Something New

So up until this point I've really just been giving you a chronological history of the creation of Bot Tots. I must admit that this became more of a task then a joy as I was probably as bored writing it as you were reading it. It's not that the logistics of creating a business aren't interesting (they're certainly a roller coaster ride when you're managing them), but there is a TON of information out there to help new business owners or those who dream of owning a business start-up. I think from now on I'm just going to let you know what it feels like to be not only a business owner, but a momprenuer, SAHM (stay at home mom), WAHM (work at home mom), child care provider (very humbling to say), wife, etc. etc. etc. I've been reading several blogs for many different reasons. A common reaction of mine is "wow these people really expose themselves to their readers!" I just couldn't believe how personal people got! They spoke of marriage trouble, kid trouble and just anything you can imagine. I still believe in being a little discrete when it comes to the honor and integrity of your family and friends. However, I do believe in letting all those momprenuers, SAHM's, WAHM's and others out there who are trying the same thing I am know that they are not alone!

I recently read a great article by, Lisa Druxman, founder and CEO Stroller Strides, titled "Moms Can Have It All - They Just Can't Do It All." This article couldn't have been written at a more perfect time for me. For those of you who know me well, I strive to be perfect all the time...and surprise surprise I fail!! It is so hard for me to not only accept but be OK with the fact that I am not perfect and never will be perfect. I'm not going to be the skinniest, prettiest, richest, kindest of anything. I just want to learn that lesson soon!

I want to let you in on a little secret. During my undergraduate education I gained a ton of weight and I attribute this to the fact that I lived a very unbalanced life. My focus was school. I took 18 credit hours a semester while working full time at a hospital on the night shift, 7pm to 7am. Classes started as early at 10am. Why did I do it? I think I felt pressure to accomplish something big in my life. I wanted to impress my family, my friends...you know all the usual reasons people like myself find motivation! I was successful...graduated Magna Cum Laude...but had an extra 40lbs to show for it. I had eight months before I started law school and I was commited to losing weight. So for eight months I worked out twice a day eight less than 1500 calories a day and widdled down to my lowest weight EVER! I felt good...but as I'm sure you might have guessed...life started again and I gained some weight back. I was at a healthy size though because my previous work out routine was too much and unbalanced. I finally reached a balance and began to work out once a day, ate what I wanted on the weekends and maintained my weight for about four years. This whole experience really taught me that we need to live a balanced life. Everyone needs to feed their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual being!...I would ad your id as well ;) If you don't take care of them all...you risk being unbalanced and may suffer the consequences... whatever they may be.

Ok...so why am I telling you all this? Because I stepped on the scale recently and five pounds crept back. It was a shocker since I really had been able to manage my weight (despite two moves, grad school, working as a case manager, and the birth of my daughter) for such a long time. Needless to say I decided to through myself mini pity-party!! I couldn't believe that I lost control again. My weight is so much more than a number for me it is an indicator of how well I manage chaos and stress in my life. The higher the number the poorer I've managed my life and the more unbalanced I've become.

So once again I am reminded that I am not perfect and will never be able to ALWAYS be in balance. The only thing that pulled me out of my recent pity-party besides some amazing conversations with some pretty amazing friends was Ms. Druxman's article. She is so RIGHT! We can have it all, but we surely can't do it all. Things will slip through the cracks even when you are performing at 110%!! I try daily to be the best mom, best wife, best friend, best business owner, best...best...best, but in the end it really is the effort that counts. We need to take time out of each day to organize our thoughts and prioritize our tasks. The think Druxman, makes an amazing suggestion to first list our life's priorities and second, list and prioritize tasks under each priority. This really helps us accomplish tasks in each priority rather than risk the possibility of focusing on big tasks which fall under only one priority and forgetting about the others. Druxman's strategy helps us achieve the balance in which I so strongly believe!

The only thing I would add to Druxman's article is that the only way we can "have" everything is to take note of and be thankful for everything we already"have." There is so much sitting before us that we never notice because we are too busy prioritizing and managing out daily lives...we are all blessed with people, places, things, thoughts, feelings, smells...we are all lucky in our own special way!

The Creative Process

My very talented friend received my laughable sketches early on in the business process. I think the development of our characters was one of the funnest parts of the entire process. After sending her the sketches I also sent her the rough draft of our first book. We both new that we wanted an eco-friendly line and eco-friendly robots! My friend and then partner balanced each other very well because she was extremely detailed oriented and I was not. I was so happy with the first sketch she submitted, Jacy Botberg looked so cute (maybe a little more robot-y and less people-y like she is now), but my partner wasn't happy and continued to improve on the image until we came to the current and super cute Jacy!! I was happy with each version. I remember there being a shoe debate, but the ones that resulted are absolutely adorable! As each character was delivered by email I was so excited. I used to check my email on my phone throughout the night just to see if something was delivered. I was so impressed by the talent of my partner and so excited about our future. Who couldn't love the Botberg's and the O'Geary's? I know we did!!

