ABC Kids Show

What a crazy trip! Well, not "crazy" like a week in Vegas may have been 15 years ago, but crazy meaning super productive, long, tiring, and exciting (work wise). Traveling to Vegas for seven days as a member of the BabyLegs team and for Rain or Shine Kids was a fantastic experience. The show was completely overwhelming with over 800 exhibitors, but my number one regret is not having the time to visit more booths (so sorry Stella) and talk with more vendors.

What is the show like for me as BL's business dev manager? I meet with companies interested in partnering with BL and since bumGenius launched its custom co-branded bG BabyLegs there was many interested in our program. I go to evening meetings and press events. I also meet with companies we are currently working on projects with and companies BL have befriended over the last 3 years. Since I am the only person at BL that has been to all the ABC style shows (JPMA & 2 ABC's now) I remember many of the people who have been consistently ordering with us. It is always wonderful to have a buyer walk into the busy BL booth and be able to say you remember them from the past years.

What is the show like for me as Rain or Shine Kids owner? Much different (I need to preface this by saying that I am extremely grateful that Nicole offers me a spot in the BL booth and feel very lucky to be given this trade show opportunity). Sharing a booth with BabyLegs is great for many reasons but also has its challenges for Rain or Shine Kids products. When people come into the BabyLegs booth they are there to buy BabyLegs...totally focused on that product and the over 100 styles to choose from. To get them to be interested in looking at anything else is very challenging. Having a booth of my own would allow me to showcase my images and product in a way that brings people in to see what Rain or Shine Kids is all about, and not as a side note to another popular brand. Next year BabyLegs will have its own booth since it is a growing company and really needs all the room. Will Rain or Shine Kids make it to the show? I'm not sure yet. We'll have to see how this fall goes. We are getting so busy with big projects spending our money in another direction to support the company may make more sense. We'll just have to wait and see.

The coolest thing that happened to me at the show? I met Peggy O'Mara, the editor from Mothering Magazine who is even more lovely in person than I had imagined.

Busy Bee

So, I am swamped (what's new) and have numerous cool things happening. The biggest thing...Target.com is picking up the WooBee line for their new Baby Boutique. What does this mean? This means I have been spending hours trying to get my infrastructure set-up so I can become a Target.com vendor. I have had to become EDI (electronic data interface) compliant, got my insurance up to par, I have had to choose a distribution center, and get back into production. At the same time I am working on the new line due out this fall which is being manufactured overseas, working with my new distributor in Singapore (covering Malaysia/Indonesia & Korea), getting ready for the ABC trade show and here's the biggie...I am changing my company name!

So yes, I am basically committing PR suicide by changing my company name. Why am I doing this to myself? Because I had no idea what I was doing when I chose the name Woobee for my company or how to do an adequate search to see who else was using it. Let me be clear - no one is threatening legal action on my company. The truth is my current business goal is to build this company to amazing potential and then sell it to a company who understands that potential. In doing this I need a name I can trademark and a name that speaks to my growing product line in it's entirety. So keep your eye's out for Rain or Shine Kids which will feature the WooBee luxury line and every future product I manufacture that is water resistant. Why am I still using the WooBee name? Because I have spent time and money on branding the WooBee name and even though the name will not be front and center it is still the same wonderful products and Rain or Shine Kids needs different product line names for the different levels of products. Consider Fleurville diaper bags...they have the Mothership, Re-Run, Escape Pod, etc. all different products based on the same materials and style sensibility. It is all very exciting and I feel like the timing is perfect - new product line coming out, ABC Kids show to launch the new Rain or Shine Kids name to thousands of buyers, and we are still a small company. Not to mention the timing is perfect for my distributors and reps who just picked up the line to introduce the new "umbrella" company name.

Pictures of camping over hubbies b-day and the girls being summertime girls (and sporting Super Woobee's the perfect blanket/towel for the beach - shameless I know).

Atlanta Gift Show

Well summer is upon us and I have been completely MIA from my blog. Adjusting to life with the girls out of their normal schedules has been interesting to say the least. But I promise to make a better effort now that I am over the shock of having to parent my children for so many more hours in the day.

I just arrived in Atlanta a few hours ago. I am traveling with Nora, the sales manager from BabyLegs (who I love) and we will be meeting with the BL Atlanta reps in the morning. It will be great to tour the Atlanta Gift Mart during this show and scout for WooBee reps, check out what's new on the gift scene, and see how they do things here in the South. We are staying until Monday morning when we will fly to Chicago to meet with the BL reps there (and go out from some good steak) and check out the Chicago Gift Mart. Flying home on Tuesday morning in time to pick my girls up from summer camp.

A lot of Woobee stuff going on these days. I now have a distributor in Singapore who also wants to cover Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea. That has been very exciting and much work. There is also the big ABC Kids show coming up in early September which I will be at with Woobee and BabyLegs for 7 days. I plan on making WooBee really stand out at this show which is taking a lot of work. And BabyLegs has had so much to do in my department - which is great. So this trip is like a little vacation.

