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

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