#15 Little Adventures

   In the case of Little Adventures, mothers do indeed know best. The Lehi company — which produces dress-ups for children, adults, dolls and plush animals — was founded by two moms with a problem: Dress-ups for their kids were expensive, itchy and hard to find. So like mother, like entrepreneur, Heather Granata and Jenny Farnsworth solved the problem by sewing their own — and a business was born. Eight years later, the business is all grown up. Its dress-ups are sold across the country (in places like Target, QVC and specialty toy stores) and sales reps dot the nation. And with nearly $2 million in sales last year alone, Little Adventures is all dressed up with everywhere to go.

I was running a daycare out of my home, and Heather’s little girl was one of the kids. When it came time to pick her up, Heather would always stay and chat with me. We became instant friends. 

At the daycare, I’d have the kids in dress-ups because everything else created clutter and disasters. But it was hard to find dress-ups. The Disney Store was the only place, and we didn’t have one nearby at the time. Nor did we want to spend that much money. 

Heather and I started talking about making our own line of dress-ups. We asked ourselves, “Could we really do this? Do you think they would sell? Let’s try it.”

We sewed, and sewed and sewed. I was pregnant at the time, and I was so sick. I remember sitting in my basement with an IV in my arm, sewing like a madwoman. But I didn’t care. I was just so determined not to have a daycare anymore.

We didn’t have a lot of success. We were selling some, but it wasn’t worth the amount of time we put in. So we decided to sell them on eBay. We tried putting them up for auction at $10 — and they wouldn’t sell. But then we started thinking that at $10, the value was too low. So we played around with the price. We went to $12 and then to $15 and then to $19.99 — which was our magic number. Turns out we were literally selling ourselves short.

After our success with eBay, people in the retail and wholesale markets started approaching us. And that’s where the true Little Adventures began. Our first order of business was to setup a factory. We went to a sewer locally, but she couldn’t get enough produced. So we went to a woman in Idaho and began producing them there. When we grew out of what she could do for us, we went to China. 

We’ve set four goals: The dress-ups have to be comfortable, affordable, machine washable and adorable. Other companies only do one or two of these. But as moms, we know that the kids don’t just want to dress up in these clothes. They want to live in them — eat, sleep and play. If we were going to be successful, we had to do all four.

That emphasis on quality has been a blessing and a pain. A few years ago, our biggest learning experience came when we had a big shipment come in from China. The fabric was not what we approved and it was coming apart. We had to dump the whole shipment — a $100,000 order — at below cost just to get rid of it. We didn’t want to put our name on it because it would hurt us in the end. What we took away from that was taking more control of our outsourcing. We learned we need to be in China more and check on the orders before they come. It was a painful lesson, but one that we’re oddly grateful for. 

Sales have been a surprise — a nice, nice surprise. They’ve just come naturally. When you make a good product, the sale is easy. You don’t have to force the issue. 

We love everything about being located in Utah Valley. You are choosing from high quality people. The people that work for us value that we put our kids first no matter what — they always understand. You won’t find that just anywhere. 

The most rewarding part of our success is our friendship. Business is really quite personal for us — and we love that we’re able to do it in a successful way. If you work at Little Adventures, you’re a part of the Little Adventures family. And when we look back at where we’ve been and how far we’ve come, man, it’s been fun. What a roller coaster.