Chatterbox: Blog Central

Summer is just around the corner. Time for longer days, melting ice cream cones, camping trips and sunburns… Don’t you just love summertime?! I still can’t shake that adolescent excitement that overwhelms me just as May gives way to June. Although as adults, we don’t have summer camp or sleepovers to look forward to, we do have backyard BBQ’s, 4th of July celebrations and lots of adorable little tots to keep us busy all summer long.

Now that you know the crew, let me tell you about their antics. My dogs have the primo life. We live on 10 acres. All the dogs in the neighborhood are free to roam. Typically, they stay home.

I just picked up a wonderful donation from Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley for the Bailey Baio Angel Foundation Celebrity Baby Yard Sale. It’s an adorable baby carrier signed by both of them and made out of Amy Butler fabric, and it’ll be auctioned on ebay during the first half of June. We’ve sent the Paisleys just about every type of BopStarBaby Basket over the past couple of years; Kimberly even asked us to put together a special one before she delivered their new son Jasper a few months ago.

This past week has been seriously unpredictable, and not in a good way. We have had a few bad storms these past few days, and last night being the worst. I looked outside and it was basically a hurricane type whatever, even though we are not even in Hurricane season.
The bad thing is these storms cause my Internet to go WACCO and it turn reflects on me not getting any computer work done at all. I have two trade shows coming up within the next couple of weeks so I’m scarily a little behind.

You’ve decided you want a sales rep and you’ve decided you’re ready for one too. The next step is defining what sort of sales rep you should hire. I’m using the word “hire” pretty loosely here… If you want to work with an independent sales rep, both of you create a contractual relationship rather than an employer/employee relationship. You don’t typically pay an independent sales rep benefits or withhold taxes from her commission check. If the relationship ends, the sales rep won’t receive unemployment benefits. These are some of the legal reasons why sales reps are independent.

Just for fun, here’s a list of commonly used acronyms. Many are specific to the kid’s industry. Some are general business terms. A few are just for fun.

Your task? Define all these acronyms correctly, including the bonus questions. Post your answer in The Giggle Guide “Comments” section. The first respondent with a perfect score will receive a Baby Prize Pack from LJBryn&Co. including: Doctor T’s Super Goop SPF 30 organic sunscreen, Scout Baby Organics bodysuit and an Itzy Ritzy wet bag.

The winner, and all correct answers, will be announced next week.

  1. SBO
  2. COB
  3. ROI

I’ll be headed out to LA next week to help Renee Baio with the first Bailey Baio Angel Foundation Celebrity Baby Yard Sale (www.baileybaioangelfoundation.com), so I’ve been rounding up donations for the cause. Our BopStarBaby vendors have been so generous, we’ve been able to fill one of our biggest baskets! It’s going to be the grand prize for a raffle we’ll hold at the Yard Sale.

I just received the June issue of Pregnancy & Newborn - thrilled to see coverage for two BopStar-PR clients! No Slippy Hair Clippy® in the “Haute Tots” section, and Elegant Baby’s silver feeding spoon in “Cravings.”

I’m going to tell you flat out that if you’ve designed a tee shirt line and have a collection of 6 or 8 tees that have done pretty well when you’ve sold them at your local Mom2Mom or craft show, you’re not ready for a rep—yet. How can you get your line ready for a rep, and the increased sales that go hand in hand?

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