Marni Matyus walked away from Nortel to find success and satisfaction selling unique baby items

When Marni Matyus, 39, was a child, her favorite activity was flying with her pilot father. Today, as owner of two baby-centric Web stores and a baby boutique, she helps foster similarly fond memories in other children, enabling them to bond with their parents. In 2005, after the birth of her second child, she left her job at Nortel to start The Sling Station — a Web site offering a variety of baby slings. Two years later, Matyus acquired her biggest competitor, Peppermint.com, and took her business in a new direction. This January, she launched the first brick-and-mortar version of the Web site, Peppermint Natural Baby Boutique in Richardson, which offers baby products found on her Web sites in addition to hands-on product demonstrations and parenting classes. Matyus was interviewed by staff writer Shashana Pearson-Hormillosa.

DESCRIBE YOUR FAMILY. My husband Joe and I have been married for nine years. I have two children, Zachary, 3, and Joshua, 5.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN AND RAISED? Born in Fort Worth, grew up in College Station.

WHERE DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL? I have a degree in finance from Texas A&M University.

AS A CHILD, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP? An airline pilot.

WHY DIDN’T YOU PURSUE THAT? In high school, I was thinking about what I really wanted to be and decided I wanted to be the boss. So, I thought business management.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? At 14, I worked for my dad, running the office at his auto-body repair shop.

HOW DID YOUR FAMILY REACT TO YOU STARTING YOUR OWN COMPANY? My husband was kind of indifferent, until he realized it was all-encompassing and would take the entire family to make it work.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM STARTING YOUR OWN COMPANY? That just because I like a product doesn’t mean it will sell. It was more than just building a site. You have to market it. We had to find our niche and where we are different.

WHAT IS YOUR NICHE? Parenting products that you really can’t find everywhere else.

DESCRIBE THE TRANSITION INTO A BRICK-AND-MORTAR STORE. Lots of lessons learned. I’m very analytical. I’m really good at figuring out how much inventory we should have and how the store should run. I’m not very artistic, so it was a learning experience. I have a great staff that really helped with merchandising and staging the store. It was a whole lot of new things all at once.

WHAT ARE THE RESULTS? It’s been better than we expected. There are a lot of word-of-mouth referrals. We really want to make a difference in the community.

WHAT KIND OF DIFFERENCE ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE? Helping people to make their lives a little bit easier as parents. A lot of what we do enables parents to have a closer relationship with their children. Then there’s the ecological aspect, too. We cater to natural, holistic parents, but we also offer products to the more conventional parents.

WHO ARE ROLE MODELS IN YOUR INDUSTRY? Amazon.com and Kristin DeRocha from (baby carrier producer) Hotslings.

WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE RECEIVED? Find balance in your life.