It’s almost that time to start putting together Christmas lists! Check out this great blog post that we came across:

I usually don’t ask for anything specific at Christmas, but Santa, I have found something I really want, so I am sending you this letter to let you know that I want a pair of Big Feet PJs for Christmas! I have even included a picture of just the pair I want.

I have been a really good girl this past year, so I feel that asking for these Big Feet PJs is ok. I know you have been watching me when I am good and when I am bad, and I haven’t been bad hardly any!

I discovered these wonderful PJs while cruising around Facebook and have joined the Facebook Fan page of the great company that produces these fine pajamas. Oh, Santa, can’t you please understand that I would be so warm in my old, drafty house if I had a pair of these pajamas! (By the way, if you could possibly make them jersey rather than flannel, I would really appreciate, Santa. Flannel makes me hot and itchy due to my allergies.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this letter, Santa, and say hello to Mrs. Claus, the elves and Rudolph and all his reindeer friends!

View original article HERE

Click HERE for original article

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) September 23, 2010 — Big Feet Pajama Co. Donates Pajamas to San Diego County Children’s Charity

Donation to Help Over 750 Needy Children in the Foster Care System and Homeless Shelters

Las Vegas, NV – September 23, 2010 – Big Feet Pajama Co, the premiere manufacturer of footed pajamas for men, women and children, today announced that they have donated over 750 footed pajamas to the San Diego based charity Leez PJs 4 pajamas-sleepwear/childrens-footy-pajamas/kids-juniors-footy-pjs/”target=”_self”title=”Kids Footed Pajamas” >Kids.

Leez PJs 4 Kids changes the lives of several thousands of children in the San Diego area by collecting pajamas and giving them to local children’s homes, Including Father Joe’s Village, which houses 900 families and serves 3000 meals daily.

“We are grateful for the generosity of Big Feet Pajama Co.,” said Lee Zook, President and Founder of Leez PJs 4 Kids, “There will be 750 kids who will sleep warm and comfortable this winter. 750 kids who will get some love from people they never met, but who care deeply about them.”

Big Feet Pajama Co is certain their continued involvement with this charity will prove to be a great partnership now and in the future.

“I’m thrilled to be working with such a great and deserving organization,” said Valerie Johnson, CEO of Big Feet Pajama Co., “It is hard to imagine what these kids go through when placed in the system, but I am so happy to know that organizations like Leez PJs exist to make their situations a little more comfortable. They are true heros.”

Charitable work involving children is rewarding. Big Foot Pajama Co knows these children are often over-looked and forgotten, but hopefully a small gesture such as a pair of pajamas will make the lives of these children better.

###

About Leez PJs 4 Kids

Leez PJs 4 Kids is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to collect PJ’s and provide a small comfort to kids in the greater San Diego area that will have a positive impact in the midst of their sad and unfortunate circumstances. More information about Leez PJs 4 Kids can be found on their website: www.leezpjs4kids.com

About Big Feet Pajama Co.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Las Vegas, NV, Big Feet Pajama Co. is a global manufacturer of adult and children’s footed sleepwear. The line is offered in over 50 fun and fashionable colors and patterns, in three fabrics: 100% cotton flannel, 100% cotton jersey knit and micro-polar fleece. The Company has been featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, movies, national commercials and television shows, including: CNN, TIME, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, NY Times, and Associated Press to name a few. The Company’s products are available at stores and boutiques around North America, Europe and Asia, as well as online at www.BigFeetPjs.com

click HERE for original article

August 4, 2010 — Las Vegas, NV August 3, 2010 – Big Feet Pajama Co., the leading manufacturer of footed pajamas for men, women and children worldwide announced today that it has surpassed 75,000 fans on its Company Facebook page (77,860 to date). Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers and currently boasts more than 500 million active users.

Big Feet Pajama Co. has seen extraordinary growth on its Facebook page in recent months. The brand has added over 60,000 fans since May and is adding approximately 2500 new fans each week.

“Our Facebook fans are an integral part of the customer experience,” said Valerie Johnson, CEO of Big Feet Pajama Co. “We learn so much about the brand through social media and it really helps us keep our finger on the pulse as it relates to consumer wants and needs. We love reading posts from our fans and customers and want to thank them for their support,” she added.

In addition to announcing Company milestones, events and new product introductions via Facebook, Big Feet Pajama Co. runs weekly contests and gives away free products and gift certificates to current fans. To become a fan, you can visit our website at www.BigFeetPjs.com for one-click access.

