We're Moving!

Thank you for sharing this journey with me! It's far from over but I'm going to be sharing news and updates on our ZipperBack Glove blog at www.ZipperBackGloves.com.

We have been getting rave reviews and I expect there is lots more to come!

Our First Official Review!

From MomCentral's Holiday Gift Guide 2009 - Week one:

Getting your child all bundled up to go out and play in the snow can be a long and drawn out process, but kid-friendly gear can make it easier. Cut down some of the hassle and increase play time with ZipperBack gloves. Unlike regular gloves, which can be difficult to pull on, ZipperBack gloves unzip all the way along the back of the gloves to create a wide space for your child to slip his hands through. Once his hands are inside snugly, a large zipper pull allows you to zip the glove back up easily and send your child out on his way. Your child will enjoy being able to help himself as he easily gets ready for his snow-filled adventures. No more frustration for parent or child! Moreover, ZipperBack gloves have a soft fleece “nose wipe” on the forefinger of the glove that won’t irritate your child’s skin when he is faced with a runny nose.

One lucky Mom Central member will win a pair of Zipper Back gloves! To enter, log in or register and leave a comment below by December 8. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email.

Click here to see the gift guide for week one and enter to win!

Mom Central received a pair of ZipperBack gloves courtesy of ZipperBack Gloves for this giveaway.

Stuff!

We are really in business! Laughing! You are probably thinking, "No duh!"

Things come up that make me realize I have to answer to customers and retailers and do it in a timely fashion. Some of the things recently have been getting a PayPal notification that we sold a pair of gloves...while in Monterey! Luckily, I had a pair with me, in the right size so I could mail them from there. Otherwise they would not have mailed for four days. The other thing that came up was size charts. I got an e-mail from one of our retailers that she needed a size chart so her customers would know what size to get their child. Duh! Next thing you know, I'm at Kinkos printing and laminating size charts to mail the next day! Not only was this time sensitive, but each of the size charts cost $3.00...I made 30, that's about $100.00 with tax! Sheesh!

All of these kinds of things, that may be obvious to some, come up at the most inopportune times! This is just a small cost of being in business for yourself. I'll be sure to let you know when the tides turn and the money is coming instead of going! Fingers crossed!

Good News!

I got a call from Amy in Delaware this week after I e-mailed her confirming her ZipperBack Glove order.

We talked about how her son won't wear mittens and she can't wait to get ZippperBacks. I told her that this is exactly how the idea was born, when my own son Mason wouldn't wear mittens. "What did you say your son's name is?" she asked. I told her Mason. "My son's name is Mason, too!" she exclaimed. How fun!

I asked her how she heard about our gloves and she told me her mother saw them on another child and asked where they got them. They googled us and here we are. Isn't it cool that they saw them on another child (someone bought them from a retailer) and then took the time to look us up and buy a pair! People are buying and talking about ZipperBack Gloves!

I've Been MIA

I've been out of my blogs while I've been grieving the loss of my sweet Mr. Riley. I learned that I lost Riley a week ago Sunday. The details are immaterial, suffice it to say, I've been heartbroken. I'm not giving up on me and my fitness goals, but I'm taking some time to mourn this loss. I'll be back shortly.

Where Have I Been?

I love this blog and I've been neglecting it! I've been so darn busy with ZipperBack Gloves, my real estate business, Mason's birthday, and all the other things that make my list for life so long!

I decided to order more gloves, 150 pair. No sooner did I finalize that order than I get an e-mail from a NY business that wants to buy 150 pair! ARGH! Laughing. In that order. I will call my manufacturer tomorrow to see if they can increase the order. If not, I'll sell the NY business some of my stock and then let them place a sizable order for next year. It's certainly a great problem to have, but a problem nonetheless!

Did I mention that we will have three larger sizes next year and we are currently developing an adult line for 2011? Yes! How exciting to go from idea, to gloves on shelves, to three more sizes, all sizes in two additional colors, fleece gloves and working on adult gloves. WOW! I would say I'm impressed, but it's not impressive to me, it's progress that comes from really hard work! Having a good product helps, too!

