‘Mom Entrepreneurs’ Join Forces
By Martha Slater

Two Randolph moms, Tracey Rotman and Heather Tallman, have parlayed their ideas into businesses, and formed a partnership to help promote them. Good friends who call themselves "mom entrepreneurs," they have been collaborating since early this year on ideas for gift baskets featuring both of their products.

Rotman got the idea for her Tweak’ms Sunglasses, flexible rubber sunglasses for infants and toddlers, when the sunglasses worn by her son, Ethan, now seven, kept breaking.

"I was on the way to the park one day when I came up with an idea for using a self-locking ring-shaped hinge that wouldn’t break, instead of the traditional screw fastener," Rotman explained. "On the way back, I walked faster to find the parts I needed to make a prototype. I sat on the idea for about a year, but then I learned about a patent attorney who had written a book on writing your own patent. It took me another year to finish the paperwork and send it out. A year after that, the patent was approved and when it came in the mail I danced all around the house!"

She began selling Tweak’ms in 2005. Made overseas by subcontractors, they arrive made with traditional hinges, and Rotman takes them apart and installs her patented design. Featured in a segment on the WCAX-TV news, her colorful sunglasses have become popular with parents of kids under five. With over a dozen styles for newborns to age eight to choose from, they are sold at seven different retailers in Randolph and at other locations in New York City, Florida, and Los Angeles. Orders can also be made at www.tweakmssunglasses.com.

Tallman came up with the idea for creating her own line of bath and body products after she put together gift baskets of gourmet foods, etc. at the request of her brother-in-law, Bob Hildebrand, the executive chef at the Three Stallion Inn. Her company, Twin Birch Bath and Body, gets its name from the pair of birch trees outside the kitchen window of her home on Thayer Brook Road. The trees are also pictured on the labels of her all-natural products.

Tallman, who spent a lot of time online looking for suppliers of all-natural ingredients, creates her products in a large basement workroom that her family has dubbed "the bubble lab." Rows of plastic jugs, tubs and buckets filled with the ingredients are lined up under tables displaying many of the finished products.

Although she jokingly admits that, "I didn’t ace chemistry in high school," Tallman said that, "When I started, my biggest problem was that I wasn’t pleased with the scents available. My 10-year-old son didn’t want to smell like a strawberry, so I came up with a scent I named ‘Dragonslayer.’ I also created ‘Fairy Dust’ for girls. It’s nice to smell good!"

The Twin Birch product line now includes lotions, bath salts, body wash, tear-free baby shampoo and many other items, with new products (including a line for the family pets) being developed. They are currently sold by word of mouth and Tallman said her next step is placing them in retailers around the central Vermont area. They are also featured on the Tweak’ms web site with a link to Tallman’s e-mail. A Twin Birch web site is in the works.

The two women are each the CEO and sole employee of their businesses, and with a total of six children ages three to 11 between them (Rotman has two and Tallman four), obviously know a thing or two about time management. Both say they work odd hours, late at night and during the kids’ nap times.

They recently put together themed (Mothers Day, Fathers Day, etc.) gift baskets featuring both of their products packaged in interesting ways. The "New Mom" basket, for example, is packed in a colorful lunch-box size suitcase, and the "New Dad" basket is made of birch bark.

For more information, you can reach Tweak'ms Sunglasses at 728-3304 and Twin Birch Bath & Body at 728-6423.

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