Career & Entrepreneurship
Leaving Google to create magic: why I never looked back
About Ági Bärlocher:
Born in Budapest, Hungary and later raised in Germany, I started working in major corporations such as Microsoft and BMW, before changing to the digital business for DoubleClick and Google. At age 35 I decided to start a new career and work in Interior Design, which later led me to founding my own company Teepee Friends for teepee sleepover parties in Zurich and beyond. Finding the balance between being a mother, having my own business and working 50% for a children’s magazine is a rewarding challenge so worth tackling every day.
Ági Bärlocher
Her story:
I truly believe that childhood is the most magic time of our lives. Fairy tales, pirates, unicorns and ghosts – everything is possible and the more magical it is, the more children are drawn to it. When I started Teepee Friends I wanted to create such dreamlike wonderland settings for families to enjoy and make memories that would last for many years to come.
But the journey from being an overachieving and well paid Google marketing manager to being a mother of two daughters with a 50% job and starting my own business on the side, was not a straightforward one.
Coming from a family with generations of doctors before me, I was the first one not to choose that calling in life. So after having studied in the U.K. and the US plus adding a Master on top of that in Spain, I started my corporate career in the quickly growing digital economy in 2005. After many exciting years filled with fast-paced projects all over the world, I found myself living a life I hadn`t envisioned for myself: Working day and night, living out of a suitcase, jetting from airport to airport, rushing from meeting to meeting and constantly checking the figures on the marketing results I was supposed to create, making money, but having no time to enjoy any of its benefits. So after asking myself: “is that really all there to life?”, I knew the answer.
Shirin @_thismodernmuse
I sent off my notice of leave email to my boss over breakfast in the Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia and embarked on a new journey. With my experience in event and trade fair design, I managed to get into an Interior Design Master Course in Milan and started my journey into the design world. After securing an internship at 36 years of age and really no prior experience with any of the tools needed (I self taught myself the basic computer design skills with video tutorials), I started at an architecture and scenography studio in Zurich. 4.5 years later, having headed the businesses` PR & marketing department and with two little daughters now in our family, it was time to find something which allowed me to connect the dots between family life, my passion for interior design, crafts and my own memories of a meaningful and experience-based childhood.
credit photo Ági Bärlocher
“Collect memories, not things.” One of my most important mantras.
As Hungarian immigrants, we didn’t own many things when I was growing up. But the times we shared with our close friends and family still are my most favourite part of childhood: Being together, improvised sleepovers on the floor in our basement, giggling through the nights, the feeling of adventure and the wonderful experience of falling asleep next to your best friends and them being there when you wake up – magic! The idea was born to recreate this feeling for families, to assemble dreamlike sets for families to hire for them at home. A fairy-tale setting in which memories were created for life. And busy working mothers like my own mum would have appreciated to have even back then.
credit photo Ági Bärlocher
So there crafting began: selecting and sewing the teepee fabrics, crafting the wooden frames for the teepees myself at the woodworking shop of a colleague of mine, assembling the decoration and extra bits needed for each of my seven sleepovers themes, business planning and setting up a website, an offer, registering a company, taking pictures, the list was endless. But Teepee Friends started in the spring of 2018 with my first booked party. Although in my professional career before I had organised uncountable major events, I had not been as excited and nervous as when I was on my way to set up my first paid party. What a rush! Now, many parties later, the nervousness has passed, but I still have butterflies in my stomach for every party I`m allowed to set up. The gratitude of the families when they see my teepees and the amazing feedback I receive on how much the children enjoyed their bonding experience with their friends, it makes my heart jump with joy. I must honestly tell that with none of my corporate jobs have I felt the way my customers make me feel after they’ve had their party or they see the teepees fully set up.
credit photo Ági Bärlocher
Ain`t no business like party business
As magical as this business is, it’s not sustainable as a full time position and I have another 50% position at the family magazine KILUDO besides it. Sleepover parties usually happen only on Fridays or on the weekends, and because I`m delivering, styling and picking up most of them on my own, I cannot personally do more than two per weekend. Also, I need my husband to be at home watching our girls so that I can visit my client families. He’s traveling quite a lot for work, so this adds more organisational challenges as both of our parents are not living anywhere near us to watch over the kids. Sometimes I have to decline party requests, because we have plans as a family on a chosen weekend or we’re away on holidays ourselves.
credit photo Ági Bärlocher
Childhood cannot be put on hold
My dream before COVID19 was to take Teepee Friends from a one-woman business to a small team to be able to share ideas for development and growth, moments of happiness and entrepreneurial challenges. As all kids parties are cancelled at the moment, I started to offer my teepees for the children of families for their own homes. Little birthday surprises for their kids, I even had a digital sleepover party last week. A mother hired four teepees, two for her daughters and two for their best friends and when everything was set up, the girls video chatted with each other for hours, each in their little teepee in their own homes. I loved the idea! Children still want to celebrate on their birthdays, they still want to feel special and I feel so fortunate that I still get to support and serve families in creating wonderful memories for them even in the midst of the current challenges.
Credit photos Ági Bärlocher except all photos of the little girl in the pink teepee Shirin @_thismodernmuse
