Kristina O'Connell believes people want a way to give baby gifts that will be talked about, without having to do a lot of boutique shopping.

So she founded Wadee (www.wadee.com), which provides unique, artisan-quality products like handmade dolls, heirloom wooden trucks and customized prints, as well as a personal shopping service.

A former high-tech marketing executive, O'Connell now cares full-time for her three daughters, ages seven, three and six months, while running her company.

Best Birthday Gift for an Entrepreneur-To-Be

"Wadee was my daughter Callie's first word. When she was one, she brought me a plastic red car and said, 'Wadee, wadee.' It had the most adorable ring to it. I thought, 'If I ever do my children's company, that's what I will name it.' My sister registered the Web address for me for my birthday five years ago and said, "In case you ever start your company, here you go.' That was a cool birthday gift and inspiration."

Life Before Starting Her Biz

"I went to school for marketing at Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts, and spent 13 years in high-tech marketing. In the back of my mind, I always wanted to start my own company, and finally got into a place where I was able to do it. I had success at F5 Networks - I was the 24th person in the company, and left when there were 600 people. I rode the wave of building a successful company, so I was in a good financial position."

Turning Point

"In 2000, I lost both my parents. That, on top of the fact that I started having children, changed my perspective. It made me realize how short life is, so you've got to do what you love.

"I had run out of gas with high-tech and was burnt out, so at the end of 2002, I decided to take a couple of years off and start Wadee. I wanted to be home with my family, so I built my business around my family. My husband has been tremendously supportive, and that has allowed me the freedom to follow my passion."

Special Something for Someone Special

"I commuted from Boston to Seattle monthly for five years, in addition to many locations worldwide. When I traveled, I always looked for special children's items, like pants with little ruffles at the bottom that swing when they walk. When I needed a special gift, I would go around to boutiques, but with young children, I found this to be quite a task. Boutique stores are really not that fun to shop in when you have kids in tow.

"I started doing surveys with friends and family to find out how and where they shop. I thought, 'I'd love to be a resource for these people' when they need that something with special charm. Many customers just give me the specifics of what they need, the card message and let me do the shopping and put together a gift pail for them. When I ask why people come back to Wadee, they say it's because of the rare gifts, personal service and because giving is made easy."

Popular Gift Pails

"My business has led me to create gift pails (Welcome Baby and Birthday Baby pails) - that's the primary part of my business, 90 percent of my sales. I'm doing a lot of personal shopping and companies are using me for welcome-baby gifts as well. That's where my biggest growth opportunity is. I'm going to try to hire someone in sales on a permanent basis."

Being Flexible - Changing Her Business Model

"My first year was primarily doing home parties to build my brand and to gain insight from my target audience. My second year was converting over to an online model. I totally changed the way I ran my business. For me, it was exciting that I maintained my revenue, even as I changed my business model. Sales are steadily increasing, and I'm seeing consistent repeat business."

Greatest Challenges

"There's always risk involved with something like this. Financial risk. I'm probably straining things because I personally financed my company. Everyone says when you hit that two-year mark, things will start happening. I plan to look at some alternatives to personally funding the company and may go after angel investors.

"Managing inventory and orders is another challenge. Because my products are handmade, what I am trying to figure out is how many products to order and keep up with demand. It's not like I can order 1000 teddy bears and have them in a week. I own my entire inventory. For storage, we're adding a new studio office onto our home to accommodate the business."

Greatest Successes

"My biggest success is the response from my customers and the fact that all the hard work that I have put in is allowing people to use me as a shopping and gift-giving resource.

"You get the happy giggles when you're loving what you do. I can care for my kids full-time and run the business. I balance this by working at crazy times of the day…but it's all worth it. My two older daughters love organizing my inventory, unpacking boxes and even creating pails for me. I am most proud of the fact that I am sharing entrepreneurship with them."

Business Meetings While Breastfeeding

"The biggest challenge is phone time. But with a children's company, if there's a baby in the background, it's OK. When I'm having a creative brainstorm meeting over breakfast with my creative designer, between us we have five kids. So we have pancake syrup all over us, but we're still being really productive. Or, my business colleague and I are sitting there with infants, breastfeeding, working on PR angles. You've got to love it!"

Advice for Success

"Being a student of what you do and what others do is really important. Learn from other people. I'm constantly reading The Wall Street Journal, looking for entrepreneurship stories and talking to friends who are entrepreneurs. What I have also witnessed is that women love to help other women."

More Gift Ideas for Children and Moms

"Cosmetic bags with kids' photos on them. Also, I'm working with an artist in New York who does personalized collage name prints for kids that are really fun. My gift pails and birthday-shirts are my top-sellers."