Hello Everyone,
How have you all been? Moms are multitasking, multi-faceted, and ever working isn’t it. Have you ever given a thought how the life of a Mompreneur is? They manage their work, handle kids, family and yet find time for themselves too. Here I will be writing a series: Moms who Inspire, interview of all the inspirational mompreneurs who are best at managing their home and their work.
Our first featured mom is Pallavi Utagi, Founder(Mom-in-chief) of Superbottoms. She calls herself the super mom, well, she is! All of us are aware of Superbottoms as India’s first CPSIA certified cloth diapering brand. Superbottoms make the best cloth diapers in India, and those prints are to die for. I am a massive fan of Superbottoms.
From Superbottoms
“At Superbottoms, we put in a lot of love in doing what we do and making products which are not just beautiful but also functionally brilliant! As parents ourselves, we know that we can never overemphasize the safety aspects of the products we use on our babies.”
Let’s see what Pallavi has to say
Pallavi Utagi, Mom-in-chief, Superbottoms
Hello Pallavi, Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
I am passionate about Earth-Friendly ideas, Marketing, and Potty Management; though not necessarily in that order! I find baby bums the cutest ever, and my obsession with my son’s bum health lead to becoming a cloth diapering enthusiast, who does not miss any opportunity to recommend this excellent option to new parents.
As a trained marketing professional, I have been working on some leading women’s health brands. In my free time, I love reading with a cuppa chai & consulting small businesses on all things marketing.
How did the idea of Superbottoms come up? What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?
My son’s first bum rash was the inspiration for finding an option that provided the convenience of disposable diapers in the goodness of cloth.
While there were some Advanced Cloth Diapers in the western markets, they were expensive and not suited for Indian babies.
This inspired me to come up with Superbottoms, an Indian brand of high-quality earth-friendly reusable cloth diapers.
I am a person with limited patience who loves doing result-oriented things. A job hardly gave me the freedom to do all the things that I truly enjoyed doing. Entrepreneurship seemed to be the perfect option for me.
My inspiration is my mother who had quit her school teaching job and started her own computer training institute from scratch 25 years ago.
If not as the supermom at Superbottoms, what career would you have chosen?
Had I not been a supermom at Superbottoms, I would have been a social entrepreneur working for street children. This is something that I feel very strongly passionate about.
How tough or easy was it for you to decide to be an entrepreneur?
Full-time entrepreneurship, for a family which has been traditionally job oriented, is a big deal. Thus, it took some time to convince my family and me.
The decision was not easy for myself either, and for a long time I did both my job and also managed my business.
Once I saw significant traction in Superbottoms, I quit my job and got into it full time.
How has your journey been? What did you enjoy the most being an entrepreneur?
The journey has been incredible! I will not say it has been easy, but it has been one vast learning experience that has helped me evolve as a person as well as, as a professional.
The best (and scariest) part of being an entrepreneur is that it is all up to me.
Also, the fact that there is are no reports and presentations to be made 🙂
All I have to do is real raw work.
What is your morning routine? What is the first thing you do in the morning?
First thing I do in the morning (after hugging my little one) is meditating and visualize my day.
And then the next thing I do is chat with my team member, Martina, who is already on her job to process the daily orders 🙂
How do you juggle between being a mom and an entrepreneur?
By bringing work home and taking my son to work 🙂
I have a lovely team of mothers who help me manage Superbottoms. They all work from home and so do I. This in itself helps immensely regarding being available for my son.
Apart from that, I often take him to meetings and make it a point to spend at least a few hours without the phone only with him daily.
Do you get time for yourself? What is your mantra to relax and unwind?
To be honest, all the time apart from Superbottoms is for my son, Kabir.
I do not get much time for myself. However every few weeks I catch up with my girl-friends, and that helps me relax and unwind.
What is that one thing/person that keeps to motivated?
My husband. He is always there motivating me, guiding me, and whenever I feel low or challenged, he helps me put things in perspective.
Do you have meltdowns? How do you handle such situations?
Yes! Entrepreneurship is a sine curve. There are massive highs, and then there are lows too.
Calling my husband is my way of handling the meltdowns. His approach to managing my meltdowns is to make me see the big picture 🙂
Whom do you attribute your success to? Why?
I attribute my success to my husband who has been a rock-solid support and my son, who has been very understanding a very young age, and to myself, for being super resilient.
What are your plans for the year 2018?
To keep stretching myself and setting goals for myself which challenge me and bring out the best in me.
For Superbottoms, to continue to build Cloth Diapering in India and to build a beautiful all-moms company that is known for great products and excellent service.
What is your advice to people/moms who want to be entrepreneurs?
Take the first step and the next.
Also, ask for help. Today there is a lovely community online especially for mothers that are immensely supportive.
One just needs to be passionate and take the first step, and then the next.
Thank you so much, Pallavi for being a part Moms who Inspire series and taking your time for this. You are indeed an inspiration.
Hope you all enjoyed reading. Until next time,
Stay hooked.
This was a beautiful interview. I wish you all the best for the year to come. I also tend to visualise my day ahead in the mornings. 😉
It as good to read Pallavi’s journey. She is lucky to have a supportive and understanding better half. I am sure with her sincere efforts she will achieve heights.
Wow so good to know more about this inspiring woman behind one of the best cloth diapering brand. Superbottoms is one of my favourite.
I didn’t know that Superbottoms was an entrepreneurial venture by a blogger.. Wow just wow… I am really impressed. Best of luck!
Very inspiring Momperenur Journey giving high goals to every woman out there. She’s lucky to have loving and supportive family
Wow!! She is so inspiring. It’s definitely not easy to work from home and manage work and home together. Loved this interview. Thanks for sharing.
I love reading mompreneur journey stories.Pallavi is am inspiration for us .It’s a dream for many of us.
This is an inspiring read! Thanks for bringing to us such a go-getter personality.
Always amazing to see a fellow mom take the big plunge and enter into entrepreneurship. I use a combo of cloth and disposable diapers but having such good quality cloth diapers makes life so much more convenient
This was an inspiring read.. the story behind superbottoms!! Have been CDing for almost 2 years now and it is the best thing.
Reading inspiring stories of moms fills me with such motivation. Thank you for sharing this. Nothing is impossible if we put our mind and soul to it 🙂
Loved reading this! I have interacted with this awesome entrepreneur and I didn’t know she had a passion for social entrepreneurship – Love that <3
Wishes to Pallavi for the future of Superbottoms 🙂
Loved reading the interview . Have heard about these cotton diapers now knew the whole story behind it. A good read, way to go Pallabi.