Clare Kipping

Hi, my name is Clare Kipping and I am 26 years old, married to a wonderful husband and a fantastic Father to our two children Kerrigan-Maria aged 4 years and Helena-Emily aged 2 years.

When I left school I went straight to college and did a course on childcare, passed all exams and became a fully qualified Nursery Nurse. I did this course because from a young age I always wanted to work with children. From college I went straight into employment where I was a special needs teaching assistant at a school in Coventry, it was a great job, hard work but fun.

Then in 2000 I became pregnant to our first child Kerrigan-Maria, she was born in June 2001 and that’s when I left work to become a fulltime mommy, I was the happiest person in the world, having a child that I thought I would never have due to medical problems. My life was complete and I was enjoying every part of every minute of every day being a mommy, the 18 months later Helena-Emily was born, I thought my life was perfect before Helena but this was so right and my husband and I and Kerrigan were so happy, I could not have asked for anything else I was so proud to be the mother of two beautiful perfect little girls and I love them with all my heart.

The day came when I thought I would treat myself and go and have my hair done, so off to the salon we went my two girls and me. My hair was done and I was feeling so good about myself, I had Helena in the pram, Kerrigan was on the reigns and off we went walking back into town,( now bare in mind I had spent a lot of money having my hair re-shaped and coloured) and the heavens opened it rained so much and it came as a shock because one minute it was sunny the next it was raining, so I got my umbrella out that I always kept under the pram and put it up to try a salvage the remaining dry bits of my hair. Helena was fine she was all covered up and Kerrigan needed up having my umbrella, she was crying, I was wet and I just could not hold the umbrella, push the pram and shelter Kerrigan at the same time, so when I got back home I decided to make my life a lot easier and design a umbrella that I could attach to the pram so no hands where needed to hold the umbrella at the same time as the pram and that I could still hold Kerrigan and keep her close to me and that’s when MULTI BRELLA was invented.

After taking to close relatives I realised how good the idea was so before I did anything else I took a loan from the bank and got my idea patented and Multi Brella trademarked and then that’s when the hard work began. I sourced all the materials myself and found a really good manufacturer and thanks to Dave at JDR in Redditch we produced prototypes of the Multi brella, it took a few attempts before the final one was made but we got there. But before this point I turned to the WBDA for support and help, and I was assigned a support worker called Minal who has helped me I in so many ways especially over the business plan, WBDA have also pointed me in the directions of courses to attend and have been my support to which I thank all of them for.

So to any women, who are wanting to start a business or even still any moms that want to set up their own business the GO FOR IT, I did and I am glad I did especially with the support from the WBDA.

So this is my story of how I stared my company called KERLEN Ltd and my product Multi Brella- a specially designed umbrella that attaches to a child’s buggy for the use of the parent whether it be sunny or raining. The Multi Brella can also attach to wheelchairs or other disability products.