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What It's About
A baby product business is born from a mother looking for options after childbirth.
Business Model
Skills Required
Complexity
Profit Potential
Words of Wisdom
Vicki share's some thoughts for those struggling with confidence. “When you’re starting something new, it’s easy to feel a sense of ‘imposter syndrome’. To deal with this, it helps to realize that you only need to know more than the person you're helping."
Fun Fact
When it comes to online retail, Amazon is king and ships over 45 million products around the world. According to Investopedia, other options for the company’s name included "Cadabra" (as in "Abracadabra") and "Relentless". His lawyer convinced founder and CEO Jeff Bezos that "Cadabra" sounded too much like "cadaver". And although "Relentless" didn’t make the cut, Bezos bought the domain name relentless.com, which now redirects to the Amazon homepage.
Notes from Chris
Episode 1520
Vicki Weinberg is a mother of two based in the UK. She used to have a corporate job but suffered from postnatal depression after her first child was born. She then retrained as a children’s yoga teacher and gave local classes. During her second pregnancy, Vicki had some issues with her hip and back. It meant she couldn’t teach anymore and had to find someone to cover her classes for the last few months. But by the time the baby was born, she was ready to do something–anything–even though she didn’t know what. An idea sparked: to create a brand of high-quality baby products that could be used, reused, and gifted to other families. And so, when her second baby was only six weeks old, Tiny Chipmunk was born. Vicki knew she wanted to create a range of bamboo baby products and used Google’s keyword tool to research what would come first. She landed on baby swaddles and used 99Designs to find a logo designer. Finally, she used Alibaba.com to search for a supplier to make the product. At the same time, she ordered samples of similar products from Amazon to scope out the existing market. Tiny Chipmunk has become Vicki’s main work focus, bringing in at least $25,000 a year in profit. She doesn’t need to work set hours because the business mostly runs itself. In fact, even though she had to homeschool her kids and cut back on her hours over the last year, sales remained steady. As her business has grown, Vicki has too. Nowadays, she doesn’t just sell products online; she also coaches other people who want to sell products. Going forward, the plan is to launch more of her own products, all while helping other people create and sell theirs. She also plans to do less one-on-one coaching and instead move towards more group coaching and courses. It all starts with baby steps.MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- Learn more about Vicki and her baby products at her website, TinyChipmunk.com.
- Looking to launch your own product and need help? Learn from Vicki. vickiweinberg.com.
- 99designs: The marketplace Vicki used to get a logo design (similar to Fiverr and Upwork).
- Alibaba: The marketplace Vicki used to source her products.
- Trio of Friends Creates Ergonomic Desk Accessory: Former college roommates say goodbye to elbow pain by creating a new product designed to alleviate discomfort from working at a desk.
- Military-Themed Teddy Bears Help Kids Hibernate: An ad executive turned teddy bear manufacturer creates a military-grade sleep system for children, earning $100,000 in sales and making a lot of people beary happy.
- Bartender Sells Pocket-Sized Reminders of Positivity: A curious bartender discovers that his next side hustle idea has been in his pocket all along.
