Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Meg Paul . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Meg, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am most definitely happier as a business owner! It gives me the freedom and flexibility to be there for my family yet the chance to offer the world my talents and be financially empowered. Being a mother involves wearing many hats and I am grateful to live in a world I can be home with my children yet make money online by serving other toddler parents.

I frequently think about what it would be like to have a regular job. I did work full-time till early 2019 when I only had 1 child. I was blessed to have a very supportive work environment with bosses who truly cared about me. In fact, when I was pregnant and then had my first child my boss was kind enough to let me stay home or leave early whenever I needed to. I will always be grateful to him for showing me what leadership truly means – kindness & compassion for the people who work for you. But my heart was no longer in it- I wanted to be with my kids and pursue my other interests- so I decided to move on. And I’m SO glad I did! I no longer have to ask anyone if I can take the day off to care for a sick child, I get to pick my kids up from school every single day, I get to drive them to their extra curricular activities, I get to hang out with my baby girl during the day , I get to witness all their milestones firsthand, I get to visit my parents whenever I want without asking my boss for permission. Entrepreneurship is empowerment!!! Entrepreneurship is freedom!!!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I founded ‘The Early Nest’ in 2021 . We sell high-quality Montessori and nature-inspired themed toddler activity kits that are delivered to your doorstep every month. All supplies are included to keep parents/caregivers of kids ages 2-4 meaningfully engaged for a month. Activities are one-of-a-kind, designed by me and backed by science & research.

The business was born out of my passion for Montessori and Early Childhood Education as well as my struggles as a mom of 2 under 2. I was extremely stressed out with minimal support. 2020 was especially hard on me as my oldest spent 5 days in hospital with an inflamed brain. The stress of life nearly overtook me, I was dreadfully lonely, raising my kids in isolation. I was racked by guilt that I no longer had the bandwidth to provide enriching activities for my children due to my severe fatigue.

That’s when I had the idea to create the Early Nest. It was born out of great pain and gave me a way to move forward by serving other parents of littles. The goal is to support parents through this short, beautiful yet incredibly stressful season of life. We do ALL the hard work so parents can relax and focus on making memories and connecting with their toddlers through our activities!

We receive multiple 5 star reviews throughout the month, but one that has made a deep impression on me was from a mother who recently lost her child – “I wanted to share our story with you because some times businesses don’t know how much they matter to people. I lost my daughter, my son’s twin, 3 months ago to heart failure. She was my favorite person in the world along with her brother and being a twin mom programmed me to always work and think in twos. With the devastation from her passing I didn’t know how to connect with my son. Then, I remember I had just gotten them this box (we’ve received 3 so far) and tried to give it a go. It’s now become our little togetherness ritual. We do an activity a day and he looks forward to it so much. We also find our creative ways to keep the activities going throughout the month with the themes and read books about them. All of this is so say, thank you! You’ve truly made an impact on us!”

That review immediately made me teary eyed and reminded me of why I do what I do! As Tony Robbins rightly says, “Business is a spiritual game”.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We sell through our website hosted on Shopify. It is a powerful Ecommerce platform. It is efficient, fast, has a plethora of apps & widgets that you can easily add to the website to track customer and visitor activity. It delivers useful analytics to track conversion rate, what social media platforms are driving traffic to your website, how your advertising campaigns are performing in terms of traffic, financial analytics etc. If you want to create an ecomm business that is scalable and flexible, use Shopify! They are ecommerce experts. Also, you can customize your store front and have your own domain, as opposed to Etsy.

The cons are you have to drive your own traffic to your Shopify store whereas if you use a marketplace platform like Etsy you are using their existing traffic. They are a marketplace with millions of users/potential buyers already.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We began with 0 followers in early 2021, now we have a few thousand. The key is to build the right audience, not necessarily a large one – people who are genuinely interested in your offerings. We built our audience mainly through influencer campaigns. We offered free product in exchange for unboxing videos, posts, story tags etc. Later on when we began advertising on Meta we began to grow faster.

My advice for those starting out is to use micro influencers in your industry who have highly engaged audiences that align with your product. Focus on relationship-building and cut the salesy talk! Share the benefits of your products, lots of behind the scenes snippets so people can feel connected to you, focus on how your product can help them, provide tips & tricks etc.

Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and be vulnerable! Don’t get sucked in to chasing likes or followers but consistently speak to what your target market wants to hear. Often business owners aren’t sure what to talk about on social media so they end up posting about their kids’ soccer games, vacations, their dog, what cocktail they had at dinner. That isn’t serving your business at all. Your job is to build credibility with your followers so they will eventually pay you for your products and/or services, and that’s done by positioning yourself as an expert in your industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theearlynest.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theearlynest/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theearlynest/

Image Credits
Images by Paperbirch Co