Meet Sarah Burns, Founder of Tag a Towel

Meet Hawaii’s lovely Startup Princess, Sarah Burns who created Tag a Towel in order to differentiate and personalize towels. Her organization tool allows family members to hang towels and reuse them without grabbing someone else’s. Simply attach the tag towel magnetically to the edge of the towel and you’ve got a fashionable, functional way to claim your towel! No more mixing towels and possibly spreading germs.

It’s not enough to just have a cute product though. People these days are looking for functional design and if it can save you money, even better! With the Tag a Towel you can reuse towels, thus saving energy and money! It’s that easy to be ‘green’ and fashionable at the same time.

With a patent pending, Sarah is in the infancy startup phase looking to partner with companies to sell her product. She also blogs about her product and many products from other entrepreneurs. One look at her blog will give you an insight to her public relations background. She eventually wants to have her own firm representing other mom entrepreneurs. What a great start!

Enjoy Meeting Startup Princess Sarah Burns!

Name: Sarah Burns

Hometown: Dana Point, California

Current Residence: Lahaina, Hawaii

Education: BA in Communications, Minor in Art History from University of San Diego

Professional Background (brief, please): After college I went into Public Relations where I worked with high technology companies. I then moved into to sales and marketing. I am lucky that I have actually used my degree.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: An editor at a fashion magazine

What you are: A wife, mom, entrepreneur, blogger and I will always be a PR hound, I love PR and all that goes into it. One day I’d like to have my own firm and work with mom entrepreneurs as my clients.

Brief Summary of your Start Up: I am still in the infancy stage of my start-up. I created Tag A Towel, magnetic towel i.d. tags so you know whose towel is whose. They help people re-use their towels, thus cutting down on laundry, saving money, energy and reducing the risk of spreading germs from sharing a towel.

Company Website? www.tagatowel.com, I’ve also started a blog to showcase other mom entrepreneurs and their products or services, www.ohanamamablog.blogspot.com

What inspired you? My family, our growing laundry pile, and my frustration with my husband for always taking my towel!

How long have you been in business? It all started just under a year ago

How did you fund it? So far everything has been personally funded

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? My biggest mentor and cheerleader is my husband. He has a great entrepreneurial spirit. He’s so driven and really pushes me. He’s also starting his own business and seeing him succeed and meet milestones, really pushes me. I would also like to find a Fairy Godmother to be my mentor, bounce ideas off of, vent frustrations, learn from.

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? I visit www.mompreneursonline.com daily. The women on this forum are inspirational, wonderful cheerleaders and full of great information. Their willingness to share and help is beyond anything I could imagine.

Current Business Challenge? Finding the right manufacturer that fits with what I am doing.

What are you doing about it? Through networking, I’ve found a sourcing agent and am hoping she will be my “answer” or at least she can help me get closer to overcoming this challenge.

Favorite motivational quote: Just do it. I find that when frozen by fear, the best answer is to take a deep breathe and “just do it.” I also love “Activity breeds activity.” When you put one thing into action, the domino effect is amazing.

Family? I have been married to my high school sweetheart for almost 6 years and together we have two wonderful children, our son who is 3.5 years old and our little princess, who is 11 months old. My family is my everything.

If so, how do you balance family and business? It’s tough. With both my husband and I starting our own businesses, we need to each trade off and help with the children. My husband has been a great help with this. He’s a superman.

Favorite book? The Alchemist and The Secret

What do you do to relax? I head to the beach with my family, sit on our deck watching the sunset with my husband or go for a walk.

What do you want to change most about your world? Right now, I want to make every bathroom organized with Tag a Towels

What are you most proud of? My marriage and my children. My son just started preschool and I just got a report from one of his teachers that he “is one of the most well mannered children” she’s met. I am very, very proud of him. I am also proud that I have made the jump of creating a product and being an entrepreneur.

What advice would you like to offer other Startup Princesses? Go for it. Even if you don’t know ALL of the steps right now, take it one step at a time and the others will follow.

Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? The internet.

