Seed for Success | Empowering Women Entreprenuers

What a day! It all started at 8 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m. Last week Yahoo! contacted me about a film crew that would be coming to my home to watch me “in action.” The producer on site, Gordon McGee, wanted to cover 4 aspects of Head2Toe: personal interview, work on products, speech therapy with child, and meeting with Eric Yonge regarding the logo and website. To be honest, as I was preparing myself for this day, I was more nervous about the therapy session because one never knows how the child will respond; however, when I sat down in front of the camera and lights, everything changed. Normally, I can talk all day long about my company, mission, goals, products, and targeted markets, but not today. All I wanted to do was stress is that Amy and I are passionate about working and helping special needs children overcome challenges so they become successful individuals and using our products will help them achieve that goal. Secondly, I wanted to make sure I stressed that we could not be accomplishing our dream if it weren’t for winning the Yahoo! small business grant. I hope that those two things were clearly stated.

Overall, it was a great day! The little girl I worked with today was a star! I ended my day with a meeting with Eric Yonge and I’m pleased to announce, “I have a logo!!” When he turned the paper over, I knew as soon as I saw it! It POPPED! Now I feel like I am making progress. Time to get my trademark, and our website will be available soon. www.head2toepub.com. Crossing these business items off my “to do” list allows me to concentrate on helping Amy with products.

I am excited about the four aspects of the Yahoo! grant but most about receiving the mentoring advice. This week I have been introduced to two more mentors: Rosemary Coates, manufacturing and importing, and Jeannette Peten, BigAustin. Rosemary and I have already had a beneficial phone conversation about manufacturing in China. Here’s advice she gave me about communicating with Chinese manufacturers: 1. Be very literal; 2. Use short sentences and small words; 3. Always stress “high quality”; 4. Request samples; 5. Never accept the first price quoted. Bargain! She also told me to use www.alibaba to source the products I need. I already feel more confident. I will be talking to Jeannette on Friday, and I can’t wait to hear and learn from her.

So much has happened in the last two weeks. I have been awarded this fabulous grant; I have resigned from my job and am getting ready to start a new one; I have been interviewed by the Birmingham News, and I have been filmed all day. It is easy to get overwhelmed by it all, but there is one bit of advice that I am trying to live by that my brother-in-law gave me. He said to focus on one area of my company each day. If I try to work on marketing, manufacturing, etc. at the same time, I become distracted, and I am not able to complete an area well. Life is not perfect, especially as the owner of a new company, but his advice has helped me stay focused and get organized.

Let me share three things I have learned recently from three ladies I highly respect. Carolyn Kepcher writes that you must be passionate about your work, Cathie Black stresses that you need to work very hard but have time to have a life, and Bobbi Brown reminds us to not expect success overnight. Terrific advice!

As soon as I know when the video is available for viewing, I’ll let you know. Amy and I appreciate all of your kind comments and excitement about Head2Toe Publications. We would love to hear any product suggestions you have because we are here for YOU!

Have a great evening and keep moving forward even if it is small steps!

Karla

Hello, I am Amy Mace, co-founder and VP of Product Development for Head2Toe Publications. I have been keeping up with the blogs and thought it was about time to share one!

Five months ago, Karla Duncan and I decided to start Head 2 Toe. We were both pediatric speech therapists, and we wanted to offer the products we wish we had available for care of children with disabilities. Separated by geography (she’s in AL, and I’m in NH) and challenged by time (we both have full-time jobs, and I have a family – including a special needs child), our dream for this company seemed nearly insurmountable. So when Karla told me last week that we had won the Yahoo! grant, I could hardly believe it. We have so many dreams for this company. With the resources of this program at our side, anything is possible!

Karla, as the CEO and Founder, is the business manager of our business. My role as Co-Founder is to lead product development. We have so many ideas for what we eventually want to create, but we’re trying to remain focused and start with just a few products initially.

Our first product will be a colorful activity book for toddlers and preschoolers that will emphasize cognitive concepts such as location (i.e. in, on, under) and quantity (i.e. one, all). It will have an open-ended story line to allow for multiple therapeutic approaches.

The second product, which will be co-authored by two Speech Pathologists, will provide practical ideas and informative pictures to help educational instructors and families address feeding and swallowing challenges among birth-to-school-age children.

Our third offering will be specially selected collections of toys and therapy aids, packaged with activity booklets outlining how each product can be used to address fine motor, gross motor, and communication skills, as well as social-emotional and cognitive development needs.

But this is just the beginning! We have so many other products that we hope to offer in the near future. Once our web site has launched at www.head2toepub.com, please visit it often for regular updates.

Thank you for your kind and encouraging comments.