About Big Feet Pajama Co.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Las Vegas, NV, Big Feet Pajama Co. is a global manufacturer of adult and children’s footed sleepwear. The line is offered in over 50 fun and fashionable colors and patterns, in three fabrics: 100% cotton flannel, 100% cotton jersey knit and micro-polar fleece. The Company has been featured in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, movies, national commercials and television shows, including: CNN, TIME, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, NY Times, and Associated Press to name a few. The Company’s products are available at stores and boutiques around North America, Europe and Asia, as well as online at www.BigFeetPjs.com

View original article HERE

Why feature feety pajamas made of cotton flannel, jersey knit, micro-polar fleece, or cashmere just as summer really starts to heat up? That’s easy. The warmer the weather, the colder our house becomes. In fact, blame any blackouts incurred in the Northeast over the next few months on us. Our home is electricity central. Every room has its own air conditioner (some have two) and they are cranking–with the “energy efficiency” switch off-24/7. Want to beat the heat? Come touch the frost on the inside of our windows. (Don’t fetch the greenies on us, though, because we make up for our wasteful ways in the winter, when our thermostat is set so low that the furnace hardly runs at all.) Come bedtime, whether it be summer or winter, we break out the flannel sheets, big blankets, and our nightwear from the Big Feet Pajama Co., Las Vegas, Nev.

Sizing on all Big Feet products is unisex and fits individuals ranging from 5′0″, 100 lbs. to 6′5″, 255 lbs. (As for the latter figures, we maxed out on the weight, but not the height.) The X-Small, Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large feeties are available in 100% cotton flannel (double-brushed, $39.99), and jersey knit (sateen, $39.99), micro-polar fleece ($44.99), and 100% cashmere ($119.99).

While every person’s sleep habits and patterns differ, most adults tend to change positions at least 12 times per snooze session. The extra roominess provided in Big Feet’s purposely oversized line allows for movement without restrictions–because you never know when you’ll have to pop up in the middle of the night to lower the temperature on the air conditioner. To order or learn more about Big Feet, visit www.BigFeetPjs.com

COPYRIGHT 2006 Society for the Advancement of Education
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

Click Here for Original Article

From stock jockey to pajama magnate, Valerie Johnson is a great example of what you can accomplish when you think globally. When the world is your market, instead of selling to millions of people, you’re selling to billions!

Valerie started a company that sells a cold-weather product footed pajamas for adults that doesn’t mean she has to live with meager sales when it’s summer in the United States. Using the Internet, she can always reach people looking for something warm and fuzzy to wear to bed on a cold night.

Valerie’s Life Journey:

Valerie’s journey from the high-stress job of stock trading to the comfort product industry is fascinating. The way she tells , it’s really not such a stretch to change from stock trader to selling pajamas over the Internet. In fact, Big Feet Pajama Co. was fueled by the same dream that fueled her stock trading ambitions: she wanted to look beyond her small-town upbringing and talk to the world. And she wanted to make a good living for herself. Like most people, Valerie’s childhood dream was to grow up and be successful. Raised on a Thoroughbred horse ranch, her first dream was to be a jockey.But she was age of 10. she had to give that up. Then she decided to be a stockbroker. After all, growing up around racehorses and racetracks gave Valerie an understanding of the thrill of gambling.

For her, the stock market was like legalized gambling And it wasn’t just gambling with the locals, it was gambling with businesses She was kind of shocked when she bought stock and there was a commission involved. she thought, Whoa, it’s great idea to buy the stock, why is he getting paid to write a ticket? That’s easy money; I should do that….She felt.

In reality, selling stocks wasn’t such an easy job, but it did expose Valerie to the business world, and it opened her eyes to many new possibilities. In 1987, when stock market crash happened, Valerie saw it as a good thing.she felt there were a lot of people who were going to be looking for a new broker,She thought it was an opportune time to jump in.

Valerie quit college and moved to Los Angeles to become a stockbroker. Over the course of about seven years, she struggled her way up from selling penny stocks to a pretty good career selling stocks for Lehman Brothers. Eventually, she went to work for a small boutique firm where she got involved in planning the IPOs of dot-com businesses.Like that she got many work experinece n huge exposer of work life.

When the dot-coms crashed, Valerie bounced. But she had some media contact,with the help of media contacts she made fateful change in her career and opt investor relations firms.

