Karen Lucas, managing director of Just4Kids, explains why the business should win the home business category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
Just4Kids was created by myself and my two children, Noah aged seven and Oscar aged 10.
After being unable to find a natural deodorant for the boys, we set about developing our own specifically designed Just4Kids in our kitchen at home. This became our little lab for over 12 months, working on different formulations and sampling containers.
Working from home has enabled us to explore all aspects of starting a small business at a speed that suits us, keeping costs to a minimum and allowing us to have group mornings with local parents as and when required, which has helped with our market research.
As we are based from home the whole family is involved in some way or another.
We now have the deodorant made from a factory as we couldn’t keep up with demand once other parents had heard what we were doing.
Our products are delivered and stored in our store room (previously spare bedroom), and we package and label up for our online sales.
As this is a home-based business and our product was made for my own children, people are aware we have sourced the best ingredients with a gentle formula for young skin; a brand that children will want to use and parents can feel confident is safe.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
