What a year it has been for me at Nom Nom Kids. With the help of friends and family I’ve attended numerous local Baby Shows as well as THE Baby Show and The New Baby to Toddler Show at the NEC. Our first time at such huge events and I have to say I loved every minute! Introducing my products to parents face to face has become one of my favourite parts of doing this. That and meeting other businesses with the same passion for their products. I hope to introduce you to some of these amazing small businesses on our blog next year.

At home in Cheltenham I attended two local Pop ups hosted by the wonderful Cheltenham Maman Kate Starkey and joined her incredible mum boss group which has introduced me a huge collection of other mums running their own businesses. You can’t beat women supporting other women.

We launched our brand-new snack bags just in time for last Christmas and they have proven to be incredibly popular with little ones all over the country.  Personally, I haven’t stopped using them and I have managed to clear out my Tupperware cupboard, avoiding an avalanche of lids and mismatched boxes each time I open the doors!

snack bags

Our original animal pouches have become popular in France this year. French children enjoy pouched compotes at all ages and parents batch fill our pouches and pull them out of the freezer as needed. i'm really proud to have amazing reviews on Amazon for my pouches and snack bags in France, Spain and the UK.

I found some really wonderful new brand reps for my products this year whilst holding onto some of my amazing existing ones. These ladies all rock their respective squares and I am so grateful for the love they’ve shown for my pouches and bags over the last 6 months.

I signed up my children’s infants school as a pouch recycling collection point, so we can raise money for charity and save disposable pouches from going to landfill. I see lots of parents dropping off their waste to reception and our first box of empties will be heading off to Terracyle in the New year.

One of the biggest events in 2017 was Nancy starting school. It has felt like such a long time coming as she’s a September baby but she’s also my youngest so of course I cried! Stanley has gone from being afraid of putting his head under water to diving in. Both of them have grown up so much over the last year and developed their own little interests and learning to play well together (with the more than occasional bust up).nancy

What I love most is that by running my business I’m able to take them to school and pick them up every day. If they are poorly I don’t have to juggle child-care or feel guilty about taking time off. I can pay for their swimming lessons and gymnastics myself and even help out other mum friends with little bits of work when I’m busy. It’s hard work managing every aspect and I may not be as professional looking as some of the bigger businesses, but I care 110% and will ensure that my customers are as happy as they can be.

There have been only a couple of lows to 2017. As for all other small businesses our social media presence is being drastically limited by Facebook and Instagram. Our posts aren’t seen by many people and when I put an offer on only a few of you get to see it! If you would like to know about offers or competitions sign up to my newsletter. I don’t send out a huge amount, so you won’t get bombarded…just a few bits of news plus competitions and offers. You will also get invited to try new products before they launch. Sign up here if you are interested.

nom nom kids

Competition in the reusable pouch market has grown this year (the pouches food market too). Yes, it’s impacted my sales but it’s great that more people are going to get to know about reusables and with so many new pouched food brands coming on the market we need to do something about the extra waste going to land fill. Ours are still the easiest to clean out there. Every time a new brand is launched I buy them and test them. All of them are more difficult to clean as they tend to stay closed or flop over during the washing cycle. Nom Nom Kids pouches are the only ones sized to fit over the spikes in your dishwasher and stay open with the help of the gusset.dishwasher safe

With everyone having less time many families are finding it hard to make their own foods and find themselves buying ready-made. It’s so simple to make your own and can save time and money in the long run. I hope we can inspire more of you to give it a go if you aren’t already. I’ll have more recipes coming in the New Year and more ideas for healthy snacks for your little ones.

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December 30, 2017 — Suzanne Moore

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