The Babies’s Room hasn’t always been as it is today. Tara and Jonathan Richardson bought Weecycle (a local consignment shop) in 2003. Weecycle originally opened in 1997 and had gathered a faithful following.

They support local Mom groups and clubs; hold two to three in-store events each year in conjunction with The Safe Kids Coalition; birthday party events; and a lot of cross promoting with all of these groups.

When they added the new products and business, the Richardson's knocked a hole in the wall of their existing store and expanded, nearly doubling their selling space. At that time 30% of the business was in new product; today that’s up to about 60%.

“We sell on our virtues,” he said. “We give customers as much information as possible and let them decide where to shop. If you tell them how to get to other stores, what they’re going to find when they get there and they find you to be true to your word they’ll trust you.”

The Richardson's and their staff take time with each customer to teach them about the products, especially when it comes to one of their major categories, infant carriers.

“We have the largest selection in north central Florida and we demo all of them,” Tara said. “We’re introducing a program to rent them as well. Being in a small town with a university, people do a lot of walking and carrying their children. Carriers are big sellers. And, with the ones that don’t sell we can use them as rentals and still make money.”

A big part of being able to sell these products is extensive employee training. The couple solicits manufacturers’ help in training as much as possible and they also have a computer set up with all of the training videos for products. All products are demonstrated and shoppers are encouraged to use the products in the store, whether it’s a sling or carrier or stroller. And, rather than sell an ill-fitting carrier, Tara and Jonathan encourage pregnant moms to purchase their carriers after the baby is born so they can try it on with the baby to see what works best for both of them.

Like many retailers, the couple says their biggest daily challenge is on-time furniture delivery and dealing with staff issues.

“We stress over an unhappy mother because our business is based on word-of-mouth,” Jonathan said. “One unhappy mother can spread the word. We do all we can to avoid that. It is not uncommon for us to drive five hours to get furniture from New Baby Products.”

The Richardson's say the best idea they ever had was being responsive to what their customers wanted.

“I can point to just about anything we carry and it was a direct result of a customer request,” Jonathan said. “Sometimes it may even be a brand that we don’t know that much about and two or three customers will ask for it and we go out of our way to bring it in.”

This on-the-go, busy couple (who are also parents of an 8, 6 and 3 year old and two puppies) has found success and they credit part of it to advice given by industry veteran Peter Komroff, owner of Baby Love.

“Peter said, 'Do your best. Always do what you say you’re going to do and try to treat people as fairly as you can and you’ll be fine,’” Jonathan said.

Tara adds, “You also have to get involved with a networking group. Anywhere there’s networking it’s good.”