Enjoy the weekend!

HARO Rocks!

So, there is this guy named Peter Shankman who started a popular facebook page which turned into a website, yada, yada, yada (you know the success story) all about connecting reporters/journalists/editors who are writing articles and literature pieces with the people to write about, base information on , quote, etc. You need to go there and get on the email list - http://www.helpareporter.com/. Heather from Mom4Life was spreading the word about this PR source...anyway to get your name and your companies name in print is a GOOD THING and it is FREE. Maybe 5% of his inquiries relate to me or These Two Girls/Woobee (and he sends out inquiries 3 time a day) but I answered one about kids at the beach, pitched my Super Woobee and got a response to send two blankets to an editor for a photo shoot that was taking place 5 days later. Since my Super Woobee's retail for $115 I wanted to know what publication this was for before I flew out $230 worth of product...turns out it was the beauty editor for PARENTING magazine and they now have two Super Woobee's no doubt enjoying how lovely they are, and oh so soft. The shoot was Tuesday so we will see if they actually make the magazine, but that's not the point. The point is Shankman's HARO (help a reporter out) emails have the attention of editors you want to reach. Now sign up!

All Work and No Play...

I know I haven't blogged in awhile, but I have been thinking about it (does that count?) I have also been working hard on something special for fall from These Two Girls. I will tell you all more about it as it gets closer, but I can say that I am working with a wonderful designer named Laurie Brown that has made developing this product a dream.

What else have I been working on? Getting Woobee Kids into the international market. This is no small task. Getting your products into the right distributors hands and making your price point attractive to them is all very tricky. I now have connections with Japan, Israel, Australia, Sweden, Germany, & Switzerland. Most of these relationships still need to grow and solidify, but just having the interest and contacts is a good first step. I anticipate some of the markets doing better than others. Where the US dollar is the weakest lends to better price points and more money for the distributors. A $70 blanket here in the US is around $45 in the EU. Crazy.

It is a little ironic that the product I am currently committed to having manufactured in the US I am looking to export. I find it very interesting that other countries value US made products more the US consumers. It has been my experience that many countries are willing to pay more for quality products and have less things, while the US consumer would rather have lots of "great deals". This is why selling to Target, Babies-R-Us, or Walmart are essential if you want a multi million dollar children's company. That my dears, is a whole other bag of worms.

Check out this picture of Ava and her Super Woobee, the perfect luxury beach towel.

More Celeb Baby Stuff

The Ellen Show choose other baskets for today's show. Oddly, I am not disappointed. It was actually stressing me out to think about life post Ellen. I know it is one of those opportunites every company dreams of, but I have some other goals I am working towards with Woobee and that could have put me so deep in the weeds I would need a snorkel and weed wacker just to see the light of day. So I push on without an Ellen show under my belt.

I know I have talked about celebrity gifting suites in the past, how I have done them but don't always believe they are worth the money and time you spend. Well...Woobee Kids is currently at a gifting suite this weekend in Beverly Hills called the Silver Spoon Baby & Doggie Buffet. Bizarre. Anyway, Victoria from a LA based e-retailer called The Traveling Tot contacted me to ask if I would like Woobee to participate in her boutique booth at the event. She was asking for a small fee and would display/market the blankets as a travel must-have, as well as order the minimum wholesale order. I only sent a handful of blankets to hand out to a select few celebs. So, yes I did do another random celeb suite BUT I have wanted to market to the travel market which she is doing, I have opened a new retail account, and she hired her own photographer so I may also get some good pictures as a bonus. This is my kind of event!

Happy Mother's Day to all you that are mothers! Try to stay away from big brunch's...it is never the restaurants best food and your kidding yourself if you think your children will behave, and no - your husband will not be the one who reins them in because they will only want you.

The excruciating pain of waiting

I am in a holding pattern so ridiculous it's scary. The Ellen DeGeneres Show had told us that we would hear back yes or no by the end of the week if our fabulous gift basket (SaraBear Basket, Woobee's & BabyLegs - awesome!) was going to be the audience give away for the Mothers Day Show (which btw airs this thursday). We haven't heard back yet and Friday has come and gone, but a handful of PR people tell me not to write it off yet. Apparently they could contact you as late as the day before the deadline so you spend enormous amounts of money on overnight shipping. What a nightmare!

We were forced to ship all the product to the BabyLegs fulfillment center, which is in California, just to be prepared in case we get the call. That's preparing and shipping product for 300 people just in frickin' case. It's crazy. The real issue for me is that I am unable to pursue any other large sales opportunities until this one exhausts itself. I need to have the inventory in stock to support the possible windfall of attention that Ellen could cause. Aaarrgghhh! My husband is getting a little tired of my neurotic behavior but not as tired of it as I am.

I gotta give a shout out to my PR girl Liz from 32FlavorsPR for getting Woobee into the May issue of Pregnancy & Newborn - yeah Liz!