Lots of new and exciting events coming up at eLeMeNO-Pee!

Now that the summer craziness is starting to wind down and everyone is starting to think about going back to school and getting back into a regular routine, we thought now would be a great time to announce several fun, new things coming to eLeMeNO-Pee!

We will be continuing to offer our popular Cloth 101 classes, including two of them today, Wednesday, July 30th at both 10am and 2pm. The class is free and is an excellent starting point for those curious about cloth diapering and not sure where to begin. We hope you'll join us! 


This Saturday, August 2nd, we will also be holding our first-ever Breastfeeding 101 class as well! If you are pregnant and planning to breastfeed or you're currently nursing and would like some additional information or assistance, please plan to join us this Saturday at 10am for an in-store Breastfeeding 101 class. 

You can register for our Breastfeeding 101 class by calling or visiting the store to  register for the class or by visiting our website, www.elemeno-pee.com and registering there as well.

Also on the horizon will be Daddy Bootcamp classes and Comfort Measures Natural Childbirthing classes as well. We are working diligently to get those planned and on the calendar so stay tuned to the blog and our Facebook page for important updates regarding details for both of those exciting classes!

We are hopeful that these events will be a welcome service to our community and we would love to have you join us. Also, as part of the launch, all classes (with the exception of Comfort Measures) will be free!  If you have any questions regarding our classes, please feel free to call or contact us via our website and we would be glad to assist you in any way we can.  We are also open to ideas for additional classes you may find useful as well. Be sure to tell your friends and family members -- the more, the merrier!

What sets us apart?

 
Long before I worked for eLeMeNO-Pee, I was a customer. I was introduced to this company by a former rep, Laura, and her enthusiasm for the business was catching. I knew it had to be something special by the way she talked about it.

She was right! By the time I found eLeMeNO-Pee, I had already been cloth diapering for the better part of a year and had a good system in place. When it was time to size up on diapers, I purchased the bulk of my stash through Laura and despite knowing what I was doing, she was still a tremendous amount of help, even for the miniscule things.

The fact is, eLeMeNO-Pee is unique in the way that our clients receive the one-on-one care from their consultants. We sell our products at the exact same MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) as every other company on the market but what sets us apart is the relationship we build with our customers. It isn't just a sales position, we are in it for the long-haul. If you run in to a washing problem at 7 at night, you can't run to most stores and find someone who knows exactly what you purchased, how to fix the problem, or, at that time of night ... someone who is even in the store! As representatives of eLeMeNO-Pee, we strive to make sure we can assist our customers for the lifetime of the product. That is what sets us apart.

When I entered the cloth diaper "scene" five years ago, to say I was overwhelmed is a huge understatement. If you try to figure it out yourself, it is a lot of information to take in and try and sort out, and honestly, I almost gave up several times. Oh, how I wish I had known about eLeMeNO-Pee at the time. I  would have saved myself a lot of frustration if I could have sat down with someone who could show me each and every step   of the process and answer any question I had (and there were plenty, believe me!). I truly believe that cloth diapering can work for any family with the support and assistance that one receives from eLeMeNO-Pee's reps. We are here to make this process easier for you.  We do not charge a fee for our time and service, you simply receive it by purchasing your products through us. 

We are set apart because we care. We know all of the ins and outs of the cloth diapering process and we put our expertise to use by assisting you every single step of the way. That's not something Amazon or any major retailer can offer.  We aren't primarily in this for the sale, we want to see you succeed. We care about our customers, we care about what these products mean, and we want to see you succeed!

If you're not in contact with your nearest rep, please visit this link to set up your personal consultation today : http://www.elemenopeeonline.com/

What's the point of shopping local, anyway?

As I was scrolling through my timeline yesterday, a short video from a small business owner popped up in my feed. It was titled "GRRR" and, being the curious type-person that I am, I had to watch.

He owns a small business quite similar to eLeMeNO-Pee. He had just spent two hours with a customer, enthusiastically detailing the entire cloth diapering process, only to end the consultation with her snapping a few pictures, excitedly sending them to her husband who replied and said "I can find those cheaper on Amazon". She left without making a purchase.

Y'all, it is truly unfortunate how many times this happens on a regular basis. It's not always intentional, I'm sure. I think a lot of customers have good intentions and plan to come back to buy the products. They get online, search around, find a mob of people that point them elsewhere (to generally much inferior products), their loyalty to the company who taught them everything they know starts to waiver,  and then the sale is then lost. 

