Meet Sam Huebner | eCommerce Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Huebner and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
The process of launching a business is incredibly time consuming. I launched my first business with twin newborns at home, it was a phase in my life when all I really wanted to do was stay home and soak in all those sweet baby moments that pass all to quickly. Starting a business is not necessarily conducive to this.

However, it did allow me to work from home and choose my schedule. In the early years, my approach to work/life balance was to work less during the day, welcoming interruptions from my family. I was able to make up for these lost work hours later at night. It was a grind, but it allowed me to spend a lot of time with my young family. This process was not sustainable for me, though.

As my business has matured, I have intentionally made and effort to pull myself out of the day to day business operations. 6 years into the entrepreneurial journey and I very rarely work long days, and I hardly ever work nights. It didn’t just happen, I had to commit to taking myself out of the business and delegating tasks to others. I once reached a point where I wondered “what is the point in being your own boss if you work all the time?”

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We started Parker Baby Co. (formerly ‘The Good Baby’) as a side hustle in October 2015. At the time, we had 7-month-old twins and were spending A LOT of money on baby products. I (Sam) was working full time for a boutique investment bank in Denver, and Kirsten had recently quit her job at a local high school to stay home with the twins.

Kirsten always had ideas on how to improve products that we were using on a daily basis with our twins. We had noticed that the cloth pacifier clips we were using with our twins would always end up in the mouths of our teething babies. We decided to make the straps of the clips from silicone teething beads. We developed the product and sales took off quickly. However, this product ended up being a total flop (more on that later).

One of our twins had acid reflux issues and was constantly spitting up. We used bibs to avoid changing her outfits multiple times a day, but we could never find the perfect bib. We wanted something that was stylish and could be worn with any outfit. We wanted something without velcro, which complicated laundry. We wanted something soft and absorbent. So we designed three bandana bib sets and launched them on Amazon.com. They were a hit.

Amazon has been both a blessing and a curse. It allowed us to scale very quickly, we went from $0/month to more than $200k/month in less than 2 years without hiring any employees.

We’ve been through a few difficult transitions in the business, including:

Scaling back Kirsten’s responsibilities: As our family grew, it quickly became apparent that Kirsten couldn’t stay home with the kids AND work on Parker Baby full time. After a lot of difficult discussions and a lot of prayers, we ultimately decided that it would be best for our family to have Kirsten stay home with the kids and limit her involvement in the business.

Quitting my day job to focus on Parker Baby – With Kirsten focusing her energy at home on our family and a rapidly growing business, I decided to quit my day job at the investment bank to focus on growing the business. I would imagine this is a huge step for a lot of entrepreneurs.

Re-branding the business – Due to a trademarking issue, we were forced to rebrand the business. At the time, it felt like the transition would crush the business. In reality, it helped us to focus intently on our brand and re-build our foundation.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We recently moved to 70 acres outside of Franktown, Colorado. Our life is much different than it was when we lived closer to the city.

When we have visitors, we find plenty to do at our home. My wife, Kirsten, is an amazing cook and even better baker. Our guests wake up to fresh pour over coffee, eggs from our chickens, homemade cinnamon rolls and unobstructed views of Pikes Peak from our deck. After a day of wandering the land, with some “chores” sprinkled in, we would relax with cocktails and yard games on our land. When you live miles from a restaurant or grocery store, you’re forced to enhance your cooking skills and we have done just that. We like to prepare full course meals, made from scratch in our home kitchen.

If we’re venturing out from our house, we would take guests to Rocky Mountain National Park and spend a few days in Estes Park. Even if you aren’t a hiker or camper, there is plenty to do and see in RMNP.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Entrepreneurship can be isolating, draining, time consuming and risky. Without the support of my wife, I wouldn’t be able to do this. She is my cheerleader when I’m discouraged, my motivator when I get burnt out and the validator of all my crazy ideas. She understands the rollercoaster that is small business ownership and embraces it, all in support of me and our my family.

There are a lot of eCommerce resources out there. As a self-taught eCommerce entrepreneur, I’ve utilized many of these resources. None of these are as valuable as the eCommerce Fuel community (www.ecommercefuel.com). This community continues to be my go to resource for eCommerce knowledge and support.

Website: www.parkerbaby.com, www.redwoodtall.com, www.tallslimtees.com