The founders of breastfeeding clothing firm Bshirt who successfully fought an advertising ban on Facebook have bounced back with a brand new launch into the rental market.
Lisa Lessware and Philippa Doyle, who run Bshirt in Totnes, say the ban cost their business around £15,000 in lost sales when they were struck off by Meta after triggering an ‘adult content’ violation despite their adverts not once showing a bare nipple.
Their pleas went unheard for a fortnight until they hired a US-based ad agency giant who managed to overturn the ban - now they pay the firm a retainer to make sure it never happens again.
Lisa said: "It was so stressful, I cannot tell you. It was particularly difficult because we started on Facebook, launching all those years ago with just 500 tops which we posted on baby groups. We did feel a sense of loyalty to Facebook but we are clearly small fry to them."
Now, the pair have put the drama behind them to start their latest project - the launch of a rental service for Bshirt's breastfeeding tops.
Rental in retail has become a buzzword with the likes of Zara and Marks and Spencer recently announcing their own rental services in a bid to combat throwaway fashion.
For Bshirt, it is a way of reaching more mums-to-be who may be unsure of whether to splash out on a £22 breastfeeding top. This way, they can try it out and send it back if breastfeeding doesn't work out for them.
The idea came after the Bshirt team kept hearing the same dilemma from mums-to-be. Lisa explained: "We do The Baby Show event and when we ask passers-by: "Are you interested in breastfeeding", people are saying 'I'm not sure'.
"Often, people don't know if it is something they are going to get on with or how long they are going to breastfeed for so to ask people to pay £22 for a top that they are not sure they are going to use is a barrier.
"So we thought, how can we address this and that's how we got to the rental model which really is 'a pay as you go'. You can wear it for up to four months, after that the top's yours but and if you decide you no longer want it before then, send it back."
Customer pay between £6-7 a month for the item - it's fully paid for in four months but if it's returned before then, the payments stop.
The items then either go back on sale through Bshirt's own preloved section on its website - which is becoming an increasingly popular option for shoppers - or it's donated to mum and baby charities, refugee projects and baby banks.
It's the latest innovation for the business that has been recognised in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, won praise from parenting magazines and has certified BCorp status for its people and planet ethics.
For Lisa and Philippa, setting up the business was about finding a fulfilling working life while raising a family. Lisa is mum of two boys, Nico and Xavi, and Philippa is mum to sons Albie and Brandon.
Lisa explained that before setting up Bshirt, she was trying to cram in a marketing career while being a mum to her toddler when she returned to work from maternity leave. Run ragged by a two-hour commute and batch cooking at weekends, she decided that something had to give.
"I was at the end of my rope and I kept thinking there has got to be another way", she said.
But anyone who's started up a small business knows, it's not the usual way to cut down on working hours. But the boundaries were clear - the business had to work with 9-3 school hours or it couldn't work at all.
Lisa explained: "To begin with there was a lot of working in the evenings, there had to be, but one we were out of the start-up phase, we've stuck to our boundaries.
"We were clear from the start on what we wanted our brand to be, which was to operate in the most ethical way possible. We wanted a business that also gave us time with our kids. We thought about whether we could do that and it turned out we can, we are now in our seventh year."
She said that the decision to only use GOTS certified organic cotton, manufacturing in India with fair trade pay policies and running their own four-person team on child friendly hours had helped contribute to gaining BCorp status, awarded to firms that run along the tightest ethical principles.
Lisa said: "We could have started with a cheaper product and we would be a whole lot richer but we did not want to do that. We have made a rod for our own back by doing it this way, but we're parents, we're used to it."
Interestingly, Lisa said they still come up against people who expect them to have meetings after 3pm and aren't happy with the response - being clear on the boundary is something she expands on in this Linkedin post.
She said: "I used to say' I'm sorry, I can't, I have childcare responsibilities' but somehow that is not seen as being good enough. Now I simply say, 'I am not available after that time' and that is acceptable."
But while the 9-3 working hours seemed radical pre-pandemic, Lisa said there has been a "quiet social revolution" where people are choosing not to engage in traditional office culture and are finding a way to work that suits them.
"They have been given this slice of freedom and they want to keep it and productivity hasn't gone down as a result - well, we could have told anyone that."
Over the past seven years, Bshirt has grown to a team of four in office space at Castle Street in Totnes with some warehouse space at a 10,000sq ft facility in Plympton.
They ship globally, have received £50,000 as winners of Innovate UK’s 2021-2022 Women in Innovation Awards and even got immortalised for this cartoon in New York Magazine for the ingenuity of the Bshirt design - a vest designed with a double layer that allows easy access for breastfeeding while sparing modesty.
It all started when Lisa wore a vest she'd custom made for breastfeeding to a baby yoga session. There she met Philippa who was impressed with the design and felt that it could catch on. Together they refined the design and launched the business in 2017.
Now, they have a range of breastfeeding tops, women's wear and baby clothes, all made from organic cotton and sold on their ecommerce website.
With around 8% of items returned to them and the rise in demand for preloved, the pair knew they already had the systems in place to deal with the cleaning and processing of rental items and an outlet to sell them on.
Rental is part of a wider fashion movement with firms keen to cut fashion waste. And it has led to a rise in firms, like Hirestreet and spin-out Zoa Rental, working with the big brands to deal with the logistics on their behalf.
For Lisa, it's a way of getting the most out of each product, being part of the slow fashion movement and being as sustainable as possible. And if the items are returned in good condition, the product can be sold on again, allowing the business to be able to further offset the initial costs of manufacturing, customs and shipping.
Looking at the lifecycle of the product has been part of the success of gaining B Corp status.
Lisa said: "People warned us that it would be hard to gain B Corp but actually it was one of the easiest because our business was set up with those ethics at its core."
But no business is without setback. Aside from the Facebook crisis, Brexit has seen its sales to Europe drop by 35%.
Lisa explained: "People are being put off from buying British because they don't know if they will get a customs bill or not. They certainly won't from us."
And access to funding is our 'biggest hurdle', she explained. "When we approached one bank, we were asked how much our husbands earned by way of security. The traditionalk funding routes has basically been non-existent. When we got the Covid Bounce Back Loan, it was amazing, we were thinking why can't it always be this simple to get funding."
She said the key to securing the Innovate funding was to be forensically focused on showing where the money would be spent and what it would achieve.
She explained: "The next thing for us is to seek investment. To secure say £250,000 would take us to the next level in what we want to acheive with our business."
The plans include expanding presence in Europe and into India where there is an emerging middle class market. They also plan to develop a way of re-using the fabric from clothing that cannot be recycled.
While repair of items is prohibitively expensive, Lisa thinks there may be a way to recycle fabric into new products, like colourful rag rugs for nurseries.
"It's that circular economy that I want to continue to explore, having as much impact as we can from every item we sell," she said.
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