Accidental Beginning

As the saying goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention."  Therefore, when my little one spilled on her car seat, and I struggled to remove the cover only to read the care instructions, which said, "Do not machine wash," I thought there has to be a better way.  I searched for a solution, and when my search came up empty, I knew an idea was born. Solving a problems is what is was all about.

  

I didn't start out wanting to create a company, far from it.  I thought that I would make a few car seat cover, or bibs for the car seats, sell them to some friends, and it would be a fun.  That's how it all started, but it quickly spiraled when I started looking for the right fabric that did everything I wanted it to do - it had to be cozy, absorbent and leak proof.  I then learned about "fabric sourcing," which took me to trade shows where I met people from Turkey, Pakistan and China, and realized I was way out of my league.  I finally asked a friend of mine in the real estate business in the fashion district if he knew anyone who did fabric sourcing.  He had no idea what I was talking about, but he did lead me to a person who does a tremendous business in plus size clothing, and figured he must know people in the fabric world.

Luckily for me the fabric sourcing people were incredibly nice, and took me under their wing.  They weren't in the baby gear business, but took the project on anyway.  When I explained what I was looking for in a fabric, they helped me develop it.  They then explained manufacturing and minimums, which brings me to why I was not able to just sell to my friends!  With minimums of 1000 yards per color, I realized that I didn't have nearly enough friends, and to continue to pursue this idea of a car seat cover/bib would mean creating ways to sell to thousands, which brought me file for a patent, create a website, www.nomiebaby.com, since everyone told me that I had to have ecommerce, which became a whole new journey of web design, codes, and merchant accounts.  Then there was the challenge of finding sales reps to help with distribution, getting a warehouse to help store and ship all the orders... you're getting the picture.

I didn't set out to create a company, but it is a wonderful experience to build something from scratch, and most of all it shows me how much people are willing to help, and the encouragement and cheerleading I get really does keep me going.  I am now in the position to pay it forward, and help others with information I have learned in the process.  It was a happy accident.