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.
Getting the videos out in the marketplace was not exactly easy. She had a tough time convincing people to buy her product. But knowing that she had a unique and very good product, Julie didn’t give up trying to convince retailers to carry her video.
She attended tradeshows and finally was able to convince a toy retailer to put her video in some of their stores. The video absolutely flew off the shelves and parents started to spread the word to other parents.
The retailer then offered to put her videos for sale in their catalog which was sent out to ten million homes. The demand for the videos catapulted and within the first year she made $100,000 in sales.
Business just kept getting better.
All the while, Julie was a work-at-home-mom and never hired more than eight employees to help with the work load. The company ended up drawing in sales of over $20 million within 5 years of its start.
In 2001, Julie and her husband sold their Baby Einstein company to The Walt Disney Company. Julie is now involved in another project called The Safe Side which educates kids about safety.
What can we learn from Julie’s story?
One, she saw a void in the marketplace so she jumped on the opportunity to fill it. As moms, we have an advantage because we live in the day to day routine with our children and we know what things enhance our lives and make them easier. If you spot a need that’s not being met in the marketplace, by all means, jump on it!
Two, Julie had a lot of determination to make her videos succeed. She did not take no for an answer until she got a buyer to put her product in stores. Lesson – never take no for an answer!
Three, Julie was able to maintain a good balance between work and home life. She hired help when she needed it and when the business became too big for her to handle alone she sold it. (For a hefty sum, of course!) She then was able to take a step back and refocus on being a mom.
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