Name of Business: FeedyEasy

Your Names and Ages: Keira Miffling, 30 – Noelene Miffling, 63

Tell us about your family and working together as mother and daughter 

Keira and Noelene

Keira:  We’re very blessed that as a family we are very close and supportive of each other.  And the company definitely reflects that as it is a real team effort.  Mum still works part time as a Health Visitor so acts only as an advisor to the company, my eldest sister does all the amazing design work in her spare time, I run the day to day business and my dad does our delivers.  As a family we spend a lot of time together anyway so it’s normal for us to be in and out of each other’s houses every day.  Our wider family are also really supportive and are always around to bounce ideas off.  I would never have set this up had it not been for the invaluable support my family has given me.  All of our concepts and ideas have come from mums experience as a Health Visitor.  I trust my mum in her approach to helping parents as she’s one of the most open minded and non-judgemental people I know.  All of my friends who are mums call her for advice before anyone else.  She’s realistic in the advice that she gives and always takes the middle road.  All of my experience is from a commercial background so I look after the day to day business side of things.  So mum comes up with the ideas and it’s down to me to implement them. This gives us both clearly defined roles in our own areas of expertise which don’t tend to overlap preventing any conflict.

Noelene: I think it’s fantastic that as a family we have been able to compliment each other’s skills and not get in each other’s ways. Although we’re very similar in character we all have different skill sets.  As a mum I have welcomed the opportunity to be able to pass on the knowledge I have gained about the correct way to feed infants and toddlers to my children.  This has opened their eyes to the fact that not all people have had the opportunity to learn about healthy eating from their families.  My children have always been very nurturing.  Most Christmases they would bring home waifs and strays with nowhere else to go.  So it’s no great surprise that they are trying to make a career out of helping other people, especially those who don’t have the family support network that they grew up with.

What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition?

Keira:  Before FeedyEasy I worked as an Account Director for an event management agency.  From running large scale events for commercial marketing and training departments I learned a lot about working out your key messages and how to communicate them clearly and effectively.  I also worked across other business sectors, such as finance, sales and IT so it gave me a really good rounded view of how a business operates.  But despite my knowledge I did not find the transition to working for myself easy.  My office started off at home, so I went from travelling internationally and being in a sociable dynamic environment to sitting at home all day on my own, sometimes not even getting out of my pyjamas!  Some days I really struggled getting motivated so I made the decision to move my office elsewhere which made a huge difference.  This enabled me to actually get up and go to work every day, then shut the door behind me at the end of the day. And I found that I became a lot more productive with my time without constant interruption from colleagues.  But the one thing that I do miss the most is having people in a similar role to me to talk decisions through with.  I’ve never been involved in the development and manufacturing of a commercial product before so it has been one heck of a steep learning curve! 

When did you launch?

Keira:  We launched in 2008, later than expected of course!  Due to various factors we were 10 months behind schedule.  Our first public outing was in October 2008 where we exhibited at the Baby Show at Earls Court.  The response we got from health care professionals was fantastic, as they automatically saw the value of our system which was a real relief!  Although we had done our homework and knew what we were developing was needed, to get the validation from the health care professionals was fantastic.   

How did you get started? What did you need to do to develop the product?

Keira:  Mum had already come up with the idea in her head for Toddler Food Scoops to help parents with portion control whilst I was still working in events.  She’s been a Health Visitor for years and keeps dealing with overweight children so it seemed like the simplest idea in the world to her.  For about a year I heard her go on and on and on about it, saying what a great idea it was but she didn’t have the time or funds to develop it.  So for curiosities sake I started reading into childhood obesity and weaning.  It was about this time that all my friends were having children, and they all kept phoning mum up asking the same kinds of questions.  They are all caring, intelligent mothers, but seemed to have a real fear about feeding their toddlers solid food.  Researching it online I got really confused with all the conflicting information, then it seemed like every other day the media was saying one thing was good for you, and then the next day it was bad for you.  It became so confusing, it was then that I realised mum really was on to something.  I took a sabbatical from work and in this time we started researching into correct portion sizes and doing trials with my friend’s children.  We developed the correct sizes for the scoops and used a manufacturer to help us design them.  I developed the idea for the boards as a support for the scoops which my sister did all the design work for.  And before we knew it we had developed what we now call the FeedyEasy Toddler Feeding System.  We sent about 40 sets into the community to trial.  The response was overwhelmingly positive which spurred us on to set up the company. 

