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Times Tales is the Feature Friday business for April 14

Jennie von Eggers and Dena Wood, along with partner Marillee Flanagan make up the "Times Tales Team", as they call themselves. With Times Tales as their first & most well-known product, the business, Trigger Memory Systems, has expanded to offer a variety of non-traditional, creative learning materials. They have expanded their own line as well, adding  Memory Triggers for Elementary Math Terms and will be coming out with a new "Clean N' Flip" room cleaning system for children in the next week. Below, Dena and Jennie answer a few questions from PRMama.

PR Mama: How did you come up with the idea for Times Tales?

Jennie: My sons were learning their multiplication tables and just couldn't get the upper ones to "stick". They would have them memorized one day only to completely forget the next. I've incorporated mnemonics throughout my life for various things such as memorizing orders when I was a waitress or to remember test answers. Making up a mnemonic for the upper tables seemed like an easy solution. It worked like a charm and we could finally move on in our math.

PR Mama: How did you decide to go into business?

Dena: I remember receiving a phone call from Marillee one afternoon telling me about how Jennie taught her boys math and asking if I thought it would be something others would buy. Jennie, living in Georgia at the time, was up for a visit and the two were considering putting together something "official". I said it sounded like something they could try without a major investment and might, indeed go over well. I was surprised to receive another phone call a week later asking if we could meet midway between our homes so I could see their creation. We met at a park, with children in tow, and Jennie and Marillee showed me the prototype and quizzed one of the younger children on her facts. (She recited them all perfectly!) They invited me to be part of the business at that point. I went home and tested it on my daughter with the same results. We worked together on the Instruction Manual, listed it on eBay and some message boards and were blown away with the response. Over time we refined the program and gave it a more professional look.

PR Mama: How did you test the market?

Jennie: We tested on as many children as we could find. We even tested on children as young as 5 who didn't even know what multiplication was! Yet after learning with our program they could correctly answer the upper times tables when asked verbally.

Dena: It was really amazing! My daughter couldn't tell you what 1 x 1 was, but she could tell you 7 X 8! lol All our friends were eager to give it a try. We received an overwhelmingly positive response, even from those who had children with Dyslexia.

PR Mama: What have been your biggest challenges?

Jennie: Trying to find a balance between work, family and schooling time. I've tried to incorporate my kids in the business part, such as helping with the mailing, if at all possible.

Dena: I agree, time management is the greatest challenge. There are so many things to learn and do it can be difficult to prioritize. It's also tricky, especially in the beginning, not to let the business take over your life. We have to remember that our first priority is to our spouse & family. Fortunately, the three of us are like-minded in that which helps a great deal. On the flip side, though a partnership is a great advantage in most ways, it can be a challenge in getting everyone on the "same page" at times.

What are some of the secrets to your success?

Jennie: I don't have an answer to that other than God helped us.

Dena: Again, I'd agree with Jennie. It was obvious, early on, just from the amazing way things fell into place that God had His hand on this endeavor. I think our responsibility in that, is to honor Him in return by being responsible in how we run the business and not let it take over. I think it's also been a great benefit that we have moved forward slowly with no debt. That's largely unheard of, but we've managed. Again, to God be the glory. Also, the fact that there are three of us with very different skill and personalities has been a great benefit. Jennie is very creative and an idea person, I'm more business oriented and Marillee is very detail oriented, loving to calculate costs, figures, get estimates, proofread, etc. There is no way any one of us could have found the time or learned everything necessary to do what we've done.

What is your favorite part of running a business?

 Jennie: Hearing the testimonies from parent about how grateful they are we had a program that worked so well for their child. Some of the emails we get are very moving. Before this journey, I never really knew the self esteem issues that can be associated with a child not being able to succeed in math. That was an eye opener.

Dena: I really enjoy meeting & working with other business owners (even if it is all through email). The internet has made such a HUGE difference in the ability to do  business. When we began, all three of us lived in different states and we have thirteen children between us (that we homeschool). The computer allowed us to do all our work (often late at night), sharing it online. Amazing, really.  I'm excited to learn new skills and put them into practice. I think this has been a good creative outlet for me. Positive response from the public school system has been fun for me. My daughter loves that the public school kids here in town learn with Times Tales and we often see where teachers have recommended our program to customers. 

Any thoughts you'd like to leave PR Mama readers with?

 Jennie: If you have an idea that you think might work, go ahead and try it. I wouldn't invest too much money at first (I think our initial investment for our first copies was $50), just make a few proto types the cheapest way you can and see if it sells. One of our first sales was on ebay.

Dena: I don't think any of us really expected Times Tales to meet with the success it has. The fact that we would have been fine had it not gone anywhere and viewed it's success as an unexpected blessing helped. We were careful not to depend on the business for income or to make major investments until we were certain of the market. Had we gone in the other way, I think it would have been quite stressful. I think we would also all agree to let God lead. He knows what is best for you and your business.

Visit Trigger Memory Systems as well as our Creative Homeschooling website which offers great "out-of-the-box" educational ideas.

 

 

 

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