Truly Madly Baby case study

by Real Business - Friday, 31st August 2007

Dragons’ Den success story and regional winner of the HSBC Start-up Stars award Truly Madly Baby (www.trulymadlybaby.co.uk) has come on leaps and bounds since MD Julie White’s shot-in-the-dark application to the TV show in 2005.

Julie, 38, came up with the idea for the business – hosting baby product parties – following the birth of her son, Samuel, when she discovered a gap in the market.

Despite her breadth of business experience, it was her part-time job organising Ann Summers parties in the evenings that inspired the business model, which has taken Truly Madly Baby from an idea to a nationwide business success in just two years.

After kicking off the business, which hosts baby product parties throughout the UK, Julie found herself making an application to Dragons’ Den one morning in early May. Within ten days she was pitching her business on the show.

Despite attracting the attention of the Dragons, she opted to wait for an investment that better suited the need of the business – and this came as a result of the exposure on TV. Since appearing on the programme, Truly Madly Baby has grown from four local consultants to over 200 across the UK.

As the managing director of a growing business, Julie spends an increasing amount of time out of the office both meeting consultants and going to trade shows across the UK. She combines this with a strict regime of leaving work in time to collect her son and continuing work after putting him to bed in the evening.

As a result, Julie needs to be in contact with the office constantly and have a consistent overview of the business as a whole.

Prior to using the T-Mobile MDA Vario II, Julie was largely reliant on her standard Nokia phone, using it to make calls and texts and as an alarm clock, but nothing more. As a self-confessed technophobe and staunch Nokia user, she was initially apprehensive about moving over to a Windows Mobile business device.

“Despite encouragement from my husband, I’d never really considered the difference a mobile-office style device could make. As far as I was concerned, I wanted a phone to be a phone and that was that.

"I was truly surprised at how easy it was to pick up and start using, and within weeks the Vario II has become a key part of my business day – it has really changed the way I think about mobile technology.”

As well as using the Vario II to keep on top of her emails and calls, Julie has found herself using the device’s many other functions – from diary management to the Windows notebook and camera.

“The device has truly integrated itself in to my working week, synchronising with my Outlook calendar to ensure I’m always aware of what I have coming up.

"I’ve found myself using the handwriting-recognition software to carry out a quick stocktake in our warehouse – jotting notes down directly on to the screen saves me time and ensures I’ve got an electronic record of such things. I can even use the camera to take photos of any damaged stock we receive and email it to our suppliers, without having to go near my desktop PC.”

Like many people, Julie’s experience with the early mobile internet (WAP) had put her off going online from her mobile. However, she has found herself clicking online to T-Mobile’s web’n’walk mobile internet service to browse those websites that are useful for her business on a day-to-day basis.

“While I would generally use my laptop to do any major online work, I have used the Vario II to browse the various "net mums" forums, which we monitor for recruiting purposes. I have also used it to get contact details from services such as Yell.com, as opposed to ringing directory enquiries.”

On a daily basis, Julie needs to respond to around 50 emails personally. This number can be doubled or tripled if you add general business enquiries, or if any of her colleagues are absent from work.

Since using the Vario II, she has no longer been limited to doing this in the office or at home, as it has enabled her to make better use of her deadtime, such as when travelling to or awaiting meetings.

“As email is the main source of communication for our business, the T-Mobile MDA Vario II has made a huge impact on my own ability to use my out-of-office time. It has allowed me to respond to both colleagues and our consultants on the spot and has increased my own productivity by around 30 per cent.”

In the future, Julie would like to increase the number of Truly Madly Baby consultants from 200 to 500 by the end of the year, as well as make some changes to her own role in the business.

“As the business continues to grow, I would like to be out of the office more often than I am at the moment – perhaps three days per week.

"This would allow me to spend more time on training courses, meeting up with our consultants, attending road shows and generally ramping up our own marketing and PR activity – as opposed to being largely reliant on word-of-mouth, as we have been until now.

"With that in mind, a mobile device that offers both email and web’n’walk will become a must-have rather than a luxury, and I can’t see myself going back to using a standard mobile phone.”

Julie concludes: “The T-Mobile MDA Vario II is something that I will definitely be recommending to the business colleagues and friends that my husband and I network with.

"One day in the future it would be great to kit out all our consultants with such a device and see the impact that would have on the business.”