An entrepreneur who started selling sensory boxes for babies after getting frustrated over a lack of products on the market has reported a rapid rise in orders after she was endorsed by Stacey Solomon.
The TV star and singer was sent the complimentary box of toys after Lauren Roden, of Aspley in Nottingham, found out the personality was pregnant.
Mrs Roden said her business, The Sensory Box Company, had been progressing well and decided to send the product on a whim, but it ended up being showcased on Solomon's Instagram account.
After the star's post - and a subsequent giveaway she arranged - orders to the company, set up in 2018, rose from a handful a day to "hundreds".
The mum-of-one said: "It just goes to show how celebrity endorsements can really make or break a business, and the late nights I’ve been having recently, are all thanks to Stacey’s willingness to promote and support small businesses.
"I was at the point where the business was doing well, but not as well as I was hoping. I was even thinking of winding it down and getting a ‘real job’."
The Sensory Box Company was set up by Mrs Roden after she attended sensory classes with her son, Joey, now 15 months, but couldn't find options on the market to recreate the classes at home.
So after talking to hundreds of mums and sending out surveys she began selling boxes of toys with guides on how to use them.
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She now offers a range of boxes which a premium set of products, baby shower gift box and autism sensory boxes, with a Christmas-themed product due to launch in September.
After the initial flurry of orders, she now receives about 50 orders per day and has enlisted the support of family and friends to get the boxes ready for shipping. But the overnight increase has led to Mrs Roden making more plans to deal with the popularity of her company.
The former marketing manager added: "It has got to the point now where were are starting Joey at nursery in September because I am going to need some time to keep going while it is still popular. We have just had to make some changes we weren't expecting to.
"We are looking at maybe a premises or storage facility as well. The garage is OK at the moment but it is getting filled up with other life stuff as well so trying to store hundreds of rattles just doesn't necessarily work."
Mrs Roden now hopes to secure endorsements from other influencers on social media after her initial success and has hinted she could look at employing one person if sales continue to do well.