I turned £250 into a £10 MILLION yearly turnover thanks to my maternity leave side hustle & now I've quit my HR job
CASHING IN I turned £250 into a £10 MILLION yearly turnover thanks to my maternity leave side hustle & now I've quit my HR job
A MUM-of-three who started a side hustle with just £250 from her sofa during maternity leave has turned it into a £10million-a-year business.
Jess Munday says her company grew so quickly that she didn't need to go back to work after having her first child, and she's now able to take her family of five on lavish holidays thanks to her profits.
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Jess Munday started a business with £250 while on mat leave and it now makes £10million a year
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Jess and her husband Jake, set up the business together
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The pair now have three children and have learnt to multitask
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Jess and her husband Jake, both 36, launched their business, Custom Neon, back in May 2018, before it quickly took off.
The company is now a global manufacturer and retailer of custom-designed LED neon lights and signs around the world.
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The business idea came to Jess, a former HR professional, during her maternity leave with her first child, Jagger, and was inspired by a personal need.
She says: "My husband and I were decorating our son's nursery and we wanted a neon sign, but we found it really hard to find one.
"We eventually found one, but the process was slow and difficult."
She continued: "At the same time we were planning our wedding and thought we could get some signs for our day, so we put two and two together and started chatting, and one thing led to another."
With an initial investment of just £250, they bought several signs for their wedding, including 'All you need is love,' 'Better together,' a big love heart, and 'Eat, drink, dance.'
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Jess says: "We took lots of photos of them at the wedding and just started re-sharing those on Instagram, to promote hiring out and selling the signs to people."
The response was immediate, she says: "I did that when my son was a couple of months old and it went off from there.
"We had lots of people who were really interested in the products and wanted custom signs, and there was a huge demand for it."
I earn cash by selling 'actual rubbish' on eBay - I flogged a freebie I found on the floor by a bin for £10, it's crazy
What started as an event hire company quickly grew into something much bigger.
She says: "We didn't even have a website and people were trying to order through our Instagram page. It all happened in the first year of my son's life while I was sitting on the couch."
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The business grew rapidly, and Jess had to make a tough decision.
It is always a juggle... it requires hard, hard work
Jess Munday
She recalls: "I was due to go back to work in January 2019, and I didn't go back because by that point we had gotten so big that we needed to hire a small team to help us."
Jess and Jake, from Melbourne, Australia, were working 12-hour days, shipping packages from their garage to customers all over the world.
The business has not only survived but thrived, growing to a global operation with 32 staff members across the UK, the US, and Australia.
The company now brings in around £10million every year in sales.
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'I work around the kids'
Jess is a mum to three children - Jagger, seven, Indy, five, and Isla, two - and the family has been able to enjoy lavish holidays as a direct result of their hard work.
She said: "We spent years working long hours, but the hard work has paid off, allowing us to enjoy a more flexible lifestyle now.
"I work the equivalent of four days a week, but now I've got more flexibility with start and finish times, so I can work around the kids.
'Holidays have been a priority to us. Now we are able to take those opportunities more and more.
'We would always go on holidays, but back then we would be working on our holidays, but now we can switch off and enjoy our family time together.
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'We've taken our kids to Disneyland and Fiji. By the time my son was two, he had been to five different countries.'
Jess is now able to spend more time with her children and prioritise them over working long hours.
She adds: "I'm lucky now that I can be more flexible with my work so I can take time out for the kids.
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Jess is a mum to three children - Jagger, seven, Indy, five, and Isla, two
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Her children have often gone to the office with her
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Jake and Jess juggle their business with looking after their children
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"But don't get me wrong, it's difficult to ever switch off. My kids will come to the office with me - they are very much used to that.
"I barely had maternity leave with my last child, but that's because I was more confident in what I was doing.
"The business is a passion of mine, so I want to work hard for it, and I enjoy it as well.
"My day involves school/kindergarten drop off and then I head to work at 9am.
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"Followed by meetings most of the day with a little bit of time at my desk.
