Bug a Lug Baby

As I mentioned last week, there are SOOO many new and innovative products on the market for kids. I think this is fabulous! Things are so dynamic and this keeps everyone on their toes. Competition is a wonderful thing for both the consumer and the companies making the products.

Competition allows consumers more choice, and more comparisions. For manufactures, it urges innovation, value, quality and challenges us to think outside the box to be different, to stand out among the crowd. Take a look at your favorite manufacturers, what have they done to stay ahead? What makes them one of your favorite? What would you like to see them do differently?

If there is a compnay you would like to see them do things a little different, let them know! This is the BEST way for these companies to stay on top...by listening to the customers, to you. For those of you who already do this, thank you and please - keep it up!

All the best this week.

Sundi and the Bugalug Team.

I'm so done with winter already and it's only January! I find that I have been doing a LOT of online browsing over the past few weeks as it's too cold to go out shopping. There is so much cool stuff out there, it's truly overwhelming!

So trying to explain to my husband what all this Googling is about, I decided to turn it into a trend watching, rather than just a waste of time. I always keep up on new colors for the seasons, and I try my best to keep up an eye on my competition, but I sometimes miss out on just seeing what's truly happening in the world of fashion and business.

Now I'm fully aware that the whole "owning your own business" and "mompreneur" is a HUGE trend right now. In fact it seems that everyone has their hand in something, and this kind of throws the trends off a bit. You see, it seemed a big brand name, or store would decide what was cool, or "in" for the season, and we'd all have to have it or some version of it as the trend spread. Today it seems to be the opposite. Everyone wants what no one else has, or at least a version of it. I think that the "little guys", those of us who have bought into the trend of owing their own business are truly setting the trends and it's the BIG guys who are rushing to follow suit.

Go to etsy for example, see what is selling there, what's new, what's fun and what's unique...and in two years, see what the big guys are doing, it just might resemble something you once had your eye on at etsy, or another small, mom-owned business. I've seen it with my business, a great idea gone global - it's very fun to see your idea morphed into something so big...but then again it'd be nice to profit from it too! LOL!

Well, get surfing, enjoy the indoor shopping...really it must have been a woman who invented the Internet, she just told her husband it was research!

Happy January and all the Best in 2010!

Sundi