2009...year in review...continued

Fast forward. It's summer time. School is out and it's birthday party season. I decide that every kid on my birthday list is getting a handmade gift instead of another plastic toy. My nephew, who turned 6, I'm told wants a bag with the Batman logo on it. Not too shabby, eh? That was my first experience with embroidery and it was a ton of fun! I turned it into a reversible crayon tote bag. I got a little bag-happy after that so every kid I knew got a tote bag that summer. It was a hit with the kids as well as their parents so I saw that as a good sign to add totes to my collection.

2009..year in review

OK. This blogging thing is really NOT that easy. I'm learning it takes serious discipline to update it regularly and with the new year, I will try harder to do just that. So here is a recap of last year's happenings with my business.

Early in the year, I started experimenting with a new product. Hooded bath towels! Well, maybe it's not really a new product but I sought out to make it a better product. When Sammie was a baby, I used those little bath towels with the triangular top and remembered how awful they were. They were too thin, too small, and not absorbent at all! So I searched the web for better materials and came up with organic Turkish cotton terry cloth! It's very pricey but worth it. It rivals with Egyptian cotton and is so thick and luxurious. I created an extra large hooded towel measuring 30" by 40"! I gave it to friends to test out and made adjustments here and there based on their feedback.

In May, armed with my new product, I paid a couple hundred dollars (which is the most I've ever spent on a table fee) to take part in the SF Baby Fair. I was really excited and optimistic, believing that THIS was my demographic. Affluent, eco-minded parents-to-be. I sold a handful of bibs but not a single hooded bath towel. I didn't even make enough to cover my table fee so in terms of sales, it was a total failure. But on the other hand, I made a couple of great contacts which shaped how the rest of my year would turn out.

From the SF Fair and previous fairs, I learned one really important thing about my product, the bibs in particular. Since they serve a very specific function, it takes a bit of show-and-tell for customers to really get it. Experienced parents get it immediately but new parents don't really (to them, a bib is a bib is a bib) because they just haven't experienced that stage of life yet. So experienced parents would be more likely to buy my bib as a gift for their friends. That's my conclusion anyway.

Next, I decided to make a video tutorial of how the bibs work with the intention of posting the video on my website. I enlisted a couple of friends (and a baby) to shoot the video. After weeks of planning and working out everyone's schedules, the video was shot...but that was it. The friend who shot the video is sitting on it and procrastinating so as of today, I still have no tutorial video. That's the "price" you pay when you don't actually pay for it to be professionally done I learned.

Dribs featured in Cool Mom Picks!

About a week ago, I contacted Cool Mom Picks (coolmompicks.com), one of the best parenting blogs out there, to give them a pitch about Dribs. They responded positively and were interested in receiving some samples. Today, Dribs, is featured on their site!!! I'M STOKED!!! They titled the posting, "Dribble Me This." How cute!  I, obviously, believe in the awesome-ness of my product but to have a legitimate, respected, products-review site recognize and publish good things about it is HUGE! Now, if only I could get Ellen and Oprah to endorse it...

Where Am I Now?

Wow. I lag--big time. It's always been on my mind, this blog, that is. So here I am, finally. Here is a list of my progress:

1. www.dribsinfantbibs.com is up and fully functional!

2. Due to popular demand, pictures of real babies in Dribs are displayed on the site (I still think my baby mannequins are super adorable though)


3. I participated in Campbell's Spring boutique but sold just 2 Dribs! It was very frustrating! I received a ton of positive comments like, "oooh, it's so clever...wish this were around when...ooooh magnets...you should patent this!" I smiled and thanked them but in my head I was saying, "Stop oohing and aahing and put your 12 bucks down already!" I didn't even make enough to cover the cost of renting the table space. It was a big let down.

4. Support from friends (orders) trickled in slowly over the next few months, fueling my momentum and hope

5. I joined Facebook in the fall. Wow. What a time suck! But I was happily distracted and reconnected with all sorts of old friends. And to my delight, I recevied a Drib order out of it! I created a 'page' for Dribs and asked my friends to become fans of it. A friend of my friend read on her Facebook page that she was a fan and decided to get one. What a great marketing tool!

6. Preschool also began in the fall for my daughter and since I'm on the Board of Directors again, I knew it would get busy. I became overwhelmed by meetings, carnivals, Halloween costumes, travel, you name it. To keep myself focused, I signed up for the Campbell Holiday boutique again. Even though the spring boutique was lame, I wanted to give it one more shot. It was slightly better this time. I ended up selling 5 Dribs but the real success was making a wonderful new friend. The booth next to mine was occupied by Jeanne of Three Paper Pigs. She is a graphic design artist who makes beautiful note cards. She was a wealth of information regarding starting your own business, kids, and life in general. I concluded that the Campbell boutique draws a much older demographic that seems to like country themed stuff. The woman on the other end of me had salt/pepper shakers and oil dispenser bottles with fruit painted on them and those were selling like hot cakes! I know. Fruit??! Oookaay.

