CreatedByMom.com: A One-Stop Mompreneur Shop And An Upcoming Conference To Empower All Women
Quinn Curtis
“Put your money where your mama is,” urges her slogan.
It’s catchy. It’s creative. And it certainly doesn’t defy the customer allure mom-operated businesses hope such marketing would generate.
But for Quinn Curtis, it reflects the inspiration for the Utah mother of three’s online store, CreatedByMom.com Chic Boutique, which strives to put creative mamas where the money is.
“CreatedByMom.com is a company which empowers moms to use creativity to improve the lives of their families by selling their products in our online boutique, building their businesses through extensive resources and supporting one another through our online community and live conferences,” said Curtis, echoing the mission statement she recently posted online.
Founded on 50% inspiration and 50% desperation, Curtis launched the online boutique in September 2008 to answer her family’s need to generate a supplemental income when a contractor failed to inform the Curtises—until it was too late—that their home remodeling project was $100,000 over budget.
She soon realized she wasn’t alone during these overarching poor economic times.
“I kept watching my friends starting small businesses for similar reasons,” said the stay-at-home mom, who opted pre-children to trade in her nursing education to become an artist and professional food photographer. Her latter business is Limelight Food Photography.
But Curtis’s newfound struggles also revealed to her that there were few online networks or stores helping moms promote their business endeavors.
Then, it hit her.
She could use her own creative aptitude to help like-minded mompreneurs artistically market their self-made products at a “sleek, chic and classy site” where they could build customer traffic at a single Web location.
“We can all do a better job in helping moms if we network together,” said Curtis. “There is a lot more success for everyone.”
Her idea quickly became an overnight success with scores of mompreneurs now flooding the Createdbymom.com’s email each week with pitches to become her latest business partners. To be selected, Curtis requires the vendor to be a mom whose profits primarily benefit her family. Curtis also hold the product to high quality standards. To learn more about how to pitch CreatedByMom.com to be its next mom-vendor, visit the Web site for details.
With products ranging from handmade crafts and beauty products to jewelry and home décor, Curtis said she constantly must remind the mom-vendors not to lowball their prices just to compete with big-box retail stores. It defies their purpose, she said.
“I have to constantly advise them that they have to make a profit,” said Curtis, noting that she only features three or less of a product genre so the moms don’t, in turn, try to out price one another. The only exception to the product limit is jewelry, she said.
Showcased mom-vendors also are entitled to a 20% discount on other moms’ products, again in an effort to make them externally competitive yet internally supportive.
To date, Curtis said the shop averages $1,500 in monthly sales with selected mom-vendors allotting Createdbymom.com 15 percent of each sale. A top-selling vendor’s fee is reduced to 10% of each sale.
Unlike other online stores, Createdbymom.com also does not buy wholesale, preferring to work with mom-vendors on a drop-ship basis, meaning they receive the product directly from the mom-vendor. Accordingly, customers are not required to pay additional shipping and handling fees since it’s already incorporated into the product price.
While the site generates enough traffic to produce respectable sales, Curtis said she consistently explores cutting-edge outlets to promote her vendors’ goods.
In addition to the store, the site’s blog further attracts mompreneurs looking for the latest “haute trends” and business tips. Site members also get insider information about existing and upcoming products via the Haute Click List newsletter.
“We are trying to help moms in business anyway we can,” said Curtis, who further markets the vendors via active group forums on LinkedIn and Flickr.
Not to be remiss of the evolving social media world, mom-vendors can look for CreatedByMom.com on Twitter and Facebook. She also teams with the international mompreneur network, StartupPrincess.com, and vlogs about products on YouTube.com.
Moms Who Make It Conference
Women don’t have own businesses to realize their dreams or to empower their lives, Curtis added, which is why CreatedByMom.com is also presenting the first-ever Moms Who Make It Conference on July 16 at Noah’s in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“It is a play on words, essentially, because (CreatedByMom.com’s) products are made by moms, but what (the conference represents) are moms making it in life,” said Curtis, who is selling tickets on CreatedByMom.com.
“We want to put the power back in their hands.”
The $45 main conference ticket will give attendees access to various topic discussions presented by mom bloggers, guest speakers and panel discussions. Topics include: “Harnessing Creativity to Build the Life You Want;” “Using Difficult Life Situations as a Catalyst to Change;” Trend Forecasting: Keeping Your Business Hot;” and others.
While the main discussions start at 3 p.m. to give working parents the opportunity to attend, participants can also purchase $15-$20 “mini classes” tickets that start at 9 a.m. and run throughout the day. These workshops include lessons on mom blogging, social media for businesses and financial coaching, as well as discussions about beauty, nutrition and childbirth.
To learn more about the conference sponsored by Wasatch Women, Noah’s, Startup Princess, and YouCanMakeThis.com visit momswhomakeit.wordpress.com
Post by Marissa Yaremich
 |
After curiosity and journalism lured Connecticut native Marissa Yaremich from city to city throughout the past decade, she shocked herself, as well as friends and family, by opting to leave her New York City television job to settle down with her future husband and their prospective children in quiet Pennsylvania. By returning to her writing roots and tending to the laundry pile sans loose change, the thirty something happily turned into her dreaded "D" word: domesticated. Well, sorta... Marissa.Yaremich@momswhoblog.com |
