Spot-light on: Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique

Meet the Mom Behind Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique!

Who is Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique amd what separates you from other children's boutiques?
Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique is an online children's bedding boutique. We specialize in offering fun, unique and vibrant products for infants, children and teens. We have a wonderful variety of custom made bedding as well as ready made designs, fun room décor and specialized accessories, hand made children's furniture, baby safety products, unique baby strollers, gift items and so much more. We believe that today's families are very eclectic with a mixture of styles and designs reflected in one household. To support this ideology, we offer an eclectic range of products that are classic and traditional, contemporary, modern and hip. We wanted to distinguish ourselves from the numerous online children's boutiques, therefore instead of carrying a multitude of products that can be offered on any online store, we have carefully chosen to work with select manufacturers and sell products that offer high quality, valued workmanship, value children and are contentious about the environment. We love to get feedback on our store and how we are doing, so please stop by: www.cuddleskidsbedding.com


How did you come up with your business name?
The Name “Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique” was developed in response to my work with kids. My career for the past 14 years has been to provide psychotherapy to children victimized by child abuse. For years, I noticed a commonality that existed with most of these children, a desire or need to be nurtured, loved, held in a safe and loving environment. While it would never have been appropriate for me to “cuddle” my clients, I always appreciated the importance of this need. “Cuddle Kids” reflects my appreciation, respect and understanding of this simple but important action all children desire from the adults in their life.

When and why did you decide to start your own business?
Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique had our “Grand Opening” May 2008. After the birth of my son, Micah, I had the awesome revelation that many mothers have..."I just need to be home with him." My husband, the accountant, helped me to understand that this “revelation” was just not financially feasible. I then began the “mad search” to find alternative ways to meet both of our goals, to contribute to our household finances and to be present and available to my son during these early and formative years of his life.


How did you get started?
I first studied the retail market by doing an extensive amount of research, then worked on developing my skill set and testing the children's bedding market by opening a store on ebay. I faced many challenges that I suppose many new store retailers experience and had to quickly work on my accounting skills. The retail market is very different from the field of psychotherapy. But I was able to use my communication skills to calm disgruntled customers or develop decent communication with an unreasonable vendor.

What motivates you to keep your business going?
There are a number of factors that help to motivate me to work at unreasonable hours, sacrifice personal or “me” time, and multi-task like crazy, but I suppose the most important is the precious time I have with my son during his most formative years. I realized when my husband and I made the decision for me to be home part-time that sacrifices would be required. And watching him grow and develop into such a dynamic individual has been well worth it!


Do you have a particular product that's a best seller and that you're promoting on my site?
I am sure most online retailers believe they sell the most dynamic products and we feel the same. We have several products that are great top sellers which include the Dream Baby Safety Gates, Whistle & Wink Baby Crib Bedding, Freckles Bedding for kids and Briar Patch children's hand made furniture. We also offer some truly dynamic products which we are promoting now which include: the P'Kolino children's modern furniture, Monkey Toes hand painted children's shoes and a line of teen bedding and accessories designed by Edward Walker from the show Trading Places.


How do you advertse your business?
We quickly learned when we entered this online retail profession that successful marketing advice was hard to come by if you wanted “free” information or we were constantly bombarded with solicitations from SEO companies that wanted to charge a small fortune for advice and service. We have gained helpful information from companies like SEO Logic and Web CEO, which provide useful tips on SEO optimization and we use products and services from Google and Yahoo who host our ecommerce store. We currently advertise using the following methods: online pay-per-click, blogging, advertising on mom-related sites, email marketing, and local marketing at mom-oriented coffee houses and other kid friendly stores.
How do you juggle family and work at home?
This venture of opening an online retail store has been quite challenging, especially with regards to juggling my time between husband, son and self. I am very fortunate to have a husband who in addition to being an accountant is always so supportive, understanding and helpful. His favorite catch phrase, “no money, no love” playfully reflects the many long hours of working well into the early morning. I do though struggle with feeling overwhelmed and guilty at times when my son is talking to me and I am preoccupied about the business, when my husband and I share few words over the course of several days because of my work, or I look down to see the raggedy pedicure that's weeks old. But my passion for this business and the belief in success keeps me moving forward.


Any advice you'd like to share with WAHMs?
The best advice I could give is to believe in yourself and the passion that motivates your business venture. In the end, your passion will propel you to work the long, late hours at night despite feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. Many seasoned experts advised me to focus on selling products based on their profit value. For me, it would have been really hard to stay up to 2:00am, after taking care of my son all day, to work on a business selling safety hats or something like this, if I didn't have a passion for “safety hats”.
Current promotions at Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique:
We are so excited to share with your readers several promotions and offers on our children's bedding. First, our boutique always offers free shipping in the Continental US for bedding orders over $125.00. To promote some of our dynamic infant and child bedding, we are offering Free Gifts with the purchase of any custom bedding set from designers like New Arrivals and Three Little Ziglets. We held a contest in July for our bloggers and one lucky parent blogger received a free Aquababy Bath Seat for her adorable story about her 2 year old. We will be hosting another contest in October and look forward to receiving many entries. Finally, we are partnering with Radys Children's Hospital, San Diego to hold an ongoing donation campaign as part of the Miracle Makers Network, to benefit the child patients of Rady's Children's Hospital. A portion of all sales will be donated to Rady's Children's Hosptal.


Anything else about Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique that you'd like to share?
We appreciate the opportunity to share in depth more about our boutique. We are so thrilled about our stores opening and the many facets that comprise Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique. In addition to offering wonderful children's bedding, we also host a interactive blog where we encourage our readers to interact with us and others about our products, interesting parenting issues, offer product reviews and advertise upcoming contests and giveaways. On our site, we have a dynamic parenting resources section where we have links to very valuable resources for child health, safety and more. And a parenting tips section where we offer wonderful articles on hot issues like potty training, parenting and coping with stress. Each month, we will highlight a worthwhile cause in our featured charity section, so individuals have the opportunity to donate in addition to shop. And finally, we are always looking for opportunities to collaborate with other “mom” professionals who have a resource or topic they would to like to share with others. We appreciate the opportunity to work with others and serve as a “virtual” platform for their area of expertise. So, as you can see, Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique is truly unique! So stop by, shop a little, chat a little, make a donation and enjoy!


Visit Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique at: www.cuddleskidsbedding.com






(Note: Logo, product images and interview responses courtesy of Cuddles Kids Bedding Boutique. Please respect their work and do not copy and/or alter their images and words. Thank you! )