It may not seem like a big deal but to those of us who own or work for a small business, the loss of sales like this on a regular basis is quite  disheartening. We pour our heart and soul in to our business only to be passed over, time and time again, for big box stores or people opting to import directly from China instead.

We offer a level of customer service that big box stores can never compete with. When you come to us, we remember who you are, who your family is, and what your preferences tend to be. If a problem arises, we are physically here for you - to help you get the right fit for the diaper, how to troubleshoot washing issues, and SO many other things. We love to help you hand-pick items for big events in your life and those around you - baptisms, baby showers, and more. We care. Your patronage is not lost on us - you are what keeps us in business!

Not only is it good for the business you patronize to "shop small", but it's great for your local economy as well. Wouldn't you rather your purchase positively impact the economic sustainability of your own community?  In fact, a study done in Austin, TX showed that $100 spent at a local book store produced $45 worth of local economic activity whereas the  same $100 spent at Barnes and Noble only brought back $3. Yes, you read that right. Three. The difference is staggering!

We know a lot of our customers are also eco-conscious and strive to be as green as possible. Buying local is so much more environmentally friendly than having everything shipped. Industrial pollution is estimated to be responsible for 50% of all pollution in the United States. 

On a slightly different note, if every family spent an additional $10 per month, just ten dollars,  at local businesses this year instead of a big box store, over  9.3 BILLION dollars would be directly returned to our economy.

The next time you're tempted to walk in to a small store and check out a product and walk out and order from Amazon instead, please keep these things in mind. Where you spend your money does matter. It positively influences your local economy, your local shop owner, and the environment. We value our customers more than we could ever say and hope you will continue to help make eLeMeNO-Pee a great success!

I'm thankful for this: It's the BIGGEST SALE in eLeMeNO-Pee HISTORY, and we can offer it because of YOU!

I gotta tell y'all, friends: I'm feeling the love. (If you don't want to read the schmaltz, scroll to the next orange text.)

I've been affiliated with eLeMeNO-Pee in some form or another--as a client, as a consultant, and now as the contracted social media director--for two-and-a-half years now. I've watched us grow from a literal home office (in our founder's home) with two consultants each about 60 miles from that office, with a selection of exactly three cloth diapers to choose from, to a full-blown, legit, competitive, oh-shoot-people-know-who-we-are cloth diaper retailer with a unique three-pronged business model and an ever-growing team of motivated consultants who are invested in seeing their communities be turned onto cloth... and succeed with cloth because they have the right education and the right products for their families' needs and desires.

Now, you might blame it on my pregnancy. You might blame it on my general sentimental nature. You might blame it on the fact that my household is gearing up for Advent and Christmas, and I'm emotional about this time of year, period. But I just gotta tell y'all that I get a little misty-eyed when I think about how far our clients, our consultants, and our amazing Home Office team, including our past and present owners, have taken us. Sniff, sniff. Cloth diapers, y'all. It's a community, and there's just no other community like it!

In case you missed the e-mail we sent out earlier today (and if you don't want to miss future e-mails, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom left of our store's home page), I'll copy and paste it for you right on this blog entry!

Have a beautiful Thanksgiving!

With love,

Laura

Social Media Director

eLeMeNO-Pee, Ltd.

We're so thankful for your business, so we're offering you...
The BIGGEST SALE in eLeMeNO-Pee HISTORY!!!

Planning your Thanksgiving weekend shopping? We love that you're choosing to shop local and shop small businesses! We're so grateful and so humbled to say that because of you, we've grown enough in 2012 to be able to offer you the BIGGEST sale in our history, and we hope you'll include us in your weekend plans!

Here are the deets:

Black Friday
Begins at 12:00 am Central

Buy 4 FuzziBunz Elite OS diapers, get 2 FREE!
(Load 6, 12, or 18 into your cart, and the price of 2, 4, or 6 will automatically be deducted from your order! This is so that you can select the colors of your freebies from our available stock!)


Small Business Saturday
Begins at 12:00 am Central; ends at 11:59 pm Central.

Buy 4 FuzziBunz Elite OS diapers, get 2 FREE!

Any order placed through your local eLeMeNO-Pee consultant* will receive a SURPRISE Planet Wise freebie, randomly drawn from a selection of THREE popular Planet Wise products!
*To qualify, orders must be placed by the consultant, not by using the consultant's link on our Web site.

