In an incredible, evolving business success story, owners of Unique Baby Boutique, a home shopping party business featuring natural parenting products, announced this week the acceptance of their 100th Sales Consultant, only seven months after the business opened its doors. The announcement quickly became old news, however, since at day's end the business had gone on to sign its 104th Sales Consultant. This rapidly growing company, which is now in over 30 states, is showing no signs of slowing down.
Since it was launched only seven short months ago, Unique Baby Boutique has grown at a staggering rate of 20-30% per month, eclipsing the optimistic projections of its founder and President, Kim Pekin. "At first, I thought we would have just started to expand to other states by now. Being in over 30 states, and having over 100 Sales Consultants so quickly, is just amazing," said Pekin. "We are very proud of our sales consultants whose enthusiasm and dedication have been the key to the company's success," she continued.
"It's been a wild ride of long hours and late nights as we've built this business from the ground-floor. Kim and I are fortunate to have a unique set of overlapping skills that lets us respond quickly to changing and growing demands on our website and how we do our work," said Barry Pekin, co-founder, Vice President, and husband. Mr. Pekin, a web designer and consultant and president of two web companies, the World Wide Web Chamber of Commerce and Computer Assist.com, designed and built the user-friendly/user-rich website.
In addition to home shopping parties, Unique Baby Boutique (UBB) also offers the convenience of an online store. What makes this business so different from others is its focus on pregnancy and parenting items that are not usually attainable in stores. By pulling together high-quality, natural products from specialty catalog businesses and family-owned small businesses, and putting them all in one convenient place, UBB provides an alternative to the mega-superstore baby shops. "This company started with my goal to have breastfeeding and attachment parenting become the norms of parenthood in this country, and to bring products that support these choices to the mainstream. My real vision is to have breastfeeding once again be the norm and formula feeding to be looked at as out of the ordinary," stated Mrs. Pekin.
Never just about selling products, the business has an equally strong educational mission, providing a rich, online library of articles on all aspects of everything from pregnancy to parenting. The information is accessible for no charge on the UBB website: www.shopubb.com. Says Kim, "When families have strong bonds, all of society wins. I want to make a difference in the lives of children and families, which, in turn, will positively affect our world. That was the initial vision behind UBB-to give parents an opportunity to break free of the multi-billion dollar, commercial-driven baby industry and re-embrace the wisdom of the ages, the natural instinct built into each one of us for caring for our children. It is about changing the mindset that our children are an inconvenience to be 'handled' and 'scheduled'-an attitude perpetuated by the 'baby-training,' 'let-them-cry-it-out,' and 'children-are-meant-to-be-seen-not-heard' parenting philosophies." Pekin continues, "these philosophies have lead to a distancing between parents and their children by downplaying babies' real needs, thus eroding the nurturing relationship between parents and babies and young children."
A mother of six, Pekin is personally familiar with the joys and demands children bring into parents' lives. Pekin maintains, "Even when they are challenging, children are a blessing, and they deserve our time and attention. Our future depends on it."
Pekin points out the abundance of scientific evidence of the health and psychological benefits of breastfeeding, and that, while breastfeeding rates are on the rise, in order to see significant progress towards a breastfeeding norm, it will take a cultural shift in how people parent their children. What is the acid test of normalcy? "Baby dolls will no longer come standard with bottles and pacifiers," says Pekin, "it's a big vision, but we're off to a great start!"
Such rapid growth may cause some to wonder, is Unique Baby Boutique the next Tupperware or Pampered Chef? "I can think of no better thing than to make good parenting a popular choice. To grow like Pampered Chef or Tupperware would be a great thing for families everywhere," said Kim.
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