This is my first official blog entry EVER. It’s true, I have not blogged before, so excuse me if I am off a bit on etiquette, acronyms, etc. After reading my bio that was posted, I thought that a little more detail on me might help you get to know me better.
I live in Petoskey MI (POP 5000), which is a beautiful and rural area on Lake Michigan, that gets a little too cold for many people in the winter. My family includes my wonderfully creative and supportive husband, Roger, and my handsome young boy, Spencer (5). It is small family with a lot of love. Four year ago, we moved to Petoskey from New York City – a bit of change I might say, but it seems to be working for us just fine. There are some minor inconveniences compared with New York City, but we’ve learned to live with them – after all, it is a great place for Spencer to grow up and the pace of life is such, that Roger and I can actually spend time with Spencer while he’s growing up. If you live in a big city or suburb – you can relate as to how hard this can be. So we decided to give up a little so that we could grow up with Spencer. I think it is worth it – I guess that is why they I’m called a mompreneur.
My full time job is running Fresh Baby. About 4 year ago, I started this business with my sister, Joanie (who lives in New Mexico). It is a lot of fun and a lot of work. At Fresh Baby, we develop products that help parents raise healthier children. We are completely committed to this mission. We are both authors and inventors, so our product line includes a mix of both books and products. These products are sold in natural product stores, book stores, baby stores, and hospitals. We have outsourced most of our business functions and we manufacture at multiple locations (preferably in the USA). We triumph and struggle like most businesses.
I love running a business and find almost every aspect of it fascinating and challenging. Rich and Jeff asked me if I would write this blog on being a mompreneur. I have to admit that I did not jump at the chance immediately. I first thought – What would I say? Then I thought – Do I have the time? So here I am so you can surmise that I realized I had stuff to talk about and that I found the time to make this work. Not exactly, I kind of just winging it but that is kind of what you do when run a business!
I have decided that in this blog I’ll share with you our everyday triumphs and struggles at Fresh Baby. I am thinking that many business owners or aspiring business owners will find this interesting. I am also open to hearing your suggestions about what I can write about. So feel free to e-mail ([email protected]) or comment on this entry.
Here’s a little on me:
HOME: Overlooks Lake Michigan – I’ve lived on both coasts and this is quite similar. It’s a big lake!
OFFICE: Located in urban downtown Petoskey, MI. I could never have a home office. It is bad enough that I bring a laptop home every night.
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY: e-mail and face-to-face are preferred. I dislike talking on the phone, especially cell phones (I’m trying to overcome this dislike since I live in the middle of no where)
LAST BOOK READ: Word of Mouth Marketingby Andy Sernovitz. Andy is a good friend and he sent me a copy of his book. It is really quite good – you should really buy this book!
DESTRESSOR: Cooking. I cook dinner every night and I like to try new recipes all the time. I have many cookbooks and subscribe to too many cooking magazines. I like to have dinner parties, I like to develop recipes – I think you get the idea. I just makes me feel good to be around food!
FAVORITE FOOD: Sushi. I love almost all foods – except I really dislike fast food and junk food.
FAVORITE DRINKS: Water, wine (Pinot Gris), and sake
LAST VACATION: Grand Marias, MI on the shores of Lake Superior. We were in a cabin with no cell phones or computers. It was perfect! Copies of the vacation video available (seriously, Roger’s always make a video of our vacation – edited, music, the works).
FAVORITE QUOTE: "You catch more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar." (source: my dad)
ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Started and sold my first business which was a great company with the greatest group of people in NY City! Spencer’s 5th birthday party which I set up and ran a cooking school for 13 kids (everyone had fun and I survived too).
