Business Opportunities Weblog

June 20, 2008 by Angela Shupe | 4 Comments

Courant.com:

At Sporty Minds LLC, conference calls are apt to take place after 9 p.m. and “between kids brushing their teeth,” said Evan Goldstein, the firm’s vice president.

Running a part-time business after putting in a full day’s work and getting two young children into bed can be a challenge, said Goldstein, 35, of Farmington.

Similar challenges face Goldstein’s sister, Joelle Cohn, 38, the president of Sporty Minds, and their brother, Eric Goldstein, 41, who coordinates the firm’s marketing and sales.

Together, the three siblings, who run the business part time from their homes, estimate they constitute one full-time employee.

“I do research and make cold calls between my daughter’s attending preschool and my son’s baseball games,” said Cohn, whose 18-month old son, Jakob, now 7, was the inspiration for the firm’s product, an educational DVD.

Working part time since 2004, they developed “The Alphabet Games,” an instructional video that uses sports and sports terminology to teach young children letters and words. The three siblings, who grew up in Newington in a sports-oriented family, and a fourth partner financed the company’s launch with personal savings.

The DVD, which sells for about $18, made its debut last August.

“The idea hatched from my son Jakob,” said Cohn, whose husband, Kenneth, is a sports marketing executive.

At home, instead of looking at books, “Jakob would look at a Red Sox calendar and “say ‘Red’ and ‘Look. it’s Jason Varitek, number three-three.” On the road, “he would look at the exits and say, ‘Exit two-three, it’s LeBron James.’”

In Education, Innovation, Kids | 4 Comments