The idea to start Boogie Wipes came to Mindee and Julie out of necessity – kids with runny noses. Now it’s a prospering enterprise supplying nationwide stores and moms everywhere with saline-infused wipes. Their energy is contagious – meeting with vendors, developing new scents, brainstorming marketing ideas. The office that I saw in the video is more like an office at your family house, and the kids are happily getting involved as budding entrepreneurs. Mindee and Julie are a great example of applying their previous work skills to the new venture of their own. I think you will enjoy their answers to our questions in this interview and learn a lot from these moms of ingenuity.
Who came up with the idea for Boogie Wipes? How much fun did you have with the name?
The idea came from a moment Mindee was having with her daughter to treat her stuffy nose. Trying squirt the saline up her nose and use the “sucker” was not working so she put it on a wipe and it seemed to work pretty well. One thing led to another, the name was born because she had always called her kids boogers “boogies” and Julie loves to say “let’s boogie” to get her kids moving from one thing to the next throughout the day. It just fit for us both from day 1, we never even tried to think of another name for it. To this day we have not tapped out all the fun puns and jokes and slogans we can come up with about boogers, boogie and snot. We love it!!
How did your previous experience help?
I assume you mean in business although being a mom has been just as helpful. In business, our backgrounds with large companies (Julie with Miller/Gallo and Mindee with P&G) taught us a lot about what to do and what not to do to succeed. Julie’s strength was in leadership and sales, finance and strategy and Mindee’s in Branding, Creative, Advertising and Marketing. Neither of us had ever manufactured something so there was still a HUGE amount to learn but yes our backgrounds helped us not have such a big learning curve in every aspect of the business.
How long did it take you to get it off the ground? Who were your biggest helpers?
The first 8 months were all about development and trying to land some retail accounts. About a year after we started, we got our first national chain (Rite Aid) and started looking for investors, I think that’s when it became more than a “fun hobby” as some people called it back then. Our helpers were people who believed in us and were willing to share their own gifts and talents to help us along – whether it be time, knowledge, money. Our family, friends, old business associates, anyone we could find to give us two minutes of their time. Oh and Google, lots and lots of Google J.
How helpful is it to have mom bloggers writing reviews of the product? Do you rely more on web or traditional media in your marketing?
#1 thing we did right in marketing was to focus on grass roots and the power of Mom word of mouth. They spread the Boogie buzz for us like no other. We are SO grateful and try to still reach out to them with gratitude to this day. Luckily they all seemed to love the product too. When we were able to get the distribution to line up with all the moms out there that wanted to buy Boogie Wipes was really when we started to see success. Web, sampling and grass roots is what we swear by. Traditional marketing is important too and retailers like to see you doing some of it so we add that in whenever we can but definitely have seen some of the best results so far from viral campaigns and web marketing.
In the most recent post on your Mompreneur blog you talk about melting moments of business and motherhood and how you often find that challenges also give you a shot at excellence. Is there an example from your business that speaks to this?
Many Many Many stories – do you want the one about the UPC code that was wrong on every package, the freight that fell off the tar-mat in transit, the truck of Boogie Wipes that went up in flames, the investor that wanted to see our office when we did not have one or the unexpected pregnancy that popped up 6 months into the business! LOL We swear we are a reality show in the making around Boogie Wonderland. The most recent one would be when our largest order of the year from Sam’s Club for 600 pallets of Boogie Wipes had to be cut back because the truck bringing the last 20% of the order down from Seattle caught on fire and the boogies were blazin. It made the news! Luckily no one was hurt. It’s a huge huge deal in retail when you have to ship short an order. Julie rallied our team around the challenge though, and she came up with a solution to ship a few cases short of each pallet, present it to Sams Club and pray (literally) they would take it that way. Everyone in the organization had to drop everything and focus on the change, new art, new paperwork, new shipping details, just a huge undertaking with the order needing to ship in 2 days. Sam’s accepted the change and the silver lining was that the graphics on the pallet turned out even better than the other configuration not mention what a great story we have to tell. Truly in the end the best part was how it really brought our team together, it was fantastic to see everyone in motion for all of us. Guess they knew no one was getting paid unless that order went out… literally J
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a business partner?
