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Rosie Knows

If you’re spending hours on the Internet, you may be wondering whether there’s a business opportunity in it for you. That’s how many Internet entrepreneurs got started, including Rosie. To tell you more about ecommerce, we talked with Sarah Headrick, who co-founded a successful Internet business with partner Sarah Rivera. They co-wrote a personalized picture book for young children and market it through their e-commerce site. Their book has been reviewed by many bloggers and magazines and they’ve appeared on TV. The First Adventures of the Incredible You is the name of their very special book.

How did you get the idea for your business?
Sarah Rivera and I met at a playgroup for our infants and talked about starting a business together. At first we thought it would be a bricks-andmortar store, but because of the overhead costs, we decided against that idea. Then we looked into the possibilities of e-commerce and came up with the idea of creating a personalized book.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of an Internet-based business?
E-commerce is an ideal way to start a new business because of smaller overhead costs. It also offers mobility. The disadvantages are you have to be creative about getting visibility.

Please tell us how your books are customized.
Our online order form asks customers to fill in up to sixteen blanks with information relating to the child who will receive the book. For instance, we ask for the child’s birthday and favorite animal, among other things. Computerized software takes the answers and creates a PDF of the customized text and the PDF is emailed to the printer.

How Internet-savvy were you and your partner prior to starting your business?
We both used email and some online banking and shopping.

How do you attract customers?
We’ve tapped into the blogging world of mothers with young children. Since our product is best experienced when it is customized, we ask a blogger if she’d be interested in receiving a complimentary review copy. If she says yes, we ask her to go to our site and fill in the blanks just like a regular customer. The finished book is sent to the blogger, who hopefully gives it a positive review on her blog. These blogs have large subscriber bases and the word about our book gets out that way.

Do you belong to any business associations or support groups?
We’ve built our own network of moms who are Internet entrepreneurs. They all have businesses similar to ours and they work at home. We share tips, bounce ideas off each other, talk about whether advertising on a particular site generated sales.

This charming book makes a memorable gift for children up to 8 years old.