Both Amy and I are facing some major transitions in the next couple of weeks. We have decided to change jobs so that we have more time to concentrate on Head 2 Toe and Amy needs more time to spend with her husband and daughter. I have been a sales rep for a wonderful education company for 3 years but I have a great opportunity to return to practicing speech therapy with children 0-3 (early intervention). Amy, also a practicing speech therapist, is moving from early intervention to a local elementary school. We are working full time to financially support the new company until Head 2 Toe becomes our main income and our jobs keep us informed on what products are needed to treat special needs’ children. It is so important to stay informed and develop networks with other special educators. Thankfully we have won this grant because it helps give us a BIG push but there are still so many other business expenses that come up unexpectedly.

My brother-in-law is a corporate attorney and he has been my legal adviser. Not only has he helped me set up my company as a corporation but also given me great advice. On Saturday, he told me to get a 3 ring binder and 31 tabs and organize all of my emails and paperwork in that notebook. Now I have information about business sales tax, trademarks, current and upcoming projects, and all correspondence with manufacturers/companies regarding products at my fingertips. I know what needs to be done and what has been done. What a HUGE stress reliever!!

Amy will soon write about product development. This will give you an insight into Head 2 Toe Publications and hopefully answer any questions you have about who our products will help. Don’t miss it!!

Keep sending your questions and comments. We love hearing from you.

Have a great day!
Karla

I received my first bit of advice from Eric Young of EYStudios.com, who is designing my website. He cautioned me about getting overwhelmed while I am planning my website. He says to focus on one area at a time. It is so easy to think about the “whole” website and all I want to have, but he advises me to just work on one area and make it just right. My logo is the first priority. You will be able to preview our website www.head2toepub.com in a few weeks.

Stay tuned for more great advice!

Karla

These past few days since becoming a finalist have been surreal. I am so excited to be a part of such a great program! When the announcement of the finalists came out, I sent it to my friends and family. Everyone has been amazingly excited and supportive!

My company is in the process of creating games, cards, books, stickers, and toys for children with disabilities. My co-founder Amy and I hope to make our products useful for parents, therapists (physical, speech, and/or occupational), and educators alike. I am working full time as a sales representative while I develop my company on the side. I hope someday to be able to run my company full-time, but right now I need to do both. This is tough! Time management is taking on new meaning. And to make matters more challenging, my co-founder lives in New Hampshire , whereas I live in Alabama . She and I are learning how important it is to be clear about timelines and expectations. Thank goodness for computers and cell phones! Amy also works full time and has a 4 year old daughter, so she, too, struggles to make time for everything. Not only are we friends, but we strive to bring honesty and grace into our relationship. I think that’s what makes us a great team!

I have already started working with my web design team, EY Studios [www.eystudios.com] in Starkville, MS, and I can already tell it is a great fit! Since I am a brand new company (I just incorporated this week!), I need a logo, which Eric is designing for me. A few months ago, I had hired some other companies to design my logo, but nothing POPPED! I can’t wait to see what Eric creates. I know it will be great. I do have a website domain reserved - www.head2toepub.com – but we’re still too new in this process to have launched the web site yet. Make sure you bookmark it and keep checking back, though, because we will be adding to it over the coming weeks. You will want to see how Eric and his team illustrate the site. It is going to be amazing!

I have my first press interview for the grant program tomorrow afternoon with my local paper, Birmingham News. I am looking forward to talking about our company, our products, and the grant program. I’m not sure when it will be in the paper, but hopefully it will appear in the Lifestyle section sometime soon.

Next time I will tell you more about how we develop our products and where we get our ideas.

Until next time!

-Karla

“It was November 2007, and I decided it was time to start my own special needs company. I had dreamt about it for years, and therapist friends kept asking me, “When are you going to start it? We need great tools to help our students.” To start this type of company, you must understand special children’s needs, and the products must be attractive and fun so the kids will want to use them. You also need money and time – neither of which I had. I also knew I needed help, so I asked my dear friend and fellow speech pathologist, Amy Mace, to help me create these products.

We named our company “Head 2 Toe Publications” because we want to emphasize the importance of working on the “whole” child. We are not just creating products to improve children’s communication skills; we also seek to improve their fine and gross motor skills. Amy and I have worked with children with many types of disabilities and with children as young as 6 months old. Every year it seems that more and more children are born with some type of disability. Are we as therapists over-diagnosing? We are diagnosing correctly? Are we diagnosing and treating early enough? We may never have the answers to these questions, but the fact remains that children born prematurely have a higher risk of having developmental delays, and 1 out of 150 children are born with autism. These children can benefit from early intervention and help in school. Amy and I have experienced firsthand the lack of products for early intervention -.i.e. the first three years of a child’s life - and we’re eager to help parents, therapists, and schools provide this assistance.

My desire for Head 2 Toe Publications is that we become a complete resource for therapists, educators and especially parents and/or caregivers. We want to provide tools to help children excel in ALL environments – i.e. home, school, community, etc. There is nothing that brings me more joy and fulfillment than seeing a child – especially a child with special needs - realize his or her potential. Amy and I are committed to doing our part to help make that happen.”