Well here I am with a story to tell about never missing the water until the well runs dry…or at least runs with difficulty.

   Last week my daughter who will be 12 this month and I decided that she was going to have a roller skating party.  I rollerskated almost every Saturday while in middle school and thought what a great thing to do.  So I took 3 of my children my 11 year old, my 8 year old and my 7 year old out to the roller rink during “Family Matinee”,  all were inexperienced but ready for the challenge.

   We had a great time even with all the falling down.  About 10 minutes before we were going to go we all decided to take one more roll around the rink and then it happened.  A cute little 4 year old runaway skater fell and slid right in front of me.  Very quickly I had 2 options…fall on this little boy (not really an option) or shift my weight backwards and hurt myself.  So I did the latter and hoped for the best.  What was the best…a fractured right elbow.

   Here is the part about you never missing the water.  I have been without the regular use of my arm for almost a week now and although I cannot stand to peck away at the keyboard, I find that we all will do what we have to do to get what we need (or want) done.  The lesson I have learned this week is that sometimes we are thrown a curve that we didn’t expect, didn’t want and have no time for, but we will prevail make the best of it and sometimes even come up with alternate ways to do something.  So many of us are doing this with our businesses that it should be second nature.  We have a plan, something happens that we have to redirect or change patterns and we still survive. 

   I always talk about being grateful for the little things but I don’t think I have taken the time to be truely thankful for all the hard work my right hand puts in.  This changes today!     Thank you Right Hand for all of your hard work, thank you to my husband who has been working double time with me partially out of commision.  Let’s all remember and be grateful for all we have and all of our capacities.  Have a great weekend.

Phylana Stowers
Stowers Swaddlers & Stationery

    So….here we are in 2008.  We are evaluating what we wanted to be accomplished by last year and setting up our new goals for the coming year.  Last year I got bogged down by a few too many hats, leaving me MIA from this blog and the Mompreneurs Message Board I love so much. BUT..it’s great to be back.  

    Recently I have made a re-entrance on the Message Board and I have caught up with what my fellow Mompreneur sisters are up to…quite alot :)  You will also see me here a bit to encourage, vent or talk about whatever else is going on. 

     But I digress…I want to make the most of my time this year and I want this to be the year we all look back and say WOW look how far our dedication and perserverance has brought us.  Leslie from Grill Charms is well on her way to a great year, and when one of us succeeds the rest of us are encouraged that it can happen for us too. Big virtual hug for Leslie of Grill Charms.  And for the rest of us…one day we too will have something great to shout about. Let’s get started!

   Hello all..

    Recently on the Mompreneurs posts I caught on to a thread that asked what you were supposed to put in a pitch letter to a magazine.  I read along and found out that I have been doing everything wrong.  Well not everything but I think a lot of things. 

   Like, I had no idea that you could call up the magazine and ask who you would send X blanket to and that you needed a media kit and for good measure a press release. I can’t tell you how many pitches I have made to magazines pitching to the wrong person, and doing a poor job compared to what they must be seeing.

  This upset me for quite a while, until I remembered…I am learning.  Though I may not have done a great job with this in the past thank goodness for the people at Mompreneur.com.  I am glad that I have found a network of women (and men) that we can share ideas and information that will help us all. 

   Have you ever thought you were doing something pretty well, and found out later that this is not the way things are done?  If you have let me know, I would love to hear about it.

   I have received so many e-mails, letters and updates telling me that now is the time to get things ready for the holiday season.  I have a few different products some that stay the same no matter what time of year it is, but for some reason this mid year excitement makes me mildly anxious.  I am not sure if it is because there is so much competition, or this is the biggest season and if you don’t prepare correctly you will find yourself with not a lot of sales or exposure.

   While reading posts on the Mompreneurs Message Board I read a post from a woman who wondered if anyone ever looked at the products that are like your own and felt inadequate or like there were so many products yours would just not work out.  I read that and thought of when I went to the Inpex Invention Convention.  I went to set up my booth for my first showing of The Stowers Swaddler and in walking the long walk to my booth I saw all of the products that people invented not just in my category but in all of the categories.  There were things that popped,things that warmed and so many other things that were “real inventions”.  I had almost talked myself out of being at this convention and into leaving the competition.  I paid my money and with the help of my husband I went through the 3 day judging, QVC and HSN roundups and media questions.  The last night was the appreciation dinner where the awards were handed out .  I sat there thinking of all of the people I had met, all of the advise and tips I received and considered my $1000 fee worth what I had gotten in return.  But guess what?? I won the baby product competition one of the judges told me that sometimes simplicity makes it genius.  SO I must say that I have learned that sometimes when you feel anxious or inadequate, just go for it anyway.  That is what I am going to tell myself to get ready for this holiday season.  Good luck everyone!

    Being Baby Product Mom and having a baby product,  I find it very interesting looking at websites that have baby products and looking at how people are marketing them and trying to get noticed.  The baby product market is a difficult one because babies don’t stay babies very long and if you have a product that is good for a gift, unless it is something everyone knows about (including people without children), it is  easy to be passed over.

