The SBDC staff at the Central Florida Development Council does not wait for clients to enter the doors; they go out into the community and spread the word about the services that the SBDC has to offer. It was during one such outreach activity at the Rochelle School of the Arts that Doretha Brooks was introduced to entrepreneur, Tangela Walker-Craft of Lakeland.
Mrs. Walker-Craft had recently started a small business to create and produce a product called the “Go Pillow”. This invention was created as a result of her issues with breast feeding her infant daughter in public. She decided that she needed an arm cover, not just for breastfeeding, but for cradling her baby and for privacy. From these needs she created one pillow for mothers to use while creating a pillow with many uses.
Watching and waiting for avenues that would support her product, she involved herself with the Parents of Invention website and submitted her idea. At this juncture she decided to market her product and develop her company, Simply Necessary, Inc. The “Go Pillow” is a family event with her mother, as co-owner and her daughter, as the inspiration for the product. Her website www.simplynecessary.com allows buyers to log on to view the product and place orders.
While Mrs. Walker-Craft was well on her way at the initial meeting with Brooks, avenues for distribution, bar code requirements, and packaging remained on the drawing board. From its inception, the “Go Pillow” team aligned themselves with professionals that were veterans in business for mentoring. After learning about the SBDC services, she began counseling sessions making use of many lines of communications. She expressed that the SBDC helps small business owners make the right connections by offering networking opportunities and providing answers to business questions; SBDC is there to help every step of the way.
According to Brooks, she is an ideal client. The petite lady with the big idea gathered information, did her research, joined forces and aligned herself with others in the business, believes in her product and works hard to market her product from where ever she stands. As her sales increase slowly and her product enters the marketplace the “Go Pillow” has been featured on local channels 8, 9, and 10. A recent trip to New York provided an opportunity in New York Metro Parent Magazine and the Walgreens Store in the Empire State Building Plaza. The “Go Pillow” can also be found in local Walgreens Stores. We await the continued growth of pillow talk.
