We were lucky to catch up with Kristen Kellogg recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kristen, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?

As we’ve gotten busier, specifically in the last quarter of 2024 and now moving into 2025, maintaining quality was one of our top priorities. All of our products are hand sewn and we aim to keep it that way, while also being sure that our online listings and photographs are consistently showing the product as you will see it in front of your. Since we only sell on the online marketplace, this is a very important piece of our business.
First thing we have done is to make sure our processing times are reflective of what we can realistically make in the time we have while also being sure we are able to take breaks when needed. I am a full time stay-at-home mom so I need to be sure that I can make things in the little time I have each day to work while also recognizing I need down time throughout the week. Now that we are past the holidays, we have lengthened our processing times slightly to give ourselves time to work on other business projects, create new products, and have some down time. This is so important in the long run to have this flexibility and make this time in order to keep ourselves healthy and able to keep up with demand, as well as be sure the quality of our products continues at the same high standard we have set. Thankfully the demand for our products is still there even with lengthened processing times, so we can be confident in our business when taking these breaks.
Another thing we have done recently is look at the materials we are using to create our products. Some of these materials, specifically the felt, have changed in quality over the years from the suppliers that we normally use. Therefore, as we see this happening, we have been actively working to find new suppliers that make sense for our needs, are consistent with their products so that we can be consistent with ours, and still fit our costs and profit margins appropriately. This has been a big undertaking in the last 6 months or so and continues to be something we are working on to ensure we have the highest quality materials for our products.
Besides these larger changes, we consistently are checking our listings as we grow, specifically older listings, to be sure they are still on the same standard and still make sense with the products. Some products that were created earlier in our business need a facelift to match the quality of products that we are now making, so we are taking some time to go back and make that happen. We are constantly checking and evolving as demand raises and we learn more and more in our business.

Kristen, 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?

I am Kristen Kellogg, owner of Blip Baby Company. We are an online handmade business specializing in unique handmade nursery and kids room decor and baby/kids gifts. Our most popular products are felt wall garlands and felt pillows for kids room decor and gifts, but we also carry a variety of other wall decor and gift options. We are a mainly Etsy based company, as well as having our products in a few in person stores locally to us.
In addition to myself, my mother, Chris Spadin, also works with me on the producing, creating, and bookkeeping side of the business. She creates more of the intricate hand sewn products and helps with making and shipping orders. I am eternally grateful for her partnership, and it’s wonderful that we are mamas creating products for other mamas!
We are most proud of the fact that all of our products are handmade and many have options to be customized or personalized to fit your home or your needs. We love to work with our customers to create products that will add a personal touch to their room to the best of our ability.
Right now we work out of our homes, so you are receiving products hand sewn by mamas working at nap time, after bedtime, and in between. Every order is cheered for (even my kiddos get excited!) and every “cha ching” we hear puts a smile on our faces! We are constantly evolving, working on new ideas, and working to better the quality of our products. Our felt garlands are our most sought after pieces, and these come in a variety of themes such as ocean animals, jungle, woodland animals, and various holiday themed garlands. Visit our shop to find these and many, many more!

Have you ever had to pivot?

One of the most significant “pivots” I’ve made in my life was ending my career as a full time special education elementary school teacher and staying home with my kids. I taught 5th and 6th grade elementary and special education for 6 years prior to having my first son. After having him in 2020, I returned to work for the remainder of that school year until June 2021. When I returned to school, everything was different. Not only was the pandemic happening, but my perspective on everything had changed. After investigating a few different paths, I ultimately landed on the idea that I wanted to stay home with my son.
This was a decision I never anticipated making. I never thought I was going to be capable of being a stay at home mom and I needed to be busy. Instead, once I became a mom, I realized this was the most confident and surest decision I ever made. This is definitely where I was meant to be, and I have enjoyed it so much becoming a mom for the second time.
However, when I made that huge pivot, I knew I wanted to try something while I was home. I had always wanted to try an Etsy shop, and this was my opportunity. I am so incredibly happy with where we are now as a business and I cannot wait to see what the future holds! I feel like I’m on the path of what I was meant to do and what truly makes me happy. It’s hard, but it’s worth it.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I currently sell on Etsy, as well as having my products in a local in-person store, but the majority of our business and revenue comes from Etsy. I chose to do this to begin my business because it was the least risk financially as well as the easiest way to be flexible and work on my time. Being home with my boys full time, this affords me a great flexibility in my days and allows me to work when I can.
The pros significantly outweigh the cons for me, my life and the size of my business currently. As I said, it affords me a great flexibility in my days. I am completely in control of my hours, when I’m working, and how much business I’m taking on. In busy home seasons, I can adjust my shop accordingly. This was also the option that was the least financial risk. There is no start up cost and each time a product is released I’m only paying when those products are bought and then my personal cost to make them. I can attribute a great deal of my success to this model.
Another great pro is the customer base that is at your disposal with Etsy. Although you work by their algorithm, you have millions of people that can potentially see your products each day. This is a great pro for me as I do not always have the ability to be consistent with social media and marketing, so the fact that Etsy takes care of a lot of this is essential for my business at the moment.
There are obviously cons to every situation. On each order I do have to pay small percentages of each order in fees, as well as pay for advertising. However these fees are the smallest of any other online ecommerce site and the advertising is completely in my control as to how much I care to spend. Because of these, the pros significantly outweigh the cons for me.
One other con in the situation is having your products at the mercy of the Etsy algorithm. It’s taken time and learning to figure out what I need to do to make my products be seen, and there has definitely been frustration along the way. But with learning, great customer service and quality products, we’ve been able to grow and utilize the algorithm to our advantage.
Who knows what the future will hold, but for now I am very happy with using the Etsy platform for my business and I am eternally grateful that I’ve gotten this opportunity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/blipbabycompany
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blipbabycompany/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070439406833
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/blipbabycompany/

  https://www.tiktok.com/@blipbabycompany

Image Credits

All photographs were taken by me personally with my photography equipment.