I’m the youngest of three girls from Boston, raised by a mother who taught me to hate myself…and I do a pretty good job of it. My dad owned Sealy Mattress of the North East. I was very close to my father and spent most weekends with him, making surprise sales calls at furniture stores and hanging out in the factory. I like to think my dad is responsible for my entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen.
Truth be told, I was happy to rise to mediocrity in a government-related career in Washington DC. As long as I could sneak in a long lunch, I was content. When I had my first son, Sam, everything changed. I wanted to be the mother I wished I had, so I enthusiastically became a full-time mom and soon our second son Jacob arrived. I actually wanted a third…but my husband was exhausted.
Everything changed on a shopping trip to Kmart, where my charge card was declined while buying art supplies for my kindergartner’s Thanksgiving poster. The shame of it…a Jewish girl having her card declined at Kmart! As I buckled my toddlers into their car seats…empty-handed I should add…I had my Scarlett O’Hara moment—as God was my witness, I would never have a charge card declined again! Determined to go back to work, I had to set my own hours so my kids wouldn’t have to go to daycare. It was impossible to do. My work in the chemical industry required lots of travel, and I wouldn’t leave my kids.
I took a hard look in the mirror. I had two things going for me—good taste and chutzpah. Since I was already dispensing free advice to friends, I took a chance and started a home design business in my basement, working nights and weekends (when my husband could be home with the kids). I taught myself the home decorating business on the go. If my client wanted an empire valance (what the hell is that?)—I looked it up at night, and I never let my client know I was clueless. Pattern match request? I made that mistake once and never again. I read design books, cut out pictures from design magazines and hung out in design showrooms to learn everything I could. The mistakes were numerous, but failure was not an option. We needed the money. Eventually, I got so good at this, Penguin Press called me, and the editor asked me to write a book, so I did: Slobproof! Real Life Design Solutions. Not bad for an amateur.
My inspiration always came from solving my own family’s everyday household problems. My husband and kids ruined everything in our home while I was out building a business and that drove me crazy. I hated coming home to see and clean the mess they made while I was out working.
Slobproof Furniture evolved when it came time to replace the family’s stained sofa and chairs. I looked to a hospital fabric company to help me come up with soft, indestructible fabrics for home use. I mean, if this fabric works for blood and poop…it can work for me. I studied the damage to my existing furniture—the stained skirts, flattened arms and missing pillows—and then designed seating that eliminated all the problem areas. For example, every cushion is clipped down on my sofas, so the kids and dog can’t move them. I began selling my seating to clients, office buildings, even the Smithsonian. It became a hit, and we started selling online.
“I was never afraid of failing.
But, I was terrified of doing nothing.”
In my few free hours at home, I was constantly covering dings and dents on white trim and cabinets with Wite-Out correction fluid, but what about the walls? The spots and stains were numerous. It was my under eye concealer that inspired me to create a spot concealer for walls that you fill with your own paint…so it matches. I created the Slobproof Touch-Up Paint Pen and sent a photo and description to the editor of the New York Times House & Home Section (my home design bible at the time). The New York Times published an article on my Touch-Up Paint Pen on a Thursday and by 9:00 a.m. Friday we had 60,000 orders, but not a pen to be sold! My entire family worked nights and weekends assembling Paint Pen kits and fulfilling orders. Now these touch-up tools are sold in Ace Hardware.
Slobproof Touch-Up Pens brought me to the hardware industry, dominated by men. The doors to the hardware industry were mostly closed to me, no matter how hard I knocked. I would have to hire someone who “speaks the language”—and the answer was my eldest son Sam. He has the personality, temperament and physical presence (looks like a football player) to open locked doors and that has made all the difference. I thought I could do it myself, wanted to do it myself, but couldn’t. Working with my son has been the most rewarding part of my life. You know what they say—behind every great woman stands a man following her directions.
Where am I today? Presently, working on “Tinkle Towels”—disposable pads you put on the floor IN FRONT of the toilet, especially useful if you live with boys! It may not be commercially successful, but I need them—I can’t walk barefoot into any of our bathrooms.
As you might recognize by reading this far, I’m irreverent but tenacious—I DO NOT QUIT. All of my success comes from following one simple strategy—know your customer and provide personalized, exceptional service. I have deliberately marketed myself as a family-friendly designer—that’s what I know and that keeps me authentic. I am all about unbelievable, over-the-top, relentless customer service 24/7 no matter what. Take care of the customers, and the rest will follow.
DEBBIE’S PROVEN TIPS FOR SUCCESS
1. Practice Makes Perfect. Enlist your friends who best resemble your target customers to bounce off ideas, marketing strategies, product and package design. Host lunches or coffees and provide friends with samples in return for their honest, constructive feedback, photos and reviews. Let them be your focus group, advising you before your decisions are final and paid for.
