New Seminar Equips Children’s Wholesale and Retail Start-Ups with Market Insight

The Baby & Children’s Business Resources Group launches with its flagship product, an intensive online orientation package that is designed to ground mompreneurs and other aspiring business owners in the concepts, realities and knowledge they’ll need to launch a successful wholesale or retail children’s product company. Through live instruction, participants will learn about product development, production, sourcing, sales, marketing, public relations and social media.

The Baby & Children’s Business Resources Group is a co-op relationship between Caletha Crawford, a children’s apparel consultant and a professor at Parsons The New School for design; Christine McCarthy, owner of CMSM, LLC children’s wear management & consultant; and Bruce Scheck, president of the Children’s Credit Co-op, Inc., provider of credit information to children’s wear, shoe & accessory companies. Combined they have more than 40 years of expertise in the baby and children’s apparel and accessories industry. Through their own consultancies, these experts nurture business growth on a one-on-one basis. With this new orientation, they are answering a need in the market for a one-stop resource dedicated to assisting new and aspiring business owners.

“Most new retailers and designers enter the industry and learn by trial and error. It’s costly and it undermines their ability to build a sustainable business model,” says Caletha Crawford. “The Baby & Children’s Business Resources Group orientation provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to make sound business decisions that will start them off on the right foot.”

Through the Baby & Children’s Business Resources Group orientation, participants are immersed in crucial children’s product manufacturing and retail concepts and facts that help them to:
• Become familiar with the major wholesale and retail players in the industry
• Understand their target consumers: parents, grands, gift-givers and kids
• Learn about the relative viability of each product category
• Learn about the wholesale sales calendar and trade show protocols
• Identify the best way to wholesale their goods
• Understand how to develop products/retail concepts that cater to their market
• Think like a retailer/buyer
• Know how to appeal to the press and understand social media
• Learn how to gather credit information and arrange credit terms with your customers
• Set up your accounts receivable functions and back office

“The industry has changed so much in the last few years that it’s not as easy as it used to be to launch into this market. In addition to a fractured retail environment and evolving consumer tastes, the shift in the economy has had the biggest impact,” says Scheck, owner of the Children’s Credit Co-Op. “It’s more imperative than ever for startups to sort out their back office and understand the impact of potential credit and collections issues.”
The orientation package starts as low as $1,500. With that fee, participants are also entitled to 10 percent off subsequent individual services with any of the Baby & Children’s Business Resources Group members for up to six months.

“By gaining insights into how the children’s products industry works, business owners can better determine the best way to position their collections or stores,” says Christine McCarthy, owner of sales management consultancy CMSM, LLC. “And since the Baby & Children’s Business Resources Group orientation is conducted live, we’re also able to customize each presentation so that it’s specific to each participant’s concept.”
In addition to this introductory orientation, the group can also develop seminars to suit entrepreneurs who have more experience.

About the BCBRG members:

Caletha Crawford is a children’s apparel consultant who has spent more than eight years covering the industry, most recently as editor in chief of Earnshaw’s magazine. Caletha has a unique perspective on the concepts, designs and companies that resonate with retailers and consumers. Consulting with both established brands as well as start-up companies in this market allows her to use her passion for helping designers bolster the business side of their labels. Her services include public relations, marketing, branding and social networking. In an effort to usher in the next generation of design talent, she also teaches and produces special events at Parsons The New School for Design. Visit www.calethacrawford.com or email

Christine McCarthy launched CMSM, LLC in 2008 after more than a decade in the children’s apparel business. She has served as Director of Sales and Merchandising for a variety of companies. With a background in retail buying and sales, she helps merchandise and streamline collections and she places lines and handles sales for collections through her carefully vetted network of sales reps in the U.S. and Canada. Christine specializes in working closely with manufacturers and reps, keeping both sides in mind while helping to achieve the one thing both want, a growing business. Visit cmsmllc.com or email .

Bruce Scheck has been in the children’s wear industry since 1986, first as a salesman and later as a credit manager. In 1993, his company joined the Credit Co-Op, and it was exactly the type of service that it needed in order to avoid wasting time checking multiple credit references. Immediately, the time spent performing credit checks was cut to almost nothing as did the company’s bad debt write offs and time spent chasing after late payers. Bruce believed in the company so much that three years later, he joined the Credit Co-Op as a credit analyst. Today, he owns the business, which is the only credit bureau that specializes in the children’s apparel, shoe & accessory retail industry. Visit www.childrenscreditco-op.com or email .