My heroes have always been Stay/Work At Home Moms!

Last year on Mother's Day I was a stay-at-home mom preparing for my daughter's sixth birthday party. I thought it would be cute if I were to buy her a tutu and dress her up like a rock star. I went online to find the perfect birthday tutu and an idea was born. At the time, my husband was working for one of the top three insurance agencies in the world so my little business venture was simply started so I would have an outlet for my creativity. There may have been a teensy bit of motivation also to be able to have the extra money to buy the things that most moms do not buy themselves when they are stay-at-home moms. Although my husband could care less if I would've bought myself something, like most SAHM's, there's always something else for the kids or something else for the house that needs to be bought before you. This was going to be money I worked for and earned based on something that I created with my own hands.

I had no idea what to expect. I thought at most I may sell a tutu or two a month and also be able to provide my friends kids with birthday presents. I wish in hindsight that I could say that I had dreamed bigger or that I knew my business would be what it is today but that would be a lie. I started a MySpace page for my business called enchanted tutus. You will even notice today that my MySpace page is still MySpace.com\enchantedtutus. That name did not last very long as I almost immediately changed it to cotton candy tutus. At the time, I had like 100 friends on MySpace. I was so distraught that I might lose those hundred people if I started a new MySpace page with cottoncandytutus that I just changed the name on the page and kept the actual URL. Small beginnings!

To my surprise I immediately started getting orders on MySpace. People who were getting the product were saying that my tutus were different than any of the other ones that they had ever bought. People were sending me pictures of their little girls in my tutus and to this day, receiving those pictures is still the best part about this business. At this point I wanted to start a website. Seeing the pictures that were being sent to me gave me an idea. I wanted to create an opportunity for little girls in my area to come and have their pictures taken and be the first models on cotton candy tutus. The response was overwhelming! Most of the little girls and moms look forward to it and it creates an experience that they will be able to visually celebrate for a lifetime. I try and keep in mind that although I am there on business that these moms and daughters will be looking at these outfits and pictures for 20 years together. I am almost just privileged to be given the opportunity to create “the moment”.

Every time we drive by the McKinney Park my husband says, "That’s where it all started". To this day the tutus from that shoot are my biggest sellers. My photographer was Kelsey and she was a sweetheart. I forget if she was 14 or 15 years old but she was a local McKinney student. I have a feeling that by 18 she will be a star photographer. I met her through Trina whos company Prissy Bowtique supplied the bows for the shoot. I am pretty sure that I didn't make any money on that shoot because any money I made I immediately turned around and bought my daughter, what seem like 100, bows from Trina. I loved Trina and if she wouldn't have moved to Louisiana, I would probably still be buying bows from her today. You will notice that several of the girls in my very first photo shoot are still models for me today. These are no longer customers; these are people that I now call friends. They are my number one champions for the cotton candy shop and I am very grateful for them. One of the most special people I met at the first shoot was Julie Rogers. We have become very close friends. She has formed Chunky Monkey Boutique and she now does a majority of my embroidery and we are increasing the amount of business we do with each other by the day!

I spent the next several months living off of the success of that photo shoot. Orders started coming in daily, my time started to fill up quickly, and it was becoming apparent that this was now a business. My next shoot was to be for my Halloween line. My husband ran across a photographer’s site and immediately came to me and said you have to use her for your next shoot! I contacted Wendy from Expressions by Wendy and we worked out the details and the shoot was a go. This was a huge undertaking. I'm still not sure if Wendy has forgiven me for bringing 30 kids into her home studio yet. She and her husband Richard were very gracious hosts. We had Amber from Fairy Godmother Couture make the bows and Amy from Cupcake Kids Art Wear hand paint the shoes and some of the tops. I had also contacted Kellie Rasberry from the morning show at KISS 106.1 for the shoot. I wasn't sure if she was going to do it but when she wrote me back and said that she would, I can honestly say, that was one of the highlights of the past year. I have been listening to Kellie for so long that I was honored that she would accept my invitation.

The pictures turned out amazing. Unfortunately because Wendy was so great at what she does I had set a standard of what my photographs had to be in the future. Meeting Amy also brought me into the fold of the Dallas Cowboys wives. Amy, Amber, and I did a trunk show for the Dallas Cowboy wives. Knowing that Demarcus Wares' (my favorite Cowboy & Cowboy Wife) child wore my tutu on the Cowboys field before a home game was another moment that 2 years ago I could not have imagined.

