Article from The News EMC
A new baby always bring inspiration, new ideas and hope to a family, but for one Central Park family, their new baby Julia also inspired a new business.
When a new baby arrives in a family, ensuring it will be safe and healthy is the first priority. Covering up power outlets, installing barricades on stairs and buying healthy food are common preparations done to ensure a healthy child.
For Brian and Lisa Schmidt, another factor was watching what products they used to keep their new baby Julia clean. So much so that it turned into a home-based business for the two Woodroffe High School teachers.
"We were always kind of aware of health issues, with me being a phys. ed. teacher. But we had never really thought about it to a high degree until Lisa was pregnant and we started realizing that everything she eats or everything that goes into her skin gets into her and then into the fetus," says Mr. Schmidt.
The Schmidts began researching baby shampoos and cleaning products, looking up the ingredients and what they were on the Internet, the results concerned them.
Common ingredients in products most would consider mild and safe for babies were consistently appearing in the list of ingredients.
Chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), a foaming agent found in most shampoos or anything that foams, was common on many labels. SLS is also used to degrease engines, among other industrial uses and when combined with other chemicals is a suspected carcinogen.
The Schmidts were concerned about the amount of chemicals they may be putting into Julia's system both pre-natal and post-natal, chemicals that were consistently showing up in their research.
"We were basically floored by all the things we found out. We're not chemists or anything, we don't claim to be, but with basic research you can find out a lot," said Mr. Schmidt.
Upon finishing their research the Schmidts decided to start looking into organic health and beauty products to ensure both baby and mom would be free of chemicals and toxins, but finding suitable products in Ottawa was difficult.
"Even if you go to the natural food store, 90% of their products still have toxins in them," said Ms. Schmidt, "We were trying to find products that didn't have this stuff in them and it was really hard to find them, it just kind of evolved from there, it just turned into a business somehow."
After exhausting her search in Ottawa, Ms. Schmidt scoured the globe for online organic health and beauty products but found it expensive and complicated to get them to Ottawa.
Excessive shipping costs, duties and tie-ups at the border meant buying organics from companies outside of Canada was too much of a hassle.
As most of the good organic products could be found outside of Canada, the Schmidts began to think perhaps others were having the same difficulty they were.
"Canada is way in the dark ages compared to other countries when it comes to organics, Europe is way ahead of us," said Mr. Schmidt. "But we knew organics were growing in Canada, that the demand was rising."
With rising demand and lack of quality retailers to buy organics, the Schmidts decided to start Lilou Organics, their home-based online business dedicated to finding the best organic health and beauty products from around the world and bringing them to Canada.
The first step was to identify the products that Lilou Organics would carry, an exhausting process that saw the couple ordering samples from all over the globe, and testing every one of them.
The couple tested hundreds of shampoos, deodorants and other beauty products from all over the world. Being organic wasn't simply enough however, the products had to look good and most importantly they had to work.
"We may find a product, we may try it, it might look really cool, it might be organic and non-toxic, but does it work?" said Mr. Schmidt.
Another important factor or was for the products to be stylish and trendy, to eliminate the stereotype of organics being for earthy environmentalists and hippies.
"I didn't think organic and non-toxic had to equal granola and ugly, it and be chic and cool tool," said Ms. Schmidt.
After hundreds of tests and hours of research the couple got Lilou Organics off the ground by dipping into lines of credit after having trouble securing financing with banks or making sense of government small business grants, which they found unhelpful and inaccessible. The couple was faced with obstacles at ever turn, from online payments problems, to Mr. Schmidt's back surgery to little Julia breaking her leg, all while trying to start up a business with a second baby on the way.
"There was a point where we were several thousands dollars in where we looked at each other and had to decide if we were going to keep going," said Mr. Schmidt.
Having put so much effort into the project the couple persevered and Lilou Organics opened its online doors in August.
Already business has been good, Lilou Organics was on display at the Baby Boom Show at the Nepean Sportsplex a few weeks ago and will be featured at Blossom: Lifestyle Event for Women at the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata on October 15. Lilou Organics features many brands unavailable elsewhere in Canada such as TweenBeauty, Suki, and Peacekeeper.
Inspired by their one and half-year-old daughter Julia, Lilou Organics has inspired the west Ottawa family to think more about what goes in, and on their bodies.
To learn more about Lilou Organics products visit their website at www.lilou-organics.com.
