It’s like a plot you see in a Kate Hudson movie: giving up your seemingly dream life to pursue the unlikely; but much like the movies, in the case of mum Kim Peirce, the gamble paid off.
Once a management consultant in the oil and gas industry, Peirce chose to quit her cushy six-figure position to take on the world of soap and body scrubs.
What started out as an intended small-online endeavour has turned into a full-fledged career for both Peirce and her husband, Joseph, as cosmetic giant Sephora has recently picked up their product.The couple’s line, Babe Scrub, which includes scrubs, candles, and lotions is now being carried by both department store Nordstorm and trendy fashion and lifestyle outlet, Urban Outfitters.
“We launched Babe Scrub with a view to having a purely online business; we had this vision of siting back in Thailand drinking cocktails while on our laptop, servicing our orders from some remote fulfilment centre,” Mrs Peirce told news.com.au.
“But we quickly realised that wholesale was coming knocking on our door … We get wholesale inquiries constantly without us going out and shopping for them.”
Beauty outlets discovered the couple’s products over social media, and since their 2013 start, their order loads have skyrocketed from kilos to tonnes, shipping out of Victoria, Australia.
Before starting Babe Scrub from her kitchen, Peirce took a cosmetic chemistry course and attempted four separate start-up companies in an effort to see what would work.
“I started to get really restless and Joseph and I spoke about ‘what’s it going to take for me to finish up and launch my own thing’,” she said.
“Coming up to turning 40, I just realised that there was never going to be the ‘right time’.”
Today, the business success of their endeavour has been substantial, but the pair claim the risky career change has allowed them simpler benefits as well.
“We just wanted to be able to engineer our own lifestyle,” Mrs Peirce said. “We’ve got three children and we just really want to be involved in life as much as possible.”
“We work late some nights, but we go home, have dinner together, spend some time with the kids and get them to bed,” he said. “It has really paid off.”