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? I’d make it full of amber – amber has healing properties and can help with headaches and aches and pains…after along day I’d put on my tiara, watch the sunset with my family and relax

Meet Debbie Savage, Founder of Baby Emi

Like so many other mom entrepreneurs Debbie Savage knew she wanted to stay home once she had children. As a creative outlet and to help supplement her husband’s income she founded Baby Emi. Baby Emi, (formerly Baby Emi Jewelry), was inspired by Debbie’s first daughter and also by her Cambodian heritage. As a Cambodian tradition, babies are given jewelry as a welcoming gift. Great tradition, right? Debbie channeled this special tradition and her love for making bracelets and anklets for her daughters into a company that has received much well deserved national recognition in magazines, blogs and also with celebrities!

Baby Emi offers Cambodian jingle bells anklets in and recently added hand-stamped precious metals collection. The Mommy and Me bracelets are just adorable and popular with celebrities. Debbie got A-list celebs interested in her products by participating in gift baskets for new Hollywood Moms. She told us once that she had a gift all ready for Angelina Jolie’s gift a couple of years ago with her kids’ names on a bracelet and then she had to scramble and add another name to the bracelet when she learned Angelina had adopted another child. I guess it’s time for Angelina to wear bracelets on both arms, huh? She says that setting aside marketing budget for gifting celebrities has been a great way for her to get better exposure for her company.

Visit the press link of the site to see all the magazines that have featured Baby Emi jewelry. It’s a pretty impressive resume considering Baby Emi was started only a few years ago as a way for Debbie to work from home. Congratulations Debbie!

Enjoy Meeting Startup Princess Debbie Savage, Founder of Baby Emi!

Name: Debbie Svay Savage

Hometown: Sandy, UT

Current Residence(City, State): Aliso Viejo, CA

Education: Brigham Young University – B.S., Family Consumer Science; Utah State University, M.S., Community Health Education

Professional Background: Cancer Control Specialist, American Cancer Society, San Fernando Valley Unit, CA. Educated children and adults on cancer prevention through nutrition, physical activity and remaining tobacco free.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: Miss America and Whitney Houston!

What you are: A proud mother of two beautiful girls! Emmeline Sanary (Emi) who is 4 1/2 years and Chloe who is 2 years.

Brief Summary of your Start Up: When I became a mother it was important to me to stay at home. I also wanted to run a home business to supplement our income and use as an outlet for my creativity. It was important for me to discover a business opportunity that I am passionate about and that I could pass onto my children. It was the birth of my eldest daughter Emi (who we named the business after) and my Cambodian culture of baby jewelry gift giving that my business dream emerged. With my husband’s help we run this successful business together. We specialize in creating exquisite personalized bracelets for the stylish baby and fashion forward family. And proud to offer our Jingle Bells Anklet a traditional piece of Cambodian jewelry historically believed when worn by babies would ward off bad spirits for the modern mommy a must have for a peace of mind.

Company Website? www.babyemi.com

What inspired you? The birth of my daughter Emi and my culture’s tradition of baby jewelry gifting inspired me to start the biz to satisfy my love for jewelry and the sense of feeling glamorous wearing it. I had to share this joy with fellow mommies and their cute little ones and to honor my family who escaped Cambodia and came to American for peace and opportunity.

How long have you been in business? Our website launched in April 2006 a huge milestone event just week before Chloe was born.

How did you fund it? Personal finances.

Do you have a Fairy Godmother (or Mentor)? Yes, my friend and business partner Heather Ledeboer, Mom4Life

Do you belong to any Business Organization or Networking Groups? StartupPrincess.com (yippee)

Current Business Challenge? Time and money! What’s new!?!

What are you doing about it? Watching every penny we spend by making sure that we make wise decisions for our business and investing all that we make back into the business. Also, I am doing my best managing my time. It is a hard task as any mother and home business owners wear many hats. When I start my day with a prayer and ask for wisdom to thoughtfully and successfully navigate my daily schedule I feel much more confident.

Favorite motivational quote: Oh, I have many and I want to share!

(1) If you want something you can’t just wish for it, you have to work for it.-Author Unknown

(2) Believe in Possibilities, Expect Success!-Author Unknown

(3) We find in life exactly what we put into it”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Family? Albert, my Handsome Husband, Emmeline (Emi) 4 ½ Years, Chloe 2 yrs

If so, how do you balance family and business? What a fun topic that I could talk about for hours on end. I realize that life and is journey of learning. Some days I really succeeded in balancing family and business and other days not so much. However, knowing that I am putting my girls first by working at home gives me a great sense of peace and satisfaction that keeps me motivated and moving forward.