I'm going to start making the transition of moving this blog over to my web site at www.zipperbackgloves.com. It's more logical to have everything ZipperBack Gloves on one site. I'll eventually move all of this over there so newcomers can read all about the journey if they so desire. When I'm ready, I'll post that the blog has moved so everyone who wants to know, will!

Boreal's Open!

Boreal Ridge is a ski resort near where we live and today they are open! This is the earliest they have open for skiing, ever. Ever. How cool is that? A ski resort open on October 9th in California. Certainly a day in our snow/ski history. Think snow. Think snow. Thinks snow.

It Snowed!

Yes, it was just a light dusting but it's snow nonetheless! In CA, we pray for a good snow season. Some years we don't get good snow until after Christmas and other years, we get to ski over Thanksgiving weekend. To have a cold snap with moisture the first week in October is awesome! For this family introducing a brand new snow glove to the world, all I can say is, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Another Order Means Another Order!

I took another retail order today and that means we pretty much have no inventory left. With that, and the fact that it's only October 2nd, I placed another order for inventory with my manufacturer. I'm waiting to hear, but my hope is that the shipment will be here before Thanksgiving. Keep your fingers crossed!

Thank You Good Day Sacramento!

We had a blast yesterday morning on Good Day Sacramento! Live television is tricky because you never know what's going to happen. Stephanie Cruz and I spoke several days before and again yesterday morning when we arrived at the studio. Mason was suppose to be part of the piece and then he decided he didn't want to. Stephanie wanted him to so after I already had my space set, a chair was brought in and Mason propped up with just moments before we were on. As it turns out, it went just fine. The only thing I would do again is I would smile more and move more fluidly. All in all, Mason rocked, he stole the show with his addition of the "nose wipe" feature. If you didn't see it, here's the link to the piece. Come back and let me know what you think! http://www.gooddaysacramento.com/momtrepreneurs

Tomorrow Is A Big Day!

Tomorrow I will be featured on channel 31 Good Day Sacramento's Momtrepreneur segment. This is a feature of moms who invented a product or started a business while running a household. I'm excited to introduce ZipperBack Gloves to my hometown and let people know we've solved this problem! I'll post the details on Wednesday!

Disappearing Inventory

I've been following up with the people from the ABC show and everyone is as nice now as they were there. That's notable because sometimes people are caught up in the moment and say, "Love it! Want it! Call me!" and then when you get home, think, eh, maybe not.

My issue now is that our manufacturer has different numbers than I do for what we've sold and what we have left to sell. It's pretty clear what I will be working on this weekend. I'm convinced that we will be sold out of our current inventory before October 1st. I'm honoring the "No Shipping" sale on our web site, so if you think you want gloves this season, buy them now! Seriously, they will be gone.

Getting Organized!

I can't believe how overwhelmed I feel. We spoke to so many wonderful people, some placed orders right on the spot, some asked me to call for their order, and others showed interest but sounded like they needed more information.

The orders that we took need to be reviewed (some were filled out in a hurry and not clear or complete), missing information collected and then sent to our manufacturer to be fulfilled.

Phone calls and e-mails need to be made and sent to those who said they want to place an order. And when I can muster the umph, I'll follow up with the many other folks who were kind enough to talk to us and leave us their contact information.

My other task is to work out our inventory. It's very clear to me that we WILL sell out of all of our 2009 season's inventory. This is good, I know, but on the same token, I want to go to the snow and have gloves to sell this winter. As a salesperson, having nothing to sell is a drag. It's very possible that we can order some more gloves, but at what cost? I'm going to get to work and I'll let you know what I figure out.

It's Monday!