"Then I go to school pick up sometimes dance soccer or jujitsu for the kids and then back home for dinner.
"After the bedtime routine I tend to open my laptop for another one to two hours of work at night.
"It's a busy schedule and on good weeks it flows well but sometimes it's just a last minute dinner thrown together or leaving the house a mess and I've learned that, that's what comes with the balance of it all.
"When my youngest was 0-6 months she came to the office with me two days a week."
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And now, the biggest news for Custom Neon since it started is the launch of a new product range called Custom Illuminated Signage.
"We're branching out to not just offer LED neon, we're offering all different types of LED custom signage," she said.
This new line of products, which includes illuminated signs for storefronts and businesses, aims to provide an affordable e-commerce solution that fills a significant gap in the market.
The new line is set to go live on August 18th.
'I haven't missed out'
Jess is open about the challenges of balancing business ownership with motherhood.
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"It is always a juggle... it requires hard, hard work," she admits.
She emphasises the importance of a strong support system, as well as a good relationship.
"I've really prioritised having a couple of days with the kids at home when they're young," she said, even if it means working late into the evening after they're in bed.
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They have a new line of products, which includes illuminated signs for storefronts and businesses
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Jess is grateful for the opportunity to leave her corporate background in HR
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Reflecting on her journey, Jess feels immense pride.
She says: "I genuinely feel like I haven't missed out on anything, like, as a mother."
She is also grateful for the opportunity to leave her corporate background in HR for a role where she can continuously learn and grow in different areas of the business.
Jess says: "It's just so wonderful to be able to learn so much.
'And you don't get to do that, I suppose, when you've got your niche and, you know, working in a corporate environment and you kind of tend to stick in your lane.'
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Advertisement 'People are scared to leave because they don't want to come across as failures or they are embarrassed to admit they were sucked in.' And it's not just would-be travel agents who have found themselves out of pocket. Holiday hell 19 Marisa booked through an agent of the company after a recommendation from her hairdresser Credit: Marisa Noyce 19 Marisa had booked a dream birthday holiday to Morroco with the company Credit: Getty Marisa Noyce, from Hampshire, alleges a dream holiday for her recent 40th birthday turned into a nightmare after she booked through an InteleTravel agent. Advertisement 'My hairdresser told me about this lady who gets good deals on holidays, so I got in contact and she said she could get me the same deal I'd found online for almost £700 less,' she says. 'I felt confident because she lived near me and I trusted my hairdresser, who'd booked through her before. 'But something was off from the beginning. 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While still in Greece, Marisa elevated the situation to InteleTravel's head office in the USA, who did spring into action and by the time the family were due to check out, the hotel bill had been paid. Advertisement More claims 19 Once she returned home, Marisa discovered other people who had been let down too Credit: Marisa Noyce 19 On one post Tanya claims fans can 'earn 7 figures of residual income from your phone' Credit: Instagram 19 The Real Housewives of Cheshire star plus her 'Holibobswithtanya' page Credit: Instagram/holibobswithtanya Back in the UK, she relayed her experience on Facebook and warned other locals not to hand over money to the agent. She was contacted by people who claimed to have had similar experiences, with one family having their Christmas trip to Lapland cancelled. Advertisement 'I now warn people about booking with these agents. I'm sure most are not dishonest, but I feel more confident booking with an established agency,' says Marisa. 'This agent wasn't even privy to great deals. Our hotel in Greece was actually just booked through 'You are just literally handing over your hard-earned cash to a complete stranger for a deal you can get online for yourself. Why risk it?' As for Gemma, who left InteleTravel at the beginning of the year, she is still getting approached every day by agents hoping to re-recruit her. 'It's always by other women. They reply to your Instagram stories about something else, befriend you and then cleverly lure you in with their messaging, which they appear to be trained for, because everyone says the same. It's shady,' she says. Advertisement 'The lady who recruited me was very persistent. She messaged me for months before eventually giving up. 'I just wanted to sell travel, not a promise of making all this money to my friends and followers on social media. 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