I've spent most of my life looking at the big picture...I've forgotten to take advantage of the closeups

Ever since I was a child I would look at the world with a wide angle lens. That included myself, my family, my town, and my world. Some where along the way I forgot or never learned how to check out the amazing close ups that life has to offer. Sue and Cathie found this picture of the Youth Crew from the Houston Avon Walk for breast cancer.

When Sue first started talking about how she wanted the Youth Crew to wear our hats this year I began spinning the picture of hundreds of kids wearing our hats across the country and how Avon would be greatful for the donation and perhaps it would be a huge stepping stone for our Company. What I failed to see until I was sitting in the hot tub with my three year old was the close up shot. Libby had both arms wrapped around my neck. She was as close as possible to my face with me still being able to open my eyes. I started looking at her eyes and the beads that she had put in her hair and started thinking how beautiful they were on their very own. The colors of her beads were magnificent and glistened from the reflection from the water. Her eyes looked so deep and lovely it touched me in a way that has never before. Usually when I look at my children I see their lives as a whole, what they are doing in school, how they are doing in activities, and what they are going to eat for dinner. I never stop and take a long look at the closeups until now.

I opened this picture and saw the one wearing our bucket lid. Then I thought about the one 's experiences admist thousands of others in Houston. I thought about the one lid being a part of that intimate circle of joy and celebration as they knew they had all been part of something huge. Then I thought of the one little town where the hat was made by one person who had sewn on the one black and white label that read The Little Hat Company South Berwick Maine. WOW! It's always been cool to view life as a big picture with a wide camera lens, now I know how deep that picture is and the zillions of pixels that are waiting for just a second of your time. It's good to stop in the thick of things, take a deep breath, and spend a moment with lifes greatest closeups.

Being in business is a state of mind

We all have our ideas of what being in business is going to look like and what determines whether or not we are successful. In the beginning there was a basket of hats, literally. This basket represented my proud achievement of bringing something to life from an idea. It was one of the strongest feelings I've ever had in my life. I can remember being little not even ten years old thinking I just needed something to sell. Now as I'm typing this it sounds sort of contrived. Honestly I can picture myself in my freshly painted lilac room in Spofford looking around for something to spark and being able to make something that everyone wanted. My dad had his own plumbing business when I was really young and I had thought that the world needed a bubble shower. No one took me serious and I must have not either because I let the idea drop.

Sue and I would often talk about our expectations for the business when we were working out of my dining room and our cars. We would make plans on the phone in between getting our kids things they needed or breaking up a tiff. Barb has always been the biggest dreamer and will always be a part of hitting the home runs for the company. I can remember sitting at my machine till 2 or 3 in the morning thinking that soon we would have enough sales that I would be able to have someone else make the hats. That came soon enough and before long we had a team of stitchers and some dedicated people figuring out the anxieties of manufacturing domestically, in South Berwick. I will be forever thankful to them and one day soon will show them how much they did for the company and its growth in the beginning. Then there came Deb, Cathie, and Kim F. They came all at once although Deb had said she had been stalking me for almost a year wanting and knowing she would be a part of The Little Hat Company. Well Deb along with the others have become a major piece of the company and the reason it is going to become a multi-million dollar company in the next couple of years. As the company grows and reaches out across the globe through direct sales it will always have its home base in South Berwick. There will be changes but it will always be a place to come and be a kid and not worry about breaking something or saying the wrong thing. It will be a place to come and play and talk about stuff - good stuff.

I'm looking forward to the day that we will purchase another building for manufacturing in town. It will be an existing building close to home that we will renovate and create an atmosphere where people like to come to work and are able to bring their children to the daycare facilities. My favorite vision comes from something Sue said, " just imagine us all sitting around in the office getting stuff done. Jen will be on the phone and we will be laughing and creating mischief" I love that work is going to be fun for us all. I love being on the phone and Sue loves creating mischief to make people laugh and feel good. Business is a state of mind. It is your attitudes and perceptions that formulate the recipe for how its formed and how its built custom to your likes and desires. Make it exactly how you want it - commit - and then experience it being exactly how you pictured it in your mind.

