Featured Businesses

B2B: Can you give me a brief history and your inspirations for setting up Borrowed Moments?

BM: I set up Borrowed Moments Baby Casting Kits & Keepsakes back in 2005 after seeing a picture of some framed 3d casts in a magazine. I had thought that my mother would love these as an unusual Christmas gift, but on ringing the company to find out a price, they were way beyond what I could afford at a whopping £140.00 for 2 single casts even back then!!! I couldn’t believe that they were so expensive and looked around for cheaper alternatives, I found a company that did kits, but was a little disappointed with both the instructions and the quality of the box-frame I received, I was, however, fascinated by the whole process and purchased some bulk materials to play with and with the help of my old friend Aileen, we began casting with her baby and my older children, we were mesmerised by the detail that could be captured using this method of casting and we were hooked! I was inspired by the fact that I wanted this to be something that every parent could make, the 3d casts are so captivating and they capture a special moment in time in such a beautiful way, with much more detail than any photograph can capture, it is truly incredible how much detail is captured and I am still amazed by these perfect replicas of baby hands and feet which are so charming.

B2B: How long have you lived in Torpoint and why did you choose to set up your company here?

BM: I started sourcing materials and took on a small office which was just down the road from where I lived, this meant that I could keep work and home life separate which was important to me. Aileen decided that as she was moving out of the local area, she would take on a smaller role and would leave the day to day running of the business to me. She is still at the end of the phone when I need help or advice. I would sit at my desk with my 18 month old daughter at my side and work, demand was very slow to begin with and I had to be creative in order to pay the rent, but gradually as my reputation built, I was able to offer more options and pretty soon found that the small office that I had initially taken on wasn’t big enough anymore and so we managed to find a large unit with warehouse, shop and office space which we moved into just before the Christmas rush in 2009. This is literally 5 minutes from where I live and so it was perfect. We have lived in Torpoint in Cornwall for nearly 9 years now and enjoy the community feel of the place, it has a thriving naval training base and so the movement of young families in and out of the area provides a never ending supply of new babies to create keepsakes for, we are easily accessible from the whole of Devon and Cornwall.

I still manage to run the business, with help from several members of staff now, and I can still pick up my children from school every day which is great, although they do often have to come back to work with me, the separation of home and work life has become much more blurred nowadays, there are lots of things for them to do, as they probably spend more time at the office than they do at home these days. I make a conscious effort to not work on Sundays now though as I could easily work 7 days a week, and this is normally spent as a family day and not a day catching up with the housework, after all I do all of this for them!

B2B: What has been your best selling products over the last year and why?

BM: Our best selling item this last year has to be our luxury deep rebate framed kits, which are made from tulip wood, they are a modern twist on the old box-frames, which are still popular but the deep-rebate frames offer a more contemporary look and are very versatile as they can be waxed with clear wax and displayed on the wall or stood on a shelf or mantelpiece. Also going well are the keepsake services that we are able to offer at our studio, many parents don’t want to take the risk of doing the casts themselves and want a professional finish, we happily offer a great deal of keepsake services and our prices are still very good in comparison to our competitors and because we offer a huge variety of keepsakes and flexible payment terms. We hope that having a beautiful, professional service to create a personalised keepsake of your baby is an affordable option for everyone, my mission from the start!

B2B: Do you use social media such as Facebook and Twitter and do they enhance the business

BM: We do use Face book and Twitter which takes up quite a lot of time but it is nice to have direct contact with our customers and these are vital communication networks in today’s ever changing marketplace. Sometimes someone says something that you have not thought of before, or comments on one of your pictures that helps you to look at things in a different light, providing essential feedback in a competitive world. Social networking is vital to any business in these economically challenging times and this takes up a huge amount of time and energy but is a necessary part of the day to day running of most modern businesses these days to ensure good customer satisfaction, we announce new products, special offers and run competitions to keep it interesting.

B2B: What does the future hold for Borrowed Moments and do you have any new ideas in the pipeline?

BM: Never did I imagine the amount of work and effort involved in running your own successful company, it is definitely the hardest challenge I have ever taken on and far harder than I ever imagined it would be. We now sell a huge range of baby casting kits, clay kits, hand and footprint kits and even belly casting kits and we have now started branching out, making personalised pictures and canvases, nappy cakes and also making the fine silver fingerprint jewellery. We have loads of ideas in the pipeline, which we have been working on and they are now starting to come online.  We are still striving to be the best baby keepsake company in the UK, and we are now starting to train others in 2d and 3d casting to work under the Borrowed Moments umbrella, Anyone who is interested can come along and do a training course with us and when they are good enough, they will be given leads for doing casts in their chosen area as our representative. This is a fantastic opportunity especially for mums who fancy running their own business but with the back-up and support of a large company behind them.

I have to be very organised and juggle my many roles expertly, but although it has been extremely tough journey and the lows have been many along the way, I wouldn’t trade places with anyone. I have made Borrowed Moments the success it is today and I am still passionate about what I do, the look on a parent’s face when they come in to collect their casts is absolutely priceless and the wonderful emails I get from mums who have made their baby’s casts using one of our kits make it all worthwhile. I set out to help parents to create beautiful, unique keepsakes of their babies that they love and the majority of the time, that is exactly what I am able to do, I feel privileged to have the love and support of my wonderful family to be able to fulfill my dream, the future is looking very bright indeed.