One thing that I really appreciated my partner did was to develop a color palet for the line. She really knew that it was important to me that the clothing and characters be very vibrant. The colors she came up with were amazing! All the sketches and colors were done in Pantone...which would later become a problem as we didn't know dye colors should be Pantone..TPX, but that is another story.

One more thing, while my partner was busy creating our amazing characters she was also busy getting our website ready and exploring other aspects of our business that I may have not thought of. She was great!

Securing Investors

During the business plan phase I quickly realize that I was going to need more money than we had to invest in the business. Instead of assuming the risk of a business loan I chose to transfer the risk to investors. This made sense to me because I had just resigned from my job and planned to stay at home with my daughter. I had every confidence that Bot Tots was going to be a success, but SBA loans were down by 40% and most were going to high tech businesses, so I new my chances were slim.

I consulted with my SBA coach who gave me some great advise. After reviewing my financials he suggested that I create projected profits for at least three years under different scenarios for my investors. One very interesting thing about financial projections like profit and cost projections, is that although they're based partly on research in the industry you are trying to break into, but they're really just a best guess. I determined that I wanted to secure .05% of the aggregate children's apparel market. That may seem small, but it equaled a large annual profit when successful. The great thing about the children's apparel industry is that it is highly fragmented with its biggest competitors only securing about 20% of the aggregate market.

So my financials were reviewed and approved by my SBA coach. The next step was to determine what kind of return I wanted to offer my investors. I initially came up with the idea of 1% for every 1,000 dollars invested. My SBA coach suggested that investors get rewarded for growth of the company (since they really weren't traditional investors in that they didn't actually own a portion of the company, but were just given a promise by myself that I would share a portion of my profits during the time period indicated in the investment agreement). So it was determined that investors would receive an increase of .25% of profits for every 10% the company grew after the first fiscal year.

So with my business plan done and printed, my financials in order, and my offer to investors I sent about ten packets out to people who had expressed an interest. Most were impressed with the business and invested!!

Currently, I have a secret number that I know Bot Tots will reach. I already have the checks written out to all my generous investors and I cannot wait till I am able to send those checks. My investors will be happy to see all those zeros!

Image retrieved from: www.boosttwitterfollowers.com/images/money_tree.jpg

Simlutaneous Processes

Besides the inception of the dream it may seem like a boring process until now. However, it was never boring at any moment. So many things were happening at once. Though the first legal step to Bot Tots was to form an LLC, so much more was going on. For example I sent my very terrible sketches to my childhood friend and she began to work on them. The first thing she worked on was the logo. This was one of the most exiting things to happen during the beginning stages of Bot Tots. It may seem so trivial, but when I got the logo variants from her it made everything so real!! Ever color combination was perfect and it was so difficult to choose. I new from grad school that our logo was so important. It was not only the image of the company, but represented so much more. It is what secured brand identity and brand loyalty in a very saturated children's clothing market. It had to stand out...it had to seem gender-neutral...it had to appeal to all of our target markets. Eventually we decided on the green/orange combination and I think it was a perfect choice.

While my friend (and now partner) was working on all the fun creative stuff, I was developing a business plan and marketing plan. This was very important for Bot Tots for two reasons. 1: it enabled both my partner and I to be on the same page of Bot Tot's mission, goals and objectives, and 2: I needed investors!! Investors aren't going to invest money in just an idea. I needed to be organized and to prove the potential of the company. The Business Plan and Marketing Plan collectively took about two months. Most of this time was spent researching the market and reaching out to successful business owners for advise on all types of business operations. If you're thinking about starting a business and want to develop a business plan you can get a template from the SBA website. However, I didn't use this template as I already had a couple from grad school. The process of developing both plans was so eye opening. It really gave me an understanding of my own company believe it or not. You can have an idea in your head, but when you begin to put it on paper the idea expands and organizes.

So throughout this blog you will hear about the business process or the creative process all of which were are happening simultaneously. I now am the sole owner of Bot Tots and have three artists working for me. Every day is a busy day for Bot Tots and I'll try to share all that I remember.

