Wayne Business Lets Customers Create Custom Headboards

Heady Bed

Marilyn Wilson got the inspiration for a new Wayne, Nebraska business, Heady Bed, while watching a design show on television. She noticed the designer’s staff often had to carry large, unwieldy headboards up narrow, sometimes winding steps. She said she remembers thinking, “Wouldn’t it be good to have a modular system.”

Later, when Wilson designed the bedroom for her lake cabin, she couldn’t find a headboard she liked at a price she wanted to pay. She said she thought headboards on the market lacked options and creativity. Wilson wondered if that meant a business need existed.

She imagined creating an Internet-based company offering headboard panels that could be rearranged. The panels would be upholstered with fabric customers select when they place orders. She explained the idea to her daughter, Katy Wilson. Her daughter has lived in lofts and Marilyn Wilson thought loft-dwellers might be ideal customers.

Katy Wilson liked the idea so much she decided to ask a Chicago designer friend what he thought. The mother and daughter created a presentation and small model headboard to show him.

“The feedback from him was amazing,” Katy Wilson said. The designer thought the idea was “right on the mark,” she said.

Marilyn Wilson, a computer programmer, and Katy Wilson, a sales manager, decided to pool their talents. Although Katy Wilson lives in Chicago, Illinois, they chose to set up the business in Wayne where she was born and where Marilyn Wilson lives. Katy Wilson said they knew they could find a quality workforce there and they hope the business will benefit the community.

Her mother contracted local professionals to make headboard panels and to do the upholstery. They rented space in Wayne to store inventory. They consulted graphic designer friends. They had friends and family try out sample headboards and pitch in to work on their Web site.

“We got a lot of help from family and friends,” Marilyn Wilson said.

Last spring, they saw information about Invest Nebraska’s Northeast Nebraska Venture Plan Competition in the local newspaper.

“We thought ‘Why not, let’s go for it,’” Marilyn Wilson said.

In the preliminary competition they were selected to compete against five other teams in the finals to win a $30,000 equity investment from Invest Nebraska, a nonprofit corporation. Katy Wilson said they were shocked when they learned they won. Winning the contest helped them solidify the idea that their business could be successful, she said.

They used some of the equity investment to build up inventory, buying parts in bulk to save money. They are preparing inventory so that when orders begin, they can meet their goal of delivery in two weeks. They plan to launch the site, www.headybed.com, around the end of February.

Invest Nebraska’s equity investment in Heady Bed means that Invest Nebraska, a nonprofit corporation, is a shareholder. Heady Bed’s creators said the partnership has been supportive and informative, not intrusive. For example, Invest Nebraska has provided Heady Bed with information about business and legal matters.

The two said they would advise others who want to be entrepreneurs to believe they can succeed, to ask questions, to find support and to research ideas. It’s important to make sure your product is different or better in some way compared to others on the market, Katy Wilson said.

They said it’s been a challenge to balance starting a new business with working full time at other jobs. They said their geographic distance is sometimes hard, but they like having the business as an extra reason to talk. They’ve gotten to know each other better, Katy Wilson said.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with my daughter,” Marilyn Wilson said.