Favorite book? Well, I am reading many at the moment such as The 4 – Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, Dare to Discipline by Dr. James Dobson, God wants a Powerful People by Sheri Dew and How Full is Your Bucket, by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton, and Parenting with Love & Logic by Foster Cline and The Potentially Sane Mother’s Guide to Raising Young Children by Tamara A. Fackrell. All a work in progress!

What do you do to relax? Exercise and some good retail therapy helps a lot!

What do you want to change most about your world? I like to answer this question by saying that I want to instill in my children a sense of confidence, resiliency and integrity as they grow up in this beautiful but sometimes “saddening” world.

What are you most proud of? Without a doubt my girls! They are my best creations!!!

What advice would you like to offer other Startup Princesses? Follow your dreams and don’t give up. I know it sounds cliche but it is the simple truth. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes because one step back is like taking two steps forward because you can learn from your mistakes and move forward with more wisdom and clarity.

Favorite Magic Wand (tool/resource)? My husband! He fixes everything!

If you could design a tiara, what precious stones would you use? Diamonds baby! It is all about the ice!

This post was written by Startup Princess writer, Jessica Cryer

Meet Rebecca Davidson, Founder of Savvy May Creations

After spending time searching for caps to markers Rebecca Davidson decided there had to be a better Read more

Meet Sarah Jane, Designer of Sarah Jane Studios

Sarah Jane is a wife, busy mother of 2 toddlers and an amazing illustrator capturing the attention Read more

Meet Carol McKinney, Founder of Lemon Leopard

Carol McKinney designs custom jewelry by starting with a plan, choosing a color palette, creating a focal point, Read more

Meet Amy Long, Founder of Secure2Me

Amy Long had just had her third child when she realized she had a great product Read more

Meet Melissa DeMourdaunt, Co-Founder of Snugabug Baby

Check out the Warmsie, sweet baby thermals designed by Melissa DeMordaunt and partner, Krista Lewsis. Read more

Featured Interview: Emily McCormick and CK Wooley, Shabby Apple

If you’re a fan of Shabby Apple, then you’ll be thrilled to know Shabby Baby is here! I love the classic look of Shabby Apple and couldn’t be more impressed with Shabby Baby. Shabby Baby has the most adorable dresses. The dresses are sweet and simple and just plain cute. When your shabby baby wears one you’ll surely hear the question “where did you get that dress?” more than once.

Shabby Apple is an on-line dress company offering modest, flattering designer dresses at great prices. They call it “a return to what dresses were always meant to be — a one-piece outfit with no need to add anything…no tank tops, no cardigans, nothing.” The company teaches women how to acessorize in different ways to make the same dress appropriate for different occasions. Shabby Apple sales are on-line or by trunk shows. Check their website if interested in attending or hosting a trunk show.

Feel good about purchasing from Shabby Apple. It’s a women owned and operated company. They pride themselves on making women feel empowered. Most of their employees are moms and they accommodate by having alternative work schedules. They have also partnered with Unitus, a leading non-profit organization in the microfinance industry, offering micro-credit loans to women world wide. A portion of all their proceeds goes to Unitus. Shabby Apple donates time and money to help alleviate global poverty for millions of women and their families.

As if these founders of Shabby Apple aren’t amazing enough they have impressive backgrounds as well. CK has a B.A. from Stanford University in Art History and Dance. and a M.S. from Columbia University in Social Work. She danced professionally in London and the Amnesty International Film Festival in San Francisco. She provided therapy to the homeless, rape victims and victims of domestic violence in Harlem and Brooklyn. She was a lab assistant at neuroscience lab in Stanford, California.

Emily has a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Brigham Young University and M.A. in Communication. She has worked in marketing and public relations for several advertising and design agencies. She also has a 2 year old and a 2 month old!

Special Thanks to Shabby Apple for sponsoring Startup Princess Founder, Kelly King Anderson’s pageant for Mrs. Utah in May!

Featured Interview: Jamie Dadant, Circle of Sentiments

The following interview was written by Startup Princess Writer, Jessica Cryer.