She worked in investor relations firms for long time but later she realised it was just wasting of time to been there.Despite of your hard work she never be appriciated by her boss n she didnt get proper salary too.So, finally she decided to quiet this job.It was big decision for her…She lost everything But she never gave up!

In the back of her mind, She had been thinking about a business selling one-piece footed pajamas just like the kind little childrens-footy-pajamas/kids-juniors-footy-pjs/”target=”_self”title=”Kids Footed Pajamas” >kids wear for adults. The idea first came to her at a party when the host’s child wandered out of his bed wearing his footed pajamas. Everyone at the party men and women, young and old gushed about how cute and comfy those pajamas looked.

As she thought of the little boy in his pajamas, Valerie remembered her own days wearing footed pajamas. They brought back pleasant memories of cozy childhood moments and fun Christmas mornings. The reactions of the guests at the party were proof that other people had the same feeling, too. When Valerie was a little child, she couldn’t pronounce the word pajamas so she called them her big feet.

It felt like the perfect, whimsical name, so Big Feet Pajama Co. was born. Valerie had just gotten through some very stressful times, taking the heat for a company whose product sickened people, sometimes fatally. She knew the value of using memories of simpler times just to get to sleep at night. Valerie hadn’t just found a quirky sleepwear option, she’d discovered a product that evoked warm childhood memories. Valerie began talking to her great public relations contacts.

She knew journalists and she understood that they were in the business of telling stories and they were always looking for some real-life examples to illustrate trends. So she figured she could use her press contacts to get out word about her own business.

valerie had some media contact before so used those contacts to communicate with people thats she was going to make special big feet pajamas for adult.In this ways pepople came to know n give bulk order to her.Thats was the great things happened with her.

she started the paperwork for incorporation, searched the fabric stores for the right fabric, and found a freelance costume designer who could work on designing a prototype of the pajamas. Then she spent a month running over to the designer’s house every night after work to perfect the design. Very quickly, Valerie had some prototypes of the footed pajamas. There was only one problem: she didn’t know anything about the apparel industry.

She went online and started looking for manufacturers. American manufacturers were too pricey and the ones who would even look at her product didn’t have the greatest working conditions, so Valerie looked overseas. This wasn’t as hard as it sounds thanks to an Internet site, www.alibaba.com, that brings together entrepreneurs and overseas manufacturers.

Using that site, Valerie found some Chinese sewing factories that would take her order for half what the U.S. manufacturers had quoted. But even though the Chinese factories had good prices, Valerie was uncomfortable. She wanted to be sure that she didn’t get into a mess that could blow up in her face; she’d heard horror stories about bad working conditions and child labor overseas. So she hopped on a plane and flew to China. If that’s not underestimating obstacles, I don’t know what is! It was nerve-racking, Valerie says of the trip. But using the contacts on the Alibaba.com Web site, she was able to visit the factories and discuss business pretty well. In the end, she put down $50,000 of her precious savings to order 5,000 pairs of pajamas from the manufacturer. Even if she failed to make a profit, at the very worst Valerie figured she could at least break even by selling them
at cost on eBay.

After nine months of planning, the 5,000 pajamas arrived at Valerie’s home. I didn’t realize how many boxes there would be! says Valerie, noting that her first husband thought she was crazy when the order came. We backed all the cars out of the garage, and the whole garage was filled to the brim with boxes.

People were peeking out their windows wondering, ‘Why is there a semi truck outside their house?’ Now Valerie had a garage full of pajamas and a Web site that was up and running. It was time to sell some pajamas. So she sent out email announcements that her Web store would be opening to all the thousands of people whose email addresses she’d been collecting.
Then her Web designer flipped the switch” to take the Web store live, and Valerie waited for the orders to come pouring in.

She didn’t have to wait long. Within 60 seconds, we had our first order. It was the funniest thing, Valerie says. In the coming months, Valerie spent 16 hours a day processing orders in the basement of her home. She boxed the pajamas, printed out invoices, printed out the wash and care instructions, and hand delivered the packages to the post office. In those early months, she had
enough orders to fill up her car every day. Within a week, she knew she needed more pajamas and quickly placed another order with her Chinese manufacturer. By Christmas, she was sold out, and the pajamas were back ordered into January because the factory couldn’t deliver them fast enough.