Cyber Monday
***FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $75!!!***

Begins at 12:00 am Central; ends at 11:59 pm Central.

Thirsties

Duo Hemp Pocket Diaper – 15% off, with SELECT PRINTS 25% OFF! (Orig. price $18.50-$19.50)

Booty Luster, 4 oz. – 25% off (Orig. price $6.25)

Fab Wipes – 15% off  (Orig. price $12.25)

Wahmies

All day wet bags – $16.50 (Orig. price $21.95)

Beeboo Babies

Fleece Soaker Shorts – $13.50 (Orig. price $15.95)

Bravado

Body Silk Seamless – 25% off (Orig. price $49.00)

Original Nursing Bra – 25% off (Orig. price $35.00)

FuzziBunz

Buy 4 FuzziBunz Elite OS diapers, get 2 FREE!
(Load 6, 12, or 18 into your cart, and the price of 2, 4, or 6 will automatically be deducted from your order! This is so that you can select the colors of your freebies from our available stock!)

Perfect size – 15% off (Orig. price $13.95 - $16.95)

Trickle-free Trainers – 25% off (Orig. price $13.95 - $16.95)

All sales on discounted items are final; promotions apply only while in-stock supplies last.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our happy eLeMeNO-Pee babies, mamas, and 'dadvocates!'

We interrupt this series for a little bit of Christmas!

Christmas? 

Close enough!

The temperatures are dropping--South Louisiana has been experiencing the blustery cold of 65-degree mornings, after all. Break out the hot cocoa!

But if you're wondering why we're seemingly skipping Fall and moving right along into the merriest season of them all, you may have missed what our CEO posted to Facebook yesterday:

That news kind of made me want to order flowers for the UPS man.

Here's the thing:

It's only been in recent months that we, as a company, have grown enough to even be able to stock this kind of limited edition stuff. If you've been a client or fan for several years, you know how disappointing it was for your consultant to have to tell you, "I'm sorry, I won't be able to get you that new, fancy print! I really wish I could!" 

But that's what's so great about sticking it out and being in this for the long-haul. These three-and-a-half long (but so short!) years, we haven't stopped steadily growing. Our product line is expanding, and we have an ever-lengthening 'wish list' of new products to look into for the future. (In fact, if you ever want to ask us to look into a brand you already love or that you're interested in trying, and you'd like to be able to purchase through your consultant or from the Lake Charles retail location, please feel free to shoot us an e-mail!)

So the future looks bright. But today, in this Christmas-y moment, we're so relieved and thrilled that these long-awaited, backordered Tots Bots EasyFits V3s are making their way to us, we're so excited and impressed that the SoftBums Calendar Bums color is a gorgeous and fashionable ebony, and we're so enthused by the response we've received lately to gDiapers, because they haven't always gotten a lot of love, and they're quickly becoming one of our most sought-after lines! 

Want to know more about these limited edition, while-supplies-last offerings? Check 'em out in these photos, courtesy of our Lake Charles representative and her iPhone, and on our Web site:

Limited Edition EasyFit commemorative Olympics prints, "London" and "Jubilee," plus "Three Little Pigs," just one of the fairy tale-themed prints in Tots Bots' new "Every Nappy Tells a Story" line:

 SoftBums' September-only Calendar Bums series Omni in stylish Ebony:

And, just in time for college football, the extra-adorable limited edition gStyle, "gUniversity":

Have you ever received 'fluffy mail'? You know that feeling of tearing into the package? Well, for us, it's every bit as exciting to receive inventory for the store as it is to receive a fluffy package on your front stoop. You can see why Monday felt like Christmas in the Home Office!

Don't forget: head to the Find a Rep page and click on your local consultant's name before loading your cart! Be sure to contact her if you have any questions about anything--that's what she's there for, after all.

Most of all, we want to say that we're utterly grateful to our clients and to our hard-working consultants, because our steady growth is a result of your loyal and enthusiastic response to our efforts to expand and improve our business model and our product selection. We wouldn't be able to offer the most fun parts of participating in the global cloth diapering community--like the special, limited edition stuff!--without you.

So what is eLeMeNO-Pee, anyway?

Hi, there! Welcome to the eLeMeNO-Pee blog. You may have stumbled across us lately because of Pinterest or DiaperSwappers or because one of your Facebook friends "liked" us. Maybe one of your local or online friends told you that she applied to be an eLeMeNO-Pee consultant and you were curious, or maybe you found us the old-fashioned way: Google!

