We recently connected with Margaret Parciak and have shared our conversation below.

Margaret, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

Recognizing my worth and not trying to fit the mold has been one of the most important lessons I’ve learned. It’s helped me become a more driven, ambitious, and self-assured business owner. My previous experiences as a single mother working in the technology industry influenced and motivated me to start working for myself.

Before starting Three Yellow Starfish LLC, I worked for numerous tech companies. During that time, I became aware of how unfairly women are treated in these types of male-dominated industries. I experienced the impacts firsthand as I was passed over for promotions despite having certifications in my field that are notoriously difficult to obtain and having more years of experience than my male coworkers. Not to mention the challenges of working and being an involved mother.

Most employers don’t understand how difficult and demanding it is for a single mother to balance work, after-work social expectations, family obligations, and personal time. I grew tired of managers raising an eyebrow every time I had to leave early for a school event or take a personal day to take my son to the doctor. This was particularly challenging during the pandemic when our work and home lives collided.

Having the personal experience of being a working single mom myself, I am well aware of the challenges that women out there face. As a business owner, this experience has taught me to value myself and others. It has shown me the importance of setting boundaries and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Most importantly, it has opened my eyes to the type of leader I want to be as my company grows.

I want to be the type of leader who understands that there is more to life than work and solve some of these same problems I’ve experienced for other women in similar situations.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Margaret Parciak and I’m the owner of Three Yellow Starfish LLC, a children’s clothing company that I first started in 2008 during the housing crisis. I studied fashion design for a few years in college and I always loved making my own clothes. I got into the industry when I started hand-making dresses for kids and selling them on Etsy to make extra money to support myself and my toddler son.

Our online children’s boutique offers clothing and accessories for babies, toddlers, and big kids in sizes ranging from newborn to six years. Many of the pieces in our shop are handcrafted by either myself or my mom but we also feature a variety of wonderful items from other women-owned businesses.

My proudest accomplishment was the launch of our Howdy Baby Box about a year ago. It’s a monthly Mommy & Me subscription box for children ages newborn to six years old. Our themed monthly boxes feature items like apparel, accessories, care products, toys, and activity items always tailored to your child’s age and developmental stage. And we also always include at least one self-care item for mom.

The Howdy Baby Box is perfect for busy parents looking for fun and meaningful new ways to spend one-on-one time with their children. We work with women-owned businesses and independent makers to bring parents and littles unique new products to explore together every month.

Many people think that they have to compete with others in order to be successful. All too often, we see competitors eager to attack one another rather than respecting each other’s accomplishments and recognizing the contributions they bring to the community. We value building bridges rather than walls and believe that there is plenty of success to go around. By empowering other women and cultivating meaningful relationships with our peers, we strengthen our brand and, more importantly, progress as a whole.

We’re a brand and a culture that puts family first and strives to make a difference in the community. Please know that when you do business with us, you’re making the impactful choice to invest in women’s economic empowerment, gender equality, and overall economic growth. And, of course, you get some amazing, often one-of-a-kind products for yourself and your family.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think we can all agree that the pandemic has turned the whole world upside down and has significantly impacted the majority of our lives.

I was laid off from my full-time IT job in August 2020. At first, the layoff was terrifying and left me feeling helpless, as if I needed to find another job right away to protect my family from any unforeseen financial circumstances. But after a few days of feeling sorry for myself, I decided to stop dwelling on the negative and shifted my focus to being grateful for what I had, investing in myself, and growing my business full time.

Everything happens for a reason and looking back on it now, it was one of the best things that could have happened to me.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed when I first started using social media to grow an audience for my business. One of the biggest challenges in getting started was deciding which platform to use.

Not only was it difficult to determine which platform best resonated with my target audience, but each algorithm works differently and follows its own set of rules, so it took some research to figure out how it all works.

If you want to establish a social media presence for yourself or your company, the best advice is to be patient and start with just one platform. Attempting to post once a day on each platform will leave you feeling overwhelmed.

Another important piece of advice is to avoid buying followers. Many entrepreneurs set up their page expecting thousands of followers right away, only to be discouraged when this is not the case. While it may be tempting to purchase an audience, making genuine connections with your customers and organically growing your following truly pays off in the long run.

It may take a bit longer to build an audience organically, but rather than having 10,000 random bots follow you, you will have a highly engaged following of real people who are genuinely interested in your products and services.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shop.threeyellowstarfish.com/
• Instagram: instagram.com/howdybabybox
• Facebook: facebook.com/howdybabybox
• Other: https://www.howdybabybox.com/

Image Credits
Margaret Parciak Kendra Adams Kaylee Cooper Brooke Etter Shelbie Todd