On a personal note: I am not one to finish projects easily. I've always said I was a great starter and a poor finisher. I am so proud of Bot Tots because I committed to follow through and to date I've stuck to that commitment. I believe in what the company stands for and the products we offer so being committed isn't that easy. I will tell you that owning your own business isn't for the faint of heart. There are good days and bad days..ups and downs. You'll make through it all as long as you believe in your business and your products. I always thought it was so cheesy when business text books tried to convince sales people that they just wanted to "help people." I would always refer to my experiences at car dealerships and The Buckle (if you've ever shopped there you know what I mean). Sales people are just SO annoying and certainly didn't seem to help me in anyway...but you know....I do believe Bot Tots helps people. I've heard stories about kids who have our t-shirts who literally want to wear them every day. They've even snuck them out of the dirty laundry hamper to wear. We're helping parents, grandparents, teachers, etc. put smiles on children's faces. We're helping our customers teach children important lessons in friendship, humility, kindness, and environmental care. So the text books were right after all.

The First Step

So the concept of Bot Tots was born and the partnership with my talented childhood friend was formed. We agreed that she would be responsible for anything creative and I would be responsible for any business. I was so new to this that I had to do a ton of research about what it meant to become a business. It was so overwhelming that I sought advise from the Small Business Administration and secured a SCORE coach. If you are thinking about opening your own business of any type I highly recommend a SCORE coach!! They are amazing, experienced, and wonderful people who want nothing more than for you to be successful. You can begin by clicking on the link above and then go to the tab "Services" and scroll down to "counseling and assistance." When you click on this link the first section you will see is "SCORE."

My SCORE coach helped in so many ways. First, he suggested I become an LLC. LLC's are a type of business formation in the United States. LLC stands for Limited Liability Company. The cool thing about the formation is that for tax purposes the IRS sees LLC's as a non-entity which means that you're really just taxed under your social security number. But, in the eyes of the law you as an individual have limited liability when it comes to your company. This simply means should you get sued or worse your assets are separate from those of the company. In the state of Arizona LLC's are fairly simple to file. You file your Articles of Organization which list who is owner, member, manager of the company. You pay a very small fee, I think around $50.00 and 30 days later you get a letter from the Arizona Corporation Commission regarding your application. Oops I forgot one thing...make sure your business name isn't already taken in your state, nationally or even internationally. You need to do this because you will more than likely want to trademark your name. OK...back to the LLC process. So the final step is to publish your articles of organization in the county you filed. I am a military family so I had my mom make herself the "Statutory Agent," so I published the Articles of Organization and there you have it...Bot Tots is an LLC.

DISCLAIMER: I am not an attorney, legal professional, accountant, or of any other profession pertaining to business formation, etc. I do not profess to be an expert in any of the above Fields, nor do I advise you do anything I did without seeking professional counsel. I am not liable for anything you've done or will do as a result of reading this post or any other post.

How It All Began!

It all began after having my first daughter in December of 2008. I was on maternity leave from my position as a Child Protective Services Specialist with CPS of Arizona. I always assumed that I would return to work after leave, but fell so quickly in love with my precious daughter that I knew I was going to find a way to stay at home with her for as long as I could. After realizing I had some retirement I decided to use it for a year and pay myself a monthly salary (500 per month haha) to stay at home for the first year. So that resolved the problem of staying at home...but I'm not the type of person not to have more than one project on the plate so I began to have thoughts of owning my own business.

Just seven days before I gave birth I graduated with my MSPM from Boston University. I knew I had "fresh" knowledge of business operations and other applicable information. One day I was putting away the Christmas ornaments and happened upon one of my favorites; a robot. I was just talking with my husband about how boring organic clothing was and how it needed more pizazz. It all came to me that day...vibrantly colored organic clothing with robot characters on the front. I began to sketch (very very bad sketches) the characters and contacted my very dear childhood friend who just happened to be a very talented graphic artist. She agreed to enter into a partnership and so Bot Tots was born.

Introduction

Bot Tots is an emerging infant and children's apparel line. We pride ourselves on being an eco-friendly and socially conscious company and offer organic apparel and books printed on 100% recycled paper.

This blog is so much more than an attempt to get the word out about my young company. As many 20-somethings (almost 30) who have graduated from college with one or more degrees, I've had several jobs or "careers" all of which I was able to enjoy, but non of which I truly saw myself sticking with. Our education is only a small part of who we are. It really opens doors, opens our eyes, and paves the path to success....our own definition of success.

I remember being in undergrad and stating "I just don't want to be in business...anything but that...and here I am a new small business owner during one of the worst economic times in America. Its only been four months since the launch of Bot Tots one year since its inception, but I feel I've learned so much from experience and have so much to share to all of you who are exploring alternative career options. Though some of these stories may seem negative it all leads to a positive outcome. You'll hear about my personal life, family life, business life and anything else that played a role in what make Bot Tots the awesome company it is today!

So thanks for stopping by and I look forward to sharing all that I've learned and all that I am.