So, who are we? 

Well, we're a (1) cloth diaper retailer, in some ways just like any other online cloth diaper retailer. We have a Web store that offers same-day shipping, a Facebook Page, a blog. We run sales and specials from time to time, we stock several major brands of quality modern cloth diapers that come with good warranties, we offer our clients support and answer questions or help them process returns and warranty claims. We also carry the usual array of cloth diaper accessories, like wet bags and diaper sprayers and clean-rinsing detergents, and, of course, that most wondrously wonderful wonder of the natural parenting world, Baltic amber and beaked hazelwood jewelry.

But we're also a (2) direct selling company, much like Thirty-One or The Pampered Chef. We have local consultants all over Louisiana and Texas, and we're currently processing applications for potential consultants all over the United States, from California to Maine! Like most modern direct selling companies, the eLeMeNO-Pee "opportunity" is commission-based, and, after a thorough education and training process, and with the support of the home office and veteran consultants, our local consultants have the opportunity to successfully open their own cloth diaper businesses without encountering the massive overhead involved in owning a brick-and-mortar store... and with the highest commission rate we've seen from any cloth diaper direct selling opportunity. This means consultants are free to earn an income simply by geeking out over cloth diapers with their friends who are in the market and introducing their communities to the benefits and how-tos of cloth all while working from home or on-the-go with their babies in tow. Our consultants' clients can choose to host a party to receive awesome hostess rewards, have a cloth diaper baby shower, or just meet one-on-one with a consultant to learn more about cloth diapers, see and touch and try diapers on their babies, witness a cloth diaper laundry demonstration, collaborate to come up with a "dream stash," and then start making that stash happen! Additionally, each consultant has her own Web store, so that you can continue to support her business when you need to make a purchase but know what you want without requiring a consultation.

The store: 2102 W. Prien Lake Rd.

We are, finally, a (3) local brick-and-mortar store in Lake Charles, La. The "store" is technically our home office and warehouse, and it is staffed by our Lake Charles consultant for the convenience of her clients. As such, it is open for limited hours that change a little with each season. Summer hours are Tues. and Thurs. from 10 am - 2 pm. Lake Charles clients are encouraged to come in and shop during those hours or to shop online and select "in-store pickup" to avoid paying for shipping.

Why are we all three of these things?

So that we can be as mom-friendly as possible! Founded in 2008, we are still a relatively young company, and we are truly passionate about allowing moms to supplement their families' incomes by helping other families save money and green up their lifestyles by switching to cloth diapers. Each of our consultants is a talented woman committed to providing excellent customer service and product support to her clients. In order to keep things as low-pressure as possible for our consultants, who have no "quotas" to meet in case they need to take some personal time away from working, we also accept sales from our Web store to increase our volume of sales in regions where we have not yet hired consultants. But our goal is for every client--you!--to have her customer service needs met with the personal touch that can only be offered by an expert consultant!

Want an insider's perspective?

Several of our Louisiana reps at a training session.

I may be a tiny bit (ok, or a huge bit) biased, but as an employee and a client, I have huge admiration for each and every person who makes up the eLeMeNO-Pee family. The dynamic husband-wife duo, Allison and Todd, who own and run the company, work hard to make sure that our consultants feel supported and have an easy time learning the ropes. Our consultants, both veterans and newbies, are a true team, offering each other ideas and tips, celebrating each other's business and personal victories, and offering sympathy tears and comfort during each other's times of personal tragedy.

Lest you think eLeMeNO-Pee is just one big self-contained lovefest, I will also iterate that eLeMeNO-Pee exists for the clients just as much as for the consultants; after all, without the clients, there are no consultants! We encourage our consultants to host annual cloth diaper resale events in their communities, to offer free and open-to-the-public cloth diapering classes, to keep handy a list of resources and professionals for clients, who are often brand new parents, to be referred to when they have big parenting questions. And we continue to update our party hostess benefits (including the recent addition of free shipping for an entire party's order where the party sales total $400 or more, no matter how heavy the box!) as our company grows and our budget allows for it.

Each of our consultants has also shared with me instances where she has been willing to go to bat for her clients, so, for example, if you're also in direct sales or you own your own small business, know that your consultant is happy to learn what the products and concepts you represent can do for her. As one of our veteran consultants, Jenny H., is known to say, "It all comes full-circle when work-at-home moms are supporting each other."