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Featured Cloth Diaper WAHM: Stephanie of Abby's Lane
Q: What Led You to Start Using Cloth Diapers?
A: I was desperate to stay at home when my maternity leave was up with my first daughter, Abby, so we had to cut corners any way we could! We started with gerber prefolds, rubber pants and pins from Wal-Mart. I then discovered the online community, and boy was it such a wonderful change! Diapers that didn't leak, pins that didn't poke, and these nifty little inventions called "pocket diapers". I had died and gone to heaven :)
Q: How did you go about making cloth diapers your business?
A: After I had done so much shopping for cute and high quality diapers online, my husband saw the endless stream of fluffy packages, and joked "you would save money by opening your own store....." He is really eating his words now! I loved the idea of bringing cloth to local moms, and branching out in a business that would be my "baby" while I was staying at home with my first baby.
Q: Was starting your business difficult?
A: Well, we hit a few obstacles when we started with that almost made me give up. First, our city didn't allow online retail, so I had to work with our city planner for a few months to re-write the zoning laws to get our permits approved. Boy, talk about a crash course in zoning ordinances! I was also, and still am, a website dummy. I didn't know HTML from my left hand, so my wonderful webhost and designer, Stacey from Doodle Babies, took about 600 hours out of her life to walk me through each and every step.
Q: How do you manage to run a business with small children?
A: My husband, Phil, plays a real part in this. He gets home from work, watches the kids until dinnertime, than after bath and bedtime, packs every order for me. He takes about 2-3 hours every night to help me pack and sort everything, and keeps me up to date with inventory checks and shipping supply help. He goes to the post office daily to ship everything so I don't have to bring the kids, and is always there to listen and encourage me through all of the bumps in the road
Q: What does your home office/work space look like?
A: Office? Well, in one word, it is an organized mess :) Our stock is in every closet and corner we can stash things. Our master bedroom houses dozens of prefolds, our playroom closet houses several hundred diaper covers......Any space and every space is utilized. My computer is at a large desk with my customer files. We are very organized, everything is in Sterlite drawers, but you just have to climb a few flights of stairs to get an order together. It keeps Phil and I in great shape!
Q: What Is The Most Rewarding Thing About Running Your Home Business?
A: The sense of balance it gives me. I can be at home with my babies, yet still have a part of me that is working hard at something outside of my children. I meet so many wonderful and caring people, and can use my creativity in the business on a daily basis. For me, it is the perfect way to combine "mommy" and "Stephanie" and still be able to do both 100%
Q: What new an exciting things can we expect in the future?
A: We are looking into bringing in a very fun line of maternity wear in the Spring, and expanding our diaper lines we offer. Our forums are picking up steam, we now have a "weight loss" group for myself and a few mamas looking to get in shape. Always adding new products in an effort to bring the best to our wonderful customers!
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