Much the same as having a spouse. We laugh all the time about feeling like we are married to each other, our husbands don’t think it’s quite as funny. The biggest advantages are the passion we both have for the brand and the business being in two places at once. Inside the sales and marketing teams. And then having someone who really gets it to share the journey with. Someone who knows how hard the hard times are and how good the good times feel. Its invaluable and irreplaceable. The struggle is of course that we both want to and some days even think we can do everything the business calls for and egos collide from time to time. We are women and emotion comes into play of course. Our emotion gets the best of us some days but we both really try to and usually do, get over things fast. If you like to hold a grudge, skip partnership all together. We have really had to draw a line in responsibility and when one of us starts to drift its open trust and communication and respect we give to let the other one shine in her area of expertise. It comes down to a lot of what we teach our children and how we live our lives – treat others as you want to be treated. We have bumps in the road but overall feel very blessed to complement each other so well and really honestly still be the best of friends through everything.
It seems that your kids are very involved in your work too. How do you balance work and family?
We don’t. Some days are all about work and some all about family. Honestly, we work more than we wanted to when we started this but if our kids had a chance like Boogie Wipes in life, we would tell them to work their butts off to make the most of it. That’s why we involve them in the work, they travel with us and “play” around the office and we focus on all the business is teaching them and the life experience its bringing to avoid the mom guilt. Really though, it’s not balanced.
Do you have a set schedule or a flexible one? How do you decide when to work?
We have the best of both worlds, the best part of being a Mompreneur, we have a flexible set schedule. Our schedule parallels the kids, we are in the office about 8:30 after we drop the kids at school, leave around 3 to pick them up, sometimes bring them back into the office, sometimes go home and keep working for a while until the soccer practice or homework routine starts. We spend the evenings with the family and usually both work again for a few hours after we get them tucked into bed. The next day – repeat. We both take at least one weekend day off completely and have learned to really be in the moment. Working while worrying about the kids means we have to work longer to get the work done. No one wins. So…now when we are with the kids, we are with the kids and when we are working, we are working…as best we can. The old quality vs. quantity scenario.
How do you measure the success of Boogie Wipes? Is it about sales, distribution or loyalty?
Boogie Wipes success is based on the tangibles – cash flow, sales, profits etc., yes all those things. Our success as business owners is more about time, purpose, passion and happiness. Things you can’t measure on a spreadsheet.
If I asked your kids, what kind of Moms would they say you each are?
Mindee’s kids ages 1, 3 and 7 would say she is funny, busy and snuggly.
Julie’s kids ages 5, 10 and 15 would say she is busy, loving, playful.
What do you love about being business owners?
Controlling our schedules, purpose, paying forward what we have learned to help others, seeing our employees thrive and realizing we have created jobs and livelihood that was not there before. And of course the joy of seeing Moms using Boogie Wipes to make their lives easier, motherhood is a tough thing, knowing we bring a smile and make even one messy moment a tiny bit easier, really does feel great.
What are your favorite business tools?
Mindee: Gin & Tonic J  I love anything online that allows me to monitor what customers are saying about the brand, Twitter, Squidoo, Facebook, the usual. I also love Skype and the screen share function especially when working with our designer on projects. Love to read Fast Company and Inc and Seth Godin’s blog is my favorite for inspiration.  Julie: Exel, skype, my calculator, blackberry. Really though I love the people I work with and I believe they are my best tools, I can go to them and usually find any answer.
What are your plans for the future of Boogie Wipes?
We would love to see the brand grow to international markets and have started working on some new scents and different packaging. Having a big enough marketing budget to get the word out about it more would be fun too and eventually we hope to get a regular enough paycheck to start giving more of our time and money to help other moms in business.
Where can our visitors buy Boogie Wipes?
Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid, Toys R Us, Kroger, Babies R Us – we are in about 40,000 stores nationwide, they can visit boogiewipes.com for the store locator in their state.
What advice would you give to moms who want to start their own business?
Go for it! Know that you do have a lot of the skills they don’t teach in books or school to run a business; patience, persistence, resourcefulness, organization, optimism. Many of the things we draw on as moms to make it through nursing carpools and the terrible twos are also put to the test in business. Research your idea, surround yourself with people that are smarter than you about it, put a plan together and enjoy the journey one day at a time. It’s a life you never knew possible!
