kirstie McLellan Day kirstie McLellan Day - The MOMpreneur

internatiOnal business
A Pioneer in Children’s Publishing
Co-Founder Nancy Traversy tells us how Barefoot Books is breaking through
a traditional industry to cultivate global awareness in children
Despite trudging down a career path initially as a
number-cruncher with Price Waterhouse in Toronto and
then London, England, Nancy Traversy never shook her
passion for colour and design or her desire to flex her artistic
and creative muscle. So when she was presented with the
opportunity to help develop a new line of children’s books
that focused on introducing children to new cultures and
countries through global adventures, she knew she had been
given a gift and the chance do something special. To date,
Barefoot Books has published more than 400 books and is
continuing to gain recognition…and sales! Annual sales
are just under $10 million with about a third of their global
revenue coming from online sales.
Q: When did you start Barefoot Books?
I was approached in 1992 by Tessa Strickland, Barefoot
Books’ co-founder. My eldest daughter was three weeks old
and I had just started my own management consulting firm
advising small creative start-ups. Tessa’s background was in
adult publishing with large publishing houses – Penguin
and Random House – and her editorial interests focused
on eastern religion and spirituality. As a mother of three
young children, she wanted to start a children’s company
publishing stories from many different cultures that “opened
the hearts and minds of children from all walks of life,
inspiring them to read deeper, search further and explore
their own creative gifts.”
As a new mom and avid explorer of world cultures, I was
immediately captivated by the idea of creating books for
children that celebrated diversity and imagination. I didn’t
know much about the publishing industry back then and, in
hindsight, that was probably lucky as Barefoot has always
strived to be more of a pioneer than a follower.
Q: How did you get the company going?
We started in England as a home-based business with the
help of an initiative called The Business Expansion Scheme
which UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher implemented
to promote investment in small businesses.
Q: What has been your toughest challenge to date?
The biggest challenge is knowing our target audience is out
there but finding it hard to reach them through conventional
distribution channels. Publishing is a very traditional
industry and a difficult one; children’s publishing is even
more challenging. To keep going, we have needed a lot of
perseverance and a fundamental belief in what we’re trying
to achieve.
Q: What are your goals for your company?
Someone recently said that Barefoot was the world’s bestkept
secret. My goal now is to make sure that it isn’t! We
are working on that goal in a myriad of ways including
tapping into the power of social media and creating free
digital content such as the Barefoot Books Podcast and
some digital videos to help people understand and engage
with our brand. We are working hard to connect with as
many people as possible by nurturing our relationships with
our key partners and through our grassroots community of
dedicated Ambassadors, retailers and other distributors.
Q: Why did you decide to transfer your business to
the United States and not Canada?
When we first decided to launch Barefoot Books in North
America back in 1997, our plan was to establish a presence in
both Canada and the U.S. Having been successful at selling
licenses to our books in the U.S. for the previous four to
five years, we knew there was huge potential for Barefoot
Books in this market; it made sense to set up our first North
American office on the east coast in New York City where
many major children’s publishers are located. The U.S.
market is also much larger than the Canadian one and, with
the economics of picture book publishing, we needed the
U.S. print quantity to get a book off the ground.
We simultaneously established a distribution relationship in
Canada. As a Canadian businesswoman and a mother of four
Canadian children, this is very important to me. However,
we have not had as much opportunity as I would have liked
to really focus on growing our Canadian presence and I want
to make this a priority over the next couple of years.
20 MOMpreneur ® � July/August 2010