Seed for Success | Empowering Women Entreprenuers

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.”