TOT’S THE WAY TO DO IT

Lisa O’Duinn, Founder of Pollywog Kids Company

Potty training was the divine inspiration behind the Pollywog Kids Company

Lisa O’Duinn, who hails from the US, now lives in County Tipperary with her Irish husband. Having previously worked as a manufacturing engineer, now as a mother of two young children her priorities have altered somewhat. Like most mothers O’Duinn was familiar with the concept of reward charts for children as a successful tool for behavioural development. Surprisingly, interactive charts aimed specifically at toddlers simply didn’t exist. As the author explains, “all the charts I found were aimed at older kids, addressing several issues at once which are too confusing for toddlers.”

DEFINITE MARKET

After attempting to recreate her own reward charts, O’Duinn quickly found that her match stick figure creations didn’t really have the same impact as polished cartoon characters. This was when the light bulb was ignited and O’Duinn knew that there was a definite market for toddler rewards charts. O’Duinn gathered the opinions and experiences of over 100 mothers, inspiring her to target the most common behavioural issues. 85% of the mothers knew what the charts were and how they worked but were unable to recreate them for their toddlers.

Through the help of her local arts council O’Duinn was able to collaborate with a locally retired Disney animator on the illustrations for the book, creating imagery that very young children could relate to and understand.

Finally, Toddler Reward Charts was born; a book of eight removable reward charts aimed at two to five year olds targeting everyday tasks like potty training, bed and bath time, eating, sharing, helping out, and getting dressed. “Toddlers need one chart that’s dealing with one topic, so we decided to create a book that deals with a whole series of tasks, with each chart dealing with a specific issue,” explains the young mum.

EDUCATIONAL

Initially after sending her proposal to publishers around the country, O’Duinn gained a mixed response, which led her to go it alone and independently launch the Pollywog Kids Company. The entrepreneur’s local Enterprise Board has been extremely helpful, and at a recent South Eastern Women in Business meeting O’Duinn acquired her first bookstore deal.

The business minded mum featured recently in the last eight finalists on RTE’s Afternoon Show’s Mumtrepreneur. O’Duinn’s company is set to release a series of toddler related books in the future.

Published in the December 2007 / January 2008 Issue of Irish Entrepreneur