A New Adventure

Kamrynn is finally napping, and I should be folding laundry and cleaning out the closet, but I need to get some thoughts down:

After trying several different types of diapers, I decided I wasn't going to pay $20 a diaper for something I didn't TOTALLY LOVE, and ordered about $35 in fabric to sew my own cloth diapers.  I can handle a sewing machine, making quilts is super easy, but patterns are lost on me... zippers too now that I think about it.  (Paula - that woombie I'm making for you might take several tries!)  I decided I would design the Perfect Diaper, and sell it because it would be better than all the other dipers out there and everyone would want it.  It would have velcro closures, be super easy to wash, not need stuffed, contain leaks and blowouts, keep her bottom dry, be trim, and inexpensive.  I've made two so far.  The first one was actually just a repair of one of the cheapies I bought that failed.  The second one the leg holes are too big and did not contain poo.  :(  We even had a name for our diapers - Catchers.  Trevor wanted them to be named Poo Catchers and our logo be a baseball mitt with a pile of poo in it.  I figured out if I could sew one per hour and sell them for about $12 each I'd make just under minimum wage for our state.  Could be worse...I could also have to pay for a sitter!  Six dollars an hour to sew diapers and take care of my kid.  Sounded good to me.

Unfortunately, it takes me an entire day to make one diaper.  Yes.  One.  I did not realize exactly how much time is actually spent taking care of Kamrynn.  So, scratch that idea.

Fast forward about 5 weeks: 

Still thinking and wanting to create the Perfect Diaper.  I finally have a pattern that I'm hoping will work.  Waiting for some velcro fabric I ordered to get here so I can finish it.

As I was drafting my pattern, I was still thinking about selling diapers... and how expensive they are and that Kamrynn is going to be needing Mediums soon and it sure does take a long time for me to sew them and how can I get more diapers for less money.  My solution:  Wholesale!  I sold Mary Kay for a while, and know there is a 50% mark up so I figure there's atleast a 20% markup on diapers.  I talked to Trevor about it and we're currently looking into opening an online baby store.  I know there are lots of those out there, but ours will be better.

We're going to start small.  We have $400 to invest.  I know it's not much, but I think it will be enough.  I found a WAHM (Work At Home Mom) webhosting/eCommerce place that is reasonable, have emails in to Fuzzi Bunz, BumGenius and GroVia and have a list of other companies to talk to.  Once I know how much the mark-up is, I can do the math and see if our $400 is going to be enough to get this started and if this is even going to be worth while on such a small scale.  We'll write up a business plan, purchase a federal business number, open a PayPal business account, order the diapers, pick up some flat rate shipping boxes, set up the website, and wait for the first order to come in.

I'm still going to design the Perfect Diaper.  Kamrynn may be the only baby who will wear the Perfect Diaper, but it WILL exist.  ;)

OK, off to the laundry and closet!