VBE® Spotlight: Busy Baby LLC

Veteran's Business Enterprise®: Busy Baby LLC

Headquarters: Oronoco, MN

Year Founded: 2017

# of Employees: x

Website: www.busybabymat.com

Service Overview: Baby items

Founders/CEOs: Beth (Fynbo) Benike

Service Branch: Army

Years Served: 1996-2006

Military Occupation: 5 years as a 98G Electronic Warfare Linguist and 5 years as a 46R Broadcast Journalist

Highest Rank Attained: SSG / E-6

Fun Facts:

In 10 years I hope to have sold Busy Baby and have created the COOLEST event venue in southern Minnesota.
I didn't have my first child until I was 40!
I was on Shark Tank!

Follow Busy Baby on Social:

What types of services do you offer?
Branding, merchandise, apparel and promotional products.
Who do you primarily serve?
Small and medium sized businesses, non-profits, sports teams, police departments, schools, hospitals, music bands, social media influencers, celebrities.
When and how did you start your business?
Purchased the business in December 2019 from another veteran that was retiring due to health issues.
What challenges did you face when starting your business?
Everything was a challenge because I had no experience doing anything that it took to bring an idea to market and grow an eCommerce brand.
What has been the key to your business's success?
Keep finding the resources that can help. There are dozens of resources with the sole mission of helping entrepreneurs and small business owners. By using these resources, and participating in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Southern Minnesota, we've found everything we've needed to take each next step in our business.
What important lessons have you learned that can help others succeed in business?
Do the best you can with what you have where you are. Know your goal and keep taking the next best step toward it.
What common mistakes should they be aware of and avoid?
Don't sell yourself short. You are better and know more than you think!
What else would you like the NaVOBA community to know about you and your business?
I get to run my business with my brother, a fellow Army Veteran. We were deployed to Iraq at the same time, we have been best friends for decades, and now we get to show our respective children how to work hard to grow a business together. It's all been so rewarding.