By Dongyun Kwon
A Gruyere resident took first place for her brilliant business idea at national awards.
Monique Cotton has been announced as the gold winner in the One To Watch (New Idea) category at the 2024 AusMumpreneur Awards.
The AusMumpreneur Awards are presented by AusMumpreneur and The Women’s Business School.
AusMumpreneur co-founder Peace Mitchell said the AusMumpreneur Awards celebrate and recognise Aussie mums in business who have achieved outstanding success in areas like business excellence, product development, customer service, and digital innovation.
“The awards are designed to recognise the growing number of women who successfully balance motherhood and business in a way that suits their life and family,” she said.
“Our panel of judges selected Monique because they were so impressed by her clever and innovative solution to solving a problem faced by so many parents.”
Monique Cotton runs five businesses including a residential builder ‘The Building and Construction Company’, a licensed local handyman services ‘The Handy Local’, a handcrafted giftware business ‘Sophia and Friends Australia’ and an omnichannel online retailer targeting South Koreans ‘Sophia and Friends South Korea’.
The business, recognised at the AusMumpreneur Awards, is a tech start-up of a patented smart nappy sensor named Weebell.
“It is a diaper sensor that is designed to let mums and carers know when it’s time to change your baby’s nappy through a visual cue of blinking night light as well as a smartphone notification through an app,” the business owner said.
Ms Cotton started the new business when she was pregnant with her now 11-month-old baby Sophia.
She has a background in tech and used to work within a corporate business.
“Planning my maternity leave taking time off work, I wanted to do something that would solve a simple problem,” Ms Cotton said.
“The simplest problem that I could find that I could personally relate to was changing diapers because that’s what I was about to get myself into.
“So, I wanted to turn it into a product that would really benefit busy parents like myself and give them peace of mind with parenting.”
After all of the hard work to develop the product and company, the patent finally got approved in April.
Ms Cotton said she didn’t expect to win the award.
“But, when I was nominated, I wanted to take the opportunity, that if I was to win, which I did, to encourage other mums that it’s not impossible for mums to do something their heart desires while looking after their little kids,” she said.
