‘I was made redundant on maternity leave - now my side hustle has made me $13 million’

A Melbourne mum-of-two had no job to return to after maternity leave, and now her side hustle has made her millions.

In the throes of battling the baby blues with her newborn daughter, Jooli did anything she could to get through the day.

For the Melbourne mum, one of those things was doing what she did best - creating websites. Little did she know, however, just how that act of positive distraction would change her family’s life more than she could ever have imagined.

In 2020, Jooli gave birth to her second child, Tara, just as Covid lockdowns hit her region. She and partner, Jack, were struggling to provide for their family of four after he was made redundant a few months prior, then Jooli was dealt the same blow from her job as a digital marketer. On top of that, their occasional market stall selling handmade felt toys from Nepal was no longer bringing in any income due to lockdowns.

“There was a definite fear - we had two kids and no income,” Jooli tells Kidspot.

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Not the outcome she was expecting after welcoming 2 kids. Image: Supplied

The baby blues hit hard

Suddenly, the family were forced to completely put all their hopes on a website Jooli had created for the toys just a few weeks prior - something she initially did to help her out of the darkness she felt post birth.

“I had the baby blues at the time, and the website was actually a helpful distraction because I could hyperfocus on something that wasn’t me as I felt so down on myself,” she says honestly.

Using Jooli’s redundancy funds, they invested $5,000 to launch Tara Treasures from their kitchen table ‘office’ and garage which became a mini warehouse.

“I knew I had to make the business work,” the mum-of-two says.

“There was no turning back.”

Surpassing Jooli’s expectations, the website blew up, and the business took in a whopping $1 million in sales that first year.

“It really put everything into perspective that we could do this and we wouldn’t need to go back to our other careers,” she says.

Some of the treasures kids can play with. Image: Supplied

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The light at the end of the tunnel

Five years later, Tara Treasures has grown exponentially to have 1200 products, 17 employees and stockists throughout the US, Canada, New Zealand and Asia.

The toys are seen across the country in schools and childcare centres - and one set has even made it onto The Wiggles.

“A customer actually contacted us saying they saw our Old McDonald farm set on an episode, which was a really nice surprise,” she says.

Jooli says finger puppets are her most popular item, which have sold more than 8,000 units. 

In the current financial year alone, Tara Treasures has made over $5.5 million in sales. If that’s not enough of a mind-blowing figure, Jooli says the business has raked in a total of $13.8 million since it began five years ago.

Using Jooli’s redundancy funds, they invested $5,000 to launch Tara Treasures. Image: Supplied

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It's not about the money

Despite her success, this mumpreneur isn’t out to make her own pockets deeper.

“Money isn’t our key motivation - it’s altruistic,” she says.

“If it was all about the money, we could have just imported goods from China. The success makes me feel happy because I can do more for the communities we support. The people making our products are all female artisans, and the majority of them are mothers and they’re making things in Fair Trade Certified workshops and factories. In our household, we are still frugal. We don’t spend much on ourselves. That’s not the measure of our success.”

Seeing her own children, Kieran, 7, and Tara 5, grow up around her beloved products has been all the more rewarding.

“They love them so much,” she says proudly.

“They are so tactile and soft that you just can’t replace them with something plastic, the sensory feeling is so different.”

Originally published as ‘I was made redundant on maternity leave - now my side hustle has made me $13 million’