Whether it’s your neighbors who run the corner hardware store or the Walton family at the helm of Walmart, family businesses face challenges as well as opportunities in our digitally evolving world.
With the explosion of e-commerce, home businesses now have the chance to break through to a wide audience with an innovative product and a website. Two resourceful and driven female heads-of-household who own their own home businesses recently discussed how they got their products off the ground, and how they are redefining what it means to be a family business today.
The Inspiration
ScoutCart and Pillow Tower are examples of home businesses run by moms who came up with great product ideas. Each started out looking to solve a particular challenge in their lives.
“I remember exactly where I was when I got the idea for ScoutCart. I was sitting at a red light across the street from the grocery store. I had a back injury and was just dreading the shopping that had to be done that day,” said Allison White, founder and president of ScoutCart.
“But grocery shopping had already started to annoy me for a number of reasons. The inefficiency of transferring groceries in and out of the cart seemed unnecessary and the waste created by all those plastic bags. Also, the way we shop is quite unsanitary—you never know how clean the cart you’re using really is,” she continued.
White says she started noticing around 2011, supermarkets made handheld barcode scanning technology available to shoppers who were pressed for time and wanted to shop more independently. Inspired by this technology, White started to work on a highly-portable and maneuverable cart with detachable baskets for more convenient shopping and car loading. She believed it would lead to a cleaner, more efficient, and enjoyable shopping experience.
For Kristina McLoud, founder and owner of Pillow Tower, a self-proclaimed “homemaker with a side job,” the business was born out of the need to keep her house more organized. The mom of four came up with the idea for the pillow storage product after thinking there had to be a better way to keep bedrooms and living rooms decluttered, while also extending the life of the decorative pillows she used to adorn couches and beds in her home.
“I told my husband I had this great idea, and I didn’t know what I was going to call it yet but I asked him to go to the basement and see if he could make it. He took my sketch to his workshop and he made me a couple of samples. They turned out great and we still use them around the house,” said McLoud.
McLoud searched the idea online and confirmed there was not already another product like this on the market. “I just jumped—I had to know where it would go. We started thinking about ways to add personality to the product, like we added Tower Toppers, which are different shaped decorations that sit at each of the four posts of the product—the hedgehogs are my favorite!” she said.
Challenges
What followed each mompreneur’s inspiration was getting the actual products made. White and McLoud each found themselves navigating through challenges they never anticipated.
“It seemed like there were a million things that came up—things I didn’t think I’d ever have to learn,” said White. “For example, figuring out how to mail samples back and forth to my manufacturer in China, or managing all the Excel sheets for inventory management. But, my husband kept reminding me of the old joke, “Do you know how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”
Both business owners were newly introduced to the world of barcoding. The ubiquitous barcode, seen every day on thousands of products, is a necessity for selling a product through retailers. However, each business owner did not have previous experience with how the system of product identification works.
“Because it was the first time I’d ever done it, I was challenged. I didn’t know that I had to get them from an approved source, I thought I could just make up my own. But I went to GS1 US because it was a part of Target’s guidelines to get a GS1 barcode and that was one of the retailers I was trying to work with,” said McLoud. “I didn’t want to have to relabel everything and knew I wanted to do it right the first time.”
No matter the challenges, the business owners have been able to lean on their families for support—and even odd jobs here and there.
“My son got his driver’s license so he goes back and forth to help me load up my inventory, so I joke that he’s my Director of Transportation,” said McLoud. “And my daughter doesn’t mind labeling, so she’s my Shipping Director. I pretty much do all the rest, but we have fun awarding Employee of the Month—sometimes my dog Daisy gets it because she does a good job watching us work.”
Ambitions
Both products are currently sold through online channels and both ScoutCart and Pillow Tower have learned valuable lessons working with major online marketplaces and plan to expand to other retailers.
“I think online shopping has made it much easier to be a small business owner because there’s very little risk for these retailers to take on an up-and-coming business—it’s not like they have to store it all or send it back. It’s just not like that anymore, retailers and their processes have changed,” said McLoud.
Five years since the first prototype, Pillow Tower is established with two major online retailers, however it remains a challenge to attract major retailers. McLoud is ambitious about finding another successful partner before possibly licensing the product to another company.
“I’d love to see it succeed further. I really think it’s still a grand idea!” said McLoud.
ScoutCart is finding a niche beyond its grocery shopping roots, with orders coming in from hotels, hospitals, schools, and even prisons. With so many versatile uses, White has her sights set on international expansion to Canada, Italy and Japan, and developing a larger brick-and-mortar store presence. When asked about the future of ScoutCart, White answered like a true mompreneur.
“It’s sort of like if ScoutCart were a child, he’s still only eight. Maybe when he’s a teenager or older, I’ll be more prepared to let him fly away from the nest and be successful on his own. I can’t explain it, but I just love this product and am excited for where it can go.”
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