Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What's In A Name?


The other day I was surfing the net and thinking about the number of businesses that serve mothers and babies. Boy there are a lot of them! As I read the various names I got the thinking about how it is they chose that particular name and I recalled a customer who questioned the name of my store.

She came in with her pregnant daughter looking to purchase a birth pool. After walking around the store for several minutes she presented the pool at the cash counter. Her comment to me was "Birth Source, this place should be called Baby Source. There isn't much for birth here". I briefly explained to her that not all of the "birth supplies" are out on the floor and pointed out that we did carry various other products that are "birth" related. She seemed unimpressed all the same and I let it go.

Once again I recalled another customer, a labour and delivery nurse from the Royal Alexandra hospital as I would discover. She had a cautious look on her face when she walked through the door and when I greeted her she told me she was looking for a baby carrier. After we found one for her and she picked up several other items she told me that she was initially nervous about shopping at Birth Source because of the doula connection. Apparently she had met some doulas she didn't care for. I guess a store run by a doula would be..."crunchy"?? I am happy to say that a nice conversation about doulas ensued and she left the store feeling much more at ease about shopping here and hopefully doulas as well.

So why Birth Source Inc.? Well the Inc. is kind of obvious, but where did Birth Source come from? Once upon a time almost 6 years ago I met a woman and fellow doula, Sandra Bilodeau whom I got to know over a period of months. We agreed there was a strong connection between one another both professionally and personally and soon after decided to become partners and as such needed a business name.

We brainstormed together, poured over our list, wrote out our choices several times and finally rested on Birth Source. This title would best describe our services in a nutshell. We were a "Source" for doula services, childbirth education, information and yes even some products back then. I enjoyed a very successful and happy partnership with Sandra until her husbands' Canadian military career took her back to Ontario.

A couple of years later after much contemplation and dreaming my website and resource center/ retail store was born. The question was would Birth Source the name still work? I would be carrying much more than birth products in the store, and doing more than prenatal classes. I would be offering supplies, gifts, products and services for both mothers and professionals that would span the childbearing year and just beyond. Was "Birth Source" too ambiguous? I decided perhaps so, but it would still be the umbrella for all the services I hope and plan to offer to the families in my community. It was born out of a love of serving women and families and that still remains. My good friend and partner Sandra and I lovingly chose it and I would like to hang on to that very happy time in my life.

So if it seems like a curious name for a store it is my wish that people will come to understand my intention is to serve them during the most monumetal phase of their lives with my understanding of the various facets of this phase including learning, sharing and products to enhance it.

Peace Out,

Tracey

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Here We Go!

Venturing into the blog world at last! I have to say that this has been a long process for me. Not because it had to be, but because I made it that way (unintentionally of course). Up to this point I have been an avid blog reader, marvelling at the talent of the bloggers and the content they put up hoping that one day I would find the energy and courage to try it. I am not by nature a technical person by any stretch of the imagination! Managing to maintain my ecommerce website was a HUGE learning process for me and still is so I was a little hesitant to add yet another mind boggling activity to the mix.

I started out okay choosing a blog program, and with the help of a tutorial on the web I found a host and started to "build" it. Now for those savvy computer folk out there it might have been a cake walk, but for me personally I quickly got overwhelmed with the gadgets and graphics etc. etc. and that is where it stopped!

I thought about the blog I had started and neglected feeling guilty about not following through, rationalizing to myself that I will do it when I get concentrated time to really figure things out and do it well. Thoughts of branding and sexy graphics and applications swirled in my brain! In short I got bogged down in detail and lost the purpose of the blog,which is to put up content and connect with others.

So this morning I made a decision, to keep it simple and just jump in and do it. Never mind how it looks today, it will surely evolve just as everthing else I have chosen to pursue has. I am looking forward to connecting to others and to enjoy the purpose behind this blog and that is to hear from you on the joys, heartaches, ups, downs, quips, quotes and musings about life, pregancy, birth, breastfeeding and parenting. So glad to have you here! Please join in!

Peace Out,

Tracey