2. Establish yourself as “The Expert”. Look for opportunities to share valuable tips and insider information that will build your credibility with consumers and within your industry. Subscribe to HARO (Help A Reporter Out—it’s free!) to search for media opportunities. Send written tips, photos and how-to articles to local papers and newsletters. Offer yourself as a guest speaker to community groups. Be certain that what you say and write includes truly useful information for your audience, not just self-promotion for you.
3. What’s in a Name? Everything! Is it easy to understand what you’re selling just by hearing the name? Is the name memorable? Funny? If customers don’t get it, they won’t buy it.
4. Think globally but act locally. Your dream may be to get your gourmet sauce into every grocery chain, but you’ll have much better luck with a proven track record of sales in your local gourmet shop—and your local retailer likes to sell local products. Start and succeed in your own back yard, and you’ll be ready for a road trip.
5. There’s a Trade Association for That! A Trade Association represents virtually every product and service under the sun—go find it! You’ll learn about trade shows (an invaluable way to meet buyers), sales reps, retail outlets and competitors all in a one-stop source.
6. Go Back to School. Chances are your local community college or university has an entrepreneurial center or business program for free advice and essential professional services at a greatly reduced cost. Hire interns. Sign up to be the case study for a marketing class. Take advantage of local school talent and expertise.
7. Get Out of the House. Get on your State SBA’s email list and attend their many free workshops. The U.S. Commercial Service runs free programs for selling in Canada and the EU. WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise) runs high-rated annual conferences, local meetings and certification programs. Join MeetUp.com and find your local entrepreneur networking groups. Find a local chapter of the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW). Attend a few Chamber of Commerce events. Networking can lead to invaluable tips, sources and even a few new friends who share your entrepreneurial passion.
8. Certify Yourself. Are you a Woman-Owned Small Business? Minority Business? Veteran-Owned Business? Are you located in a HUB-Zone? These certifications exist to provide business advantages to otherwise disadvantaged small business owners. Larger companies look for these certifications as part of their tax strategy—they get credit for hiring certified small businesses. Learn the designations, get certified and you’ll qualify for exclusive state and federal-level bidding and business opportunities.
9. Know Your Value. Know your USP (unique selling point), and tell it in every piece of marketing, in all of your advertising/social media and on the product’s package. Take the time to figure it out.
I’m the youngest of three girls from Boston, raised by a mother who taught me to hate myself…and I do a pretty good job of it. My dad owned Sealy Mattress of the North East. I was very close to my father and spent most weekends with him, making surprise sales calls at furniture stores and hanging out in the factory. I like to think my dad is responsible for my entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen.
Truth be told, I was happy to rise to mediocrity in a government-related career in Washington DC. As long as I could sneak in a long lunch, I was content. When I had my first son, Sam, everything changed. I wanted to be the mother I wished I had, so I enthusiastically became a full-time mom and soon our second son Jacob arrived. I actually wanted a third…but my husband was exhausted.
Everything changed on a shopping trip to Kmart, where my charge card was declined while buying art supplies for my kindergartner’s Thanksgiving poster. The shame of it…a Jewish girl having her card declined at Kmart! As I buckled my toddlers into their car seats…empty-handed I should add…I had my Scarlett O’Hara moment—as God was my witness, I would never have a charge card declined again! Determined to go back to work, I had to set my own hours so my kids wouldn’t have to go to daycare. It was impossible to do. My work in the chemical industry required lots of travel, and I wouldn’t leave my kids.
I took a hard look in the mirror. I had two things going for me—good taste and chutzpah. Since I was already dispensing free advice to friends, I took a chance and started a home design business in my basement, working nights and weekends (when my husband could be home with the kids). I taught myself the home decorating business on the go. If my client wanted an empire valance (what the hell is that?)—I looked it up at night, and I never let my client know I was clueless. Pattern match request? I made that mistake once and never again. I read design books, cut out pictures from design magazines and hung out in design showrooms to learn everything I could. The mistakes were numerous, but failure was not an option. We needed the money. Eventually, I got so good at this, Penguin Press called me, and the editor asked me to write a book, so I did: Slobproof! Real Life Design Solutions. Not bad for an amateur.
My inspiration always came from solving my own family’s everyday household problems. My husband and kids ruined everything in our home while I was out building a business and that drove me crazy. I hated coming home to see and clean the mess they made while I was out working.
Slobproof Furniture evolved when it came time to replace the family’s stained sofa and chairs. I looked to a hospital fabric company to help me come up with soft, indestructible fabrics for home use. I mean, if this fabric works for blood and poop…it can work for me. I studied the damage to my existing furniture—the stained skirts, flattened arms and missing pillows—and then designed seating that eliminated all the problem areas. For example, every cushion is clipped down on my sofas, so the kids and dog can’t move them. I began selling my seating to clients, office buildings, even the Smithsonian. It became a hit, and we started selling online.
