Mothers would always find ways to make sure that their children are comfortable, not only for their own sake but for the mothers’ sanity as well. If the children are cranky and moms would definitely have a hard time. Children would reach a certain age wherein they would start to learn to have their own sense of style, which means they’re choosing whatever they want to wear.
This mom can’t seem to make her children wear scarves no matter what she does because to them it is very itchy and uncomfortable. Scarves are essential since it could be a protection during the winter, which is why she tried to figure out a way for them to be able to wear them by reinventing it.
No More Itchy Scarves
Raquel Graham from Chicago said that all she did was go to a fabric store and started thinking of ways on how she could recreate a scarf. She then decided to cut up and then glue together some prototypes and eventually coming up with something that her kids liked that they didn’t even want to take them off.
She then made one for herself as well, which is in leopard design, this is when some friends and family started to give attention to it that they ask if they could make them some. Orders from friends and family started to fill in and then she realized she actually loves doing it so she made some samples back in 2014 on a trade show. With that, she ended coming away with $50,000 to license what she calls as NEKZ neck wraps in 40 NCAA Colleges on their Follet’s on-campus stores.
This is where she realized her small business is getting bigger that she would need tons of help. Graham then found a factory in her area that would be willing to do some runs making it a manufacturing business for her. Her neck wraps are available for both children and adults. In order to get some financing for it, she used first purchases basis order.
Local Business To Home Shopping
The business is definitely doing great for this creative mom, in fact, because of how well it is doing especially after being a part of the campus retailer Follett, Home Shopping Network has taken interest at her products and even invited her in their network in 2016.
The moment she launched it on HSN, it actually got sold out in just a matter of 20 mins after launch. Because of that, her business continued to grow that now, her company named as Roq Innovation, no longer just manufactures neck wraps, she also makes Headlightz, or those ski caps that has a built-in LED lamps on it. Because of her being on HSN constantly, her revenue is reaching its seven digits that caused her to get her own secured warehouse space.
Major Mom Tips
Some mothers out there, especially those stay-at-home moms believe that they are already limited in what they can do since their main job is to focus on the family, especially her children. What most moms need to realize is that being a woman doesn’t end there, just because you are already a mom doesn’t mean your possibilities got to end. Just like Graham, she never thought the neck wraps she made for her kids would actually make it this big. There are actually tons of ways you can do to make money by doing the things you love.
No need to worry about not being able to focus on the kids, with proper time management, it will be easy for you to run a small business that may actually help out the family finances.
The 49-year-old mom and businesswoman said while at the Chicago Inventors Organization, that women, especially moms like her must always be open when it comes to unexpected opportunities. That they shouldn’t be scared or intimated when it comes to creating something that they believe could work. If given the unexpected opportunity, might as well, as grab it since it’s not like they would risk something huge for it. As a mom, family always come first but it doesn’t mean they can’t be innovative and be a better mom because of it. Then again, passion must always be there in order to make things work.