Within three months, the company was profit table. Valerie has been hanging on for the wild ride ever since. She experimented with key word advertising—spending $20 a day or so at first, then increasing her key word advertising budget little by little. As profits increased, Valerie had more money to spend on click-through advertising along with key word advertising. She now spends from $500 to $1,000 a day on click-through advertising during peak months and reinvests all her profits into more improvements. She uses the profits to buy more inventory, hire more employees, rent more warehouse space, upgrade to more powerful servers, and enhance the Web site. “I’ve just plowed all of the profits back into the company,” Valerie says. In her first year, she got a call from the people putting together the Academy Awards gift baskets that go to the stars; her pajamas were chosen to go into the gift bags because they seemed like the perfect thing for someone who has everything. And the Big Feet snowball just keeps rolling faster

Valerie Johnson of Big Feet Pajama Co. went from stockbroker to pajama mogul, achieved her life goal what she loves to do.

View original story HERE

From stock jockey to pajama magnate, Valerie Johnson is a great example of what you can accomplish when you think globally. When the world is your market, instead of selling to millions of people, you’re selling to billions!

What’s more, it’s always winter somewhere in the world. So even though Valerie started a company that sells a cold-weather product—footed pajamas for adults—that doesn’t mean she has to live with meager sales when it’s summer in the United States. Using the Internet, she can always reach people looking for something warm and fuzzy to wear to bed on a cold night.

As you read Valerie’s story, note this statistic: In 1970, the U.S. stock market made up 66 percent of the world’s market capitalization; in 2007, the United States made up 42 percent, according to the investment management fi rm BlackRock. By 2030, we could make up as little as 27 percent of the world’s market. It’s not that the market of the United States is getting smaller, it’s that non-U.S. companies are becoming more signifi cant players on the fi eld. And this is also true for entrepreneurs in the U.S. and throughout the world—thanks to the Internet, people all around the globe can be your marketplace.

Valerie’s journey from the high-stress job of stock trading to the comfort product industry is fascinating. The way she tells it, it’s really not such a stretch to change from stock trader to selling pajamas over the Internet. In fact, Big Feet Pajama Co. was fueled by the same dream that fueled her stock trading ambitions: she wanted to look beyond her small-town upbringing and talk to the world. And she wanted to make a good living for herself. Like most people, Valerie’s childhood dream was to grow up and be successful. Raised on a Thoroughbred horse ranch, her fi rst dream was to be a jockey. When she reached 5′9″ at age 10, she had to give that up. Then she decided to be a stockbroker. After all, growing up around racehorses and racetracks gave Valerie an understanding of the thrill of gambling.

“To me, the stock market was like legalized gambling,” she says. And it wasn’t just gambling with the locals, it was gambling with businesses far beyond her little Southern California town. She still remembers her fi rst stock, World Airways, and how much she loved thinking that she owned a piece of a business that flew airplanes all over the world. “I just remember running out to the front yard every day to go pick up the paper and see how my stock did,” Valerie recalls. And there was something else—the people who sold her the stock seemed to have a pretty cushy job. “I was kind of shocked when I bought stock and there was a commission
involved. I thought, Whoa, it’s my idea to buy the stock, why is he getting paid to write a ticket? That’s easy money; I should do that.”

In reality, selling stocks wasn’t such an easy job, but it did expose Valerie to the business world, and it opened her eyes to many new possibilities. Similarly, her high school job as the branch manager’s assistant at the local Dean Witter offi ce introduced her to the fax machine. When she saw that fax machine, she says it was like a window on the world opened up to her. “I thought that was the most amazing piece of equipment I’d ever seen,” Valerie recalls. “How is this paper getting from here to across the country?” When the 1987 stock market crash happened, Valerie saw it as a good thing. “I felt there were a lot of people who were going to be looking for a new broker,” she says. “I thought it was an opportune time to jump in.”

To her parent’s dismay, Valerie quit college and moved to Los Angeles to become a stockbroker. Over the course of about seven years, she struggled her way up from selling penny stocks to a pretty good career selling stocks for Lehman Brothers. Eventually, she went to work for a small boutique fi rm where she got involved in planning the IPOs of dot-com businesses. While getting the word out about these exciting new companies, she came into contact with a lot of TV and print journalists. When the dot-coms crashed, Valerie bounced. But she took those media contacts with her and made a fateful change in careers, going to work for an investor relations fi rm.

