Mayo business owner turns burnout into blazing online gift store

MOTHER of two and previous communications manager, Christine Crean is the same as the rest of us. Afraid of this virus, trying to play her part by staying at home and earn enough to pay the bills.

Years spent on the road led to burnout for this new Mayo business owner. Wanting to spend more time with her children, Christine, of Ballina-based Treat Box Time, set out to create her own business and take control of her life, unwilling to spend any more of her time on anyone else’s watch.

Treat Box Time is an online gift shop with a difference. You can build a gift box choosing from the many products available or go for one already available, choosing from skin and body care, baby gifts, books, accessories and homeware.

Having worked for global leaders in the pharma and diagnostics industry for almost two decades, she had years of valuable experience and knew this was bound to help in creating a vision of all the necessary elements that would make an excellent online gifting business.

She said: “I was exhausted with the rat race. I honestly couldn’t do it any more. I spent most of my time at home either in bed coming around from my week travelling or working in my home office. Life was miserable.

“Now that I am working from home, I feel alive again. I have no one but myself to praise or blame! I can choose my own hours and have proper family time.”

Christine wanted to create something that inspired and spread happiness. In an age of lockdowns and a pandemic, there was only one road to take.

“Going online was my only option. It’s a case of having to because of Covid. So many people have had their livelihoods changed and even destroyed. The internet is many things, but there is a mountain of opportunity if you are willing to take a chance on it.”

A survey commissioned by PayPal and conducted by Ipos on 2,000 Irish consumers demonstrated that more people are buying online now, with 59% shopping with overseas traders. Shoppers want to avoid queues and take advantage of home delivery, with a third of those surveyed saying that they will continue to shop online in comparison to pre Covid-19 times.

Visit https://www.treatboxtime.com/ to find out more.