It's easier to give up than to continue to push through.

If my Mom knew that I was using her picture she would be very frustrated with me. My mom is one of the most humble, secure, faithful, strong, intelligent individuals I have ever met. We are coming up on our third year in business this June. From the outside it may look as though it's been a walk in the park. A lot of great press, a busy little store, and a killer website that has literally shipped our hats all over the world.

I am the first to say we have had an unbelievable journey with amazing stops along the way and it is far from over. What I want to tell you about are that just like every other businesses we have experienced some road bumps that have caused us to doubt, reconsider, reorganize, rethink, restructure, and finally reaffirm that we are in this for the long haul. Sue has been the backbone of the company in the perspective that she has the most undying faith that we will succeed. Brian has recently come into the realm of Little Hat in one of those unexpected ways. He asked us if his group in Business School could do a case study on Little Hat and create our business plan. He has been asking for hard numbers, facts, and strategies. That's not how I usually role. I am a dreamer, eternal optimist, believer in everything being possible, and incredibly emotional.

Yielding to Brian's questions has made me take a second look at some of the major roads bumps we've encountered. They all brought doubt and uncertainty but as we maneuvered our way through and over them they brought experience and a stronger sense of determination to make Little Hat prosper and do what it is meant to do for us and our community. One of the first people I always go to when the doubt starts to consume me is my mom. I'm sure there are many to come but when we get to the next one my mom's words will be the same, "It's easier to give up Jen then it is to push through - Don't stop moving forward till you absolutely are forced to stop". It always comes down to being your choice to decide to stop of not. Decide what matters to you, create your own picture of your future, own how you are going to better yourself and your community, and then push through. I promise you it won't be easy but the feeling of accomplishment and gratitude on the other side are well worth it. I know you can do it.

When did we become a toy store?

Sometimes your best intentions never turn out to be what you thought they might. Our intent on renting a storefront was really to move production "hat central"out of my dining room and into another space. Somehow our little hat store quickly became filled with toys. None of us had merchandising or retail experience but we didn't worry about the details so much. We were excited and wanted our little store to be that best that it could. One thing I learned from a mentor early on in my career was to "always own who you are, when you are, where you are". It's not to say that you shouldn't dream of bigger things because you most definitely should but live in the moment and be who you are, when you are, where you are. If you can't afford mahogany shelves for displays -it's okay do the very best with what you have at the moment and treasure it. Believe me your willingness to be grateful for what you have in the moment will go a long ways towards attracting the future you are dreaming of and holding onto for your goals. I was listening to someone talk about the importance of "doing". It's good to dream but some point you have to start doing. May I suggest baby steps in the beginning? And honestly some days I wake up and have no idea what I am doing but I put my heart in the right direction and start working towards something, whether it is crossing an item of my to do list or reaching out to a colleague I haven't spoken with in years.

I guess the most important thing is when you set a goal don't become too attached to it. Work towards it but if you gutt leads you in a slightly different direction follow it! And one day you might wake up wondering when did we become a toy store?

First attempts are often not your final product.

You can almost read it in Libby's eyes as she tries on one of our very first stabs at our "Loope Lid". Just like the Stroller Lid the loope lid came out of necessity from the urgence of my good, one of my most gracious friends, Diana. I love that with all my heart. She also by fate became my friend just about the time Little Hat was starting. She volunteered on her day off to be my private birthing nurse. What more could a very large pregnant woman ask for?
It was the first winter season for Little Hat and Dianna, mom of four, needed winter lids. She kept calling and I kept putting her off for shear exhaustion. Finally at her demands I grabbed a dinner plate out of my kitchen cupboard and created the curve for the very first loope lid. I went ribbon crazy and placed a loop at the top for mom's to insert their finger and be able to pull the lid off their babies heads when their hands were full. (From my single mom days) The original loope lids weren't always cut on the bias and had ribbon sewn around their brims so they didn't have the most amount of stretch but don't you worry in a year or so Deb Knowlton will have come into the picture and taken care of most of the design issues with the lids. I can't wait to get to that part of the story. In the beginning, know that these are your first attempts and they won't always be perfect nor will they be your final product. Just make sure that you are doing something that you will be able to stand behind and almost like a parent nurture it in all the right places so that one day it will be able to flourish without you.

