The Birth of HeadPeace
I will be honest, I have never done anything like this before. I was way out of my element. I had been listening to pod casts and reading books on how to start your own business. I knew I didn't want a service-oriented business, so I started thinking about products I could create and sell. I love headbands, and decided that was where it was at for me. After researching how I would find a manufacturer, I realized most of these textile companies were located in China. This was a little discouraging to me for a couple of reasons: I don't speak Chinese and I really had no idea how their employees were treated. A few weeks after coming up with this idea, I was at my daughter's gymnastics practice. I noticed a new Mom sitting next to me had older kids in the early afternoon class. Striking up a conversation, I asked her if she home-schooled. She continued on to tell me her family was from Colorado, but lived in Nepal. I was intrigued, so I sort of interrogated the poor girl. I learned she and her family have a socially-ethical manufacturing company in Nepal, that helps women coming out of slavery and sex-trafficking situations get back on their feet, called Purnaa. It was meant to be. Over the next few months, my husband and I worked closely with this wonderful couple on designing my headbands and working on another project my husband had going on. I designed the headbands, picked fabric patterns, and created HeadPeace. I had never created a business plan, designed a website, created an LLC, purchased bar codes, designed a hang tag, etc. When you put that much work into something that is all yours, you can imagine the anticipation and excitement of receiving that first shipment. I was like a kid, waiting for their birthday present. When that package finally arrived, I quickly opened up the box and found……my first batch of 650 headbands were too small! I was in tears. I immediately got on the phone with Purnaa. Turns out, the fabric that was ordered to make the headbands was so inconsistent, some pieces were as stretchy as the original sample received, and some was not. I had already launched HeadPeace, so it was time for a quick Plan B. Luckily, I had a few headbands that I could sell. The ones that just weren't stretchy enough were in fact perfect for kids, so my kids line of headbands was born. Purnaa is currently working on getting me some new headbands (from a new fabric supplier), and I will have them in stock in 3 weeks! This has been nothing short of a very long process, but the amount of knowledge I have obtained is priceless.