They’re in the booger business

A pair of moms from Beaverton and Tigard have turned one of those lightbulb-over-the-head ideas into a going concern

By Stover E Harger III

The Beaverton Valley Times, Aug 27, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Jaime Valdez / Times Newspapers

ALL CLEAN — Mindee Doney, co-founder of Little Busy Bodies, demonstrates how to use a Boogie Wipe on 4-year-old Ava Wright. Doney and Julie Pickens (below), two local moms, began selling and marketing their successful Boogie Wipes product from Beaverton two years ago.

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Mindee Doney and Julie Pickens are in the business of boogers.

In two years, the “mompreneurs” and current finalists for Oregon Entrepreneur of the Year, have catapulted their Beaverton-based Little Busy Bodies business into a powerhouse.

Their personally developed line of soothing saline “Boogie Wipes,” designed to combat pesky dried nasal mucus, are now in more than 30,000 stores. These wipes have helped the moms not only grow a successful business from scratch, but have given them the opportunity to spread the word around the country that being a mom doesn’t mean you can’t flourish in the business world.

Quite the contrary.

For Beaverton resident Doney, 34, and Tigard resident Pickens, 41, it was their experiences as moms that helped them reach their towering accomplishments. Growing and operating a successful business is similar to raising a child, the close friends agree. Both require patience, persistence and care.

These attitudes have helped Little Busy Bodies achieve $1.1 million in sales in 2008 – their first full year in business. Now, this year, the company and its 13 employees are on track to triple that.

It’s a far cry from the uncertain beginnings, when the idea of Boogie Wipes came to Doney while caring for her daughter’s runny nose.

“We’ve definitely come a long, long way,” said Pickens.

In November of 2006, Doney found herself struggling to treat her daughter’s runny nose with saline drops. Her squirming child had no intention of letting her mom put the cold, wet liquid in her nostril. But then, inspiration struck for Doney.

What if she found a way to mix saline – which can treat and moisten the nasal cavity – with regular old tissues. After a run to the store to see if anything like that existed, Doney discovered that it didn’t.

The idea bounced around in her head until she found herself in her kitchen, mixing different levels of saline with brand after brand of tissues. She hung them with clothespins throughout the room to dry – a one woman research and development team.

“I felt like a mad scientist,” Doney said.

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