Creativity has certainly fueled Heather's
success, but she feels that her persistence and perseverance have been a big
help along the way. For instance, "creating" the Pet Virus was just the
first step; executing the idea and producing the Pet Virus was a process in
itself, a process that illustrates Heather's persistence.
Whimsies! by DDesign
is a home-based business based near Montreal, Quebec. In the beginning, Heather
and her family started making Pet Viruses by hand. The prototypes were
problematical, however; Heather wanted the Pet Virus to have fur of a particular
lime green shade. She went through an extensive program of searching and
experimenting, even at one point trying to dye white fur herself, a failure that
ended up looking like someone's used bathmat. The fur she wanted was impossible to
find in Canada and too expensive in the United States. Finally she was able to find the fur at a
reasonable price from a supplier in England.
The next stage was
marketing. Heather credits word-of-mouth for her sales figures to date,
especially her family, friends, and work buddies who "were so pleased with
their products that they 'spread the word'". In fact, the word spread so
well that Heather and her family couldn't keep up with the large number of
orders. She needed to find a manufacturer. An intensive search on the Net, by
telephone, by email, by fax, and by snail mail led to a company in China that now
produces the Pet Virus.
As you see, Heather doesn't believe in settling for second best. She believes
that if your
product is of the best possible quality, you'll be even more proud of it.
When Heather created the Pet Virus, she had a definitive vision of the finished
product; it just had to be a neon or lime green and extra furry. Even though the
"right" fur was very difficult to track down, she refused to allow her
product to be compromised and kept searching until she found exactly what she
wanted.
Heather's goal for 2001 is to have a Pet Virus in every home housing a
computer. To accomplish this, she plans to "market, market, market!"
So selling the Pet Virus and her personalized
cartoons over the Internet was a natural step. Before Heather could create her own Web site,
though, she needed to learn HTML. While Heather describes this as "a lot of
headaches with countless error messages", creating her own Web site and
getting it online is the achievement she's most proud of to date.
"There's no such thing as can't; if they can do it, you can
do it," says Heather. Her advice to someone who'd like to start a business?
"Believe in your product. Be proud and excited about your product. If you
look at your product and you get goosebumps, this is good!" And no matter
what happens, "Don't give up too quickly. Believe in yourself.
First page > Whimsies by DDesign
> Page 1,
2, 3
You can contact Heather Diodati at info@whimsies-online.com or
visit her Whimsies Online Web site.
Other Feature Articles
|
~ FREE NEWSLETTER ~
|
|
Keep up to date with all the new resources
in Small Business: Canada by signing up for the
free weekly newsletter
|
|
~ DISCUSSIONS ~
|
|
Have your say and give us your views on these
current topics
| Recent Discussions |
 |
| Small Business: Canada |
| Join these forum conversations |
| |
|
|
|
|
Start a chat now!
Disclaimer: The Canadian
Small Business of the Month feature is provided for information purposes only.
If you would like your business to be considered as The Canadian Small Business
of The Month, email me at sbinfocanada.guide@about.com, and I'll
send you a questionnaire. While completing a questionnaire is no guarantee of
being featured in this series of articles, all completed questionnaires will be
considered.
