A savvy mother has started a business to work around a lack of childcare.
Lauren Johnston (40) couldn’t get any more hours at her current job as a payroll assistant, due to the lack of options for her two year old son on the Black Isle.
She said: “My idea was to create a business that I could do in my spare time, while my child was asleep in the evening.”
Lauren’s business, Sianology sells homemade reed diffusers with scents inspired by the local area alongside calendars with her own photography and bottle lamps.
She explained: “Before I was pregnant, I enjoyed making candles for friends, but after becoming a mum that took a lot of time.
“I came up with the idea of being reed diffusers as it doesn’t take as long as making candles.
“I really like photography too, so I have made the calendars look like they have been sketched with the pictures I’ve taken.”
Lauren’s products have been picked up by local retailers and she now stocks Rosemarkie Beach Cafe and Fortrose Post Office, alongside on her own website.
She ensures that the names and scents of her products all reflect the surrounding areas.
She said: “It all draws on the local area and that’s what inspires me.
“Fairy Glen is more of a woody fragrance and Chanonry Point is juniper and seaweed.”
Over the last year she has learned many business lessons and said it has been a ‘steep learning curve’.
She also shared her hopes for the business in the future: “In my wildest dreams, I would love a wee shop with a workspace.
“But for now it’s something to prop me up in the meantime and it works in with the childcare.”
All her products can be found on her website at: www.sianology.co.uk
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