It's all in the details.

I found some velvet fabric with gold brocade during the holidays and decided to make some stroller lids out of it for holiday hats. I put them in our store the same weekend as the Women's Holiday Art Sale. A nice woman from Wells ordered two and she picked them up that weekend. She called and apologized for being picky but she could see some stitches at the base of the cap that weren't sewn in when the hat was lined. I apologized profusely and said I would deliver two new ones to her home in Wells. When I got there Monday with two new hats she stretched the cap and again could see a part of the stitch from the lining. I was screaming inside but knew that I had to make this right. She handed back the two new hats to me and I told her I would deliver again the next day. I did and I had stretched them as hard as I could to make sure she wouldn't see anything. When I delivered the third set of hats to her she said thank you. I told her to keep the other two because to the normal eye they were two beautiful hats she could donate to her church. She asked me for my autograph. I was stunned and left feeling bewildered. I really didn't understand what had just happened. It was a true lesson for me to remember as the business grows, success will always be in the details. I am human and make a ton of mistakes and often let people down, I'm sure of that. The only thing that I can do is to keep trying to move forward and to learn from my mistakes so I don't repeat them in the future.

Don't ever doubt for even one minute -

I think it was sleep deprivation in the early days that kept the doubt away. Libby was a baby, Anna was in Kindergarten, and Aaron barely in Junior High School. People I have never met in my life before were calling and stopping in to say they had read about the business and they wanted to be a part of it. I was open to anything and everything. I guess looking back a filter of some sorts is always needed but with that said - life happens and then you adjust. I have learned the most about myself as a person from being a part of The Little Hat Company and meeting so many new people. It has forced me to come out of my shell and decide who I want to be when I grow up. It hasn't always included my most graceful times but I'm learning.

My most favorite memories come from our first Christmas Season down on lower Main Street. My very dear friend Joyce was another who volunteered to help out however she could. Her husband came in about a week before our town parade and asked if we had a float. That was all it took. The Lebel Family single handedly put together the most beautiful magical float in one weeks time. Joyce, Ginny, and I made 26 matching hat and scarf sets for kids who wanted to be a part of the float. Joyce said the morning of the parade kids that she didn't even know where being dropped off at her house. A year later I was chaperoning for one of Aaron's class trips at Sturbridge and a girl came up to me at the bathroom and said she had been apart of the float for Little Hat. I had a moment. Pure Goosebumps.

Our little store was hopping for our first season and the day of the parade I remember looking over at Sue when the float went by and the Gagnon Family had made up flyers about the store and were passing them out to the crowds, and smiling with tears in my eyes. I knew at that moment that The Little Hat Company wasn't about me, Sue, Barb, or any one of us. It was going to be much bigger than I could ever even imagine and I promised myself that cold holiday evening that I would never doubt myself even for one minute.

Nothing is ever black and white

My dining room quickly became production for the making of the hats. I had piles of fabric, spools of grosgrain ribbon, and finished hats spread around the entire room. My sewing machine found its permanent home on the table and it wasn't very long before it stopped being put away every night. The cutting was the hardest for me. It just seemed so monotonous. I can remember thinking a lot "what am I doing?" My good friend who bought the first few hats took me to the next level of wholesale. She asked Jody at G'Willikers if I could show her the hats. Diana had offered me a spot for a local fair on one of their families properties so I was building up stock and had 18 hats. WOW!! G'Willikers took them all.

The word starting getting out that there was a woman in South Berwick making children hats. The local weekly did a feature article and called us South Berwick's very own "Baby Boom". I know had people stopping by my house to buy a hat. They were friends of a friend. I'm such a rule follower and knew that I needed a commercial space. I had no money other than what was created from hat sales but for some odd reason it didn't seem to be a limitation for me. Libby and I went to pick up Anna at school and we ran into Tim. I had met him at the baseball fields, our sons were on the same team. I knew that he had commercial property in town. I told him I needed a space and I didn't have any money. To my absolute shock he said he had some storefronts and we should go see them later that day.

