Meet the Mompreneurs Kid-inspired creations are
turning a profit for parents with patents
Many an expectant mother has embarked excitedly on her first expedition to a baby-gear emporium only to break out in a sweat at the overwhelming array of must-have products. Blinded by brightly colored plastic, dazed by dozens of strollers and high chairs and cribs, she would be excused for running from the store and hoping for hand-me-downs. Fast forward just a few months, though, and the same mom can be found expounding on the design flaws of her stroller, wishing her diaper bag had a couple more pockets and surfing the Internet for the latest and greatest gear. And if she doesn’t find what she’s looking for? Maybe she’ll make it herself– and make a fortune while she’s at it.
Mompreneurs, as they have come to be known, have created an endless variety of kid-inspired products–motherhood, apparently, being the mother of invention. Cynthia Drasler, of Phoenix, Ariz., came up with Organic Excellence hair- and skin-care products because her daughter’s skin was too sensitive for most products already on the market.
Narmin Parpia designed Potty Scotty, an anatomically correct male doll that pees water, after struggling to find toilet- training aids for her two sons. Julie Dix was inspired to create Taggies, a line of tactile blankets and books, when she noticed that her toddler son often preferred playing with the tags on his toys to the toys themselves. And Denise Marshall cooked up the Mac & Cool, a bowl that instantly cools a toddler’s food, when she got tired of hearing her first child, Scott, shriek impatiently for his meal to be ready.
Most of those women had no idea how to write a business plan, secure funding, find manufacturers or market their wares at a trade show. Many had taken a break from another career, intending to stay home for a while and work just one demanding job–that of mom. But a passion for their products and the realization that others wanted them too led the women to embrace the risks of starting a small busines.
TIME Bonus Section May 2005: Connections/Mother’s Day Edition
AMANDA BOWER With reporting by Cathy Booth Thomas/Dallas
2,262 words
2 May 2005
Time, U.S. Edition
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© 2005 Time Incorporated. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Decide upon your true dreams
Collaborate. Drasler and Goldstein both reached out to others to bring their ideas to life. Goldstein asked women if they’d buy her product, and hired computer programmers who understood her intention. Drasler hooked up with chemists who could develop just the right mixtures.
Fall in love with your concept.Sure, you have to test your product. But it’s OK to care deeply about it too. “If it feels right and you get excited about it, that’s going to carry you through the planning process and doing the work,” Goldstein said. “You find the time and energy if you feel good about it.”
Start making your vision a reality by simply paying a little bit of attention to what you want to accomplish. Small beginnings can lead to big enterprises, as long as you’re willing to feed the fire — even when it’s just a smoldering pile of kindling.
It was a New England spring day in 1999. Kim Goldstein and her husband were up to their elbows in a doit-yourself porch project.
They’d ripped up flagstones and were ready to carve out their new veranda when Goldstein realized the idea she had for the porch came out of a stack of her women’s magazines.
The challenge: finding the picture.
“It took me 30 or 40 minutes to go back through each magazine and find it,” said Goldstein, who resides in Brewster, N.Y.
Frustrated, Goldstein started dreaming of a way to save and catalog pictures and articles from magazines on her computer. Then it dawned on her that others might be interested in the solution too.
In 2003, Goldstein launched Scanalog, a software program that lets users catalog and organize scanned materials from magazines. The software’s gotten rave reviews.
Smooth Operator When Cynthia Drasler’s daughter kept having allergic reactions to face creams, Drasler decided to create her own line of products.
Working with chemists over the course of nearly 10 years, Drasler brought Organic Excellence to market in 2000. The award-winning company now has an international client base.
“When you start with nothing, even though you’re a long way off from where you want to be, you can accomplish things,” Phoenix-based Drasler said. “Goals really were what kept me going.”
Have a dream? Here’s how to move forward, according to Goldstein and Drasler:
Take one step. Read a book, enroll in a class and network to get energized. Goldstein went to a conference in New York for women entrepreneurs. On the train ride home, she drew out the basic design of her computer program.
“That conference really helped me say, ‘It’s an idea. But it can become a reality,’ ” she said.
Keep a goal journal. Drasler not only set goals, but also entered goals she’d already accomplished into a journal and reflected on them.
The journal became a way of celebrating what she’d accomplished — and helping her move on to the next thing.
Investors Business Daily Get Stoked, Blaze A Trail Amy Alexander
Chemical Side Effects a Concern
NORTHEAST VALLEY - Both personal and professional experience led Cynthia Drasler to create Organic Excellence, a line of chemical-free skin-care products.
On the personal side, Drasler’s daughter, now 14, often broke into rashes as a toddler after contact with skin-care products that were supposed to be safe for children.
“When she was 2, I took her to her cousin’s birthday party where there was a clown who did face-painting,” said Drasler. “She had a flower painted on her cheek. But when I went to remove it, it left a big red mark that lasted over a week.”
On the professional side, Drasler, who has a biology degree from Arizona State University and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Phoenix, used to sell chemotherapy drugs for Bristol-Myers Squibb.
“I had many oncologists tell me that more and more cancers are environmentally caused,” Drasler said.
Gradually, Drasler began studying product labels for chemicals. She grew increasingly appalled by the toxicity in so many soaps, shampoos and creams. After a brief stint running the west coast distribution for a company that sold chemical-free products, she decided to branch out on her own.
By 2000, Drasler had found a chemist and launched Organic Excellence.
“We sell chemical-free health and personal care products, including creams, a body cleanser, shampoo and alcohol-free hairspray,” Drasler explained. “We’ve also taken on a completely environmentally safe cleaning product, and we have a wonderful Vitamin C cream, which is great for repairing sun damage.”
Organic excellence products are available for purchase by phone at online, in health food stores, the Natural Choice department at Bashas’ or at Sprouts Farmers Markets.
Quadrupled sales
Since the first Sprouts opened more than two years ago, sales of Organic Excellence products have quadrupled, said Joyce Bermudez, who orders all the merchandise and staffs the nutrition sections of the Valley’s eight Sprouts stores.
For Sprouts shoppers, the most popular product in Drasler’s line is a natural progesterone cream in a pump, which gives a metered dose of natural progesterone, Bermudez said. Perimenopausal and menopausal women love it as a natural way to stabilize hormones, she added.
A.M. peppermint rush
Like many other businesses, Drasler said she experienced a setback after 9/11, but has been expanding steadily ever since. Organic Excellence even has a plug on Shirley MacLaine’s Web site.
Today, the bulk of the business is wholesale, with the products going to health stores and doctors’ offices. But calls to the 800 number and Web site orders are not far behind.
Customers love the feel and effect of the herbs the products use, Drasler said.
“We use organic oil of peppermint in our shampoo,” she explained. “The peppermint increases the blood flow to the scalp, which helps renourish and heal it. It tingles when you use it. People will call and say, ‘"I’m out of my shampoo and I miss the peppermint rush in the morning."
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 25, 2005 12:00 AM