Nancy Wurtzel

All About Baby®
How It All Started For One Small Business

Nancy Wurtzel always tells people that All About Baby® started out with a mistake. Shortly after Nancy gave birth to her daughter Katherine in 1993, she ordered a personalized newborn birthday scroll by mail order. When the item arrived, Nancy and her husband were both disappointed with the quality and appearance of the product.

“I was expecting a beautiful scroll, but the paper and design looked cheap,” recalls Nancy. “We also found the copy about current events to be poorly written and not completely accurate.”

Even worse was the fact that some of the personalized information was wrong. Since there was no phone number listed on any of the enclosed literature, Nancy couldn’t even call to voice her disappointment. She would have to write to the company and hope for some type of response.

“My first reaction was that buying this product had been a big mistake,” she says. “After giving it some more thought, I realized that the concept was good, but the end result was lacking. I knew that I could create a more attractive, accurate certificate and provide better customer service.”

Nancy began researching the market and found that indeed there was a niche that wasn’t being filled. With her background in marketing, she started planning a shift from corporate consulting to small business owner. The process took over 18 months, but finally Nancy launched All About Baby® out of her family room. Not surprisingly, the company’s first product was a personalized birthday scroll, called Babyography

“Launching a business has been challenging, sometimes exhausting, but never boring,” says Nancy. “I’m a very can-do type of person, which serves me well, and I’m very committed to making my business a success.”

Nancy’s daughter is now 14 years old. Katie sometimes helps her Mother on weekends doing small office tasks such as stamping letters or folding flyers. One of her favorite assignments is proofing personalized copy and checking outgoing orders.

“Watching me run my own business has been a great learning experience for my daughter,” Nancy says. “She has seen firsthand the importance of creativity, organization and persistence. It has taught her the value of hard work.”

Operating her own business allows Nancy the flexibility to take her daughter to school, volunteer for special school projects and be there to help with homework.

Late afternoons and evenings, Nancy can usually be found back in her office, returning phone calls and checking email messages. On weekends, she spends a few hours working on expanding the business. Several years ago, Nancy began adding more gift items to the All About Baby® line, and the company website now features over 300 personalized and keepsake gifts (many All About Baby products are exclusive) for babies and young children. The All About Baby website also contains a wide-range of original child-related content.

Recently, Nancy and her husband, Hal, completed a major home office expansion that more than doubled the All About Baby office and inventory space. This airy new space makes for a more professional, organized work environment and is a key as Nancy grows and expands the business.

“What started out as a mistake has blossomed into a full-service business that brings me tremendous joy and satisfaction,” says Nancy. “This was one mistake that really turned out perfect.”

For more information about the All About Baby or to see its complete product line go to http://www.allbaby.com or call 800-781-7171