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Inventive Parent |
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The Dream |
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Sharon Mullen was the mom of a baby who would only
nap in a moving car. Their baby was born early
and wee–giving them plenty of time to become
accustomed to the covers for infant carriers. When he finally hit 20
pounds, they were shocked to learn that there were no
attachable blankets for one-year-olds! Mullen's family liked to take walks in Harvard Square, but were constantly fighting blankets that would fall off, drag on the ground or blow in the wind. The concept for The Original Car Seat Cozy was born, followed, after considerable work, by the blanket itself. It was wonderful to have blankets stay in place on a car seat, in a jogger or bike seat. Soon friends and strangers were asking for their own Cozy. Mullen had wanted to start a business for years, and finally found herself in the perfect position to tackle that dream. Mullen attended an international showcase of juvenile products to learn more about the industry. At the show she saw many other products invented by parents. Believing that products invented by parents out of necessity were inherently better than those dreamed up in a corporate laboratory, she decided to open an on-line shop carrying other high quality products invented by parents for their children. Within months Mullen added The Original Cozy To Go! and the Cozy Head Hat as well as four other manufacturers' products to my store. The small shop was called "Sharon’s Solutions." |
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Inventive Parent is Born |
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With the
addition of several more parent-invented products, Mullen was focusing on the
retail establishment as much as manufacturing. It was time for a new
identity. The
Inventive Parent web site was launched in June, 2000.
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5th Anniversary Brings Big Changes |
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By the time Inventive Parent turned Five, it had outgrown our various
facilities in New Hampshire and our staff. That summer we moved our
stock to a warehouse in Denver to better serve our customers across the
nation. We also started planning a relocation to sunny Florida.
Winters that were too cold, springs that were too wet left us excited
about this big change. Little did we know that the day we had planned to arrive at our new location a hurricane named Wilma would also visit. We diverted to Atlanta for almost two weeks, waiting for the lights to come back on. We lost our phone numbers, and worked with personal cell phones for weeks. It has been a very interesting, and challenging move. Throughout this process, our customers have been understanding and wonderful. Orders were still going out on time, all data remained secure and encrypted, but our ability to reach, and be reached by, our customers was challenging. As we look toward 2006 we have small goals, like getting our phones back, and larger goals, like opening a retail location for our hundreds of internet customers in Southern Florida. Stay tuned! |
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We
work hard to keep our prices and shipping rates
fair, and our service personal . We have a "No
Peanuts" packing policy that saves you clean-up and helps to keep our
costs down. We publish an Opt-In Newsletter to
announce new products, special offers and tell the stories of our
inventive parents. We publish a listing of the
current car seat laws for the United States and Canada. To aid other
parents with an idea, we offer a collection of links and some advice to
get them started. Along this line, I given lectures for 2nd graders,
professional inventors and others in between. Our incredible success story is entirely due to our customers--parents and grandparents, expectant parents and their friends--coming back time and again to purchase these great products from us. Most customers continue to find our web site through search engines and from links on other sites, but fully 20% are referred by friends. We am very proud of that, and will continue to work to earn your trust and confidence in the quality of the products we carry and our customer service. We thank you for our success. Please visit our web site, and tell your friends! |
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Giving Back |
| Inventive Parent believes in supporting our community. Cozy!s are donated to KIDS (Kids in Distressed Situations) annually. We donate thousands of dollars of products to various PBS auctions across the country. Newsletter subscribers are offered the opportunity to donate a percentage of their purchase to selected organizations and charities. Our staff volunteers their time to CASA/GAL and Fresh Air programs. |
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© Sharon's Solutions, Inventive Parent 2000-2005 |