We recently connected with Diana John and have shared our conversation below.

Diana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

I, like many mom-start-up businesses, basically started my business as a hobby, and didn’t have a business plan in place. I just saw a need for a product, sensory kits to keep kids busy during the pandemic, and started making and selling them locally and to friends. Then, as things opened up as the pandemic went on, my business grew, I got busier, and it was harder to catch up on finances. If I were starting over, I would have made sure I had a business bank account and credit card set up from day 1, registered for an EIN and a state sales tax number right away, and charged and remitted sales tax accordingly from the beginning! I was able to catch up with all the required sales tax, but it was daunting to do it a year into the business and I owed a bunch of extra fees because it was late. Also, by having a business bank account and credit card set up from the beginning, it would have been much easier to track expenses vs. income, which is so important.

Diana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, I’m Diana, the owner of My Sensory Celebrations, LLC. I host sensory play dates and parties in Austin, TX, and sell sensory kits and party favors. I got into my business by seeing a need for a product and experience within my own home and community, and then grew the business from there! Long story as short as I can make it, I was a lawyer in NYC in my past life. In January of 2019, I had a son following a very tough pregnancy that required months of bed rest. My son also had some health issues that needed extra attention. Both of those things together kept me from going back to work as a lawyer to spend time healing emotionally and physically, and with my son. In May of 2020, we moved from NYC Metro to Austin, TX, with a then 16 month old, during the start of the pandemic. My son loved water play during that first summer in Austin. Once it got colder, I was looking for sensory activities to do inside with him. I started making themed sensory setups for us to play with. It was a lot of fun to do with him, gave me a creative outlet, and I realized that I had friends in small apartments in NYC, who were trying to work demanding jobs, while now also having their kids at home, and no help as day cares and schools were closed, and podding with a nanny wasn’t really an option since everyone took public transportation and didn’t have cars. I knew they felt bad with how much screen time the kids were having and wanted ready to go activities to keep their kids engaged. I then started selling my kits to my friends, to local parents (found through Facebook Mom Groups) and on Etsy. The business took off from there. Once it looked like things would one day return to “normal,” (pre the Delta variant) and then vaccines became available, I started hosting themed outdoor sensory play dates in my backyard. It was a safe space where parents could bring their kids to get out of the house, meet other parents and caregivers who were sharing the similar experience of raising kids during an unprecedented pandemic, and the kids could socialize with each other. I was focused initially on toddlers, since that was the age of my son. Once things really started to open up with the pandemic, I started offering party packages, and sensory rentals, and that is really where my focus lies these days! I still enjoy making sensory kits, but am much more focused on the in person experience, which I think makes me unique from other Sensory Play businesses and makers. I had an amazing new mom group run by a local Doula in Jersey City, which was a lifesaver as a new parent. It was a safe space where I could discuss all the emotions and feelings that come with being a new parent, and moms I met in that group are still some of my best friends, despite a few of us moving from NYC Metro during the pandemic. I want to create a similar community and space in Austin, and have definitely seen it happen with parents who have been coming to the play dates since the beginning. A lot of the moms were pregnant with their second or third babies when I started hosting the play dates, and now there is a new group of babies who accompany their siblings to the play dates. The parents have become good friends and a support network for each other as they go from 1 kid to 2 or 3. Also, I love being able to create a space where the kids can make a mess, have fun, develop all the skills that come from sensory play, and the parents and caregivers don’t have to do the cleanup, which I think keeps a lot of people away from sensory play in the first place!

Have you ever had to pivot?

As mentioned, I was a practicing attorney in NYC when I got pregnant with my son. However, at 20 weeks gestation, I started having around the clock contractions, which caused me to have to go on bed rest to try and maintain my pregnancy and sanity as long as possible! They were both painful and terrifying. My son ended up staying in until 38 weeks and 2 days, but was born with a terrible case of acid reflux/GERD. That, along with the tough pregnancy, made the newborn experience even harder than it already is. It just wasn’t in the cards for me to go back and work as an attorney. I needed the time to heal mentally and physically, and wanted to spend as much time as possible with my son. I also had to take him to a lot of doctor appointments early on, as he was miserable from the GERD. My husband and I had been hoping to move to Austin, TX since 2015, but wanted to have money in the bank and time in my career before making the move. Once my son turned 1, we decided it was time to make the move. We bought a house in Austin at the beginning of the pandemic, and moved in May of 2020. I was so happy to be able to spend the first year and a half at home with my son, but I was definitely missing using a certain analytical part of my brain. When I saw the need for sensory play in our own home, and in my friends’ homes, and that I had a talent for curating the kits, I leaned into it and started my sensory business! It’s been a lot of fun, super fulfilling, and I’m excited to see it grow as my son grows and gets more independent. Also, it has helped me make a group of friends in my new city as well as online, as I now have a lot of friends in the maker community on Instagram! I still have my law license, but am super excited to continue to grow my sensory business.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Finding the right Facebook Group to market in has been the best source of new clients for me! Because I am running a business with an in-person component, sharing my events on one particular targeted Facebook Page has been great. Then, there has been a lot of word of mouth from those new clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mysensorycelebrations.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/mysensorycelebrations

Image Credits
All taken by me!