Concretizing Ideas

Time flies when you have some interesting projects on-going. Since the last blog post I started one long term project, again, and now I have three of those. Those long term projects have been running since 2006, 2008 and now 10/2010. If someone is still wondering what projects am I referring, I am talking about my kids. Those little ones are fulfilling  every spare time that I and my wife have and I am not complaining. It is fun to notice how two adults can adapt themselves to different situations several times per day and how things must be organized with small kids. This is also learning  process.

The Original Need

A while ago I wrote about moving ideas forward and now I like to tell something about what my wife has been doing lately. My wife is very pragmatic person and she has a lot of good ideas, I almost envy her. As I said we got baby few weeks ago and naturally we have been waiting him 9-months before birth. During that time my wife was thinking about different choices of early bed to our new born baby and when suitable bed was not found she got an idea.

Simple Idea

In Finland we have an social insurance institution called KELA that offers benefits for families with children (and lots more). One benefit is maternity package that is kind of starter kit for all mothers in Finland. It is a box fulfilled with different products which baby needs like clothes, blankets and other useful stuff. The box itself can be used as a early bed for baby, but it is little bit boring. My wife got an idea where she decided to sew kind of bag where box is inserted. The bag itself contains harness that are used for hanging the installation for example to ceiling. Now we have the hanging early cot that is lightweight, affordable and available for every mother in Finland who has accepted the benefit from KELA

Bootstrapping UINUA.COM

When I saw it for the first time, I felt that it is an idea that must move forward. I said to my wife that she must start to sell those early cots online. Why online? The barrier in starting the online business is low and so are the costs. I think this is a good way to test ideas and now the UINUA.COM is bootstrapping. The first challenge, starting the on-line business was easy, but second challenge is much more bigger. How to get visibility, how to get people on the site, how to build brand: so there are many marketing challenges!

This story will continue!