Unemployed Mom's Easy Duvet Cover Idea

Work at Home Mom's Online Success with Easy Fit Duvet Cover

An unemployed mother in Leeds, England changed her life and became a successful work at home mom, with one simple idea. Joyce Bert was unemployed and "living on the breadline" as she put it, after having worked as a personal assistant for nine years in London, and wondering just how she was going to manage with a son to look after. "I was so embarrassed," she said "I would go into the job- seekers office and check that no one saw me entering. ..... I was so desperate to find something, anything to pay my way.'

One day while wrestling with a duvet cover she thought to herself, like countless other people have done no doubt, that there must be a better way of designing a duvet cover so that it is not such a chore to put the duvet inside it. The difference was that she actually decided to sit down and design a better duver cover. This simple idea made her almost overnight into a successful businesswoman making money online sellling her easy fit duvet covers.

What is a Duvet Cover ?!

At this point I should perhaps define what a duvet and a duver cover are. As it would appear that people in the USA don't use them, or if they do they may call them something different like a 'down comforter'. A duvet is like a large flat sleeping bag filled with feathers or down that you put on your bed instead of blankets. They were used widely in countries like Germany in Central Europe and in recent years have found their way over to the UK where they are replacing blankets. They are warm, light and comfortable but they will get dirty and greasy if you don't cover them by using a 'duvet cover'. So when you a buy a duvet you also need to buy some duvet covers to go with it. The problem with duvets and duvet covers is that some people find it difficult, not to say exasperating, to slide the duvet into the cover, which is why Joyce Bert decided to design her own easy fit duvet covers.

The patented design that she came up with is very simple. Instead of opening on one side, her duvet covers open on three sides. It is so simple everyone wonders why no-one else came up with it before. She spent £15 ($22) on a roll of fabric and made three of her new easy fit duvet covers herself, which were quickly bought by friends. I don't know how much she sold them for but if it was $22 each then she made approximately $44 profit for the effort of sewing together her duvet covers.

This article from the Daily Telegraph has an article on how the Qande Easy Fit Duvet Covers work - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/7966743/Single-mother-reinvents-duvet-cover.html.

Her friends were so impressed they convinced her that she should sell more. With the help of a local scheme for budding entrepreneurs, Urbanbiz, she succeeded in getting her duver covers on the market and sold more than 50 covers for £35 ($50) each on a market stall in Leeds. Flushed with success she then launched her own company Qande Duvet Covers and set up a website - http://qandeduvetcovers.webs.com - , and gradually built up her business until she was selling hundreds of her covers online. Kenyan-born Joyce Bert says the idea has changed her life. She also says "Most of my customers have told me it's changed their lives. They're amazed that something so simple hasn't been designed before. The general consensus seems to be that something which is an everyday problem for so many people can be solved so easily."

Just recently however her story has taken another turn as she has signed a contract with high street retailers Matalan and others and also with a television shopping channel to make even more of her covers. And her simple invention could end up making her a fortune.

So well done to Joyce Bert, she came up with a better duvet cover that changed her life and in the process may have made herself a lot of money ! All she needs now is for Oprah to name it her best new non-electronic gadget !