Most of the time, her new job in investor relations was fun. Valerie would talk with business journalists about the workings of defense contractors, restaurant chains, and Vegas gaming companies. The job had a decent salary that was supplemented twice a year by a performance bonus. Plus, she occasionally appeared on television to announce her clients’ latest newsworthy ventures. Then came the day when she was asked to handle the Chi Chi’s restaurant debacle: tainted green onions worked their way into the restaurant’s kitchens and made diners sick. Some people even died. And there was Valerie, hired to stand in the fi ring line as journalists peppered her with questions. One reporter even hid in the bushes and jumped out at her with a TV camera when she went to her car. Still, she tried her best to do her job well. If you’ve ever felt unappreciated and taken advantage of at your job, you will be able to relate to this part of Valerie’s story. Even though her employer, the investor relations fi rm, ended up having a hugely profi table year, they didn’t pass it on to Valerie and her coworkers. Instead of the usual bonus, that quarter she got nothing. Instead, the investor relations fi rm opted to invest in plush new offices for its executives. Valerie got angry. And then she got out.

Starting from Scratch
In the back of her mind, Valerie had had a quirky idea brewing. She had been thinking about a business selling one-piece footed pajamas— just like the kind little childrens-footy-pajamas/kids-juniors-footy-pjs/”target=”_self”title=”Kids Footed Pajamas” >kids wear—for adults. The idea fi rst came to her at a party when the host’s child wandered out of his bed wearing his footed pajamas. Everyone at the party—men and women, young and old—gushed about how cute and comfy those pajamas looked. Everyone had a pleasant childhood memory of wearing something like that, and they all said: “It’s too bad they don’t make those for grown-ups; I’d love a pair.” Valerie thought to herself, “That is a good idea. I’m always freezing myself.” So when her fi ve-fi gure
bonus didn’t materialize, Valerie did some research and found that no one was making footed pajamas for adults. Bingo.

As she thought of the little boy in his pajamas, Valerie remembered her own days wearing footed pajamas. They brought back pleasant memories of cozy childhood moments and fun Christmas mornings. The reactions of the guests at the party were proof that other people had the same feeling, too. When Valerie was a little child, she couldn’t pronounce the word “pajamas” so she called them her “big feet.” It felt like the perfect, whimsical name, so Big Feet Pajama Co. was born. Valerie had just gotten through some very stressful times, taking the heat for a company whose product sickened people, sometimes fatally. She knew the value of using memories of simpler times just to get to sleep at night. Valerie hadn’t just found a quirky sleepwear option, she’d discovered a product that evoked warm childhood memories. Valerie began talking to her great public relations contacts. She knew journalists and she understood that they were in the business of telling stories—and they were always looking for some real-life examples to illustrate trends. So she fi gured she could use her press contacts to get out word about her own business.

Even if you don’t happen to have the kinds of press and TV news contacts that Valerie has—and not many people do—the ability to talk about your business to everyone you meet is a huge skill that everyone who starts a business should learn. “You never know who you’re going to talk to or who’s going to know someone who could help you,” says Maggie Gallant, founder of Spotlight Communications, a public relations fi rm she started out of her studio apartment in New York City in 2002. An entrepreneur herself, she’s grown her little fi rm into a full-fl edged operation with several employees and clients like the Coca-Cola Co., Clif Bar, and MTV, as well as smaller boutique clients such as Booty Parlor and LeapFrog. “Be your own mouthpiece!” Maggie says. “Keep track of people, let them know what you’re doing. People want something to talk about.” Instinctively, Valerie knew to do this. While you may be a little shy to talk about your business idea before it’s up and running, Valerie’s story shows it can be a good thing. Positive public relations is like a magnifying glass forming a beam of light—it can generate enough heat to cause a dry leaf to burst into fl ames. Getting the word out about your business creates buzz and energy that feeds off itself. Good public relations is not an end in itself, but it magnifi es what you already have. Valerie knew her contacts and stories would be an important step toward getting her business off the ground.

To hatch her plan, Valerie took a week of vacation from her investor relations job. In those seven days, she started the paperwork for incorporation, searched the fabric stores for the right fabric, and found a freelance costume designer who could work on designing a prototype of the pajamas. Then she spent a month running over to the designer’s house every night after work to perfect the design. Very quickly, Valerie had some prototypes of the footed pajamas. There was only one problem: she didn’t know anything about the apparel industry.

Underestimating Obstacles
Even though Valerie had a great idea, some prototypes, and some media contacts, she had to fi nd a way to get her product manufactured. Instead of getting bogged down with this step, Valerie resolved to give herself a crash course in the apparel industry. She went online and started looking for manufacturers. American manufacturers were too pricey and the ones who would even look at her product didn’t have the greatest working conditions, so Valerie looked overseas. This wasn’t as hard as it sounds thanks to an Internet site, www.alibaba.com, that brings together entrepreneurs and overseas manufacturers.

