Mother Earth And Baby Started Locally, Markets Globally

By John Voket

Parents of young children, who may be in the market for illuminated fingernail clippers, organic nursery disinfectant, or Kicky Pants, take note: a couple of your Newtown neighbors have just the website you have been looking for. Terri Scinto originally established A Little Girl’s World as an online presence in 2003, soon after her little girl Carolanne was born.

“I wanted to give her the best of everything; boutique quality clothing, the perfect nursery, beautiful, quality dolls and accessories, and of course, safe skin care products,” Ms Scinto said. “But if you’re like me, you love the designer look, but not the designer prices.”

In 2005, Ms Scinto decided to add organic clothing, diapers, toys and skin care, as well as beautiful gifts for moms and moms-to-be, and she launched the expanded company as Mother Earth and Baby. In late 2007, Ms Scinto met her new business partner, Judy Dubois, through St Rose of Lima where they both attend with their families.

As a mother of four, an active volunteer, and experienced computer systems analyst, Ms Dubois brought a wealth of knowledge to Mother Earth and Baby. In a few short weeks, the partners made some significant improvements from redesigning the look of the company’s website to adding many new products.

“We’ve essentially grown the business from a boutique to a big box store, but on line,” Ms Scinto said while looking over the newly designed website with her partner at Ms Dubois’ Botsford home.

“You can see the navigation is easy with a lot of images and very little text,” Ms Dubois added. Ms Scinto admits that when she originally opened the retail website, she had very little experience in retail and even less experience being a mom.

 “With a lot of research, I was able to find the right areas to advertise, and learned how to optimize my site so that it came up more frequently on the first page when someone Googled a keyword,” she said.

The other challenge was, of course, cash flow and managing the business as it grew, which drove her decision to bring on a business partner to help divide up the workload. About that same time, Mother Earth and Baby also expanded behind the scenes as the US wholesaler for a UK company that manufactures baby and maternity clothing out of bamboo.

“I couldn’t manage the wholesale aspect of the business, as well as the retail site without some help,” she said. “After much thought and of course research, I decided the best way to go was with a business partner.”

Ms Dubois has some experience with children’s products having four children of her own, including 7-year-old twins.

“After having been a stay-at-home mom for ten years and keeping at very busy pace, I started to think….now what can I do? I was keeping my ears open for job opportunities but nothing seemed to excite me,” Ms Dubois said.

But the minute she started talking to Ms Scinto about her business, it appeared to be a perfect fit.

“It is a career where I can still be dedicated to my kids when they need me and also give back to other moms by offering a selection of products for the loves of their lives,” Ms Dubois said. “With four children I shop online all the time, with the many activities the kids are involved in I have a hard time getting out of Newtown.”

Now that the two Newtown web entrepreneurs have forged a symbiotic relationship, they are busy getting to know the many aspects of their growing product line, as well as traveling to trade shows where they can see and order some of the hottest new baby and parent accessories, fashions, and care products.

“Judy and I recently returned from the ENK Children’s Show in New York City and were very excited at the beautiful new organic lines available,” Ms Scinto said. “Even though we are an online boutique, we are Newtowners at heart and hope to market ourselves more locally.

“We are currently in the process of expanding our Nursery line to include cribs, dressers, changing tables, bedding, etc, and this month with springtime weather on the way, we are featuring things like jogging strollers,” Ms Scinto said.

Responding toward a global movement to organic and green products, the pair is also converting their full line baby and toddler apparel over to all organic cottons and bamboo.

“At one time organic clothing came only in natural, beige and brown tones, but we are now seeing much trendier and colorful selections hitting the market,” Ms Dubois said.

One of the pair’s absolute favorite products, which they started seeing recently at trade shows like the ENK event, is the BabyChime necklace.

“These sterling silver necklaces come on a 34-inch chain designed to rest on the mommy’s growing belly,” Ms Scinto said. “At birth, the baby can recognize the sound and associates the soothing sound with the feelings of being in the womb, such as comfort and security.”

“Our SaraBear diaper caddy’s, phthalate-free skin care products, and bamboo clothing lines are also extremely popular,” Ms Dubois said. And the partners are also researching an expanding line of chemical-free organic cleaning and disinfecting products for the home.

At Mother Earth and Baby, the partners strongly believe in giving back to the community as well. A portion of their profits go to Carolyn’s Place, a pregnancy resource center that provides confidential services to pregnant women in need.

Meg Arena, a regular customer and Monroe resident has been thrilled with the company’s philosophy, and the products she has obtained as gifts since her own children are older.

“These are things I haven’t seen in stores, and the quality is exceptional,” Ms Arena said. “I work so I don’t have time to go to ten stores looking for these things.”

Ms Arena said when she does occasionally run across similar products in a retail store, the prices tend to be much higher than at Mother Earth and Baby website.

“And being here locally, Terri even delivers the orders to me personally,” Ms Arena said.

Visit Ms Scinto and Ms Dubois’ Internet site at Motherearthandbaby.com.