Her Biz July 2021 Winner
Her Biz winner Rachel Pullen wins £500 to launch Amba Accessories
Rachel is planning on seriously shaking up the mum and baby accessories market - by launching a line of colourful and customisable products that will help new mums feel like themselves again in motherhood, celebrating their individuality and live their lives with true confidence.
Rachel Pullen, owner of AmbaAccessories, has won £500 towards start up costs for her business after completing a series of workshops and winning the HerBiz business plan competition for aspiring female entrepreneurs in East Sussex and Kent - giving her a head start bringing her plans for a brand that celebrates the individuality of new mums and women with children to life.
The Her Biz programme, delivered by Let’s Do Business Group and supported by NatWest Bank, aims to increase entrepreneurship and break down the barriers between women and business by supporting more people to follow their career aspirations. Ran virtually over Zoom by our two expert business coaches Lisa and Helena, the programme has only got more popular as time has gone on.
Amba Accessories as a brand is derived from the name of Rachel’s own child Amber - and was born from Rachel’s own struggles and realisations that came with becoming a new mum. She felt that with becoming a mum she’d lost her sense of identity, individuality and confidence - and came to the realisation that this is the reality for a lot of mothers out there. On her own quest to find practical accessories for her children like changing bags, she identified that on the market the options were sparse for anything that actually allowed a women’s identity to come through. In a sea of grey, elephant printed bags, she saw potential for more.
““I quickly recognised that there was a gap in the market for a brand that celebrated the individuality of women with kids, and injected a little colour and fun into their lives.””
Rachel is no stranger to branding and thoroughly researching her brand - with her own extensive experience in marketing paired with her own experience struggling with her identity as a new mum, she was able to pull key features together of what is important to mums on their search for baby changing bags and able to factor this in when pulling together Amba Accessories to make sure it wasn’t compromising on functionality as well as style.
“Live life brighter”
The brand essence and mission of Amba Accessories is all about the psychology of colour and how that can effect mental energy. Her mission statement says it best - ‘the brighter the better’. Products are aimed to be customisable so your bag is just as unique as you are, making them the first brand to offer their ‘customers the option to build-a-bag’. Rachel has been thorough in her research, searching for the most sustainable and hard-wearing materials to make a product that customers will love for a lifetime.
Rachel aims to build a business that’s centred around supporting women from the roots - starting with building a team of likeminded women to head up the brand, and partnering with mental health and female support organisations along the way.
Longer term she’d like AmbaAccessories to capture 1% volume share of the baby changing bag market in the UK with products stocked in go-to stores for anyone looking for baby accessories, like John Lewis. At the same time, she aims for Amba Accessories to become synonymous with being a support network for mums tacking confidence issues - via an online platform where they can discuss real stories, training, tips, networking and job opportunities.
Through her market research, Rachel has identified the key social media channels to target to rally support for Amba Accessories in its beginning stages - Instagram, Pinterest and Etsy. Instagram being the main player, as this will enable the brand to grow organically and be able to really get off the ground with growing its network of women sharing their experiences with motherhood, and Pinterest and Etsy being ever-growing visual platforms for the conscious consumer after unique products.
In completing the Her Biz start-up business workshops, Rachel says that they’ve helped exponentially with preparing her for making Amba Accessories a reality.
“I was in the early stages of setting up my business and feeling quite overwhelmed with all the information out there. I attended the Her Biz Women’s Startup Programme, a 4 week course that delved into the fundamentals from financial planning to marketing strategy to business plan research. It was brilliant - concise, clear and very accessible. I came out filled with confidence and with a host of resources and knowledge to kick start my journey.”
