COMPANY: Elev8ed Cre8ion
MISSION: Provide quality products to assist with parenting.
LAUNCH: 2018
LOCATION: Arizona
HERSTORY: I was born and raised in the yellow and gold city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I attended the first HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Lincoln University, established in 1854. I met my husband there—he was an exchange student from Zimbabwe and together we make an incredible team. We have two beautiful girls and we’re glad to call Arizona our home.
“The most challenging thing about launching a business is not giving up. It was a long process. One that required many sleepless nights and drowsy days. One that required effort, time and consistency.”
How difficult has it been to launch your business?
The most challenging thing about launching a business is not giving up. It was a long process. One that required many sleepless nights and drowsy days. One that required effort, time and consistency. Listen, it’s literally like raising a baby. It’s like being a mom for the first time. Your business is like your baby and when it needs your attention, you must give it, no matter how tired you are. Or else, that baby won’t grow.
We had to nurture our business; figure out what it needed and what it didn’t. Of course, it was difficult because we had no real concrete idea of what we were doing. We had no guide, no manual to starting a business. We just started with an idea, that idea led to product research and after so many steps, this eventually resulted in a solid product.
What motivated you to create the backpack?
My husband and I traveled very often with our first daughter. She’s only four and have been to various countries in Africa, Canada, Mexico, The Caribbean and more. She has traveled most of America in her short life and with so much travel comes traveling bags. We grew so tired of carrying multiple bags for our trips. I would have my purse, the diaper bag, my breast-pump bag, an insulated lunch box to store my breastmilk and baby food, my husband’s laptop bag and our carry-ons.
That right there was exhausting and time consuming and it inspired us to combine all of those bags into one. So, we designed the 3-in-1 Ultimate Parent Backpack (UP Bag). Our biggest inspiration stimmed from the pink polka dot diaper bag that we had for our first child. It was super cute and stylish but it wasn’t functional and because it was pink my husband thought his arm would fall off if he carried it.
So, we wanted to make sure the bag was large enough to fit everything the baby and family need for a trip— a laptop, a breast-pump, plenty of bottles, etc. We also wanted to make sure the bag was unisex with a nice design that would be loved by both moms and dads.
Michelle
Wow, I loved reading that article. I hope it inspires others small businesses to keep going.