 Motherloving Creations Born from Babes and Kids—By Janet Rhodes Published: August, 2006  Claire Ekelund with her baby, Blomst, and the Provence 'Bebe au Lait Nursing Cover. Photo by Ronnie Ekelund I didn't sleep for two months," recalled Grace Welch with a laugh. Welch was not recalling the birth of any of her three children, but rather the birth of her business, patemm & company, which provides round changing pads for babies. Welch is one of many women drawing on their experience as mothers and caregivers to create new businesses. According to a May 2005 article in Time magazine, "No one has hard figures on the growth of mom-preneurs, but they clearly are part of a trend of female entrepreneurship. A study by the Center for Women's Business Research found that women are starting new businesses at more than twice the rate of men." Describing herself as "Founder, President, and Mom-inventor," Welch said, "This invention came up by accident." Her sister was visiting after the birth of her second child. As Welch laid her daughter down on the diaper pad, she told her sister how much she wanted to start a home-based business. Her sister, a researcher at Harvard Business School, said, "If you can find a solution to a problem, start a business." Welch's daughter, Emma, was rolling off the changing pad as they talked, prompting her to remember how much her firstborn, Patrick, had squirmed and wiggled. "The idea literally came to me right then. As my sister was standing next to me, I said, 'This is what they need to do — make it round so you can lay the baby down any way.'" After her sister left, Welch spent a week on research. There were no round changing pads. She moved from inspiration to sales in less than four months. In July 2004, she launched her website and sent out dozens of press releases. Drawing on her background as a public relations and branding specialist — she named the company after her children, combining the first few letters of each name — she tweaked each press release to fit the tone of each magazine. "Magazines loved the fact that this mom-inventor was doing it herself," Welch said. Her expertise paid off. During 2005, her first full year in business and with its products available only online, patemm's sales totaled $427,237. Although Welch, like most moms-turned-entrepreneurs, is a go-getter, some have had to be even more tenacious. Most notably, Laura Udall, cofounder of Zuca (Zee Ultimate Carry-All), spent six years transforming an idea into a product. Like Welch, Udall had identified a problem: Her three children were carrying backpacks so heavily loaded with textbooks that it was compromising their health. Udall observes that today many schools no longer provide lockers, and others have reduced the time between classes so that students can no longer reach their lockers. "Kids' backpacks are like our cars, "she said. Her research showed that no one should carry more than 10 to 15 percent of their body weight, and that young people are now experiencing back pain. And Udall's oldest child, Rachel, was diagnosed with scoliosis in her upper spine. Though not caused by heavy backpacks, scoliosis is exacerbated by heavy loads. Since Udall had worked as a flight attendant after college, she immediately looked for something on wheels and sent her daughter and her two younger children to school with rolling backpacks. But they were only a stopgap solution. They were poorly made, and she was constantly replacing them. Also, because they were backpacks, the children could still carry them on their backs — and did so when the other kids poked fun at them. | ||
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