The GROWTH of Baby Planners & the Need for NBPA

By Melissa Moog, President of NBPA

NOTE: There is a Dec. 2nd “How to Become a Baby Planner” Information Session being hosted by NBPA. See post here for more info.

Birthing a New Industry

First, thank you for coming to NBPA’s website and reading our blog. I know if you’re reading this right now you are either interested in becoming a Baby Planner, want to get involved in networking with our Baby Planners or just curious about this new niche. As President/Founder of NBPA I decided to write this entry because I believe our audience needs to understand how far we’ve come over the last four years in growing a new niche and realize the individual, tireless efforts businesses have put into building a brand new industry overall. Because of NBPA, 2009 was a big year for Baby Planning as we reached significant milestones in the growth of our industry some of which I’ll out line in my post below. It has been a truly amazing experience as an entrepreneur to see this whole industry grow from scratch!

Before anyone came onto the map in creating an official baby planning business there were people who were already helping their family members and friends with preparing for their baby’s arrival. So, let’s make it clear that “baby planning” is not something totally new. There were just a few key people in the US and abroad several years ago who found it a perfect time to take a leap of faith first by creating an actual business plan and invested resources into birthing their individual “baby planning” companies.

As word caught on about baby planning there were more businesses launched and now we see approximately 60 businesses in the US and abroad growing baby planning. These companies, many of them you will see are members of NBPA here: http://www.nationalbabyplannerassociation.com/members.html have worked very hard to spread the word and have done well in branding their own companies as professional baby planning businesses.

Our members have compared baby planning to wedding planning which has been the easiest way to explain what we do. Instead of focusing on wedding details, baby planners are focused on all of the preparation details to help expecting couples. Some of us even focus on providing services beyond baby’s birth like baby proofing and nanny sourcing.

We can assume that back in the day wedding planning was unheard of to the average consumer. It wasn’t a mainstream service that the market demanded and now you see couples hiring wedding planners for even the smallest task like choosing the best florist or caterer. We see baby planning following that same pattern as it has taken several years for this concept to finally get noticed! Now, as we explain to our audience what we do, we often hear moms say “I wish I would of had a Baby Planner when I was pregnant. What a great idea, it would have helped me immensely!” So, the word is definitely spreading!

In a tough economy many of us are doing our best to introduce the concept of baby planners by branding and marketing our own companies so that potential clients will remember who we are when they are ready to secure our services. Ultimately, beyond launching our individual companies, April and I wanted to help grow this niche globally and created NBPA to support those businesses.

Building the Buzz

I’m proud to say that we have truly gotten this new industry of baby planning a ton of great national media exposure via NBPA. Baby planning has been written about by The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Working Mother, Pregnancy Magazine, Parenting and recently NBPA members were interviewed by The Associated Press (this article to soon publish). Additionally, baby planners have been featured on many local TV media and recently on the new Platinum Babies series airing on WeTV. All of these efforts would have not been possible if Baby Planning businesses weren’t out there trying to get the exposure, spending the investment, time and hard work at building this niche. We continue to build the buzz through our media connections for our members and the baby planning industry overall. NBPA members are growing their businesses in recognition of the baby planning niche so that consumers understand who we are and what we can do to help them during the most precious and overwhelming time in their lives, new parenthood.

Validating the Baby Planning Niche

Recently, in September NBPA was able to work with the largest baby tradeshow in the country, ABC Kids Expo by creating “Baby Planning/Baby Planners” as a business category. We were ecstatic to be able to work with ABC’s board members to get our NBPA members access to all four days of the ABC tradeshow. This was a huge step forward for baby planning as an industry and NBPA was integral in doing that.

Strong Expert Partnerships

We have also secured prominent, successful business experts and companies as speakers and partners with NBPA. Because we have strong industry relationships with key baby focused organizations and manufacturers we are able to stay on top of industry trends, laws and policies in the juvenile industry. From our partnership with JPMA (the Juvenile Product Manufacturing Association) to IAFCS (the International Association for Child Safety) we continue to build strong relationships which are key to helping our industry grow overall. Additionally, the issue of safety in children’s products and services is also paramount to NBPA’s mission in making sure we offer the best resources, experts and tools to provide the most current safety information to our members. NBPA is not only totally committed to serving the needs of our members but also dedicated to growing the baby planning niche so that we can validate the need for our services in the market.

Baby Planner Certification

We qualify each of our members through an in depth one on one interview, application and reference checking process which is the first phase of NBPA’s certification process. We are also in the midst of rolling out a more comprehensive Baby Planner certification program which will be available to all professional businesses should they decide to join NBPA.

The need for a complete Baby Planner certification program has always been at the heart of what our association stands for because NBPA wants only the most qualified, experienced and credible baby planners as part of our membership. NBPA feels that we’ve come a long way in helping grow the industry and we finally have enough members to voice their input and help us create a valuable and credible Baby Planner certification program that is truly representative of our industry as a whole. Additionally, with the certification of a Baby Planner’s skills it assists NBPA in protecting all of the expecting and new families that we serve all over the world so that they receive professional, high quality service.

One Common Goal

NBPA’s membership consists of independent businesses in the baby planning field who are all working towards one common business goal to make “baby planning/baby planners” a household name so that we can all be successful, financially thriving businesses. At the same time we place the utmost importance in creating a legitimate and credible industry of Baby Planning professionals who are providing the best service possible to their customers. I have always believed in the statement “a rising tide raises all boats” and that is truly what NBPA is trying to do. We are establishing an industry and raising awareness thereby creating a market need which ultimately raises the tide for Baby Planners so that we can all be successful!

If after reading this post you have questions or feedback about NBPA please email me at: melissa@nationalbabyplannerassociation.com. I would be happy to connect with you! We also have an Introduction to Baby Planning session scheduled Dec. 2nd so if you’re interested in learning more about NBPA please join us. You can email me with your interest in attending.