Every month in our newsletter, we feature an interview with entrepreneurs whose products we love.  We will post these interviews here a month or two after the newsletter is sent.  Sign up for our newsletter to get a first peak at these interviews!

From our May newsletter, here is an interview with Adam and Belinda from Juno Baby - http://www.junobaby.com

1. Tell us about Juno Baby.

Juno Baby is an educational and musical media company for children between the ages of 0-5. We produce high quality DVDs, CDs, apparel, and plush. After four years in development, we re-launched the company in the summer of 2006 with our new line.

2. What was your inspiration for Juno Baby?

Juno, our daughter! When Belinda was pregnant with Juno, we began scouring the stores for all things baby. Belinda, a Ph.D. in Music Composition was particularly interested in finding great musical and educational products and was extremely disappointed with what was out there - terrible quality synthesized classical music and nonsensical programming. Our desire to provide children with “real” music from live musicians and something that was beautiful, creative, artistic, and truly beneficial for children set us on our new course - operation Juno Baby.

3. What challenges did you encounter when launching it?

Where to begin?! I think our main challenge was our naivety. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into - how much time and effort our “cute little idea” was going to be. We basically had to learn everything from the ground up about filming, puppetry, graphic design, editing, web development, manufacturing, PR…the list goes on and on! We learned this the hard way - through trial and error but in retrospect we’re thankful we were so naive because had we known how difficult this was going to be, we may never have started Juno Baby!

4. What has surprised you the most in launching and running Juno Baby? 

All the wonderful feedback and support from our customers. We spent so long in development that it was hard to see the day that it would actually become a business that would be appreciated by others! Juno Baby has been our personal passion and dream so to see it valued by others has been our greatest reward.

5. What resource has helped you the most in starting Juno Baby?

The people you surround yourself with are your most valuable resource. Throughout our development, we made sure that we only worked with the best people we could find - leading experts on child development, sound editors from Skywalker Sound, puppeteers from Fraggle Rock, and top orchestral musicians. It is tempting to cut corners on a project on this scale, but we knew we wouldn’t wind up with the line we envisioned. Aside from that, I would have to say patience and determination! It is so tempting to cut corners in order to reach the “finish line”. But it’s really important to stick to the plan.

6. We have many busy moms (and dads) reading Mom’s Favorite Stuff who would love to know how you balance your family life and running a small business.

Balancing family life while creating and running a company is no small feat! Luckily our whole family is passionate and involved in our business. Still, it’s important that we separate “family time” from Juno Baby. This can be hard to do when there are pressing issues or tight deadlines – but it is still something we force ourselves to do as a family. The bottom line is that our family always comes first.

7. Tell us what’s next for Juno Baby.

We have recently signed with a Licensing Agent and are starting to expand our brand. We’re working on books and will begin producing more videos soon (the most fun part for us). We’re also going to launch a children’s clothing and accessories line in 2008.