Page 174 - April Issue

mother, baby & child April 2011 Mumtrepreneur
of the Month

Esti Symonds

Entrepreneur.Wife. Full-time Mum. It’s a
wonder how Esti Symonds, now the UAE

distributer of Baby Cheeks, can actually
do them all – with grace.

H er romance with the enterprise began in
New Zealand with the birth of their first
daughter, Holly. Hers was a testimony of
how efficient this ‘one size fits all Baby Cheeks
pocket nappy’ is: “From day one, I bought 60
nappies upon the birth of my eldest Holly.” She
immediately fell in love with the product that was
a brainchild of Kiwis Jolene Powell and Felicity
Reid. A year of intense research, surveys and
trials combined with sheer creativity and utmost
imagination brought about a state-of-the-art diaper
that lasts.

Esti, a South African and UAE resident since
1999, is wife to a Kiwi businessman who is very
much keen in supporting her venture. In 2008, she
and her husband had flown to his home country and
welcomed their bundle of joy.

Once she had returned to the
emirates, she realised that there
were not much options for her when
it comes to ideal nappies for her
tot. As Holly began to develop
rashes on her first try of disposable
diapers, she came to a conclusion:
import Baby Cheeks and earn from
it. Not long after, the then-mum-
of-one began changing her gears.
A stroke of luck perhaps, all the
components she needed had
been sorted out and she started
pursuing her dream in no time.
“I first began approaching online
stores who were very much
open to this novel idea, in the
UAE at least. Back then one of
our challenges was that people

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