There is SO much to do this week. I need to sort through all the leads we got, pick the winner for our gift basket of mom invented products, package it to mail, process the orders we took at the show, contact our manufacturer about the many questions that came up at the show, put together a conf. call for our ZBG team, package the first orders from our pre-sale, make a trip to the post office, figure out who we will work with to review our gloves, update all the sales information in ACT!, return e-mails and phone calls, Catch up with my loan modification business, do laundry, get groceries, and the list goes on, and on, and on...Maybe those mostly clean sheets need a little more of my time. Smiling! Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to work I go....

Home And Very Tired!

We made it! It was a long drive home yesterday and I'm more tired than I knew I could be...and still be awake. Dave flew to Anaheim for work this weekend so I expect he'll be exhausted when he finally makes it back to Auburn on Sunday. That gives me a few days to recover and change the sheets on the bed. There's not much that's nicer than arriving home to a clean house and fresh sheets. I'm so tired, I don't care if they are fresh or not, I just want to sleep. Sweet dreams!

Last Day At ABC

Well today has certainly proven to be the busy day. Buyers who stopped in to look and said they would come back, have. We took six orders here at the show and got contact information from other retailers asking us to call them next week to take an order. I'm sure that not all of those will pan out, but if even half of them do, we will sell out of all of our inventory for this season.

I'm still not in that mindset, all wholesale/no retail, as I was excited to get out and show our gloves to consumers and sell to them. It's a bit of a let down to think we anticipated this time and planned to sell, sell, sell, and what we end up with is, "Sold!" now back to normal, regular life...Laughing! Maybe it's just me, but there was some real fun in meeting people and putting gloves on little hands.

It's all good news and just speaks to the saying, "If you want to see God laugh, make plans." I am honoring the pre-sale happening now on our web site. Go to www.zipperbackgloves.com to order your gloves and pay no shipping for the whole month of September. As of October 1st, I expect all of our inventory will be going to retailers. There is a slight possibility of getting some more inventory before Christmas, but that still has not been determined.

Finally, we learned that ABC is not really our target market, it's geared too much to pregnancy, infants, and furniture. We are gearing up for SIA in January and expect to do a booming business for next season with the ski & snow sports industry. Thanks for taking this ride with me, and if there is anything I can do to help you bring your idea to life, please ask! Big tired smiles!

Monday At ABC

We are in day two of the ABC Kids Expo and today is better than yesterday was. We were so excited to be here and show our gloves to everyone that I think our excitement set us up for a bit of disappointment. You know how that is, you anticipate and prepare for something that all that time envisioning this phenominal outcome lends itself to a bit of a let down as you stand in your booth as people hurry by.

So many of the buyers have established relationships with long time manufacturers that we are like blur of color as they whiz by. Hopefully we will have more of an audience today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. Don't get me wrong though, the people that we have been able to talk to love our product, we are getting so much validation that I'm sure we have a winner. More on Wednesday.

Remembering 9/11

To everyone who experienced the events of September 11, 2001 I want to tell you, "I remember."

Every American felt the effects of that tragic day, but certainly there were families who were forever changed in ways many of us will never know. As a military family, we remember everyday, but today is special. Know you are loved and you are remembered.

Today Is A Red-Letter Day!

Happy day after Monday!

Today is a red-letter day in the Partak family. Today, we officially have a working web site that you can actually buy gloves from! www.zipperbackgloves.com.

I'm extremely proud that we have come from me sitting at our kitchen table cutting up a thrift store glove to having a great new product for sale!

Dave, Mike, and I are leaving on Friday for our first trade show to introduce ZipperBack Gloves to the world of children's retailers. I feel a bit like, "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!" I don't know if the road we've taken has been yellow bricks or paved with gold, but I can say with certainty that no matter what the ultimate outcome of this venture turns out to be, I have no regrets. I feel fortunate beyond belief that the people who have rallied around us to make this happen believe in this as much as we do, and even more, they, you believe in us!

Tell all your family and friends to visit our site and buy some gloves! E-mail, Tweet, facebook, pull out all the stops! We have limited numbers for this maiden voyage so think Christmas, think snow, and think ZipperBack Gloves!

Just For Fun!