A new chapter for Raising Awesome
Help give Raising Awesome a permanent home
A little Cape Town business. A lot of playdough. And a chance to build something much bigger.
Help us raise the first R40,000 towards opening our new home.
A little more room for awesome.
The story
I think it is time we moved out.
Raising Awesome began in our lounge. One toddler, one overworked mum, a pile of craft supplies, and a fairly optimistic belief that I could fit it all around everything else.
I have built it while working long hours across more than one job. Now it has grown to the point where working from home is not merely inconvenient. It is actively stopping the business from growing.
A premises I already know has come up. I have run Raising Awesome activities there before, and it is almost ridiculously well suited to what I have been trying to create.
Why now
We lose 90 minutes just moving things.
Stock, shelving, workshop equipment, production supplies, tables, chairs and market fittings are constantly travelling around our house.
On an ordinary working day, we can lose around 90 minutes unpacking, setting up, moving stock, and packing everything away again. That is more than 30 working hours a month that could be spent making, selling and growing.
I have even had to cancel workshops because transporting everything there and back was simply too much.
The business does not need more of my hours. It needs somewhere to live.
Already happening
We are not starting from scratch.
We have the products, the equipment, the customers, the team and a growing community. What we do not have is room.
24
messy-play seats filled at busy markets
3
permanent team members, plus part-time support
1
growing local business ready for a proper home
The vision
Not just another children’s shop.
We are building a family space around creative play, practical products, community and affordability.
Raising Awesome has always challenged the “child tax”. The idea that everything should cost more simply because it is for children.
A permanent home could bring together open play, sensory and messy play, workshops, school-holiday activities, Mama Pause, retail and production. Somewhere children can play and create while their grown-ups sit, work, connect or have a cup of coffee.
Not another high-volume indoor play centre. Something smaller, warmer and actually useful.
Outside, properly
The Awesome Garden.
The garden might be my favourite part of this whole opportunity.
I do not want to fill it with jungle gyms and commercial playground equipment. I want it to remain a garden. A real garden where children are allowed to make a mess.
Water, mud kitchens, scooping and pouring, planting, digging, outdoor art, loose-parts play, sensory experiments and the occasional child running about simply because they can.
The premises has lawn, established planting, mature shade and paved areas for the really messy stuff. For families without much usable outdoor space, that matters.
The garden itself is the experience.
Room to breathe
And somewhere for the
grown-ups.
The space has excellent fibre and Wi-Fi. During ordinary Open Play, parents and caregivers will remain responsible for their children, but they can be comfortable while the children play.
Open the laptop. Have a coffee. Meet another parent. Sit under a tree and do absolutely nothing for ten minutes.
We are not opening a full café. Just a deliberately simple refreshment menu: French-press coffee, tea, hot chocolate, fruit, yoghurt and easy child-friendly snacks. Enough to make a couple of hours feel easy.
Making play accessible
R50 to get through the door.
Our planned Open Play model starts at R50 per child, for general indoor and outdoor play, The Awesome Garden, a reading nook, permanent play activities and Wi-Fi for accompanying adults.
Extras are genuinely optional. Small crafts around R20–R45. Larger activities around R75. Cookie decorating R50. The full messy-play buffet on selected days around R100.
Food, drinks and retail are separate. Or a family can spend nothing more at all.
A day out should not start with a R150–R200 entrance fee.
Retail and activities
A shop that can become a workshop.
The largest indoor room has wonderful natural light and space for around 12 children to take part in activities.
Rather than filling it with permanent fixtures, products can live around the edges, leaving the middle open for creative workshops, indoor play, holiday activities and homeschool sessions.
The playdough, sensory materials and activity kits are not stuck on a shelf somewhere. Children can use them, discover them and see how they work.
We can keep running creative workshops, messy play, seasonal activities and Mama Pause without the constant business of finding and setting up somebody else’s venue.
More than a storefront
And production stays production.
A permanent production area means we can make larger batches, store finished products, prepare workshop kits, fill orders faster and build classroom and bulk packs.
We have already started supplying local schools. We want to develop the school and B2B side properly, alongside online sales.
At home, every new product becomes a storage problem. In a proper workspace, it can just live where it belongs.
I am deliberately not giving away the production area to squeeze in a party venue or photography studio. The business has to make things as well as host them.
Small businesses, together
Room for other people to grow, too.
Raising Awesome already sells selected products from other local makers at markets. With a permanent shop, we could offer carefully chosen parent-led and other small businesses shelf space or a commission arrangement, without them taking on a shop of their own.
We also want to build our homeschool and holiday programme, grow school supply and run Mama Pause more consistently.
Raising Awesome already supports three permanent staff members, with another four people helping as needed across production, markets and activities. As we grow, I want to create useful, flexible local work for caregivers and younger people building experience.
The difficult ask
I can’t build this next chapter on my own.
I’ve self-funded Raising Awesome as far as I realistically can while continuing to support my family through my other work.
We already have the products, equipment, customers and community. What we need now is somewhere for it all to live, and enough breathing room to get it running without worrying about next month’s bills.
My goal is not to add another job to my life. It’s to build one sustainable business that supports my family, employs people and creates opportunities for others.
And, eventually, one that doesn’t require me to work South African days and overseas nights indefinitely. The point isn’t to work more hours. It’s to build something that can grow without needing every single one of mine.
What we are raising
Two milestones. One permanent home.
First milestone
R40,000 to help us get through the door and get going.
Our first goal is to help cover the initial costs of securing and setting up our new home, while making sure there’s enough money left to actually run the business once we’re there.
Stock, production materials, moving, opening supplies and all the things that need to happen before we can welcome everyone in.
We’ve already done the hard work of building Raising Awesome. We don’t need to start again. We need to give what we’ve built somewhere to live.
Full campaign
R150,000 for a proper runway.
The full target gives Raising Awesome some much-needed breathing room while our new space establishes itself.
Rather than expecting everything to pay for itself from day one, we’ll have room to develop our workshops, grow our school supply business, prepare for holiday programmes, increase production and make the most of our retail space.
Funds raised will go towards premises and occupancy costs, stock, production materials, basic setup, opening consumables, working capital and crowdfunding transaction costs.
We already own the tables, chairs, shelving, production equipment, workshop equipment, POS system and products. We are not funding an elaborate fit-out. We are putting an existing business in one place.
If this particular lease cannot ultimately be concluded, funds will still go towards securing a suitable permanent premises with the same production, retail, activity and garden model.
Why the runway matters
The goal is to pay our own way.
Crowdfunding is not supposed to pay the rent forever.
It’s about giving an existing business enough time and breathing room to establish new income without expecting everything to work perfectly from the first day.
A permanent space comes with opportunities, but also responsibilities. I want us to be able to pay our staff, buy our materials, fill our orders and run our activities without every quiet day becoming a financial headache.
We’ll be tracking open play, paid activities, messy-play sessions, workshops, holiday programmes, retail sales, refreshments, school and bulk orders, shelf rentals, production, online fulfilment and the real running costs.
Success is not opening a pretty shop.
Success is a space that can support its own costs and team, keep activities affordable, create local paid work and grow a proper community.
And maybe, finally, become the one job I need instead of one of several.
A home for everything we have built
The products. The equipment. The team.
The customers. The people.
We have built the foundations already. What we do not yet have is somewhere for all of it to live.
Our first milestone gets us through the door. The full campaign gives Raising Awesome room to grow.
And I think it is time to find out.