Noelene:  Once Keira had made the decision that she was going to give the company a go I wasn’t greatly involved as I still work as a Health Visitor.  Keira worked on it day to day, and when I got home from work in the evening she would have a list of questions for me as long as her arm.  What we wanted to achieve was condense all information that mothers need on toddler nutrition down to something that could fit on a fridge door.  If it didn’t fit then it was too much information.  So a lot of questions were around ‘do parents really need to know that?’ and ‘is that relevant?’  It really became apparent actually just how conflicting some of the information being given was.  Keira would sometimes sit there completely baffled, and say ‘but you said this’ and ‘now the Department of Health are saying that’.  And whilst developing the product government guidelines changed on both milk and vitamin supplements.  Although frustrating I think it really cemented in Keira’s mind that our products were needed.

What research did you do before launching?

Noelene:  There wasn’t really that much research to do.  I knew the system was needed through my day to day work.  And all the information on correct portion sizes etc I knew already.  However Keira did need to get her head round everything so we spent days upon days measuring out lots of different foods, making up different meals, giving her an understanding of a toddlers daily and weekly requirements.   I think in hindsight I should have given her further information on dealing with the public sector. Although mothers can buy us directly, Keira has it very clear in her mind that she wants’ to get the system out there firstly to the parents who need help the most.  And the best way to do that is through public sector clients.  In her eyes the system is needed and it works.  But unfortunately when dealing with the public sector is not as simple as saying you want it so you buy it.  Everything goes through various committees and levels of approval which takes time, often falls by the way side and can be incredibly frustrating. 

How have you funded the business?

Keira:  I have personally funded the business.  As I was inexperienced in developing and manufacturing a new product it was important to me that I could take my time to make sure I was making the right decisions.  And I would not have felt able to do that had I have had the added pressure of owing people money or paying back a loan.  It’s a bit of a gamble, but I have no dependants, my parents are kindly putting me up for the time being, and I figured that I was only 30 so if it all went wrong I had plenty of time to start again!

How do you promote your business? What has worked best?

Keira:  We advertise to mothers and have done private healthy eating talks for toddler groups where our systems are available to buy.  Our system is popular with au pairs and people with childcare as they can see what their toddler has been eating whilst they have not been home.  However we generally find that parents who approach us really don’t need the system, other than to reassure them that they are working along the right lines.  It tends to be the parents who aren’t aware that they are doing anything wrong who need our help most, because if no one has ever taught them about healthy eating or how to cook, then they don’t know.  These tend to be the harder to reach parents, which is why we work mainly with councils, PCT’s and Sure Start / Flying Start projects as they have access to the parents who need our help the most.

What has worked well about your business?

Keira:  Our system benefits the whole family.  It teaches parents about what a healthy diet should consist of, and definitely has a knock on effect for the rest of the family.  Generally if whoever is cooking is making sure their toddler is eating well, they will start to do the same for the rest of the family and move away from takeaways and processed foods.  Because what we do isn’t just about weight, it’s about health.  And being healthy makes you feel better within yourself which can make you happier.  And if as a family you can start to sit down and have your meal times together then this can bring you all closer together.  I think we are all aware that in this day and age there is a breakdown in the family unit, so if we can give people advice to help combat this and help bring families closer together then that’s the biggest bonus of our system.

What has been your biggest challenge so far? How have you dealt with it?

Keira:  Parents who have fussy eaters can say our system makes them feel inadequate because they can never tick all the boxes.  But our system is not about fussy eating, it is about healthy eating.  We don’t expect parents to be able to tick all the boxes every day as toddlers will change daily in what and how much they like to eat, which can be affected by many factors such as teething and growth spurts.  We are not here to punish parents or tell them where they are going wrong.  We are here to steer them in the right direction, help them gain confidence in the kitchen and help them ensure that they feed their toddler nutritionally prepared food in the right portion sizes.  We provide tips on dealing with fussy eaters on the systems instruction leaflet, and also provide continued support by email from a qualified Health Visitor.  So if a parent does have a fussy eater we provide them with as much support as possible in order to help combat it.

Noelene:  The system was developed out of a need in the community.  And I knew it was needed from my years of experience as a Health Visitor.  Yet many organisations are not able to use the system because it is a commercial product, and they cannot be seen to be endorsing a commercial product.  This I have found incredibly frustrating as if they had something else they were using then fine.  But right now there is nothing out there on the market as simple to use as this.  It works especially well for people with poor literacy skills and teenage mums as it is very clear and simple to use, and everything is colour coordinated.  It prevents people from having to read books and leaflets, and despite everything else we know it works.

Your website link: www.feedyeasy.com

We are offering a 15% discount EXCLUSIVELY for Family Friendly Working readers, so the system will only cost £12.75!  To order simply email sales@feedyeasy.com and quote ‘Family Friendly Working offer’ and provide a daytime contact phone number and we will give them a call.  Alternatively telephone us direct on +44 (0) 844 5610997.  All items are sent 1st class post.  Charges apply.