TAKING a risk has paid off for Kath Kinneally who has added an existing business to her own.  

She has operated Hot Mummies on Mulgrave Rd for two years and recently bought Baby Equipment Hire and Sales Cairns and Port Douglas. 

Hot Mummies is known for its high-quality but affordable maternity clothes while the other business sells and hires everything to do with babies.

She has shifted the hire business from Lily St at North Cairns and the clothing operation from Mulgrave Rd to the CBD.

"I have now combined both businesses and opened up a bigger and better shop on the corner of McLeod and Upward streets," Mrs Kinneally said.

She said "it was probably a risk".

"But it's going so well I can't believe it," Mrs Kinneally said.

She said she had great difficulty getting finance.

"Trying to get money from the banks was just impossible," Mrs Kinneally said.

"The figures backed it up but they wouldn't look at it."

Mrs Kinneally said her husband Shane came to the rescue with a personal loan.

"For me it was the only way I could do it," she said.

Mrs Kinneally said three months later and she couldn't be happier.

She said the combined businesses were doing better than expected.

"This new shop is a novel concept for Cairns as expecting mothers can purchase all their maternity clothes and accessories plus buy or hire all their baby equipment from one shop," Mrs Kinneally said.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for parents to have a one-stop shop experience."

Mrs Kinneally said she was experiencing the improvement in tourism as well as the increase in pregnancies.
"Tourism is picking up. I'm doing a lot with the hotels," she said.

"The Lakes Resorts have just hired 20 rollaway beds. The hotels are using everything from cots to sterilisers and (baby) monitors.

"The hire side of the business is one that the hotels have embraced but locals don't know that they can hire everything from car seats and cots to rollaway beds (adult size) and prams."

Mrs Kinneally said the cheap flights and the baggage restrictions meant parents could not bring car seats so were hiring them instead.

"We have every potential requirement for parents who do not want to go to the expense of buying equipment," she said.

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