My pockets aren't full, but my heart is...

I’ve recently been asked (countless times) why I’ve gone back to my day job as a nurse, considering “Miracle Mumma is so successful”. The truth is, I didn’t have a choice. While it is my dream to run my ‘small business’ from home around my boy’s naps while I also watch him learn and grow, it’s unfortunately not realistic. Yes, Miracle Mumma is successful, but is it making me rich? Hell no! There are two main reasons behind this – one is completely out of my control, and the other is completely within my control.

Firstly, I’ve quickly learnt that small businesses get crushed by the big guys. I’m not talking about the big chains that sell the same products (although these don’t help!) I’m talking about the businesses we are unfortunately forced to rely on to simply operate our business. For example, Australia Post. I can feel steam coming out of my ears just saying those words! I am not kidding you when I say it costs $180 to send 20kg (about 60 sets of milestone cards) to the United States. Do the maths…no wait, I’ll do it for you. That’s an extra $3 per set that I need to deduct from my wholesale price just to make it worthwhile for the wholesaler. To send a registered item within Australia, it is AT LEAST $8.50. If you want it to get there fast, make that $11.00 (and there’s no guarantee either, by the way!) Which leads me to my next point about how unbelievably unreliable they are! I have time and time again had to re-send items (yes, at a loss for both product & postage) because things have just never arrived. And Australia Post outright refuse to investigate until something has been missing for 3 months ‘just in case it went by sea’. I didn’t freaking send it via sea! 3 whole months. That’s a quarter of a year for those playing along at home!

Alongside these guys are advertising billionaires such as facebook and google who would literally squash you with their shoe if they could. It’s ridic. I recently received a bill from google ads for $550 (over 4 months) that I had no idea about. Yes I stupidly signed up on a whim and got distracted by running a small business and trying to sell a house with a tornado toddler, but I had absolutely zero correspondence during that time. No invoices, no statements, no ‘hey have you realised you’re racking up a bill bigger than your house’. To them, $550 is absolutely nothing…to a charity, it’s everything! I had questionably the biggest meltdown of my life when I rang google ads to question this…full blown howling into the phone. No it didn’t make a difference, they had dollar signs in their eyes and not an ounce of soul…but it would have looked slightly hilarious. And you almost need to sacrifice your left arm to ‘boost’ a post on Facebook that is actually successful in reaching more than 3 people. Thankfully, the silver lining is my local South Australian suppliers who have looked after me beyond belief – just had to give you guys a small shout out!

So the second main reason that I’m not driving a caddilac and sipping cocktails in the Bahamas is my love for what I do. I invest so much time, passion and energy into Miracle Mumma, that I sometimes forget it is a ‘business’. I’m constantly ‘connected’, whether it be to my phone, to my customers, to social media or to my product. As soon as James goes down for a nap, I’m ‘working’. As soon as he’s in bed for the night, I’m ‘working’…and sometimes until 2am! But I don’t even consider factoring my time into my costs, because I love what I do (and no one should have to bear the brunt for me being a crazy perfectionist!) I donate most of my profits back to hospitals, or into events such as L’il Aussie Prems ‘Wear Green for Prems’, or to fundraise for amazing causes such as helping Eamon kick cancer’s butt. I choose to splash out the extra few dollars and upgrade to express post just to make sure an order gets to someone before the weekend (and because I couldn’t freaking trust Australia Post with my life). If someone messages me and admits they’re struggling financially, I give them a discount (yes, most times it’s 100%) because it breaks my heart that they are worrying about money on top of everything else they are going through. When I started Miracle Mumma, my goal was to support families who were going through the same journey that we did. I wanted to help in some small way. To this day, that goal hasn’t changed.

I want you all to know that this is how I’ve CHOSEN for it to be, and I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. When I start focusing purely on how much money I’m making rather than the influence I’m making, I will stop doing what I’m doing. Because it won’t mean anything that way, and let’s be honest, I won’t keep customers that way either. If I had enough time to fundraise money and run Miracle Mumma as a charity, I would. I’m not doing this to get rich, and I never plan(ned) to. Miracle Mumma is successful to me for all the right reasons…not because my product is the best or the cheapest and not because my pockets are full, but because my heart is full.