'Don't interrupt!': Simple stationery tool Melbourne couple uses to keep their marriage on track

Michelle Leach was already a budding entrepreneur when she and her husband Tim decided to purchase their own parenting business.

"When my daughter Zoe was born, I started making my own cloth nappies," Michelle tells 9honey.

"I couldn't find nappies that actually fitted my daughter, she was really chubby.

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"I started sewing them from home and so I sort of organically grew that business just through a Facebook group."

Soon she struggled to keep up with demand, so she began searching for an Australian manufacturer to make the cloth nappies she would sell.

"I finally found one in Melbourne, but that was literally just as interest rates and everything were rising and COVID and they pulled a pin on our manufacturing agreement," she says.

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With her nappy business stalled, she and Tim decided their next move would be to acquire an established brand.

They settled on Mikki & Me which sells products for parents and children including lunch bags and boxes, fun planners and name-label stickers.

"Our daughter was just starting kindergarten the following year, so it sort of naturally fit what we were doing as well," she says.

This wouldn't be smooth sailing.

Six months after purchasing Mikki & Me, they discovered a loan they had applied for to build their new home hadn't been processed due to an administrative error. This was despite the couple being told it had been approved.

"We went to draw down on the construction loan and were told, 'You don't have a loan.'"

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Making matters worse, Michelle hadn't noted down some key information that would have helped them liaise with the bank about the error.

They had no choice but to reapply for the loan, not knowing if they would even be approved this time around due to Michelle being on parental leave and interest rate increases.

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"It was six weeks of stress," she says.

"It was very much a case of if we don't get approved this loan, we will end up having to sell everything and have nowhere to live, and a half-built house, and it's like, what on earth do we actually do with that?"

Michelle credits her ability to forge ahead in the case of adversity with helping her navigate this complex time. Their second application for the loan was approved and their new home was built.

Following this, Michelle decided to create a new product to add to Mikki & Me – an acrylic planner that families can use to keep track of their busy lives.

It is this same planner she and husband Tim have also used to improve their communication, after Michelle was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) after their son's diagnosis.

A speech therapist had mentioned while working with their son that ADHD is a "genetic trait."

Michelle began researching the condition and found the DSM-5 criteria for it that she realised "I checked pretty much every single one of these boxes."

"I'm so bad at cleaning, like, I cannot do laundry, I rewash my washing about five times, I'll hang out one piece in one sock and then suddenly I'll be pruning the fig tree and then my husband in the middle of the week will be like, 'Hey where's my work pants?'"

Tim would sometimes walk around the house, observing her "trail of destruction" as she attempted to clean and tidy their home, only to be distracted by the next task and the next.

Knowing distracting his wife mid-task can cause her to lose focus, Tim will now write down topics he wants to discuss with his wife later on the noticeboard on their fridge.

"It's honestly worked so well for us because he can just quite happily have five different conversations at once, but if my brain's on a business idea of some description, it's like, don't interrupt!"

Her hard work is certainly paying off, and Michelle has also just been listed as a finalist in the 2024 Ausmumpreneur Awards and the 2024 Australian Women's Small Business Champion Awards.

Also, business at Mikki & Me is up 120 per cent since they acquired the business.

For those considering embarking on their business venture while raising a family, Michelle encourages them to "give it a try."

"I think you 100 per cent have to back yourself," she says.

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