It took Lisa Lloyd only 13 months to get a licensing deal for her new invention idea.

Lisa, a 23 year old single mom, was making only $13,000 a year selling ad space when she had a great idea.  She always had to keep her hair looking nice because of her high profile job and other women would compliment her on her up-do’s.

She decided to act on her idea for the hair-styling tool “The French Twister” which helps women wear their hair up in the french twist hair style.

She began with absolutely no money.  She started by using things she found around her house and ended up making a prototype out of a wire clothes hanger.  From there she started calling manufacturers to get a plastic prototype made.  It was not an easy job and it took a lot of testing to get her product just right.  She found a local plastics molding shop by going to her library.

When it came time to manufacture her product she sold her used car for $500 and she used the money from her tax return to pay for it.  With 500 units made, she went out on foot to salons to introduce her new invention idea.  Clients loved them!

Lisa used free ways to get exposure for her product ie;media interviews and newspaper articles.  Soon she found there was enough interest in her product so she went ahead and patented her product then proceeded to find a company to license her French Twister to.  She went to the store to find hair-styling products, picked up a box made by Scunci, got their phone number and contacted them. Read more

Liz Lange, mother of two and internationally recognized maternity clothes designer had her “aha” moment while she was working for fashion designer Stephen DiGeronimo watching her pregnant friends try to squeeze into designer non-maternity clothes.

She saw a void in the marketplace for chic looking maternity clothes and thought she could design better fashions than the styles currently on the market.

In 1997, Liz Lange started her company Liz Lange Maternity by borrowing $50,000 from her family and friends.  She began designing her clothing line in a rented office in New York first offering custom designed clothing that retailed at around $150 - $400 for each piece.

The word about her fabulous maternity line spread and soon she had orders coming in from other countries. She opened high end boutiques on Madison Avenue, in Beverly Hills and on Long Island. Celebrities also started to take notice and Liz Lange Maternity became the pregnant mother’s must-have clothing line. Read more

Anita Roddick, a woman passionate about ethical and environmental causes, started The Body Shop in 1976 to make a living for herself and her daughters while her husband was traveling.  Her inspiration for her skin care line came from her many travels…”My early travels had given me a wealth of experience. I had spent time in farming and fishing communities with pre-industrial peoples, and been exposed to body rituals of women from all over the world.” she wrote.

Her business philosphy was all about protecting the environment and fighting for ethical causes….”why throw away a container when you can refill it?” Read more

Although the idea was not an original one, Kalika Yap discovered a niche to catapult her purse holder business to success.

On a trip to Italy, Kalika the idea for a table top purse holder when she was dining at a fine restaurant and had nowhere to set her purse. One of the proprietors came to her rescue when he gave her a hook to hang her purse on.

Kalika had never seen anything like this before and thought if she could make it more chic, more luxurious and user friendly they would be a hot item for women.

She was right. Read more

Lisa Rothstein began baking brownies as a hobby while working as an elementary school teacher. She and a sorority sister started a business called Brownie Points baking brownies in their apartment.

Soon their business took off and they moved it to a manufacturing facility in Cleveland.

Unfortunately, Lisa had to move to Colombus, Ohio because of her husband’s job. Growing tired of the commute and the time it took away from her family she decided to sell out.

Soon after going through a divorce, Lisa realized that her true passion was her brownie business. She contacted the new owners and they offered her a position at the company but Lisa wanted to take the company back. Eventually the new owners agreed and she once again was the owner of Brownie Points. Read more

Julie Aigner Clark, founder of The Baby Einstein Company has the ultimate million dollar mom story.

Julie’s idea for making educational baby videos came to her when her daughter was 18 months old, she searched the market for videos that were both educational and appropriate for her daughter’s development but soon realized there were no videos on the market like this. Having a background as a middle school and high school arts teacher, she came up with the idea of making homemade videos herself using hand puppets and her cat as a prop. Borrowing a camcorder from a friend she began making Baby Einstein videos in her basement. Read more

Sheri Schmelzer a stay-at-home-mom is one of those moms who made millions from a “Why didn’t I think of that?” idea.

In the summer of 2005, Sheri was playing with her kids one day in her basement when they decided to use clay and rhinestones to decorate the holes of their Crocs shoes. Her kids absolutely loved the decorations and began wearing them to school where other kids noticed them and started asking for them.

Sheri realized this could be an excellent business idea. So she along with her husband began a company called Jibbitz creating snap-on charms for Crocs.

They began by running the business out of their basement but after they sent out a press release the orders began pouring in, they realized they had to expand their business. Read more

Paulette Wolf started her amazingly successful career as an interior designer. She always had a love for parties and a talent for visualizing spectacular events.

She got her start at a Chicago country club where she attended some of the club’s cocktail parties. Noticing that these cocktail parties lacked flair, she joined the club’s entertainment committee and helped create themed events that became so popular that the McDonald’s owner-operator, a fellow club member, asked her to plan some special events for it’s 20th anniversary.

From there doors opened for Paulette, and she started to manage huge events through an established entertainment production company. She handled all aspects of the events including hiring big names like Jay Leno and Tina Turner. Read more

Beckey NealHere’s an amazing story of a mother and her daughter who took their passion for making candles and turned it into a million dollar business.

Beckey Neal and Kim Godsey were both working full time jobs when they decided to open a candle shop called Wicks n’ More as a part time business venture. Their love of experimenting with different shapes, sizes, scents and colors resulted in their signature pillar candle that is their trademark product today.

Their small business flourished and within 6 months they netted $30,000. For the next three years they worked hard at both job and business and eventually their sales were great enough that they were able to quit their full time jobs.

Now Wicks n’ More is a wholesale manufacturer and their beautiful candles are sold in more that 3,000 boutiques and gift shops across the country. It has grown into a multi-million dollar company that offers more than 100 different fragrance and color options. Read more

Gabrielle BrennanGabrielle Brennan, founder of gabbybaby, Inc was a frustrated mom….frustrated about the inappropriate things people did and said to moms with new babies. So she created t-shirts and onsies with sayings that ward off people who offer unsolicited advice or handle babies without the parents permission.

A very clever yet simple idea. As moms, we’ve all had these irritating situations happen and what a perfect way to tell strangers off than to let your baby’s t-shirt do the talking.

My number one irritation is when people touch my 4 month old daughter’s hands because who knows where the heck their hands have been. Obviously she’s going to stick her hand in her mouth…that’s what babies do. I get sick of saying in the sweetest voice I can “Please don’t touch her hands” or just cringing quietly while I frantically think “Darn, now I have to wash her hands again!”. Gabbybaby.com has a great shirt with the saying “Please do not touch my hands, I put them in my mouth.” That’s absolutely perfect, I don’t have to say a thing. Read more

Search

Links