Using that site, Valerie found some Chinese sewing factories that would take her order for half what the U.S. manufacturers had quoted. But even though the Chinese factories had good prices, Valerie was uncomfortable. She wanted to be sure that she didn’t get into a mess that could blow up in her face; she’d heard horror stories about bad working conditions and child labor overseas. So she hopped on a plane and fl ew to China. If that’s not underestimating obstacles, I don’t know what is! “It was nerve-racking,” Valerie says of the trip. But using the contacts on the Alibaba.com Web site, she was able to visit the factories and discuss business pretty well. In the end, she put down $50,000 of her precious savings to order 5,000 pairs of pajamas from the manufacturer. Even if she failed to make a profi t, at the very worst Valerie fi gured she could at least break even by selling them
at cost on eBay.

It would be six months before the order was delivered, so Valerie kept busy studying her industry. Her biggest learning experience was attending the Magic Apparel Show in Las Vegas, where she was living at the time. Once again, Valerie had found a way to reach out globally. This once-a-year trade show brought sales representatives from department stores and boutiques around the world. They walked by Valerie’s ten-foot-square booth and looked at her prototype pajamas. “The problem was I didn’t know the lingo of the trade, so when someone would stop by to talk, I didn’t know what they were asking me,” Valerie says. She remembers ducking into the nearby lingerie-sellers’ booth to ask what the buyer’s terms meant. We’re talking basic retail language, such as “net 30,” which means the buyers wanted 30 days to pay for the product after delivery. The guys in
the next-door booth were helpful but amazed that she didn’t know the basics. “They were cracking up and laughing,” Valerie recalls. “I was asking them, what should I say? How do I answer?”
Little did Valerie know at the time that she was learning about more than the apparel industry—she was meeting face-to-face with some of her fi rst global Web site customers.

Building Momentum
Looking back, Valerie realizes that trade show gave her something extremely valuable. It wasn’t just about fi nding buyers to sell her product in their stores—because realistically, she knew that most retailers weren’t going to sell her pajamas. Instead, that trade show was like a worldwide test market. Buyers from all over the world ooh-ed and ahh-ed over her footed pajamas. They all had an emotional reaction, just like the people at the party had reacted to the little boy in his footed pajamas. Everyone connected with the product emotionally, and many of them wanted a pair; so Valerie generated a signifi cant list of email addresses from people all over
the world who wanted to buy her pajamas for themselves as soon as they were available.

Meanwhile, all those phone calls and emails to journalists about what she was doing were starting to pay off. For instance, the fact that Valerie was prompted to start her business because she felt cheated out of her bonus found its way into a how-to article advising businesses on handling Christmas bonuses properly. And the way she used the Alibaba.com site to fi nd a manufacturer also wound up being used as an example in a story about small businesses going global.

It’s tough to get that kind of media coverage, and we can all learn from how Valerie did it. The most interesting thing is how she would just call her journalist friends and chat about the personal details of her business launch adventure. In Chapter 7, Warren Brown talks about how frustrating it was for him when journalists would show an interest in his cake-selling business, but they didn’t want to write about it right away; they wanted to wait and see whether he would make it through his fi rst year or fl ounder like many fi rst-time business ventures.

Valerie’s story shows it’s key to focus on the experience of launching a business—you may learn some tips about unconventional ways to borrow money, how to start a business and juggle a day job, or even what to look for when scoping out offi ce space. Just start talking. Sharing some personal tidbits—even telling people you felt cheated and taken advantage of by your old employer—could land you some great press. While she was waiting for her product to arrive, Valerie found another great way to reach beyond the city where she lived and into the world: a Web site for freelancers called Guru.com. It was there that she found a freelance Web designer to build her Web site. Months before she had any product to sell, the Web site featured photos of her prototype pajamas and asked, “Would you like to be alerted when the Big Feet store opens?” And it had a place for customers to enter their email addresses. In this way, Valerie collected thousands of emails from people who were interested in her remarkable footed pajamas. Now all she needed were some pajamas to fi ll the orders.

