123 Nourish Me: Perth mums create multimillion-dollar business with just $500 each

When two mates launched a business from their homes with just $500 each, they never expected it to turn into a multimillion-dollar success.

When Perth-based friends Alisa Latto and Danni Crews couldn’t find the natural, non-toxic products they wanted for their children, they decided to make their own.

Starting with just $500 each, the pair who have five children between them – Alisa has twins and Danni has three children – started their business from their home kitchens and used social media to get the word out.

Four years later, their brand 123 Nourish Me, which makes organic products for children including handwash, sunscreen and sleep balm, as well as organic packaged treats, is turning over more than $200,000 a month. “We’re currently turning over just over $2.5 million a year – or $210,000 a month,” they revealed.

“The beginning was incredibly humble. We had just enough to buy the real basics and the raw materials, starting from a simple basepoint,” Ms Latto told news.com.au. “We were making everything ourselves from scratch.”

The Perth mums came up with an idea for their own children and found an online audience that wanted the same.

The friends said they could see the potential for growth when orders surged almost immediately after launching the business online.

“I had a newborn child that I was holding on my hips while we were making products,” Ms Crews told news.com.au. “The business took off right from the beginning. We couldn’t keep up with the orders.”

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It started with about 10 orders a day that quickly grew to 50 a day by the end of the first year. The pair now receive anywhere from 150 to 200 orders a day with each order averaging two or three products.

“We found a gap in the market and when we could see those sales come in we realised there was huge potential,” Ms Latto said.

“We just thought we would see how it went. Quite often we will ring each other and say, ‘Can you believe it?’”

The brand manufactures all of its products in Australia, including its best-selling Sleepy Head Balm, an organic essential oil and magnesium blend that has won gold for the Favourite Baby Sleeping Aid Product in this year’s My Child Awards.

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The pair reveal that there have been some hiccups along the way.

“We made some decisions that probably weren’t the right decisions,” Ms Crews revealed. “There were two big hurdles at the beginning. We slipped up because we got advice from branding companies and removed our monkey from the logo. The rebrand looked too professional and clinical and we lost customers overnight.

“We listened to the experts that you have to look a certain way, but it wasn’t aligned with our audience.”

The friends said they cringe when they see some of the products other people give their children.

The lesson cost money and customers, but they said it helped them learn to trust their own instincts.

“The audience has guided us a lot with our decision-making. Their children liked the monkey, so we shouldn’t have listened to the experts,” Ms Latto said.

With more than 65,000 fans on Facebook and 17,000 followers on Instagram, the friends share recipes and parenting tips with their community.

“We get so much in return from our community, not just feedback on the products, but in the honest and uplifting comments on our social media posts. Our customers really engage with what we’ve created,” Ms Crews said.

The pair are focused on organic, natural products that they would only give to their own kids.

There was another mistake with their sunscreen. Because the product was made with “all natural ingredients”, the manufacturer didn’t realise that “shea butter turned to cottage cheese when it hit over 40 degrees – and it was a really hot summer”, they explained.

“We were really honest with the audience and they were so forgiving. We didn’t even need to do returns once we explained it didn’t affect the efficacy of the product, only the look,” Ms Latto said.

The products were created from their own kitchens in the beginning.

The business employs an all-female team of eight and has a focus on supporting mothers in the workplace, often by offering flexible working options.

The duo work around their kids – work starts after school drop-off and ends in the early afternoon before school finishes to pick up the kids – and the same flexibility applies for their workers.

“Our kids are our business. We don’t put products out there that we wouldn’t put on our own kids,” Ms Latto reiterated.

“It’s not so much about the money. We have exceeded what we set out to do. We want to assist kids’ health by getting into as many homes as possible.”

Ms Latto said while the business had been busier than ever in the past six months, COVID had been a time to assess what is and isn’t working.

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“It’s been a shake-up for us. It was an opportunity to cut out the products that aren’t working. It’s been harder for our manufacturers to source raw ingredients,” she said.

“The global pandemic and the increased time spent at home with family has really sharpened people’s values and reinforced healthy decisions,” she added.

The mums say their goal is “to get in every home in Australia”.

The products are now available on Amazon Australia after signing a deal with the e-commerce giant ahead of Amazon Prime Day, which is taking place on October 13-14 this year.

The pair believe in a healthy work-life balance where they and their workers can spend time with their families.

Their advice to other mums who want to start their own business is to research the market thoroughly, to find a gap in the market and to find your own niche.

“There’s no quick success to business,” Ms Latto said. “It starts with being an extension of your own values. We are very aligned with the values we hold true. You have to have the gut passion so you don’t give up when the obstacles hit.”