Infantile Inventions No, no, it's not a bad thing! The baby-products market is the perfect place for brand-new inventors to take their first steps.
By Don Debelak
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Parents aren't the only ones delighted when a baby is born.Entrepreneurs are, too. Grandparents, friends and other relativesare eager to shower gifts on the newborn. And because infants turnlife upside down, moms and dads are always searching for new andinnovative ways to save time and make life easier-no matter whatthe cost.
No wonder the baby-products market is the most popular one forindividual inventors. And that's not just because there's ahuge base of parents ready to spend their hard-earned dollars onnew products. Often, becoming parents inspires moms and dads toinvent new baby products. And because there are so many babiesaround, inventors in this category have ample opportunity to testproducts and determine ahead of time whether they'll fly in themarket.
Of course, it also helps that three relatively easy andstraightforward avenues exist to help new inventors enter thebaby-products market: catalogs, buying groups and trade shows.
Calling All Catalogs
Have you ever gone shopping with a baby or two? If you have,then you understand why baby-products catalogs are so popular (andprofitable): They promise a more convenient shopping experience forparents.
That's good news for inventors. There are dozens ofbaby-products catalogs out there, and they're always lookingfor new and innovative additions. To find a listing of catalogs inthis category, simply visit your local library and peruse adirectory of mail-order catalogs. For example, check out theDirectory of Mail Order Catalogs (Grey House Publishing) byRichard Gottlieb.
Like many entrepreneurs, Jim Moritz, 32, and Greg Nieberding,44, of Baby B'Air successfully introduced their product throughcatalogs. (See "Vested Interest" below.) According toNieberding, "The main advantage of catalogs was [that] wedidn't need retail packaging."
The Dallas company's founders got their initial list ofcatalogs by simply asking moms what catalogs they received. SaysMoritz, "Once we had the catalog names, we just keptcontacting them. Our product [a safety vest for babies to wear onplanes] was unique and had a useful benefit, so the catalogs wereready to give it a try."
Some of the catalogs they sell in include Bye, Bye Baby;One Step Ahead; and the Right Start Catalog. Butalthough the catalog option opens doors for inventors, youwon't succeed unless you're able to keep your commitments.Cautions Moritz: "You can't afford to miss a deliverydate. The catalogs have a big expense including your product in thecatalog, and they expect your product to be there when theircustomer orders."
| VESTEDINTEREST | ||
| As with most babyproducts, the idea for the Baby B'Air Flight Vest stemmed froma real problem faced by a new mother. Back in 1996, Greg Nieberding's younger sister complainedabout the difficulty of carrying baby car seats onto planes. Yetshe felt uneasy about holding a child on her lap during flights, asrough turbulence could send a small baby flying. So Greg partnered with Jim Moritz to find a solution. Theydeveloped a vest the child could wear that would attach to aparent's seat belt. The design meant mom or dad no longer hadto hold the baby tight. Says Moritz, "We weren't trying toreplace the car seat as a safety device in a plane. We just wantedto provide some safety for the 85 percent or so of babies andtoddlers that ride on their parents' laps." To get their invention on store shelves, the partners startedby researching the market. They asked friends, relatives-anyonethey knew with a baby-what they thought of the Baby B'Air.Positive feedback prompted them to approach American Airlines,whose safety personnel also liked the idea. Unable to securefinancing, the Dallas entrepreneurs launched a Web site,www.babybair.com, and built a base of initial sales. Based on thatsuccess, they moved the product into catalogs and massmerchants. Today, the product seems to be taking flight: It was votedbest of show at last year's Juvenile Products ManufacturersAssociation show, and Nieberding and Moritz expect 2001 sales tohit $1 million. |
Look Who's Buying
If you want to get your baby product in retail stores, trycontacting buying groups. Individual baby stores frequently bandtogether to form buying groups, not only to get better namerecognition, but also to negotiate better prices from bigvendors.
When Shawn Boice started In Touch LLC in Bothell, Washington, in1999, she first sold her Carseat Companion to individual stores.Boice, whose product is a mirror that helps parents keep tabs ontheir babies while driving, says, "The product was a big hitat every store, and some of the store owners told me I shouldcontact corporate headquarters for bigger orders."
The first major event where Boice met representatives of buyinggroups was the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA)show in Dallas. Not long after returning home, Boice, 39, she usedsuccess at the JPMA show to get the attention of other buyinggroups, too.
According to Boice, buying groups gave her an advantage byopening the other two avenues into the market. Groups offer acatalog of products that member stores can buy from, and they hosttheir own trade shows where store owners can place orders.
| REARVIEWBABY | ||
| Before finally becomingan entrepreneur, Shawn Boice was employed as a pediatric nurse,where she met new parents all the time. "I heard complaintsfrom my patients about rear-facing car seats, but I never realizedhow big a problem it was until I had my own child [in 1998],"she says. "I wanted so badly to see how my child was doing,and I didn't like only seeing the back of the carseat." So in 1999, she developed the Carseat Companion, whichretails for $24.95. It comes with a mirror that attaches to theback seat so that a driver can look through her own rear-viewmirror to see a baby in the rear-facing car seat. Boice started her business cautiously at first because shewas funding the invention on her own. She began by making a few ofthe mirrors at home and selling them in the pediatrician'soffice where she worked. After finding success there, she sold onconsignment at a local baby store. When that lot sold out, Boicetook her product to other local baby stores and eventually startedmarketing through baby-products buying groups. "Sales have been wonderful," says Boice, who'sbringing in $125,000 every three months. "I need 5,000 newCarseat Companions every two to three months." |
Showing It Off
As Boice learned from experience, trade shows-whether sponsoredby buying groups or other organizations-are a great way to getproducts to market. "I landed lots of new stores, and Ididn't have to follow up for orders-people gave me the ordersright at the show," she says. Virtually everyjuvenile-products retailer and manufacturer attends the JPMA show,scheduled for October 5 to 8 this year, and it's a great spotfor introducing items. For details, call the JPMA at (856) 439-0500or visit www.jpma.org.
Although Nieberding and Moritz didn't sell to many retailerswhen they attended their first JPMA show, they still recommend theevent. Says Moritz, "We met a lot of other smallmanufacturers, learned lots of marketing information and found outwhich customers we could trust."
At its second JMPA show appearance in 2000, Baby B'Airstarted to pick up more retail store orders. Today, the product iscarried by independent baby stores nationwide and has just beenpicked up by Babies "R" Us.
Boice, too, attended last year's JPMA show and expects tointroduce several new products this year. Says Boice, "JPMA isreally the one big show in the industry, and it's one where youwant to make a splash."
As the experiences of those inventors show, finding success inthe baby-products arena is not only possible, it's easier thanin many other industries. So if you have a great idea for aproduct, don't just daydream about what could be-make ithappen! You just might find yourself joining the ranks ofmillion-dollar baby-products entrepreneurs.
| BABY-PRODUCTS BUYING GROUPS | ||
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