For a lot of small companies, promoting a product isn’t merely about making a revenue, however reasonably fulfilling a better mission. For Pipermoon, a Pacific Northwest-based blanket firm, that mission is to “present hugs one blanket at a time.”
And since launching its ecommerce retailer on BigCommerce three years in the past, Pipermoon is just getting began.
Impressed by the nostalgia of child blankets, Pipermoon affords teen- and adult-size blankets made out of a stretchy, weighted material. Whether or not a buyer goes by a tough season, staying within the hospital or combating insomnia, Pipermoon Blankets provide a supply of security and luxury for anybody who wants it.
A Blanket #LikeaHug
In keeping with Kimberly Cannon, Founding father of Pipermoon Blankets, the enterprise obtained its begin for a distinct purpose.
Residing in a rural city, Cannon’s youngsters typically had lengthy, late-night bus rides getting back from highschool basketball video games on faculty nights. When she found that her daughter and her teammates had been sleeping on the ground of the bus, Cannon instantly noticed a necessity.
She got here up with the thought of an adult-sized, simply washable blanket that would simply match within the youngsters’ duffle luggage whereas touring — and so turned Pipermoon Blankets.
However when the pandemic hit, the imaginative and prescient for Pipermoon took a distinct path. Amid the uncertainty and worry of the pandemic, lots of Pipermoon’s prospects turned to their blankets as a supply of consolation, so Cannon and her staff took the thought and ran with it.
“Particularly when COVID-19 hit and everybody was social distancing, prospects would ship our blankets to their family members saying, ‘I can’t hug you in individual, so I’m gifting you my favourite blanket that’s similar to a hug,’” Cannon mentioned. “That really turned our hashtag — #LikeaHug — as a result of our prospects directed us that method.”
However this mission of consolation doesn’t cease with Pipermoon’s prospects. Cannon herself aspires to dwell out Pipermoon’s mission within the little moments of her day-to-day life.
“I’m all the time go go go,” Cannon mentioned. “So I’ve just lately been making an attempt to create rituals in my life like placing a blanket round me sitting on the porch, watching the sundown or with a cup of tea — simply making an attempt to be current and apply a bit bit extra self care.”
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Giving Again — One Blanket at a Time
From the day Pipermoon was born, Cannon knew she wished to make use of her enterprise as a option to give again.
“After I was in faculty on the College of Utah, I used to be volunteering on the Major Kids’s Middle in Salt Lake Metropolis,” Cannon mentioned, “and I seen each day that there are such a lot of actions, items and applications for the youngsters which might be in long-term stays, however not fairly as many for youngsters.”
For greater than 20 years, this situation caught in Cannon’s thoughts, and was later rekindled when a detailed household pal underwent remedy for mind most cancers. As a 14-year-old, he was capable of affirm precisely what Cannon had noticed in faculty — that whereas there have been actions and items obtainable for the youngsters, they have been primarily designed for youthful kids.
Realizing how a lot consolation their blankets had introduced different prospects, Cannon knew that Pipermoon was the right alternative to unravel the issue she had contemplated on for thus a few years. Immediately, Pipermoon Blankets donates a share of its blankets to Major Kids’s Medical Middle in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, Kids’s Hospital Los Angeles and St. Jude Kids’s Analysis Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
A Massive Neighborhood of Small Companies
Trying again on the final three years of Pipermoon, Cannon acknowledges that being a small enterprise proprietor isn’t any small feat — however you’re by no means alone.
When requested what recommendation she would give herself three years in the past, Cannon emphasised the significance of neighborhood. Connecting with different feminine small enterprise house owners by The Product Boss podcast, Cannon defined that the neighborhood of girls is ready to discuss to one another by points that come up and stroll with each other by their very own enterprise journies.
“It’s actually vital to search out folks which might be in the identical form of trade, who’re prepared to speak to you and information you thru the entire challenges of proudly owning a small enterprise,” Cannon mentioned.
A Mission Fulfilled
Regardless of the challenges that include being a small enterprise, for Pipermoon, the one factor that makes all of it value it’s seeing their mission come to life.
“We’ve some mother and father which have autistic kids who’ve reached out to me to inform me that their youngster slept for the primary time in 4 years,” Cannon mentioned. “That was an e mail I simply obtained final week and it simply made me cry. These are the most effective issues.”
Whether or not it’s listening to {that a} buyer used their blanket as a consolation throughout a tough time, or {that a} buyer’s youngster or husband stole their blanket as a result of they beloved it a lot — Pipermoon needs its blankets to really feel #LikeaHug irrespective of the explanation.
“The very best factor is while you see a repeat buyer order,” Cannon mentioned, “as a result of you recognize that your mission and what you’re making an attempt to perform is touching different folks’s lives, too.”
The Remaining Phrase
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