ENK Show

Hey folks. I flew home Wednesday night from a 6 day trip to NYC for the ENK trade show. If you have ever worked a trade show you know they are hard work and very little play, but I believe an integral part of creating longevity for your brand. You know what I find most valuable about doing these shows? It's meeting the people you do business with face-to-face. It is amazing to see what happens when you can shake a hand, share a laugh, and answer questions in person. A relationship gets built and from that relationship comes loyalty which in turn brings sales. For example, if you had a limited budget for re-ordering say kick ass blankets (ha) and two of your lines had similar sell-through rates but you could only re-order one. If you had met and really liked the owner/rep for one of those lines chances are you'd re-order from that company. There is a lot of competition out there for customers dollars, you have to be able to differentiate yourself from all the others and a smile and friendly personality is one of the easiest ways.

The show this season was apparently slower than normal (the BabyLegs booth is always busier than most) but Woobee had a great "coming out" to the East Coast buyers. Our booth had three lines in it - BabyLegs, Woobee, and Vintage Onesies. The booth looked great and the lines complemented each other well. Vintage Onesies is owned by Matt and Kim (who have 3 adorable kids 3 years and under) who are salt-of-the-earth kind of people. Their onesies (nice and thick with funny sayings and cool colors) match BabyLegs perfect and they created a wonderful display wall that has given us lots of ideas for future shows.

The East Coast has many differences in buying trends for apparel that I witnessed. I was shocked at the booths that were the busiest. Clothes for little girls that I affectionately referred to as Jersey Shore 80's Pageant wear. Now, no one get mad. I am by no means making gross generalizations that everyone from the Jersey Shore has slutty, shiny, flashy style. It was just amazing that very grown-up, flashy, short, and black clothes with crazy patterns were the most popular in little girl fashion. It made me nervous for my daughters and especially my husband. Hey, but more power to those companies that obviously know what their customers want. East Coast buyers are also very upfront about what they have time for, which is refreshing in many ways - it saves me time and energy to not have to pitch products they are very honestly not interested in. Which is why I think having a great rep on the East Coast is so important - they hold the relationships and know how to introduce their reluctant customers to your products. When selling Woobee I can easily tell if I have an interested buyer buy their reaction to the retail price ($70). Only certain stores carry inventory in that price range.

Alright, I am still in mommies home! mode and I am number one choice to get the girls everything. Gotta run. Have a great weekend!

Inspiration - in all shapes

We are all inspired in our lives by unique things or moments. People ask me all the time how I was inspired to start Woobee Kids (that's easy, I had a baby and needed a kick ass blanket). But what I have really discovered is that Woobee Kids has given me inspiration in unexpected ways.

By starting Woobee I have been inspired to really define my sense of style through exploring the Woobee Kids brand and identifying the soul of my company (for example I love modern style, for home - specifically Danish modernism). I have been inspired to reach out to other mothers through NWEM's and make myself available to answer question about my experiences in business. I am inspired to know (and truly understand) my limitations as a mother that owns a company and works so I can still prioritize my wonderful daughters.

I am also inspired to acknowledge who I am & who I am not. I am a women that can & will grow a successful international company - Woobee world domination! I know that I do not want to be a CEO forever. I know I would like to be more available for my daughters during the pre-teen years and on. I know that I will make a crap load of money to make that happen, and now more than ever that I am capable, smart, and strong.

Well, there's a whole bunch of personal information...I'm feeling a little exposed...hold me.

Here is a site that feeds my love for modern style http://bloesem.blogs.com/bloesem/ . Irene does an wonderful job bringing us fabulous finds from designers all over the world. You can see a Woobee / BabyLegs review on her sister site for children http://bkids.typepad.com/. This woman and her blogs provide me with an amazing amount of inspiration - thank you Irene!

Need to Post

I know I had a subject in mind when I opened my lap top to post an entry. I am so tried I can't remember what it was...I gotta go to bed. I will try again tomorrow when I am all perky from a frsh cup of coffee.

Welcome 21st century, Damn Glad to Finally Meet You.

I don't know about any of you, but raising a family and a business is so filled with daily details I find it impossible to remember everything. The other day when I almost missed two important meetings I finally decided to take control of the craziness. I went down the street to a cell phone place, kicked my old ghetto cell phone to the curb, and got the new Touch phone (Sprints version of the iPhone). Now if you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you would know that i am not a tech savvy person (still don't know how to text), well that is all about to change! This phone is remarkable/ridiculous. I am totally out of my league here folks. It gets more cable stations than I have at home. I was on my treadmill yesterday morning (yeah!) watching episodes of Desparate Housewives.

