Brands We Love: Mom Store | Meet Anna
Welcome to "Brands We Love" – a heartwarming series where we celebrate the inspiring stories behind the scenes of fellow mama-owned businesses.
Motherhood is a journey full of challenges, triumphs, and creativity, and in this series, we shine a spotlight on the incredible women who balance the art of entrepreneurship with the joys and chaos of raising a family.
Meet the driving forces behind some of the most incredible mama-owned businesses. Their stories are bound to resonate, inspire, and remind you that, as mothers, we are a force to be reckoned with.
On our first Brands We Love blog series, we interviewed Anna, the owner of Mom Store!
To get the ball rolling, where are you from?
I am originally from Waihi Beach but now live in Thames in the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula.
Tell us a little about you, your family and motherhood journey.
I’m Anna, I’m 29 years old and live in Thames with my husband Richard. We own Mom Store as well as a boutique pilates studio here in our home town. I’m originally a registered nurse, and up until 2 years ago, I was practicing as a nurse in our local GP clinic. After Covid hit and the birth of my son Hugo in 2020, I returned to nursing part time in mid-2021. I found this super challenging balancing the stress of being a nurse and a mama alongside daycare bugs and everything else!
My business Mom Store was started in early 2021 as a bit of a side hustle, and quickly got big enough that I could take it full time alongside my Pilates instructing in late 2021 which I’m very grateful for.
Once Hugo turned 1 we decided to add to our family and after 6 months of trying we were lucky enough to conceive our wee girl, Lucia. Lucia was born in August 2022 and life has been a beautiful hectic juggle ever since!
What was your motivation to start Mom Store, and how did the brand come to what it is today?
Mom Store was born out of a need for a beautiful ‘one-stop shop’. When pregnant I found myself shopping around a lot to get the exact brands and items that I wanted & needed, and couldn’t find a single store that stocked everything I needed! I started with a curated collection of our favourite products and have grown this in to what you see today. We have reinvested as much money as possible to continue to grow our stock and the types of products that we offer and have big goals to continue to grow our offering.
How do you juggle being a mama and running a business? Do you have any top tips?
Sheesh, this is by far the hardest part of owning a business for me. It is a constant juggle. Although this business was started to spend more time with my children, the reality is that as they grow up, it has been harder and harder to juggle parenting & running a business with small children at my feet. We do have our children in daycare 4 days a week which helps hugely.
We ensure we have one family day a week and the kids are only in daycare until 3pm, so we work a shortened work day. It does mean we are working most evenings, but this is just the season we are in so it works for us. We also use our parents when we need to, to help manage sickness when there’s work that simply can’t wait.
Without daycare and our village we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today! I’m also super lucky that we’ve been able to bring my husband in to the business which means we can often tag team with the kids to parent and get work done.
Tell us about your store! Is there one essential product that you just love?
Oh gosh, I always struggle with this question as it’s like picking a favourite child! One of my essential items for a new parent would be a really good caddy. As someone who finds organisation essential to have a clear mind and feel in control, this is a must for me! The Bunnie Caddie is the perfect carry-all caddy to keep handy for the newborn days and beyond!
What’s next for the Mom Store, we’d love to know your unrealistic goals!
We’ve just opened our flagship boutique in our home town of Thames and only have plans to grow this further! We are hoping to add more of your must-have baby essentials to the lineup and continue to be your one-stop shop.
We are also continuing to work on our kids clothing label, Babbadini, as well as working on a top-secret little project for the mamas! We can’t wait to share more about this soon.
Maybe a few more stores around the country? World domination? Who knows!