MY DREAM started when my children were still at home – some eighteen years ago. I am now a grandmother of eight. But MY DREAM still lives and so also, my goal, which was to create a business so children worldwide could have books they’d written compiled in a professional format:  hardbound, beautiful, and worthy of reading and sharing.

My idea took place years before the online book and photo book companies came into existence. In fact, THE DREAM started before desktop publishing and many of the computer driven outlets for media and printing became mainstream. At the time of MY DREAM'S inception, to get a book, you needed to order a quantity of a thousand books or more or find a traditional publishing house that would publish your book..

I spent eight years in college in my late thirties. While attending college, I worked from home for a group of Marriage and Family Therapists and also for an international, web-based sales company, attaining the notable title of Director of Operations. I did term-papers until 3:00 a.m. I went to classes with youngsters who could barely spell. I put up with the comments of professors who stated that, at my age, I could, “Audit” the classes and not have to work for the grade. Are you kidding? I was a classic overachiever and graduated with eight certificates in Adobe programs, desktop publishing applications, and web design – all with highest honors. Oh yes, and let’s not forget, I started a graphic design company at this time doing freelance work while attempting to further “THE DREAM.”

A family move took me to the next step:  research the question, “Does equipment now exist that can create one-off books?” The answer was yes, and this equipment had just reached the shores of the United States. It was quickly purchased by my husband and me to accomplish THE DREAM. In the process, local authors discovered me and asked if I could design and bind their books. Of course I could. (Sure.) This meant hours of testing products, learning to use the above-mentioned equipment, and paper stocks, plus more research. Soon, however, I became known for my book design, attaining clients in both the corporate and private sectors. 
Then THE DREAM morphed. I would create, “Build-a-Book” centers. No, not just one, but I’d pitch my idea to corporate partners who could help bring it about. Yes, the corporate types thought the idea was great, and a few partners sold the ideas to others who are now prominently displaying and profiting from THE DREAM and THE IDEA.

But, I digress. A few years older, many years wiser, and still on the quest to fulfill THE DREAM, my husband and I purchased a web-to-print software solution package. It sounded marvelous. It did what my mind and dreams envisioned. However, it was expensive! The salesperson and technician assured me, “You can do this, Anita.” So almost a house-price-purchase later, the box with the software arrived to take THE DREAM to the next level – a higher plain, a wider audience, and to a massively difficult enterprise. Yes, the software “could” do the things I dreamed of, but it was not an out-of-the- box, onto your computer, software solution. It was a four-year learning curve and took thousands of repetitions to get it where it is today. I had to learn code, with terminology as foreign as if I’d embarked upon learning Chinese. It took hours of creating designs and templates, envisioning how untrained end-users could build a book online, and make all of this into an easy process for users. It took miles of paper for testing templates, and also involved not only learning both the creation software process, and the server technology, but also figuring out the application of a new process at the server end.

So you ask:  Is THE DREAM worth it? Has the investment, which is now to the point where I could have purchased a really nice beachfront property in a far-away place, been worth it? I am still waiting for the next step. I’ve heard it said, “If you build it, they will come.” If that is true, it may yet come to fruition both in vision and financially. But in the interim, I have to say a resounding, yes!  It’s been worth it!  “Why?” you ask. Perhaps because the essence of entrepreneurism is: hope, eternal optimism, and the culmination of a creative thought.

And more importantly, the pieces are now in place where the realization of MY DREAM is possible, that is, to create beautiful books and now also, photo gifts for kids. Bouncy Bugs is the children's division of Photoboooks Plus and has been designed specifically with YOUR kids in mind.

Thanks for joining my journey - Jannetje Anita Thomas