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A Stay at Home Dad and
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Here's the story from our entrepreneur's point of view.
Sandbox Threads - or -
How I Became a Stay at Home Entrepreneur
This chapter of my story begins with a new job in a new state and a new baby to boot. To top it off, mom is now the bread winner and working full-time, and I find myself wearing the label of stay at home dad, a label I have learned to love.The next chapter focuses on baby clothes. My wife and I were fortunate to have been given almost an entire first year wardrobe for our son when he was born. Lots and lots of cute baby gear. Over the course of the first few months, I found myself wanting to dress him in something other than duckies and doggies.
Then our favorite auntie gave Ben a shirt that was more our style (a bit off color and certainly funny). She complained that she had searched for a hip baby shirt for quite some time, but had little luck finding one.
It turns out that she paid nearly $30 for the shirt. I thought thirty dollars for a t-shirt was ridiculous. I started searching the internet for similar styles, and while I found a few places, the search left me wanting more and for much less. From this internet search, an idea was hatched.
New babies sleep quite a bit, and during naptime this stay at home dad had plenty of time to draw up plans for an online business. My desire to do so was three fold. First, a second source of income would allow me to continue to stay at home with my son. Secondly, there seemed to be a hole in the baby clothes market, and I believed that I could find a way to fill the gap. Finally, I felt something was missing in me. I didn’t feel emasculated, but I did feel a need to contribute to our family in addition to taking care of Ben.
Over the course of the next few months while I took care of my quickly growing son, I dove into researching web design, clothing distributors, graphic design programs, and web hosting options. I also created designs that I wanted Ben to wear. I created onesies and shirts that featured a ’57 Caddy grill, the Animal House inspired Preschool (in place of College), and even one with Jon Stewart. Now, all of the pieces have nearly fallen into place, and the store, SandboxThreads.com, will open on March 15.
I know that I just said all of the pieces are nearly in place, and that is true, but I don’t want to gloss over the effort this endeavor has involved. I have worked to put the pieces together myself, and done all of the work from my laptop computer at home. So far, this is truly a home-based business, and completely stay at home dad operated.
And, you know what? If Sandbox Threads is a huge success or if it doesn’t take off at all, for this stay at home dad it already feels like a success. Conceptualizing, creating, building, and designing Sandbox Threads has given me a feeling of accomplishment, and allowed me to put my skills and creativity to use. I love staying at home with my son and taking care of him, but I have to admit that this feeling of accomplishment feels good, too.I don’t yet know what will happen when Sandbox Threads opens for business next week, but I am hopeful that others might find a unique, quality product for kids. Meanwhile, I’ll chalk this one up as something I’m proud of creating.
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