Taking the Next Leap
After nine months of planning, the 5,000 pajamas arrived at Valerie’s home. “I didn’t realize how many boxes there would be!” says Valerie, noting that her fi rst husband thought she was crazy when the order came. “We backed all the cars out of the garage, and the whole garage was fi lled to the brim with boxes. People were peeking out their windows wondering, ‘Why is there a semi truck outside their house?’” Now Valerie had a garage full of pajamas and a Web site that was up and running. It was time to sell some pajamas. So she sent out email announcements that her Web store would be opening to all the thousands of people whose email addresses she’d been collecting.
Then her Web designer “fl ipped the switch” to take the Web store live, and Valerie waited for the orders to come pouring in.

She didn’t have to wait long. “Within 60 seconds, we had our fi rst order. It was the funniest thing,” Valerie says. In the coming months, Valerie spent 16 hours a day processing orders in the basement of her home. She boxed the pajamas, printed out invoices, printed out the wash and care instructions, and hand delivered the packages to the post offi ce. In those early months, she had enough orders to fi ll up her car every day. Within a week, she knew she needed more pajamas and quickly placed another order with her Chinese manufacturer. By Christmas, she was sold out, and the pajamas were backordered into January because the factory couldn’t deliver them fast enough.

Within three months, the company was profi table. Valerie has been hanging on for the wild ride ever since. She experimented with key word advertising—spending $20 a day or so at fi rst, then increasing her key word advertising budget little by little. As profi ts increased, Valerie had more money to spend on click-through advertising along with key word advertising. She now spends from $500 to $1,000 a day on click-through advertising during peak months and reinvests all her profi ts into more improvements. She uses the profi ts to buy more inventory, hire more employees, rent more warehouse space, upgrade to more powerful servers, and enhance the Web site. “I’ve just plowed all of the profi ts back into the company,” Valerie says. In her fi rst year, she got a call from the people putting together the Academy Awards gift baskets that go to the stars; her pajamas were chosen to go into the gift bags because they seemed like the perfect thing for someone who has everything. And the Big Feet snowball just keeps rolling faster.

Where Are They Now?
On a personal note, Valerie says she’s happier than ever. In the past four years, she’s gotten divorced, remarried, and started a family, all while tending to her Big Feet Internet business. Valerie’s career path has led her from the high-stress job of stock trader to selling the ultimate comfort item. Not only that, she’s making great money! About launching Big Feet, Valerie says, “It’s the best fi nancial decision I ever made.” Check out Valerie’s Web site at
www.bigfeetpjs.com.

Purchase Starting from Scratch, published by Kaplan Publishing, on Amazon. Part II of this book will be available next week.

Wes Moss is a Certified Financial Planner in Atlanta Georgia, a partner at Capital Investment Advisors Inc., and the host of MONEY MATTERS on News Talk 750 WSB – the nation’s longest running call-in investment and personal finance radio show.

Click HERE for original article

Ryan Johnson, a writer for 944 Magazine, wrote an article about the 2010 Playboy Golf Scramble Finals where Big Feet Pjs was the not only the official pajama sponsor, but the official footed pajamas sponsor! More pictures of which celebrities were at the Finals and which celebrities left with a pair of footy pajamas…and more importantly…which celebrities WORE their feetie pajamas to the Pajama and Lingerie Party at the Playboy Mansion!

Do you remember what your pajamas were like as a kid. Maybe you were lucky enough to have a few pairs of footed pajamas. They were warm and cozy and you could lounge around in them all day long if you wanted to. Some of my best memories of my childhood are Saturday mornings watching cartoons and playing with my toys while wearing my footed pajamas. Now you can relive those days and create some new memories with a pair of adult footed pajamas.

Many think that footed pajamas are just for kids and not for adults. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Adult footie pajamas come in many different colors, patterns, and styles. They can be tasteful, playful, or just plain useful. Some of the more popular brands even have playful prints that harken back to childhood days, but if you want a more adult footy option you will find solid prints and traditional plaid designs.

When you buy a pair of adult footie pajamas you should be on the look out for a few things. The first concern is what size to get. If you are getting a pair of cotton or wool they are more than likely going to shrink. This shrinkage can cause the footy pajamas not to fit, so order a size larger than you think you need. This will allow for them to shrink yet still provide an adequate fit. If you don’t want to do this make sure you buy a pre-shrunk pair.

The second thing to look out for is the footed part of the footie pajama. If the foot is maid entirely of the same material as the pajama you may have some problems on hardwood floors as the footie pajama material can be slippery. If you have carpeted floors this won’t be a problem. If you do have floors with a slick surface make sure you get a pair with rubber soles on the bottom of the footie pajamas. This will alleviate any problems with slippage.

