Amy Bergin who lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia, invented a product -- a coupon organizing system for busy moms who want to save money and keep track of all those coupons they clip out when they just KNOW that they’ll save a bunch of money if they use a coupon.  Although she started with a good idea, it’s the partnership with her husband that really gave this business it’s solid footing, and also, its wings:

“My husband is CFO of our company and we work hard to remember we are on the same team!  We are first there for each other and then we are parents of 3 wonderful blessings from God, age 6, 3, and 21 months, and then the business stuff gets the rest of our attention, not the other way around!!

“My story is that after becoming a stay at home Mom, I found myself with little skill at managing the household finances. I thought I knew how to spend money – however when a zillion motivations to spend hit after having a baby and quitting my job, I realized I needed to work on my spending skills since I was managing 80% of all the spending for the household. So, I created my own system for keeping up with coupons and tracking my spending, saving and it naturally evolved into a useful tool for anyone with the same struggle. I launched it into the marketplace in 2002 and the rest is history. We have won 2 national awards for product excellence, my product is now endorsed by a large non-profit financial ministry and newspapers from across the country are writing about it. 

“Before having children, my career was in corporate training with The Coca-Cola Company. Once I became pregnant with our first child, my husband and I decided that quitting my full time job to stay home with her was the best choice for our family. I purchased a coupon organizer at the grocery store and used it for 2 months before it fell apart. Frustrated that I could not find a suitable replacement, I designed for myself an organizer out of a plastic photo book by converting the photo pockets into coupon pockets with my own categories. This worked well and my friends at playgroup noticed my coupon organizer that I had made and since I had custom designed it, I was really saving money. Then a friend who had a marketing background saw it and encouraged me to take it to market. 

“Over the last few years, we’ve gone from testing and prototype, to successfully selling out at home shows and the traffic on our website has picked up immensely. Although we’ve been through our share of “hair-raising” moments, (like the time my oldest daughter was 2 and she took my coupon-cutting scissors and decided to give herself a haircut!), through all the postpartum crying, and hiccups along the way, my partnership with my husband has thrived. We both seem to be able to let the other do what each of us is best at, and together, we are so much better than either of us could be on our own.

“What has been much more difficult is managing the needs of my family, the household, and a start-up business. I try to daily remind myself of my priorities - putting relationships first, then the business. At the end of the day, the business cannot give to me what my faith and family can which is love, laughter, comfort and a sense of belonging.”

Excerpted from an article by Azriela Jaffe.