How is this phone changing my life? I run Woobee, do business development for BabyLegs, am the vice pres for NWEM, and carpool my girls before and after school everyday. This phone allows me to be synched into my Outlook calendar (which i just recently learned how to use) keeping me on task with all the little details of my day, check all three of my email accounts (personal, Woobee, and BL) which is allowing me more time with my girls, and I can get on-line when I need to do a few quick searches. What i have now realized is how much time I wasted at my laptop whenever I checked my email. Computers are TIME SUCKERS! I have found that being able to glance at my phone to see my emails has liberated me. I literally have twice as much time in my day. I feel like I'm on vacation.

Understand that the phone is only as effectient as the user. Friday morning it suddenly dawned on me at 9:15 a.m. (with both girls home sick) that I was supposed to provide a main dish for Ava's schools kindergarten teachers appreciation lunch...italian theme...and it was to be delivered by 10:30. I threw the girls in the car, ran to the store for the fast shopping trip of my life, came home and made rigitoni with meat sauce, and dropped it off at the school at 10:30. Had I remembered to enter that task into my phone the morning would have been a lot more relaxed.

Knowledge in Business

Recently I have had the pleasure of meeting with a few key people that have loads of experience in business structures, buying/selling businesses, international business, and are just all around good people. I have Nicole from BabyLegs to thank for providing me access to a few of these wonderful key people. As a person whose only business back ground is through osmosis from growing up with a business owning mom, these meetings are crucial for understanding how to grow These Two Girls, LLC & the Woobee line successfully. I am finally starting to understand the depths for what I need to do to make These Two Girls a multi-million dollar company, and whew, it's going to be a ton of work and take some help. Although for the first time since Oct. 2005 (when I sold the first Woobee blanket) I feel empowered to make the right decision to move forward.

Sooo, my husbands home!!! The journey home from Taiwan was long and the time change is crazy so he hasn't been exactly functional, but whatever. I am just happy he is home, and it sounds like he had some great experiences while away.

I am now a much saner mom...well, that's debatable.

Check out the Woobee post on Apartment Therapy's childrens link Oh Dee Doh http://www.ohdeedoh.com/. It's a giveaway, so enter yourself to win a blanket.

4 More Days!!!!!!

Yeah! My husband will be home in 4 days...whew! You know 14 days without my very helpful spouse would not be so bad if it weren't for needing to run a business. It turns out that I get most of my work done when Hands On Hubby is in the game. Now I have to make a decision whether I want to make food or enter orders and receipts into Quickbooks (tax season is a tough time).

I need to give a holler to Melissa from Destee Nation for totally hooking me up by handling my server transfer and email switch. For 2.5 years Melis and Matt have had me on their personal server for free, and when the switch to another server needed to be made Melis took care of everything. I feel so blessed to have a friend that carved time out of her very busy day to help her me (her non-tech friend). Thank you Melissa!!! Check out her site www.desteenation.com if you like cool tees shirts and support local businesses.

Time Warp!

Whoa. I haven't blogged in a while, although it feels like just yesterday. With hubby away for 6 days w/ 8 more to go I feel like time is flying by with the business of life yet standing oh so still...there is still 8 MORE DAYS! Urrgghhh! I am trying my hardest to keep with the New Years resolution to take time for more "adventures" with the girls, and that is actually going well. It turns out we leave the house more when hubby isn't home to organize our day with.

I am going to the MAGIC trade show next month for a few days to do some sourcing for Woobee and I will tie in some BabyLegs work as well - visit people we work with and want to work with. It should be interesting. If any of you out there are going to the Magic Kids show let me know and I'll swing by and say hello.

I need to give a huge shout out to my friend Deb Grover from BellySock! If you ever think you have a lot going on you should shoot her an email and instantly your load will seem lighter. Deb has two young girls 3 and 1, she runs BellySock, goes to graduate school for her MBA and is starting yet another wonderful business. Crazy girl! Anyway, in Deb's international business class they are doing a very cool project and Deb convienced them to use Woobee as the company - so cool! Thank you Deb!!

I gotta get some sleep...single parenting is as tough as I always thought it was! Below are a few pictures from the photo shoot we did last weekend.