How About All About Baby®
Was Launched
By: Nancy Wurtzel
I always tell people that my
company, All About Baby®, started out with a mistake.
It all began shortly after I gave birth to
my daughter Katherine in 1993. I ordered a personalized newborn birthday
scroll by mail order. When the item arrived some weeks later, I was
greatly disappointed with the quality and appearance of the product.
I was expecting a beautiful birthday
scroll, but the paper and design both looked cheap. Additionally, the
current event information was poorly written and not completely accurate.
Even worse was the fact that some of the
personalized information on the certificate was wrong. Since there was no
phone number listed on any of the enclosed literature, I couldn't even
call them to ask for a corrected scroll. I'd be forced to write to the
company and hope for some type of response.
With a newborn to care for and a part-time
job to handle, I just didn't have any spare time to write a letter and
make a special trip to the post office to return the product.
My first reaction was that buying the
scroll had been a mistake. That night I couldn't go to sleep because I
kept thinking about it. I felt that the concept was a good one, but that
the finished product had not lived up to my expectations. During my
pregnancy, I had been searching for a new career path, and it suddenly
came to me: I could create a more attractive certificate, and I certainly
could provide better customer service.
The very next day, I started talking to
friends and showing them the product idea. Everyone was very encouraging.
Next, I did some informal "focus groups" with new mothers that I knew and
came to the conclusion that indeed there was a market niche that wasn't
being filled.
Professionally, I had always worked public
relations and marketing areas, so I was able to use my knowledge and
contacts to begin a career shift from corporate consulting to small
business owner.
The research and development process took
over 18 months, but finally All About Baby® was launched out of
my family room in early 1995. Not surprisingly, the first All About Baby®
product was a charming, personalized birthday scroll, called Babyography®.
The last 14 years have been challenging --
sometimes exhausting -- but never boring! I've really enjoyed building the
company and providing quality products and excellent customer service. We
now have over 25,000 customers located across the country.
For the first four years, All About Baby®
was almost strictly a mail-order business.
However, the internet changed the way we
market, take orders and generally conduct business. Now, we get 90 percent
of our orders online and almost all of our marketing efforts are centered
around the internet. Customers place
orders on our secure site, we confirm the order and they can get back to
us within a day with any changes or questions.
I always advise people who are starting
their own small business to really take a long look at their personality.
It's important to be a self-starter with a 'can-do' attitude. You have to
be able to roll with the ups and downs of running a business and not get
too discouraged. I don't need other people around or a supervisor looking
over my shoulder, and I love being my own boss so it works very well for
me. However, working at home is not for everyone.
What else do I like about operating my own
business and having a home office? Most important, is that I have the
flexibility to blend my work and family commitments together.
My daughter, Katie, is now
a teenager and in
high school. She sometimes helps me out on weekends doing small office
tasks such as stamping letters or folding flyers. She loves checking my
voice mail for messages or going online and seeing the emails that need to
be answered.
Since I don't have to punch a clock, I can
work until early afternoon and then pick Katie up from school each day. I
can also volunteer, take part in class field trips, sometimes work out
during the day, run household errands and always be there to help with
homework.
Late afternoons and evenings, I'm usually
back in the office for an hour returning phone calls and checking email
messages.
On weekends, I always try to commit a few
hours on projects and ideas that will expand my business. A few years ago,
I began adding more gift items to the All About Baby® line, and
the company now features a wide range of gift items for infants, toddlers
and children. We also offer a selection of very interesting and helpful
child-related content.
Thanks for visiting our site and for your
interest in All About Baby®.
©Nancy
Wurtzel 2008
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