Momma Business

Darien Wilson
Austin, Texas
Mother of Zoe, 5, and Clark 1½
ZoloWear, a company that sells stylish baby slings (zolowear.com).

How I Did It

I started out selling just around Austin. I got involved with a group of local businesswomen called Coo de Tot. They were all making things for babies and helping each other find suppliers. Then my husband, a computer programmer, built our website. Our friend is a web designer, so I slipcovered his couch in exchange for design work on the site.

What Inspired Me

When I went shopping for a sling to carry Zoe, the only fabrics that were available were a plain chambray and a Noah’s ark print – and neither one fit my taste. So I sewed a sling in a pretty fabric, and people started asking me where I got it.

Money Matters

We sank more than $15,000 of our personal savings into the business over the first couple of years. The fabric is expensive, so you have to buy it in big batches to get a good discount. When we went from hand sewing the slings to factory production, our sales took a huge jump, because we had more stock and could ship out products much faster. We turned our first profit in 2004, our third year in business.

Toughest Day on the Job

We were moving to our new house, I had a 4-month-old, and I had to drive down to the new factory to oversee production. My baby cried for the entire four-hour drive. When I arrived, they said they couldn’t do the work that day. I’ve since moved production to another factory.

Best Thing About Being the Boss

I’ll never grow tired of hearing how much people love “wearing” their babies and how beautiful the slings look and feel.