By this time my business was growing so fast that I couldn't keep up. I was paying stay-at-home moms in my neighborhood to sew ribbons on shirts, cut tulle, and other odd sewing jobs. I must of had 10 of the stay at home moms at different times in my neighborhood helping me out. The best part of that was actually MEETING my neighbors, which I don't think happens enough these days. This was also the time that I started realizing the success I was having and the potential for further success. They say you know you are on the radar as a boutique when you can accomplish two things (using my best Jeff Foxworthy impression). 1) When crazy people will spend an inordinate amount of time and energy to try and destroy your business, you are on the radar 2) when people start to blatantly copy your stuff, you are on the radar. Well both of those have happened more than I care to recount.

Next up was our Christmas shoot. Jessica from Aravaggio Photography had contacted me about being a photographer for the shoot. She had done things for D magazine and her pictures were amazing. I jumped at the chance to work with her. We shot the shoot in downtown McKinney and even the local candy store offered to close down for a short time to allow us to take pictures in the actual store. I had a great time at the shoot and some of my favorite photographs come from that shoot also. I appreciated Jessica so much that I asked her to also shoot my Valentine's Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and my Princess Couture line. She accepted and we decided that for this one we would do it in her home studio. I'm still amazed at the work that Jessica does. I frequently check her blog just to look at the pictures that she is putting out now. Amazing! She makes me want to divorce my husband and remarry him so that she could take my wedding photographs.

I wanted to get a small spring line out so I asked my friend Selen from Selen Paredes Photography if she would be willing to photograph the shoot. I met Selen because I am the President/Director of McKinney Youth Cheerleading. I am also a cheerleading coach for 1st graders and Selen is the mother of one of my cheerleaders. To be honest, I had to ask several times nicely for Selen to participate. She prefers family portraits and had no interest in getting into catalog shooting. She finally agreed and despite the chilly weather I think the shoot went well.

By this time my company had grown 1,000 fold. Now it wasn't odd jobs that I needed done, I actually needed employees to help me fulfill orders. Depending on the time and how busy I am I could have anywhere from 1 to 6 people contracted to help me manufacture the outfits. This is also the time that I hired Sarah to work one-on-one with me. She has been a godsend. She is 24, interned for Esquire magazine in New York, and she has a degree from Texas Tech (my alma mater) in fashion design. She enables me to be creative on the design side and then watch as my ideas come to life. I'm still trying to talk her out of moving back to New York. We have a lot of fun together creating!

Most boutique owners will tell you that boys lines are not very profitable. A lot of mothers will ask for boy’s clothes but as most boutique owners know they will very rarely sell. I had no intention of really doing a boys line at all. However, one day I saw an old photo of my brother. He was wearing a Jon Jon, with the knee-high socks, and little shoes with a buckle on them. I knew I had to have a boys line. Most boys lines consist of punk rock or hip clothes. I wanted to make a line that was unapologetically classical. It was very last minute but I decided that I was going to put together a small shoot so I needed a photographer. I was familiar with B4 photography and asked her if she would do it. She accepted and I think that for as quickly as we put it together the shoot came out great.

With that small shoot out of the way we decided to take on a larger venture and do the summer line that I had planned. I looked at the summer line as an opportunity to go to the next level. I spent several months coming up with and designing the outfits for this shoot. I took careful calculated steps to make it harder for people to blatantly copy the outfits. I will let you in on a little secret. All of the fabric from that shoot is of the $10 a yard variety and it is all designer fabric. This is one way that I will differentiate myself…Cotton Candy Shop uses the best quality materials. I'm happy with the outfits, I'm happy with the photographs, and I'm happy with the response from the summer line.

That brings us to today, mother’s day 2009. With all of the new clothes lines and the boy’s lines, cotton candy tutus was not big enough to hold my creativity. We changed the name to Cotton Candy Shop and re-branded the website using the design skills of Michelle from polkadotdandy.com. We already have set the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens shoot on May 28th, The Teddy Bear Park shoot on June 10th, The Lemon Pie shoot on June 14th, and the Diamonds and Dudes shoot at the Ft Worth Stockyards on July 26th and Of course our Halloween and Christmas shoots will be an EVENT! So it is a busy time for us. For the upcoming shoots we are using www.lisamichellephotography.com and we know that she will do a great job just like Kelsey, Wendy, Jessica, Selen, and Brandi before her.