Rekindle childhood memories and enjoy a restful nights sleep with a new pair of footed pajamas. They aren’t just for kids and are even made special for adults. With the right size and options you can get a great nights sleep while being surrounded by warmth and comfort.

Shhh, don’t tell anyone. But there is a new fashion trend that many people are adopting and yet very few people admit to. But the secret is out. Footed pajamas
are IN!

Until recently, footed pajamas were worn almost exclusively by toddlers and pajamas-sleepwear/childrens-footy-pajamas/infant-toddler-footy-pjs/”target=”_self”title=”Infants Footed Pajamas” >infants. But now, many companies are marketing footed pajamas for adults. Every few months another company launches a line of footed pajamas. Big Feet Pajama Company was recently named “Innovative Small Business of the Year” by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce for developing from a small basement shop to a multi-million dollar enterprise in only three years.

Footed Pajamas are loved by people from all walks of life, from teens to grandparents. Celebrities from Lindsay Lohan to Ed Asner to Samuel L Jackson admit to wearing footed pajamas. Why? Because there is no warmer, cozier loungewear around.

When parents wear footed pajamas, the family can dress for bed together and in style. With the costs of fuel sky rocking, families find that wearing their footed pajamas they can turn down the heat and save money. Footed pajamas are the simply the warmest pajamas around.

Since footed pajamas are marketed by many manufacturers the range of styles, textiles, accessories, prints are broad. Of course, one can find footed pajamas with all kinds of accessories from old-fashioned drop seats, convenient for when Mother Nature calls to hoods, convenient for keeping the head as warm as the toes.

Nevertheless, many people feel silly about the idea of wearing a pajama that was once exclusively worn by infants. But what is silly about being relaxed, warm and comfortable in your own home? Footed pajamas are a fashion trend that may take some time to get used to, but are definitely here to stay.

By: Mario Churchill

It doesn’t matter whom you are giving the gift to, footy pajamas doesn’t seem to be a very romantic gift. But then again, it is a gift that many people will be happy to receive. This is because everyone loves to sleep. Especially after a long tiring day, a comfortable footy pajama in a warm bed can be one of the greatest highlights of the day.

With the numerous varieties of footy pajama designs available nowadays. You can find a great set of footy pajama for anyone, a silk footy pajama for instance cut in a sexy fashion could be a great gift for your wife. A wool warm footy pajama could be fantastic to give as a gift to your dad. For any occasion, there is a footy pajama that anyone could use.

When occasions like Christmas come and you have a long Christmas list, buying them all footy pajamas in their sizes can be very economical and time saving. You don’t have to roam from one department to another. This is a great idea because everybody wears footy pajamas. No one can have too much of them as they are being used everyday. Want to give something extra to a boss or your best friend? Just add a matching robe to the pajama gift!

This also includes any person at any age. As footy pajamas are widely produced, you have different designs and different materials used in manufacturing them to ensure that you can find a footy pajama that will suit their taste. This is a gift that shows a great gesture and shows that you are practical as well.

But aside from just giving away footy pajamas, you can also buy one for your own. You also would definitely love the warm and cozy feeling of donning a footy pajama before going to bed. You will definitely feel very pampered and make yourself feel great. If you are comfortable with what you wear when you go to bed, the chances are high that you will have a great sleep. You will wake up in the morning feeling like a million bucks and you have your footy pajamas to thank for.

When it comes to selecting the footy pajamas you are going to give as a gift, you can browse the Internet for the great number of online shops that carry them. You can just browse on and see the different designs and materials used to fit the taste of any person. When you buy in bulk, you may even probably get discounts and save some money while spending it. With the vast number of sites available selling  footy pajamas, you can have the pick of the lot and surely find a footy pajama for every one you know.

There you will also see some footy pajamas specially designed for romance. These are usually cut and styled sexy and made from different materials. But the most popular is silk and is combined with lace for some revealing designs and feel. The cool and slick feel of the silk pajama is usually what attracts many females to it, not to mention it is very soft and follows the contours of the body.

There will be times when a negligee would be better, but there are moments when a footy pajama can just do the same. So whether it is for your wife or for your girlfriend, a footy pajama can be the unlikely romantic gift.

About the Author

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on footy pajamas or sleepwear checkout his recommended websites.

(ArticlesBase SC #73369)

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