Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Mompreneur Spotlight: Myrtle&Flossie

I'm excited to share with you my official first Mompreneur Spotlight featuring Nia Reid-Allen of Myrtle&Flossie. As a fellow NYC mom, Nia and I met last year when I was new to Jersey City and as a fellow business owner and mom to a little girl we hit it off!

Nia's online boutique Myrtle&Flossie has a curated specialized collection of the latest and innovative items in the world of maternity. Myrtle & Flossie caters to the specialized and specific needs of moms and their babies with quality organic, eco-friendly bath/body products, key essential baby items, chic, fashionable, and most importantly comfortable clothing that can be worn before, during, after pregnancy.

Let's meet Nia . . .

Nia , owner of Myrtle&Flossie, with her daughter
What inspired you to create Myrtle&Flossie and where did the name come from? 

I was inspired to create Myrtle&Flossie from the lack of a central or rather concise store in my area where mothers could get specialty items for themselves and their babies. When I moved from Brooklyn to Jersey City about two years ago, I noticed when we came to the neighborhood I saw mostly families and babies; literally 8 out of 10 women I would see walking down the street was pushing some high tech new innovative stroller. I started thinking to myself, Do I need to be pregnant to live here?” Well my answer came shortly after because three weeks after the move, I too was pregnant. 

During the beginning stages of my pregnancy, I was still traveling to NY for everything that I needed, but after I hit the the 7 month mark the thought of going up and down subway stairs, walking 1-2 miles to get to various stores in the city to get what I needed etc… that was not appealing anymore. Once again I started to think to myself, “Why in the world is there no store in my area that would cater to all these women knowing there is a high percentage of pregnant and expecting mothers?"  

As I was preparing to give birth to my daughter, I gave birth to the idea for Myrtle&Flossie. The name comes from my two maternal and paternal grandmothers which are also the middle names of me and my sister. This is a way my grandmothers' names and presence will continue on long after them. 

Homemade organic body butter
As a wife, business-owner and mother what advice do you have to fellow women trying to juggle multiple roles? What are strategies that work for you?
 

The best advice I can give is to literally take one step or do one thing at a time. It is imperative if you want to get anything done in a day's time to set a goal of maybe three things you want to accomplish for the day, set the necessary time for each task, and spend the time within the structure you set to get those things done. Being a person in the past that was used to frantically doing multiple things, task, everything,  etc… at once, I too had to slow down. I had no choice once I became pregnant and definitely after (where the real work comes in to play) my body physically would not let me spin my wheels, and emotionally I couldn’t handle the stress anymore of trying to accomplish getting everything done under the sun in 60 seconds or less type of energy. Funny enough, when I started setting a few things that I would get done for the day, setting the time allotment accordingly, not only did I achieve my goals, but had extra time. It is very true that Rome was not built in a day…..

What has been your most challenging entrepreneurial moment and how did you overcome it?

My most challenging entrepreneurial moment was trying to get what I believe is a great concept to the masses - ultimately providing one stop shopping for mama and baby. I am in the process of overcoming this challenge by participating in high end street markets during the summer where I will have a physical presence (follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and soon to come Myrtle&Flossie blog to find out where I will be next), being featured online, in magazines and most recently included in Mommebox, a subscription box service for moms.

This versatile top can be worn before, during and after pregnancy
What is your best-selling item and personally, what is your favorite item? 

My post popular items are the handmade diaper covers, re-usable diapers and collection of chic, fashionable, and comfortable clothing that can be worn at any stage, most importantly post pregnancy (where the challenge of dressing your body comes into play). Also my quality, handmade, organic and eco-friendly line of bath and body products for mama, baby and the entire family.   

The Baby Travel toiletry kit is a must this travel season!
My favorite item is within my Ian's Secret product line - a "Baby Travel" toiletry kit which contains quality, organic, eco-friendly products for your little ones special skin needs in a neat, concise TSA-approved travel bag. It makes less time worrying what to bring, and more time to enjoy your family vacation!     
 
Be sure to stop by Myrtle&Flossie and take a look around because I'll be back at the end of the month with a giveaway from the shop for one of my readers!