Welcome to our campaign! ♥ ♥ ♥ I am Lacy Pontes, the owner and creator of Starlight Stitches, a small, handmade children's clothing and cloth diaper business. I am a mom to 2 year old identical twins, Orion and Sunny. They are my drive, my passion, my life.
My husband, Jeff, and I have been dreaming for some time about a new business model. One that supports stay-at-home parents in contributing to their household income without having to send their children off for care. One that builds a community, provides a support system, and inspires creativity.
Well, just recently we snagged an opportunity to bring this dream into reality. We rented a commercial/retail space and have hired 15 amazing women who share our passions about supporting small businesses, providing quality, handmade items. We have turned a portion of our retail space into a children's school/play place, another part into a retail showroom, and the rest of the area is becoming a fun, vibrant, work space.
Our work place is structured so that the moms (or dads) working can bring their children to work with them to participate in a safe, fun, engaging environment that fosters social interaction, learning, and creativity. Instead of hiring child care workers to staff the "school" and requiring our employees to pay for childcare, each employee takes turns in the kid's room. They are responsible for coming up with fun and stimulating activities. This promotes parent involvement in their children’s learning and allow the children to get all of the benefits of a traditional preschool without paying the high price for low quality care. We also provide the opportunity for moms to wear their little babes in a baby carrier while they work.
Starlight Stitches has been in business, providing quality handmade products for children, for about 1 1/2 years. The feedback and support we have received from our customers has been enormous. We love striving to provide the very best products and service to each and every customer. We are constantly learning from our mistakes, listening to our customers, and improving our processes.
We are so ecstatic to be able to expand our little business, make more products, expand our retail sale of other amazing products, and build on the incredible community that we have already started to form! This revolutionary business model, however, will not generate a profit as quickly as a traditional business. That is where you can help! Your support through purchasing perks, sharing with your friends, and helping to spread the word about our business will help us to grow this little business into something truly incredible! ♥ ♥ ♥
How much do we need?
To start off, our goal is only to reach $7,500. This number is our break-even point for the campaign (so we will definitely be shooting for some stretch goals once we reach this point).
Breakdown of expenses for $7,500 of campaign perk sales:
$4,700 - Perk fulfillment (product, materials, and labor)
$650 - Campaign advertising and giveaway prizes
$600 - Unplanned campaign expenses (margin of error)
$550 - PayPal and Indiegogo fees
$1000 - A month of rent to stay afloat
What do you get?
So, now you must be excited to learn about the AMAZING perks we are offering! We have compiled a huge assortment of products that are fun, inspiring, handmade, or eco-friendly. There is something here for everyone! Due to limited space here on Indiegogo, we have set up a blog page for each more detailed information on each of our perks. Click on the links below to get the scoop on all of these incredible products!
Special Surprise Perks
We also have some exciting surprises coming. Each week we are going to feature two special perks from two amazing WAHMs (work-at-home-moms). We will announce these special perks each Friday and they will be available to purchase the following Monday. These special perks will only be available for ONE week each! Make sure to check back frequently to see what new, exciting products are available.
Fabric Prints
For this campaign we have 3 very special fabric designs that are being printed just for us. We have made limited amounts of these designs available to other WAHMs and home sewists. Many of our perks offer these 3 prints as design choices. We hope that you love them as much as we do!
Perks
Timeframe
Most of the products we are offering as perks are handmade, therefore they take time to produce. We plan to combine every supporters perks into one fabulous package. We will begin shipping packages as soon as every perk for the package is finished. Ready made perks, such as the Sensitive Plant Kits or LooHoo Wool Dryer Balls, will ship as soon as we have them as long as there are no other items in that we are waiting on.
The Impact
We are so excited and passionate about the work that we are doing and the business model that we have created. We hope that with your support, we can work out the kinks so that other businesses can take on this model. We truly believe that it can become the way we work in the future (just as it was done in the distant past). It seems to be the natural, biological way. Parents should be able to stay with their children and still contribute to their household's income.
Other Ways You Can Help
A campaign like this can only be successful if people know about it. Sharing with your friends, family, and social networks, will mean the world to us! There are links above that you can click to easily share with your social networks (you can even win some amazing prizes by sharing). Have a blog, please type up a quick post. Know someone who might like one of our perks, send them a quick email (or even better, a handwritten note). You can also help by just leaving us a quick comment on this page! We appreciate you! ♥
Want to win some cool swag?
Weekly Giveaways
Each week throughout the campaign period, we will be hosting a giveaway of some of our best perks. Make sure to check back or join our newsletter to get the details on each one.
REFERRAL GIVEAWAY
Want to win an incredible prize package worth over $600 or $350 CASH? All you have to do is SHARE!
Click here to get the details!
