Mum-turned-inventor creates new pram product

Nov 9 2009 By Rupert Basham

Cara Sayer and daughter Holly

A Walton mum who is using her life savings to set herself up as an inventor is ready to release her first product - the SnoozeShade.

Cara Sayer, 37, who lives off Hersham Road, says the product aimed to make mum's lives easier, by providing a removable shade to attach to prams.

The idea came to her when she was struggling to protect her daughter Holly, now two, when she was a baby in her pram in 2008.

Cara, said: "I was sitting at Cafe Rouge in Weybridge and I was spending a lot of time trying to cover the babies, with coats and various other items, while trying to keep them asleep for as long as possible. It seemed like such a simple idea, that I thought about it quite a few times after that. It wasn't until some of my girlfriends said that I should do it that I bought some fabric."

The shade is a blackout blind designed to be pulled over the front of buggies, to either shade children or to encourage them to sleep.

After encouragement from her friends and family, Cara spent a number of months working on the design and how she would be able to sell it.

With a background in marketing and PR, she decided that the name was most important, and came up with SnoozeShade. With a product and a name, she decided that she had two options.

Cara, said: "It was either Dragons Den or a trade show. Of the two I thought if I went to the trade show, even if they laughed at me, at least I wouldn't be embarrassed on national television. I got everything ready and went to the show at the beginning of October, and it turned out to be really useful, I got some good feedback, and some companies were interested."

Cara is now putting the finishing touches on her website and preparing for the official launch of SnoozeShade in February when it will be sold by children's clothes and products store, Jojo Maman Bebe as well as by herself on her website.

She has invested her life savings into SnoozeShade, and is hoping that not only is it a success, but it will open the door for more inventions.

Cara, said: "I've got a few other ideas which people haven't thought of. It's all stuff to make mum's lives easier, just really simple stuff."