Another Entreprenuer Filling a Niche – Honeywear, Inc

by smallbizbee · 0 comments

As entrepreneurs we all understand how important, and profitable, filling a niche can be. Sometimes finding a niche can be as easy as thinking of products or services we wish existed, and instead of waiting for somebody else to bring them to market, doing it ourselves. That's exactly what Christen Ward of Honeywear, Inc has done with her company.

As you can see Christen is getting a lot of attention due to her unique approach to a product she (and many others) needed, and all of her hard work is really paying off! Her company recently caught the eyes of Forbes.com and their "Boost Your Business" contest, where she found out she was one of the finalist.

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By: Christen Ward

Honeywear is a company committed to producing functional, locally made products in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. About 3 years ago, we (Christen Ward and Kristin Keliher) could not find a made in the USA baby carrier to suit our needs, so we created one! As soon as we began using our creation, we knew we would have to share it with everyone! We saw an amazing business opportunity to market something that was uniquely ours while filling a market niche. With that in mind, we incorporated as Honeywear, Inc. in January of 2007.

We started Honeywear with essentially no capital, which has been one of the biggest challenges, but also one of our best assets. The small amount of capital made production challenging, limited our funds for marketing and PR and prevented us from taking salaries. However, without major loans, we have been able to turn a profit in under 2 years! And through determination and grassroots marketing we have achieved brand recognition.

Around May of 2008, we were notified of a national competition, put on by Forbes.com—the annual Boost Your Business Contest, with a grand prize of $100,000. Honeywear, along with 1500 other national applicants, sent Forbes a 500 word synopsis of their business plans. From those, the contestants were narrowed to 20 by a panel of judges. We were absolutely thrilled when we received the notification that we were in the top 20. In order to make it to the final round, each company needed online votes. The 5 companies with the most online votes would move into the final round. Honeywear finished in 3^rd place. In the beginning of October, our letter of notification informed us that we would be flying to New York for a 10 minute presentation of our product and company. The presentation was to be in front of a panel of judges, all of whom are high powered executives. We were also notified that we would have 1 week to rewrite our business plan to the specifications of Forbes.com and to prepare our presentation.

The presentation went better than we could have ever expected. It will be aired, along with the other 4 finalists, on Forbes.com on Monday, November 3^rd. The winner is determined 50% on the judges’ opinions of our business and 50% on public voting. Get involved and help a small business get major capital! To help Honeywear win, you can vote from the Honeywear website, www.honeywear.net. Just click on the Boost Your Business button from the Honeywear home page!