I forgot to mention before, in the midst of all this, the success of my company allowed my husband to quit his job and start his own business. On a personal level it was one of my proudest moments. I feel like stay at home moms always have to defend themselves, to account for their time in the day, or to feel guilt when there should be no guilt. If you are a stay-at-home mom you have the perfect opportunity to find and nurture your passion. Who knows, your passion may someday allow your husband the opportunity to follow his passion. My husband now owns his own insurance agency www.bergmannagency.com and also spends an inordinate amount of time helping me with my business (thank you!). There is no better feeling than when my daughter walks through the door from school and both my husband and I are able to ask her about her day.

There are a lot of boutiques and photographers who are open for business on the Internet. Each one of those started with one idea. In my case it was one tutu. All it takes is an idea! I have always bought into the rising tide theory. There is room enough for you to find your niche in the industry. It doesn't matter if you are a stay at home mom who needs an outlet or a mom who picks up her kids, makes dinner, and works from the time her kids head hits the pillow until 1AM making bows in hopes that one day she will be able to quit her job... there is room for you. If people tell you that there isn't room, you make room!

When I first started out I contacted several boutiques whom I thought were "larger". Some blew me off but some gave me advice. The ones who gave me advice basically gave me the same advice, which was..."don't steal ideas and be original". If you ask me why I became successful, that advice would be where I would start. No one can be more cotton candy than me, no one can be more (enter successful boutique) than them. Make your own lane and you can't lose.

Another thing that I would say helped me is that to this day I still answer every email, message, or IM that comes through and I still also make every one of my signature tutus. Sometimes you may get a message from me at 3AM even though I have to get up in a couple of hours to get my daughter off to school. I love what I do, I love talking to other moms, and I still get goose bumps every time a mom sends me a picture of her child in one of my outfits.

My last piece of advice before I get into what I feel is my most important point. When I have a new idea I am already on step 3 before I even slow down to process what I have just gotten myself into. I have noticed that a lot of women have ideas but they immediately start convincing themselves that it won't work. DON"T DO THAT! It can frustrate my husband to no end because he is a strategizer. I say, what do you have to lose? Jump out there!

Lastly, stay above the fray. Sometimes I wonder if anyone gets attacked as much as me. I will be honest, although I shouldn't, I still take it personally. As I mentioned earlier, it seems to be a prerequisite for being successful but that doesn't mean that I understand it. I must admit that I have sent some emails to people that I have purchased things from that weren't too nice. However, you will never see me publicly try and bring down another company to prop myself up or to sell another tutu. Sometimes I wish I was mentally capable of attacking the people that attack me but even provoked I wouldn't be able to sleep if I thought I took one bite of food out of their kids mouth. It's sad that I am starting to wonder if that is a character flaw on my part. I mentioned earlier about the rising tide theory. This theory is that the more stay-at-home moms who create successful businesses, the more we will be able to help future moms create successful businesses. This isn't going to happen if you have to tear one down in order to build one up. I still buy 90% of all my daughters stuff from stay-at-home mom businesses. It is not uncommon for my husband to tell me "why are you buying that? You do realize that you could make that right?" My response is always the same..."xyz boutique is doing it right and I want to support her".

I apologize for the long post but I hit on just about everything I am passionate about: My family, my business, moms, and just generally being kind and helpful. I hope everyone has the best Mothers day ever!

PS: For comedy I need to add one more thing to my "you know you are on the radar as a boutique when" series. When a 15 year old kid copies your Myspace page (Family pictures and all) and creates a Myspace profile but adds his/her own twist by spelling it cottoncandytutuZ (get it? with a Z), then you know you are on the radar as an online boutique. I don't mind though, occasionally over the last 6 months or so he shows his appreciation for the inspiration that my site has given him by periodically and randomly sending me a message like FU B****. I think I should post a bulletin! Is this your kid? www.myspace.com/jonrizzy456.