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" Where she works: Minneapolis Take-home in 2006: $50,000+ Discovering her inner artist: Maia Haag says that giving birth transformed her from corporate bigwig to creative writer. Her turning point came during maternity leave, in 1998, when she received a customized storybook in which her baby was the lead character. &amp;quot;It was one of the best gifts I got,&amp;quot; says Haag. Inspired, she quit her high-stress job to write a personalized kids&amp;#039; book of her own. &amp;quot;When I told my boss I wasn&amp;#039;t coming back, he looked at me like I was crazy,&amp;quot; she recalls. Outdoing the competition: &amp;quot;Many publishers stamp a name in a book and call it customized,&amp;quot; says Haag, 39. &amp;quot;I wanted to go beyond that.&amp;quot; She thought up a plot that could be personal on every page: A baby is born in an enchanted land, and animals bring the child letters until they spell out his or her name. So, for example, a tiger delivers a T, and so on. Haag spent three months writing the book and creating animal characters. Then, with help from her husband&amp;#039;s graphic design firm, she hired an illustrator. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;d fax me sketches, and I&amp;#039;d give him feedback like &amp;#039;That alligator looks too scary,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; says Haag. It took more than two years to complete 62 illustrations. Haag paid for his services (and all her other start-up costs) with money she inherited from her grandmother. The nest egg was $85,000, and she spent every cent on her dream. Printing the books: Haag found a local bindery to do POD (publishing on demand), so the books can be produced one by one as they&amp;#039;re ordered. Then she launched an online store, iseeme.com. (Tip: Yahoo! Small Business helped her build the site -- a service they provide for a small fee to Web beginners.) Finding customers: In May 2000, Haag was ready to sell her books ($29.95 each, plus shipping). She sent word via email to dozens of friends and family. To reach more possible customers, she devised a plan to turn Web visitors into salespeople. Here&amp;#039;s how it works: The site invites visitors to sign up to receive a seller&amp;#039;s code. Then, if the visitor encourages a friend to buy a book and that friend enters the code when she purchases, the seller earns $5. Today, 700 people work for Haag on commission. Beyond the Web: An L.L. Bean representative discovered the book in 2003 and put it in the company&amp;#039;s catalog. Following suit, Nordstrom placed the book in its children&amp;#039;s departments nationwide. The bottom line: Sales reached $2.7 million in 2005. This year, Haag released a second story especially for girls, My Very Own Fairy Tale, and debuted a floor puzzle (assembled, the pieces spell a child&amp;#039;s name and birth date). Next up? A book just for boys.  Thinking about starting a business? Take this advice from successful entrepreneur Maia Haag, founder of I See Me, a company that sells personalized children&amp;#039;s books.   Develop an idea based on your hobbies and areas of expertise.   Once you have your idea, research it thoroughly. That way, you know what&amp;#039;s been done before, and how you can do it better.  Talk about your ideas with other people \u2014 especially businesspeople \u2014 to get feedback.  If you&amp;#039;re developing a product, pay meticulous attention to its quality and make sure it meets real consumer needs. You can have a great marketing campaign, but if customers don&amp;#039;t like the product, you won&amp;#039;t be successful in the long run.  Go to the Small Business Administration&amp;#039;s Website to find a template for a business plan. Writing a business plan is essential because it makes you think about how you can realistically market your product or service. And it&amp;#039;s key to getting a loan if you need one.  Develop a relationship with a banker early on \u2014 even if you don&amp;#039;t think you&amp;#039;ll need a loan. If you wait until you&amp;#039;re out of cash and in a bind, you&amp;#039;ll be in a position of weakness.  Be careful about borrowing large sums of money from friends or family. Hire an attorney to add structure to the deal, so everyone understands the terms and there are no hard feelings later.  If you&amp;#039;re developing a retail product, test your sales pitch on small stores first. That way, you can hear what their issues are before you attempt to sell to large stores.  Be persistent.  Imagine success, and think positively.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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