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April 2, 2004/Nisan 11 5764, Vol. 56, No. 28
Success comes from taking care of the details
RAEANNE MARSH
Special to Jewish News
When new mom Amy Alexander awoke in the middle of the night with her son, she found herself scrambling for a scrap of paper.
With a son who was six weeks premature, it was especially important for her to keep track of feedings, diapers and sleeping habits. So she did - on whatever scrap paper was at hand. Then, of course, she could never find the paper later. And like many a parent after a night of up-and-down, there would be mornings when she couldn't remember what - or even if - she had fed him the night before.
A computer-printed spreadsheet helped, but had its drawbacks.
"I had an ugly chart that was on my kitchen counter where I would write Andrew's daily activities. Most of my friends were having children around the same time. As I would visit these friends, I noticed that everyone had ugly charts on their refrigerators or counters. A few of my friends had twins, so they had two ugly charts," Alexander recalls.
So Alexander designed Baby's Daily Details, an attractively designed, neatly arranged log to keep track of all the activities that happen during the course of a day, including naps, baths, medicines and diaper changes. Add space on which to write the baby's name, address, pediatrician, allergies, and other key information like the poison control center's phone number and who to call in an emergency, and you have "everything at a glance," where it's convenient for a babysitter or visiting in-laws.
To decide what information to include in the chart, Alexander used her own experience and went to the other experts she knew - her friends who were also new mothers. Then she found a local printer willing to work with her, and had the charts printed in - of course - pink and blue, and also in a gender-neutral color (purple, she decided, showed up better than yellow).
Putting the product together now takes her only a minute per unit, but finding the individual components took many days of concentrated search on the Internet. Most white magnetic clipboards, she found, looked far too industrial: "It had to look gift-y," she explains.
Then there's the simple-looking c-clip that holds the pencil. "I was on the Internet for a week straight."
Finally, there was the trial and error of finding the right pencil to fit the c-clip. In locating what she needed, Alexander found unexpected help from people at specialty advertising companies she just happened to call.
"I didn't know them, but they helped me track down (what I needed)." Eventually, she says, she will have a mold made of clipboard and c-clip, and have it manufactured as a single piece.
Alexander, n‚e Woodnick, grew up in Phoenix and was active in B'nai B'rith Youth Organization and served a term as president of B'nai B'rith Girls. Already used to being active in the community, she says she has "learned so much in building my own business. I've never done anything like this before."
And the satisfaction, she adds, has been tremendous. "It's so neat to get feedback from people (all over the country) who say, 'This has been such a help to me.'"
And her market has grown exponentially since her first e-mail to about 20 people.
"Each person sent it along to other people, and it spread like wildfire."
She is now looking into advertising on some of the baby-information Web sites that are popular with new parents, but notes that Baby's Daily Details is not just for first-time moms. She relates a testimonial received from one customer whose toddler had had to be taken to the emergency room - and when the doctors asked for details about his activities, the customer told Alexander she had been able to "just hand them these pieces of paper."
The volume of Alexander's business has now taken over one full bedroom and the third-car garage of her home - tremendous growth from the 50 pieces she produced to start with less than a year ago.
RaeAnne Marsh is a local free-lance writer.
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