I can remember calling Sue and saying, "Hey what do you think about owning a store?" I don't remember how she responded. When I showed her the space I think she almost fell over. It was loaded with trash "literally" heavy equipment that we would have to find a home for, more trash, and things that don't even have a name. It smelled too. It was going to be a lot of work to get it to the point that we could use it as a store. It was only cosmetic - cleaning and painting.

Barb had called us around that time after reading the article in the weekly papers. She was in love the idea and wanted to be a part of the business any way that she could. So there were the first three of us starting off on an adventure and we barely knew one another. We spent many a night and day hauling out trash and scrubbing and painting all based on the feeling that something big was taking place. Barb was all about the hats being on Oprah one day. Sue just believed. I had an overwhelming amount of energy and just kept pushing forward.

So how did we come up with the rent, the deposit? We didn't. I told Tim we would clean out the space and bring it back to life, it had been empty for three years in exchange for a deposit and rent until after we had opened. The first months rent would have to come from our sales. We opened on November 17th, 2006 down on lower Main Street. Friends and family came out of the woodwork and would just show up to help paint, clean and assemble bookcases and toys. It was one of the most amazing times in my life. Nothing is ever black and white, there is always more than one way to accomplish a task and the less obvious paths usually are the most fun. It involved a lot of hard work and one very scary near miss where if the bakers oven had fallen one inch closer I would have been in serious pain. Sue is still holding her breath till this day. Ask her about that one...Some how in that very scary moment we found a way to laugh once we knew we weren't hurt. Actually Sue thought I was dead. We did wake up the neighbors - that probably felt worse than anything, she wasn't very nice.

If there is something that is tugging at you, a feeling that you need to do something out of the realm of your ordinary life take baby steps forward and never stop thinking for a moment that it won't happen.

Things happen suddenly and without limits.

I remember making the very first hat (s). Out of frustration I had given up shopping at the outlets and gone to the local fabric store with baby Libby. She was only three months old. I had no idea that this one decision of making her hat would change my life forever. Someone once told me that change happens suddenly and without any limits. Looking back over the past three years I get it now. When I was sitting at my machine it felt like I was supposed to be making this hat. The weird part is it didn't feel as much like it was just for Libby. I ended up buying enough fabrics to make a few hats. I don't like to shop so when I do I usually buy more. There were two things that happened next that cemented the beginning of The Little Hat Company. I had something inside of me that wanted to share these new creations. I didn't feel vulnerable about my creations like I usually do, I felt proud and wanted to start telling people about them. I still had no thought of starting another business at this time.

I made up as many hats as I could with the fabric I had purchased. I put them in a bag and brought them with me when I dropped Anna off at a Maine Stars practice. I was hoping to catch my friend Bobbi. By chance, she was in the parking lot when I pulled in and I asked her to come over to my car. Her eyes lit up when I showed her and she told me that she loved them. She asked if she could buy a few for some baby gifts. The following weekend our family had been invited to a birthday party at the Page Home. Anna had become friends with Katherine and I had spoken with Sue a few times at pick up and at dance but we barely knew anything about each other. If I only knew....just kidding Sue. Believe it or not I am a shy person. It's hard for me to go to parties where I barely know people. I think I told her that I wasn't feeling well and I ended up giving baby Harrison and Sydney one of my hat creations as a gift. Sue came up to me in the parking lot at school the following Monday and told me that they loved the hats and her Mom thought that I should sell them.

And there you have it. One simple action can put you on a course that will change your life forever.

Chapter 1 - Little Hat Storylog

It always takes more than one person to accomplish anything great. There is usually a front person who everyone identifies with an act or accomplishment but I am here to tell you the story of the many many individuals who have gathered by chance or fate to create little hats. I will admit that I was the first person in, the first one to sew a hat, the first person to create a name for the company, and the first person to believe in little hats but I am not the only person. We will be celebrating our third year in business and I still have to stop and pinch myself every time something extraordinary happens.