Lynn Schneider, founder of DentaKit.com.Meet Lynn Schneider, founder of DentaKit.com and ArchWired.com.
Market Mommy:: When and why did you found your business?
Lynn:: I got braces on my teeth for the first time at age 41 and started writing a journal about my experiences. That journal eventually became ArchWired.com, which later also housed a message board (The Metal Mouth Message Board). About six months after getting braces, I realized I needed various oral hygiene supplies I couldn’t find in stores, such as a good dental kit for braces. That’s when I created the DentaKit Braces Survival Kit and launched DentaKit.com. The two sites have a symbiotic relationship with each other. ArchWired.com readers become DentaKit.com customers, and vice-versa. I didn’t plan it that way, it just happened, and soon I realized I had accidentally created a great business model.
Market Mommy:: How long did it take before you felt successful?
Lynn:: It took about three years for me to really begin to feel successful at this business. I started it as an experiment and for the first few years, I treated it as a hobby. But as ArchWired’s readership grew and DentaKit’s sales figures began to climb (along with my customer base) I realized I really had started something special. At first I filled all of DentaKit’s orders by myself from my house, but after a few years it became impossible to keep up with it (even with help from my family), so I found a fulfillment company to handle warehousing and shipping for me. That not only saved my sanity, but made me feel very successful — that my business had grown so large that I couldn’t handle it at home anymore! Now I have more time to manage the business properly, and my house isn’t filled with dental products anymore!
Market Mommy:: How do you define success?
Lynn:: I feel that in creating this business, I’ve really helped people, which gives me an enormous amount of satisfaction. When people write to you and tell you what a positive difference your efforts have made in their lives — to me, that’s success. Many people view the message board at ArchWired.com as their orthodontic problem lifeline, especially people undergoing jaw surgery. For DentaKit.com, I define success as: customers are happy, they keep coming back, and they tell their friends and colleagues about my store. My business is also to the point where I can “give back” to various charities in the name of my company, which really makes me happy.
Market Mommy:: How do you balance parenting with running your business?
Lynn:: It can be difficult sometimes. Running an online business from home is challenging because your work is always there on the computer. You need to be able to say “I’ve done enough today” and walk away from the computer, whether it’s to go to the gym, do the grocery shopping, or spend time with your family. Lists are very important; I make lots of lists. My day has always been broken up by parental responsibilities, such as picking up the kids from school or driving them to their activities. I try to get most of my work done while the kids are in school. It’s easier in some ways now that they’re teenagers, because I don’t have to watch them every moment they’re home. But I still spend many afternoons driving them around to sports or music lessons. One more thing: I feel that I’ve taught my kids a lot about entrepreneurship. When my oldest daughter was in 5th grade, she made a poster for her social studies class about how her mom is an entrepreneur. She told me how proud she was of me. That poster is hanging in my home office. I look at it every day, and it always makes me smile.
Market Mommy:: When did you break the six-figure threshold?
Lynn:: I started DentaKit.com in late November, 2001. In mid-October 2006, it had broken the six-figure threshold. So, it took about 5 years to achieve that goal. But for the first several years, I didn’t run it like a business; I treated it as a hobby. I think if I’d have taken it more seriously at first, and had really seen its potential earlier, I might have achieved that goal sooner. Now I’m projecting the time frame for seven figures. It really blows my mind. I never thought I’d create something that would be so financially successful!
Market Mommy:: What business strategies contributed to your success?
Lynn:: Thinking like a customer (or in the case of ArchWired.com, thinking like a reader). I had braces on my teeth for three years, so I had a good idea what my customers and readers needed. When I wasn’t sure about a product, the ArchWired.com message board enabled me to communicate with my readers, many of whom were also DentaKit.com customers. In a nutshell, I suppose it’s: communicate with your customers; know your customers! Talk TO them, not AT them. Be sincere. Also, I knew who my “competition” was. It’s very important to know what you’re up against so you can word your copy correctly and price your products properly.
Market Mommy:: What specific marketing efforts really paid off for you?
Lynn:: I’m proud to say that I didn’t take venture or investment capital from anyone. I started this business with a few thousand dollars of my own money (I raised some of it by selling tech logo polo shirts on eBay!) Since I didn’t have deep pockets to draw on, I did a lot of “guerrilla marketing.” I posted on other dental message boards, wrote press releases, did email marketing campaigns, and kept a close eye on search engine optimization.
Market Mommy:: What advice do you have for moms who are just starting out on their entrepreneur adventure?
Lynn:: Don’t have too broad of a focus. Try to find a niche that has potential and concentrate on that. You need to be able to differentiate yourself from the other similar businesses out there. Ask yourself why people would buy from you instead of your competitors. Be sincere, but remember that your products have value and price them accordingly.
If you have an internet business, educate yourself by reading about guerrilla marketing, web analytics, and search engine optimization. Also, be realistic. Write a business plan (it doesn’t have to be complicated), and re-visit it every few months to keep yourself on track. The numbers must be realistic. If you can’t be profitable from day one, then you must figure out when you’ll be profitable and if that time frame will work with your finances and your life.
Remember that starting a business is A LOT OF WORK! You’ll be working very hard at it, so you have to believe in what you’re doing and have a passion for it. You need to have the time to spend on it. To be successful, you can’t build something and then rest on your laurels. You must continually work at it.
Finally, I would tell moms who are just starting out to think like managers, not employees. Run your business like a business, and recognize when you need to hire help. YOU should do what you enjoy, and YOUR EMPLOYEES or the companies you hire should do the grunt work you don’t enjoy. We moms have a tendency to want to do everything ourselves. That’s fine when you’re first starting out, but no business can grow properly with just one person wearing all the hats — that’s a recipe for crash and burn!
Lynn Schneider lives in Northern California with her husband, their two teenage daughters, and their pet water frog. Before starting her internet business, Lynn was a technical writer in Silicon Valley. She can be found on Twitter, in addition to her blog, DentaKit.com and the ArchWired.com Metal Mouth Message Board.
This post is part of a new series on Market Mommy, Achieving $uccess. These posts detail the journey these mom entrepreneurs have taken to reach sales of six figures and beyond. How do they balance it all? What strategies have worked for them? What advice do they have for you, the new mom entrepreneur? Follow our blog for many more Achieving $uccess stories in the near future.
Allison O’Kelly, Founder and CEO of Mom Corps.Meet Allison O’Kelly, founder and CEO of Mom Corps. 