    I remember when I was at the Inpex invention convention there were several people who said “Well…it’s just a blanket.  What is so inventive about that?” , while other people who were clearly caretakers now or in the past who loved my idea and asked where was I when they needed me?    So here is the question how do we get our products known to people who are looking for gifts when they may not have ever heard of what you created, or realized there is a need for it?   I’d love to hear how your doing it.

Recently I was approached about getting some of my things to Walmart.  I was told to make a “kit” so that I would be able to show them the spectrum of my products.  I have absolutely no idea how to formulate a kit, but I have asked everyone I know, looked for it on the internet and done a lot of research.  I did all of this research while preparing for my twins 4th birthday, going to all of the end of the year school activites,  keeping the house somewhat clean, children’s homework, etc…  

We mompreneurs wear a multitude of hats, sometimes at the same time and as I prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mother (also a master juggler), I am just so proud of all the mothers (and fathers)  who are juggling all these hats trying to start, build or grow a business and raise a family. 

Somtimes wearing all these hats can be heavy and get frustrating, but when you look at what you are trying to accomplish, get closer to your goal and create a new future for yourselves it’s all worth it. 

Happy Mother’s Day, enjoy your weekend.

    When I created The Stowers Swaddler, infant swaddling blanket I had a lot of older women (70-80 years old) tell me that they had put together something like my product for themselveswhen they had children years ago.  Those comments were usually said in good spirits, with them usually adding  if they knew there was money to be made with that they would have brought it out long ago. 

  So times moves on and my product line evolves to include hand decorated note cards.  Most people have never seen cards like this and will ask a few questions.  There are alot of things that people ask of me at craft fairs or when I do stationery for small boutiques or brides to be, but the one thing that people ask me the most is “How do you make that?” 

     I know this shouldn’t be a disconcerting question, but I have answered this question for a few people only to have them come back and say that they tried it they could not make it look like mine.  Maybe this has made me a bit wary when people ask, because as an inventor or designer in small business you are trying to make a product that is not seen everywhere so that you can be competitive with other small businesses and big businesses.  I mean can you walk into the Coca Cola company and ask what they put in their drink that makes it taste so special?  I don’t think so.

My question is this, when you have a product that is more design based than than something you can patent, what do you do with the people who want to know how you made it.  I would love to hear what others say when you have a product that you are trying to sell and people come up to you and say How did you make that?

I was so excited to get started I didn’t introduce myself (how rude).  My name is Phylana Stowers I am the mother of 5 children (age 11-7-6-3-3), a registered nurse that has worked mostly in all areas of Maternity Units (Prenatal, Labor & Delivery, Post Partum, Newborn Nursery), but I have also worked on Mental Health   and Pediatric Units as well.  Recently I have been working as a night baby nurse to a professional couple on the weekends,  and of course I am the owner of Stowers Swaddlers and Stationery.

I created a product named The Stowers Swaddler which is a infant swaddling blanket that I made for my sister and nephew because she was having problems with swaddling.  I tried to put all the knowledge I learned from teaching hundreds of caregivers how to swaddle their babies into this product.  My sister loved the blanket and got months worth of sleep from it, and when both of us went to baby showers we would take them to our friends.  They were a hit and people asked why I didn’t sell them.

I took them to the Inpex International Invention Convention and couldn’t believe that we won the gold medal for our division.  Since then we have gotten a website together, made a couple more products (Baby Buddy Burp Cloths) and started designing hand decorated cards. 

It takes a lot to get a baby product to market, but I think the hardest part is getting exposure.  What is the most unique way you have ever gotten exposure for your product or service?

Sometimes something comes along that truely delights me.  A few weeks ago a friend of mine called me to tell me that her daughter who is in 6th grade had to do a report on a inventor, (and though I have never met this child) she chose me as an inventor she admires.  I was speechless!  She interviewed me and asked questions and proceded to write her report.  While we were talking I asked her why she picked me and she told me that she had never met someone who thought of something, created it, won a gold medal for it and tried to share it with the world.  Well…Ok.

So last week I recieved another call from this little one who told me she recieved an A+ on her report and wanted to know if I could come and talk to her class.  Sure, I said.  Thinking how hard could this be, I loaded up my car with a few sample products, my baby doll model and my gold medal for the class to look at.  I could handle a few questions from a few students right?  RIGHT!  When I get to the school they ask me if I would like to set up in the auditorium, this should have been the tip off that this wasn’t just for one class.  I am not normally uneasy talking to large numbers of adults about a number of topics.  Previously I worked as labor and delivery nurse  and this tends to give you a bit of confidence talking to different people (and sometimes large groups) about  intimately personal subjects.  But when this group of 60+ sixth graders plus 5 teachers and a few other people that just wanted to see what was all the “hub bub” walked in the auditorium, I thought I would have a brain freeze.

Long story short the assembly went well, the teachers and students asked great questions and I was delighted to share my story and inspired to be as great as those kids thought I was. 

I think it would be great if more of us could talk to students on career day or inventor week to encourage our youth.  I have thought about new uses for things and new products since I was a little girl, I just think about what would have happened if I knew that I could actually create something earlier in my life.  What do you think?  

What would you tell  a child who asked how do you start a business?