I absolutely love these charm necklaces from Circle of Sentiments. They are the cutest reminders of the ones you love the most. Jamie Dadant, founder of Circle of Sentiments, quit her job in the corporate world after giving birth to twin boys. By staying at home Jamie was able to make her wish of owning her own business come true. She started on on-line baby boutique that included hand stamped custom made jewelry among other things. The jewelry became so popular that Jamie decided to focus solely on the jewelry and Circle of Sentiments was born!

Circle of Sentiments offers simple chains with sterling silver or copper disc engravable charms. Choose your charms and then have it engraved with your spouse or baby’s name or initial. Or buy Grandma a cute charm bracelet with the initials of all her grandchildren. I love them all, but my favorite is the Birthday necklace also referred to as “Mommy Jewelry.” It’s a sterling silver necklace with two discs; one with your baby’s name and the other for the baby’s birth date. How sweet.

Wouldn’t you love to receive one of these as a gift? The website offers a “drop a hint” link. Provide the name of the product you want and the information on the person whom you’d like to receive your “hint” and Circle of Sentiments will take care of the rest.

Enjoy Meeting Startup Princess, Jamie Dadant!

Name: Jamie Dadant

Hometown: Newark, Ca.

Current Residence: Anaheim, Ca.

Education: BA degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara

Professional Background: Prior to staying at home with my kids, I worked in the Marketing department at the Disneyland Resort.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: Teacher

What you are: Stay at home mom, with a web-based business.

Company Website? http://www.circleofsentiments.com

What inspired you? I’ve always wanted to have my own business. After quitting my corporate job to be a stay at home mom, I started my first business, an online baby boutique. One of the many items sold on my site was a line of hand stamped jewelry that I created. The jewelry became really popular. I’ve since made the decision to switch my focus to only selling jewelry, thus Circle of Sentiments was created.

How did you fund it? My start-up costs were pretty minimal, so I was able to fund it through personal savings. Since then, I’ve taken all profits and put them back into the business in order to continue to grow the business. Read more

Featured Interview: Celest Benn, Founder of Free Birthday Stuff

Don’t forget to enter our contest this week! Win a Visit with a Fairy Godmother-Get Free Help for Your Startup.

The following interview was written by Startup Princess writer, Jessica Cryer.

I hope your birthdays were the best as a child, mine were. Nothing seemed better than getting presents and becoming a year older. But, as we age things start to change. Presents and birthday parties are limited if any and suddenly becoming a year older isn’t so exciting. Wishing you could make birthdays fun again? Wish granted. Thanks to Celest Benn, founder of Free Birthday Stuff, birthdays are fun again!

Free Birthday Stuff is a website offering discounts, coupons and FREE stuff on your birthday! You can join any time and receive cool products and discounts-even if your birthday is today. You can also make suggestions of products you would like offered.

Even though Celest has barely been doing this a year, Free Birthday Stuff already has over 800,000 members! What potential for growth this company has…she gets to market to EVERYONE. Lucky Startup Princess, huh!? Wish you thought of it, don’t you? The amazing thing is Celest had the savings and foresight to think about the backend of the website…and how to keep track of all the vendors that offer free services and coupons, (she just got Six Flags to sign on last week) online so she didn’t have to do it herself or have the headache of keeping it straight herself. The bulk of her startup costs were spent on the programming of her site before she launched, but this year she will start reaping the benefits as companies begin to pay for their coupons to reach birthday boys and girls all over the country! If our crystal ball is working right, we predict that Celest will start getting offers from major companies to purchase her site in the next year or so…

Enjoy meeting Startup Princess Celest Benn, Founder of Free Birthday Stuff.com!

Name: Celest Benn

Hometown: San Jose, California

Current Residence (City, State): West Hartford, CT

Education: Ph.D. Psychology

Professional Background: I was a simultaneous interpreter (Spanish, French & Portuguese) with the DOD & NASA and then a Sports Psychologist, now I am a stay at home mom and started up www.freebirthdaystuff.com I was tired of all the doom and gloom in the world.

What you wanted to be when you grew up: a simultaneous interpreter I achieved this by the time I was 21 years old.

What you are: A mom, wife and a website founder

What inspired you? Too many glasses of wine at my daughters 4th birthday party. Please go to the site and on the right side 1st drop down you can read the story of how it all began.

How long have you been in business? 1 year, as a beta site and up and running officially as of February 2007.

How did you fund it? By savings and putting money away from paychecks and clipping coupons Read more

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