Business in Profile

GOINGTOHOSPITAL

1. Briefly describe your business.

www.goingtohospital.com is a web based business offering a stylish yet practical sleepwear range and extras that can be delivered to hospital or home in emergency time.

Our motto is "If you look good, you'll feel better".

We want our customers to feel good about themselves while in hospital or recuperating at home. Our garments have a practicality about them, with front openings that are great for breastfeeding and ease of changing comfortable roll top pants and useful slippers and shawls to match - and you can wear them beyond your hospital stay.

The extras on offer include useful overnight bags, wet bags and beauty products, as well as some beautiful baby gifts. Buy for yourself or purchase gifts from our website for family, friends and colleagues who are planning a hospital stay - or if they are in need in an emergency.

2. Why did you start your business?

Goiongtohospital (gth) was founded following a hospital visit by Rosie Nice, ex fashion retailer, who was presented with a 'care package' from her designer friend, Julie Lantry, of Bulb (a lingerie and loungewear range with a shop in Double Bay).

Julie's soft jersey pants, gowns and tops are stylish and comfortable and received lots of interest from fellow patients!

Together, they decided to design a practical yet stylish range of sleepwear especially for people who are visiting hospital or recovering from an illness.

The gth website was born offering everything you need for going to hospital, when you need it, delivered in emergency time to your hospital or home.

3. Has starting your own business lived up to expectations?

Julie and Rosie have been in different businesses for many years so they knew what they were getting into! However, being solely web based has been a new challenge. gth has a team of four. Running our own business is something we all enjoy yet it does become a 24/7 job and can be very demanding as well as rewarding!

4. What have you enjoyed the most about running your own business?

For all the gth team this is not our first business but collaborating in a partnership has allowed each to specialise in what they are best at as well as learn from each other. We are able to pool our ideas and exchange our points of view to come up with solutions. What we enjoy the most is the positive feedback we receive about our website and our range. The emails from satisfied customers and acknowledgment from strangers that they have heard about us lets us know that we are heading in the right direction.

5. What is the biggest challenge for you in running your own business?

Our biggest challenge has been to keep up the supply of our most popular garments and keep our website up to date and evolving as we learn more about our customers and their needs. Although we did not originally aim to be a maternity range, our main customer base is pregnant women or new mums, so we are having to adjust both our garments and our marketing to reflect this.

6. How do you manage the juggle of running your own business with family?

We all have different family commitments as we are all at different stages in our lives. The trick is to set times of the day for work and then switch off when you need to focus on yourself or your family. The business is always in the back of your mind but you need a balance to be able to manage it all.

7. Do you have a favourite networking opportunity or event?

Let all your family, friends and acquaintances know about your business. Keep everyone, especially customers, up to date with an occasional newsletter. We had a great launch party in a hospital cafeteria, we work hard at letting the press know what we are doing so that we can be included in articles and publications, and when budget allows, we do a small amount of advertising.

7. Do you have any advice for anyone out there who may be thinking about starting their own business?

Any small business will take time to establish and an investment in both time and money before you start seeing results. Be patient but also be willing to try new things as the business evolves.


For more information about Going to Hospital  ...click here