Florida Mompreneur - Creator of "Ditch the Dummy" Pacifier Weaning System

Florida Mompreneur Creates a Brand New Pacifier Weaning System

Ditch the Dummy!

The Only One Step Pacifier Weaning System

Florida Mom Penny Angela recognized a gap in the baby market when trying to wean her 2 year son Joey off his pacifier.

Penny Says: “Joey would not part with his pacifier, the only time it actually came out of his mouth was when he was eating, every time I tried to take it away,  or pretend to lose it, he screamed and cried, wouldn’t sleep, I was at my wits end.

Then a friend suggested poking a hole in his existing pacifier, as this renders the pacifier unsatisfying for the child. I tried it and it worked, within a few days Joey actually weaned himself, just put it aside one day and that was that!

Then, purely by chance,  I came across an article about this “do it yourself” pacifier weaning method, apparently it can be pretty dangerous, the pacifier loses its integrity and slivers of silicon can become in-bedded in the child’s gums, or bits can break off and even create a choking hazard!

I was pretty horrified, but knowing this method does work, I decided to create a pacifier weaning system along those lines, but with a manufactured hole, still work’s the same, but it’s totally safe.

I searched the web for similar products, the only tangible pacifier weaning system I found (besides books) was a set of 5 pacifiers reducing in size, this looked great, and I’m sure it works, but priced between $20 and $30 depending on who’s website you place your order, it’s pretty expensive for the average parent. I wanted to be able to retail my product for less than $10 including shipping.

I originally came up with the name “Binky Stop” but after research, found the word ‘Binky’ was trademarked already and trying to use the name in any shape or form would result in a cease and desist letter from the company’s law team! So were most pacifier related catchy names. I was born in England, we call pacifiers ‘Dummies’ and so ‘Ditch the Dummy’ was born.

Then the work began. Patenting a product firstly is a must, Ditch the Dummy is now patent pending.

I didn’t even know what a CAD Drawing was until an American manufacturer explained, getting a CAD (3 D computer drawing) is the first step, okay not very difficult or expensive, just searched for CAD companies on the internet, and picked one.

Then submitting to manufacturers, firstly I approached American companies. The first looked great; they were already making a child’s product, but when they eventually returned my call, explained they were not open to more business. Another came back with a quote of $7.00 per unit for a 5,000 minimum order, but the cost would go down to around $5.00 for 20,000 units and without packaging (I was hoping to sell these for less than that, not to mention didn’t have a spare $35,000).

Another wanted $10,000 for tooling then $4 per unit, again without packaging, but he did have a friend who would package the product, I didn’t pursue for how much per unit the friend would charge, I’d basically had it!

I began to search for an American Company that sourced China Manufacturers, basically a middle man, found quite a few of those, but they all seemed to require paying before they actually did anything,  and this was $1,000’s of dollars (before you even got a quote!)

Then by chance I came across a company who would do all the leg work with China, got me a fantastic quote, including packaging and all for just 10% of the order cost, which was to be paid after production and the product was on the ship!

I found another company on the web called “Mentor.com” this site is worth its weight in gold, and it’s free, I found my perfect mentor Anthony, he helped with our website – he basically built it! Now he’s onboard with marketing tips and best practices.

I went to Fiverr.com for my logo, this is a great site for any kind of artwork, logo’s or basically anything you may need for a business, and yes, prices do start at just $5, found a great guy in India who came up with the perfect logo, my husband created the packaging artwork on photo shop, job done!”

Penny’s product is now on the ship, due to arrive in Miami the first week in September 2016. The website www.ditchthedummy.com is now open for pre-orders for just $6.95 plus shipping.