So I'm setting my sites on baby faires specifically. I still intend on visiting boutiques and talking to owners face-to-face one day. But for now, this is what I can handle and I'm OK with it.

Goodbye holidays

I used to always get a little sad when the holidays were over. But this year, I'm actually breathing a sigh of relief. There was just so much going on that I honestly, couldn't find the time to work on my Dribs. My website is up and partially complete. It's still just an information-only site. I'll need to sit down with my techy husband sometime soon to make it fully functional and purchase-ready. Check it out.

www.dribsinfantbibs.com

I'm constantly being told that I should post pictures of real babies wearing the Dribs but I think my baby mannequins look pretty cute. What do you think?

Slowly But Surely

I sold more bibs! Mostly to the other parents at my daughter's preschool. I also sent a bunch out to all the moms I know just had their babies. One of them liked them so much, he wanted to buy a few more for his friends! Yay! I also sold a few to my cousin who just launched her very own online company, www.mygreenstart.com, offering green ideas and products. I say green ideas before products because her site is overflowing with useful information on how to live a greener life. She's selling my Bamboo Dribs. Aside from the awesome bib that it already is, she was sold on the fact that it's highly sustainable--major green points.

I also started creating my (retail) website. Who knew building your own website could be so tedious and frustrating. I used Google Apps. It's free so I was limited to the few templates they offered. It was a very good learning experience though.

So what's next on my agenda? I'll be hard at work sewing more bibs of course. Then I'll make a list of some of the baby boutiques in the area. I'll contact them to try and convince them to stock Dribs in their stores.

My First Sales Event

For the past few weeks, I've been working feverishly to get enough bibs done in time for Sammie's Holiday One-Stop-Shop fundraiser. This was my very first sales event where my bibs were put out there for all to scrutinize, take an interest in, and maybe even make a purchase! I was anxious, excited, and most of all, nervous. To save myself from major disappointment, I set my expectations really low. I'd be happy if I sold one. I sold five! It seemed like everyone who approached my table and listened to my spiel thought my product was clever, practical, cute, and wished they had it when their kids were infants.

After talking with and observing the shoppers, I learned a few key points. Color attracts a lot of attention and is an important factor. Duh! The woman across from me was attracting so much attention and sold a ton of stuff. She makes very colorful, vibrant, and funky/retro patterned skirts for toddlers and little girls. I almost bought one (actually two) myself but upon closer inspection, I saw that some of the seams were coming apart and a bunch of other quality related stuff but I won't elaborate because I'm not here to bad-mouth another mompreneur's product. The skirts are obviously just for dress-up fun and probably not meant to withstand the active lifestyle of a toddler. One or two washings and I'm certain it'll start to fall apart. Oops. That was bad-mouthing. Sorry. Still, that didn't matter. They were beautiful and sold like hot cakes. I was truly impressed and totally jealous.

I tried to emphasize the problem-solving aspect of my bib and the quality of the different fabrics (100% cotton terry cloth, micro fiber terry cloth, 100% organic terry cloth, and bamboo terry cloth--my favorite). Most people didn't seem all that impressed or interested in the different fabrics. The only colors I offered were white, beige, and yellow. You know, natural unisex colors. Interestingly, out of the five that I sold, three of them were the bamboo. It's more expensive than the regular cotton and microfiber. I think they chose the bamboo mostly because it felt nice and not necessarily for it's green properties. So I'm going to have to alter my strategy. I think I'll narrow my selection down to just the eco-friendly fabrics and try to offer them in lots of cool colors.

I also learned that I'd be facing some challenges with my target market--parents with infants. New parents won't know to expect the stinky-neck syndrome ahead of time to stock up like they would with things like diapers and bottles. Experienced parents no longer have infants so they just wished that they would've had this bib when their kids were babies. So what would have to happen is that experienced parents buy this as a gift for their new parent friends. Exposing my product to the right people is going to be very challenging!

Overall, I was happy to be able to share the inspiration behind my product to others who could relate. I can only hope that it impacted them enough to share it with their friends. I'm going to take a break from bib making for a few days to clean my house (a little bit) and curl up on the couch with my husband and dog. We've got a couple of Netflix dvds that have been waiting around to be watched for too long. Soon after, I'll scour the internet for color!