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FEATURED MOM INVENTORS > JENNIFER HUGHES, THE LILOEBE COMPANY
Meet Jennifer Hughes, mom to daughters Phoebe (5-1/2 years old) and Lilli (3 years old). She is the Founder of The Liloebe Company which designs and manufactures a unique line of infant apparel under the brand name Stylease. Stylease is one-piece infant wear that looks like separates so the baby can have a more stylish wardrobe but the parent can still have the ease of a romper. She wanted the clothing to be affordable and to be readily available in every department store so that parents could benefit from the product.
What is an ex-private investigator doing designing clothing?!?! As it turns out, she had the perfect skills and background to successfully create a home-based business while taking care of her girls. Her background is in costume design and performing arts. After college, she realized that she would not prosper waiting tables until her acting jobs took off, so she chose a more career-oriented plan B -- private investigation. Jennifer figured she could use her acting skills and generate a higher level of income than other lines of work. In her four years as a detective, she worked with police departments doing child recovery, missing persons, and domestic surveillance. While doing this work, an old colleague asked her to work on an animation project. She ended up working in the animation industry for the next 13 years -- the last five of which were spent in various levels of production management for The Walt Disney Company's Feature Animation division. Working at Disney taught her the intricate balance that exists between art and corporate structure. It's vital that the art be driven by inspiration and at the same time delivered on a tight schedule. Jennifer left Disney in 1999 to be a stay-at-home mom. The concept of Stylease came to her from a very basic consumer need. She was the mother of a 4-month-old and wanted something for her baby that was not available. In January of 2002, when her second daughter turned 4-months-old, and the item she was after was still not available she seized the opportunity to fill the need. Jennifer says, "I was tired of the jammie romper look and wanted a more sophisticated look for my baby but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of separates." She said to herself, 'Why can't SOMEBODY make a one piece outfit that LOOKS like separates?!' "Since it was the second time in three years that I had said it, it occurred to me that it was ME that was supposed to do it. That moment of realization was an epiphany for me." When you conceived of Stylease, how did you go about creating a prototype? "I purchased commercially available clothing patterns, and a dressmaker's curve and some fabric at the one fabric store in our town. I then manipulated the patterns to create the garments I designed. I needed to sew the initial set of samples myself to make sure the concept actually worked; that you could sew three different types of fabric to each other and they would wash and wear and not shrink up funny or bleed or fall apart." 
How did you find a manufacturer for your product?
"Back in 1999, I typed in the word "garment" as a search criteria on the Internet to look into getting the product manufactured. I hit wall after wall, not coming up with much. In 2002, I chose to type in the word "apparel". The floodgates opened and I had dozens of manufacturers all over the world to choose from. I searched long and hard for a full service factory in the U.S., as I would rather keep my business here to promote US jobs and our own economy. No soap. I could not find one. I did not know enough about the apparel business to sub-contract out each step, pattern making, cutting, sewing, finishing, not to mention, the high cost it would involve using all those separate people." "I chose a factory in China and they said, 'Send us a sketch, we will send you an outfit.' That is the kind of service I was looking for." What was your greatest "lesson learned"? "Not understanding the time line with regard to shipping from China caused a late spring shipment. In addition, I had size issues in my original spring line from improper pattern grading. I approved the sizes so the factory is not at fault. I had to eat that inventory (approximately 6,000 pieces). I also "settled" for textile prints I didn't really want but figured they were all I could get. Those products didn't sell because the prints were not very strong. I had to eat those costs too. I will not settle from now on and the sizing issue was a learning curve thing." 
What feedback would you like to share about creating a company image?
"Hire someone who knows what they are doing, has the contacts and knows how to build a proper campaign. I hired an ad agency and marketing company right from the beginning so I had a very strong graphics campaign and nice web site. Warning: this can be VERY expensive. However, I wanted to appear as a bigger company than I really was so that the major national retailers would take me seriously. I learned from my stint as an actor, that the materials you leave behind, your headshot and resume are your calling card. They represent you and your level of quality. In business if you leave behind cheap, home made business cards, xeroxed letterhead, and sub-standard promotional materials, that gives the major retailers an idea of the kind of quality they can expect from your product." What has been your largest sacrifice? "Sleep is the biggest sacrifice. I get about 4 hours a night. My hubby is a big help and does laundry and dishes. We hired a housekeeper to come every other week because I hate cleaning house. I figure the housekeeper is cheaper than therapy, which is what I would need following the emotional breakdown I would have if I had to scrub toilets too!" Who has been the greatest source of support through this process? "My great partner and husband is completely committed to the project, which is vital. If he were telling me to stop spending our money on my hair brained idea, it would be extremely stressful. My girls are my inspiration. One night when I kissed my girls good night and said, "Sleep tight." Phoebe said, "You sleep tight too, I mean work tight" since she knows I go to work in the basement after they go to sleep." What accomplishment makes you proud? Seeing the hang tag on the logo that I designed and created in Photoshop hanging from a garment tag sewn into a piece of baby clothes that I designed, ready to hang on a hanger in a store. What a cool thing. What advice would you like to share with other moms? "Look way down the road to ultimately where you want to be, and work backwards so you don't have to re-do anything. Be ready and set yourself up from the beginning. But what if you don't know what you need? I didn't either. Talk to people, look at products like yours, what information can you get from them? Buy books on the subjects you need. There is ALWAYS someone out there who knows the answer to your questions. Find them. Get a domain name (www.whatever.com). Information has to be available about you on the Internet for your customers. Protect yourself legally through patents and trademarks. All that boring annoying stuff that is expensive and does not give you an immediate visual reward is so necessary because if just one thing goes wrong and you have not taken steps to protect yourself, it would cost you so much more, in immeasurable ways." Finally, and perhaps most importantly, "the more you talk about something the less likely you are to do anything about it. Time is constant. Years WILL pass. At the end of those years you can either still be talking about it, or you could have done it." Thank you Jennifer for sharing your story! To visit Jennifer's website click http://www.stylease.com or email JennHughes@stylease.com. | ||||||
