Melissa Kieling on Founding PackIt Freezable

Melissa Kieling explains how she made her idea for PackIt Freezable lunch bags into a reality.

Her children bemoaned that they couldn't eat a fresh lunch at school, so Kieling worked methodically to help them and scores of other children.  It is truly easy to research any idea via Google, but running a patent search isn't something many of us entrepreneurs would've thought about right away.  So that's cool.  It made sure that there was no one else out there with her idea. 

1. File a provisional patent was a key first step.
2. Attend trade shows led Kieling to prospective buyers.
3. Invest in marketing didn't just focus on mothers and children at home, but also educated those prospective buyers on the unique aspects of her products.

How to Get on the Shelf at Target found Kieling being herself and talking honestly:  That she was a Mom, who had a great product, that Target customers would love to have.  Target didn't buy into it at first, though.  Keiling and her team ran a multimillion dollar campaign to advertise her products, and Target got onboard.

We don't hear the story of how she funded such a campaign, but that of course is a crucial piece of the puzzle.  In one way or another, we entrepreneurs have to solve that piece.