Recently listening to the PT Money podcast, I was introduced to Aliya Jiwa, the owner of a unique children’s clothing company called, Spunky Stork. Aliya’s encouraging story is one to share with those of us who are very interested in starting our own businesses, and we are not exactly sure where to begin.

For Aliya, her international journey had taken her overseas right after graduate school to work at a job that never materialized.  After a few months, she moved back to the states and started to work and complete many freelance jobs just to pay her expenses.  Life was not how she had planned it to be.

Now on the other side, Aliya operates SpunkyStork.com, a successful children’s clothing business operating from the kitchen of her New York City apartment.

I am amazed to hear the instances similar to Aliya’s when new business owners and entrepreneurs literally seem to stumble into their suite spot of business.  For Aliya, she had been attending a local street fair in the city one weekend.  She noticed the many exhibit booth vendors with little to no traffic.  One particular vendor caught her attention as well as the attention of most other fair goers.  The small, unassuming structure was surrounded by a large group of people, engaged with the seller and his silk-screened children’s clothes.  Aliya had to check it out and was surprised to see the vendor was simply selling onesies and tees for babies and toddlers.

The idea noodled within Aliya’s mind.  She was sure she could do that, too.  Following that weekend fair event, Aliya performed her own due diligence of production and market research.  Fast forward a few months, Spunky Stork launched with specialized production in creating and selling organic, “green” onesies and tees for babies and toddlers.

Aliya has no children of her own.  She simply witnessed the market’s demand during the street fair, researched how she could fill that need with a unique product (i.e. organic/green), and then she worked it.  Literally, she pounded the pavement, introducing Spunky Stork to key children clothing boutiques in various US cities as well as building relationships with mom-blog networks.

Now, this one-woman show is operating her own business and generating between $4,000 to $16,000 per month.

My takeaway:
We must remain aware of your surroundings in the event our future home-based business idea could be right in front of you and drawing an audience of buyers today.  What are you seeing today?

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