Prem2Pram Under New Ownership

My name is Rachel and I have a four year old son. My son was born prematurely and was diagnosed at two days old with a congenital heart defect, he had a very rocky neonatal period and we spent many weeks between the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and a cardiac paediatric intensive care unit (PICU)  we spent his first Christmas on the NICU before finally bring him home.  He is my only child and the light of my life he amazes me every day.

My experience on the NICU inspired me to create Starting life in NICU which is a baby journal designed specifically for premature and sick babies and in 2010 I launched tinylittlebaby

Its through tinylittlebaby that I met a wonderful lady who’s help and advise was invaluable through those early days, that lady was Sue the founder and previous owner of Prem2Pram.  I am honoured to take over Prem2Pram and will continue to run the business with the passion that we both share.

Success be careful what you wish for

Before my on line store was even a twinkle in cyberspace I use to spend hours in my craft room designing and creating premature baby clothes.  I enjoyed the peace and tranquillity of embroidering a cute design on a finished garment.  I use to spend an enormous amount of money on frivolous craft supplies.

Anyone whose hobby includes a craft will tell you that they enjoy what they do; it brings relief from the everyday grind.   There are those including myself who have taken things to the next level and turned their hobby into a commercial venture.

However the reality of becoming a successful business means that I no longer spend as much time as I would like to in my craft room.  My time is now often occupied by maintaining my presence on the web, which involves writing articles, posting on my blog, building and maintaining contacts via a social media network. Then there is the time spent processing orders and the numerous trips to the post office.

Once I use to spend the majority of my spare money on craft supplies, now my money goes on graphic designs, domain name registration, web hosting, SEO, advertising and packaging the list goes on and on.

The moral of this story is be careful what you wish for

Money isn’t everything

Recently out of the blue I had an offer to purchase my on line premature baby clothes business and as you can imagine I was delighted that someone thought so highly of my business that they were willing to buy me out.

As I never intended to run a business I saw this as an ideal opportunity to sell up and get back to my original intentions, which was to make, bespoke premature baby clothes for family and friends in order to and raise money for local neonatal units.

After coming back down to earth and seeking advice from business friends, several questions were raised.

Why are they interested?

Is it because they see a potential growth market or do they consider you a competitor and want to close you down?

Would I be happy relinquishing control of your creation?

Would the quality of the clothing diminish under new ownership?

How would I feel if the reputation of the business suffered ?

With so many questions racing around in my head I needed answers, so after several emails and numerous telephone conversations a price was agreed, however the terms and conditions of the sale would prevent me from ever setting up another baby related business.

Also I would be required to relinquish all my patterns and this would mean I wouldn’t be able to use the patterns myself.

And the final nail in the coffin was I would have to agree not to make any baby clothes for anyone else, meaning I would no longer be able to make premature baby clothes for my local NICU.

I tried to explain that I enjoyed making bespoke baby clothing and that I would want to continue to do so; all be it on a smaller scale for friends, family and my local neonatal baby unit.

After in depth discussions regarding the terms and conditions of the sale I felt their expectations were unreasonable and as they were unwilling to compromise I felt I had no alternative but to decline their offer.

Taking everything into consideration I feel I made the right decision and  I am happy in the knowledge that my business was considered worthy of such an offer.