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The adage about necessity being the mother of invention fits perfectly for Sarasota entrepreneur Tiffany Christner.
The mother of twin boys was in desperate need for a solution to her biggest anxiety: having one of her sons fall out of a cart while she shopped at a grocery store — a not uncommon worry among parents of twins. It happened once to Christner, and the memory of that experience literally kept her up at night with dread about her next grocery store visit.
So one night in 2011, Christner, now 27, stayed up until 4 a.m. drawing sketches of a solution. The product from that brainstorm is Buggy Bench, a portable shopping cart carrier for an infant or toddler with a capacity of up to 40 pounds. The Buggy Bench costs $39.95, and is available in denim blue, mint green or pretty pink.
“I knew I had to think of something to help me and all the other moms out there with two or more children,” says Christner, mom to Tayden and Tanner. “That's why I took the time to do this. I thought there has to be a better way.”
That better way has begun to generate some business traction. Sales, mostly through Christner's website, www.buggybench.com, increased every month in 2013. Plus, Christner got word late last year that One Step Ahead, a popular catalog of baby and toddler items, picked up the product.
Sarasota entrepreneur Chris Abbott, who is consulting with Christner through the startup phase, projects Buggy Bench revenues should surpass at least $200,000 in 2014. In addition to the website and One Step Ahead, Christner plans to attend three large industry trade shows in the next few months. Her ultimate goal: Get Buggy Bench into Target, the Holy Grail of toddler products.
The product has also gone viral. Several well-known mommy bloggers — a key influencer for Christner's target market — have written up the Buggy Bench. That's big validation, says Christner. “This is a product that could be in high demand,” Christner tells Coffee Talk, “but people don't know about it yet.”
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