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Business Profile:           Snazzi Pants

Snazzipants is a family business, run by Pippa and hermum, Maria. But most importantly person to have an input into the business is Luka, Pippa's son (now 2 ½ ) who has  inspiration and demanded only the best in nappies from his mum!! 

After trying cloth nappies on him as a new baby and finding they had many shortcomings, she started to look at what was available overseas and to order through the internet. She soon realised that cloth nappies were undergoing a major revolution in other parts of the world thanks to new fabrics, and was frustrated by the lack of options in New Zealand. 

So this mother and daughter team began to realise that there must be other people out there feeling the way they did, and so in May 2003, three months after Luka was born, Snazzipants was formed. They spent six months sourcing, designing and prototyping before launching for business at the 2003 Parent and Child Show. I think the explosion of NZ cloth nappy companies over the past 2 years has proven that we were right!

Snazzipants is unique as it is a one stop nappy shop covering all the different modern cloth nappy options – pre-folds, fitted nappies and pocket nappies. 

Not only that, we manufacture right here in New Zealand, as well as importing the best from overseas. They have one of the largest cloth nappy product ranges available in NZ. 

They also import hemp fabric from overseas and manufacture hemp nappies. Hemp is a very environmentally sustainable crop as it is grown without any pesticides, and it is very durable, but most importantly it is  much more absorbent than cotton, so it makes great nappies! Why would someone want to buy is not a hard one to answer, but it is hard to narrow it down to a few sentences!! 

Kids Friendly New Zealand asked how do you fit your business around your family, this is  Pippa's reply.

Snazzipants has allowed me to stay at home with my child, which is something I will always be grateful for. I have a hugely supportive Mum who turns up every day around lunchtime, helps me out with Luka, and while he naps we both work like Trojans as I deal with the day’s orders on the computer and she does all the ordering and despatching.  It gets harder as Luka gets older and sleeps less, but there is always someone around to help entertain this energetic 2 year old while the work gets done. I pick up my 10 year old niece after school, and she is always ready and willing to pitch in and help. Actually she is another member of the Snazzipants despatch staff during school holidays!

My husband is the IT man, and it is thanks to him we have a website at all. It took us a whole weekend back in September 2003, my parents looking after Luka, and Matt and I sitting at the computer with a library book on how to write html…by the Sunday evening the website was up!

So what is it like being a mother and a business woman? Pippa explains the lows of running your business from home include dealing with customers or issues on the phone while your child is in the middle of a tantrum!! 

Yes, she has shut herself in the toilet to try to sound professional while talking to a customer at an inopportune moment! 

 

	The highs are always the lovely feedback they get, and meeting so many excited pregnant Mums (and Dads)-to-be when they come around to the house for a demo. Their enthusiasm never fails to bring back her initial enthusiasm for this business back.   We asked what her advice would be for other Mums thinking of going into business. It is simply, here is Pippa's advice.  "All I can say is keep going! When it looks like nothing is ever going to work, keep at it – setbacks do happen but you just have to hang in there. Actually I still need people to remind me of that one." And to finish off some advice from Pippa's mum Maria that has kept Pippa going.    "I think the biggest thing I have learnt is business is NOT rocket science! Our decisions are usually straight from the heart and often take a matter of minutes. My Mum always tells me that in business 50% of all decisions are wrong. So why take three weeks to decide when you can do it in 3 minutes."     We ask why cloth and this is what Snazzi Pants told us? Interesting don't you think?     1)Cloth nappies are better for babies. Don’t believe the marketing hype of disposable manufacturers – nappy rash has increased significantly (from 7% of babies in 1955 to 78% of babies in 1991) along with the increasing use of disposable nappies. Disposable nappies are full of chemicals that more and more babies are allergic to, as well as being linked with increases in asthma (thanks to the sodium polyacrylate powder they are chock full of that turns to gel when exposed to moisture) and male infertility through overheating.     2)Cloth nappies are better for the environment. Each baby in disposables will create around 2 tonnes of biohazard waste to sit in a landfill for the next 500 or so years.   Disposable nappies use 3.5 times more energy, 8 times more non-renewable raw materials, 90 times more renewable material than washable nappies. Disposable nappies produce 2.3 times more wastewater, 60 times more solid waste than washable nappies. Disposable nappies require between 4 and 30 times more land for growing natural materials as reusable nappies.     3)Cloth nappies are better for your budget. Disposable nappies cost on average somewhere between $2500 and $4000 depending on brand, frequency of changing and age of toilet training. Don’t forget that cost is repeated for each child, whereas one cloth nappy set up ranging from a few hundred to a thousand dollars will last through all your children.   Last but not least – cloth is just softer than paper. Why would you not want to buy them??  ;) For more details contact Pippa on snazzipants@slingshot.co.nz or visit their website http://www.snazzipants.co.nz/