“I was never afraid of failing.
But, I was terrified of doing nothing.”
In my few free hours at home, I was constantly covering dings and dents on white trim and cabinets with Wite-Out correction fluid, but what about the walls? The spots and stains were numerous. It was my under eye concealer that inspired me to create a spot concealer for walls that you fill with your own paint…so it matches. I created the Slobproof Touch-Up Paint Pen and sent a photo and description to the editor of the New York Times House & Home Section (my home design bible at the time). The New York Times published an article on my Touch-Up Paint Pen on a Thursday and by 9:00 a.m. Friday we had 60,000 orders, but not a pen to be sold! My entire family worked nights and weekends assembling Paint Pen kits and fulfilling orders. Now these touch-up tools are sold in Ace Hardware.
Slobproof Touch-Up Pens brought me to the hardware industry, dominated by men. The doors to the hardware industry were mostly closed to me, no matter how hard I knocked. I would have to hire someone who “speaks the language”—and the answer was my eldest son Sam. He has the personality, temperament and physical presence (looks like a football player) to open locked doors and that has made all the difference. I thought I could do it myself, wanted to do it myself, but couldn’t. Working with my son has been the most rewarding part of my life. You know what they say—behind every great woman stands a man following her directions.
Where am I today? Presently, working on “Tinkle Towels”—disposable pads you put on the floor IN FRONT of the toilet, especially useful if you live with boys! It may not be commercially successful, but I need them—I can’t walk barefoot into any of our bathrooms.
As you might recognize by reading this far, I’m irreverent but tenacious—I DO NOT QUIT. All of my success comes from following one simple strategy—know your customer and provide personalized, exceptional service. I have deliberately marketed myself as a family-friendly designer—that’s what I know and that keeps me authentic. I am all about unbelievable, over-the-top, relentless customer service 24/7 no matter what. Take care of the customers, and the rest will follow.
DEBBIE’S PROVEN TIPS FOR SUCCESS
1. Practice Makes Perfect. Enlist your friends who best resemble your target customers to bounce off ideas, marketing strategies, product and package design. Host lunches or coffees and provide friends with samples in return for their honest, constructive feedback, photos and reviews. Let them be your focus group, advising you before your decisions are final and paid for.
2. Establish yourself as “The Expert”. Look for opportunities to share valuable tips and insider information that will build your credibility with consumers and within your industry. Subscribe to HARO (Help A Reporter Out—it’s free!) to search for media opportunities. Send written tips, photos and how-to articles to local papers and newsletters. Offer yourself as a guest speaker to community groups. Be certain that what you say and write includes truly useful information for your audience, not just self-promotion for you.
3. What’s in a Name? Everything! Is it easy to understand what you’re selling just by hearing the name? Is the name memorable? Funny? If customers don’t get it, they won’t buy it.
4. Think globally but act locally. Your dream may be to get your gourmet sauce into every grocery chain, but you’ll have much better luck with a proven track record of sales in your local gourmet shop—and your local retailer likes to sell local products. Start and succeed in your own back yard, and you’ll be ready for a road trip.
5. There’s a Trade Association for That! A Trade Association represents virtually every product and service under the sun—go find it! You’ll learn about trade shows (an invaluable way to meet buyers), sales reps, retail outlets and competitors all in a one-stop source.
6. Go Back to School. Chances are your local community college or university has an entrepreneurial center or business program for free advice and essential professional services at a greatly reduced cost. Hire interns. Sign up to be the case study for a marketing class. Take advantage of local school talent and expertise.
7. Get Out of the House. Get on your State SBA’s email list and attend their many free workshops. The U.S. Commercial Service runs free programs for selling in Canada and the EU. WBENC (Women’s Business Enterprise) runs high-rated annual conferences, local meetings and certification programs. Join MeetUp.com and find your local entrepreneur networking groups. Find a local chapter of the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW). Attend a few Chamber of Commerce events. Networking can lead to invaluable tips, sources and even a few new friends who share your entrepreneurial passion.
8. Certify Yourself. Are you a Woman-Owned Small Business? Minority Business? Veteran-Owned Business? Are you located in a HUB-Zone? These certifications exist to provide business advantages to otherwise disadvantaged small business owners. Larger companies look for these certifications as part of their tax strategy—they get credit for hiring certified small businesses. Learn the designations, get certified and you’ll qualify for exclusive state and federal-level bidding and business opportunities.
9. Know Your Value. Know your USP (unique selling point), and tell it in every piece of marketing, in all of your advertising/social media and on the product’s package. Take the time to figure it out.
