville region. I came across them at a National Playgroup Day function where we both had stalls set up, and it just kind of went from there. I mean, I’m not saying I get to do a lot of volunteering work for them, but I’m a big supporter of theirs and I do help out when I can if they’ve got events and they need bags packed and that kind of thing. They have a morning tea each week – not that I get there each week – but when I do get there it’s very grounding to listen to them and the things that they have to deal with in their everyday life. It kind of makes you appreciate what you’ve got and sometimes when life’s busy and stressing you out, you need that. They’re a great bunch of ladies. They’re doing something that they’re not getting paid for to help other parents, so it’s very worthwhile.

The other local organisation I support is the MINDD Foundation, who is very natural health oriented. Their focus is on kids who are autistic and have ADHD and autistic spectrum disorders, to try to assist them from a food and nutrition perspective. They’re trying to provide a change in diet as well as other therapies. It may not work for everybody; I guess it’s like everything, but I’ve heard about the results of some of the people who have taken that approach and it’s quite amazing.

Tell us about your family.

We have two adults and two children, or one adult and three children, I’m not sure sometimes (laughs). Our oldest is really loving school and my youngest stays at home with me, apart from two days a week in an excellent daycare centre.

What has been your biggest parenting challenge and why?

Moving house when we had a two-year-old and a two-month-old! We actually did a couple of moves in quick succession. We were in Ballina (NSW), and we moved into some temporary accommodation for a week, while we tidied things up and left, then we moved to Townsville for three months, then to Mission Beach, near Cairns, while we were waiting for our house to be finished, and then we finally moved into our house! It was especially stressful on me because from the Mission Beach move onwards, my husband was working 11 days on, three days off. My breastmilk slowed down and the baby started losing weight and was put into that category of “failure to thrive”, which made me feel not so great, and my hormones were all over the place…We went through a couple of months of sorting that all out. So that was fairly challenging!

What leisure activities do you enjoy most as a family, and why?

Ten-pin bowling is a big one that we like to do. It’s something a little bit different. It’s something we can all do and doesn’t matter if we’re good or not, we’re just having fun. We probably do that once every three months or so.

What will you be doing in 10 years – personally and professionally?

That’s a really long way off! (Pause) Sorry, I’m just calculating how old the children would be! (Laughs). I can’t say I’ve actually thought that far ahead – I’m just worrying about when I have to get up in the morning! The world is turning eco-friendly so quickly that the things I’m selling now will be readily available in shops, so I probably won’t be running an online eco-friendly kitchenware business…but I know I’ll be working somehow with nutrition or eco-friendly products.

On a personal level…I’ve done skydiving already and I won’t do bungee jumping, so I haven’t got anything very exciting to add there, sorry!

Karen’s Favourite things:

Favourite rainy day activity: Puzzles are good. We do lots of little activities in books. Colouring-in, play dough: all the standard ones.

Favourite fine day activity: Go for a ride on our bikes along the river, down to the park. Kick the ball around outside. We do lots of bubble blowing!

Favourite holiday destination: We go camping an awful lot. Any caravan park really that has facilities. We go to Rollingstone Caravan Park quite a bit.

Favourite restaurant: When we do go without the kids, we like to go to A Touch Of Salt. When we go with the kids, the place we’ve been to the most is the Kirwan Tavern because they have a play area. Cactus Jack’s is very good too.

Favourite beach: Rowes Bay. And Bushland Beach, we go there as well.

Favourite food: Has to be chocolate. There’s just no going past it.