Moms may do it all, but even they can use a little assistance now and then.

By Geoff Williams

Heather Stouffer, 34, started her Alexandra, Virginia based business because she had a need and couldn’t fulfill it. In the case of Mom Made Foods, Stouffer’s need was healthy, fresh foods for her baby son, Emory, born shortly before the organic market exploded. “As a new mother, I wanted the best for my son, and so I was making all of his foods from scratch, spending most of my Sunday making them and freezing them for the week,” says Stouffer, whose meal-making time was mostly scotched during the week due to her job as a business development director at a high-tech consulting company.

Her Martha Stewart methodology, though, was wearing and wearying, and that’s when the idea of creating her own line of organic baby foods hit her. But there’s a wide chasm between a concept and actually launching a business around it. Stouffer, who soon quit her day job, knew it, too, which is what led her to the Small Business Development Center in Alexandria.

At the SBDC, Stouffer was given what she describes as “a whole load of information,” including contact information for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health, both agencies she was going to have to get to know. The SBDC told Stouffer (who, no, isn’t related to the family that owns the frozen food giant) about a program at the Virginia Tech Business School, which did a competitive analysis for her company.

Her counselor pointed her to a book, which became her bible: From Kitchen to theMarket: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty by Stephen Hall. And the SBDC also provided a database of information that ultimately helped Stouffer connect with Whole Foods, which now carries her line of products in several states.

“The SBDC has been an incredible resource,” says Stouffer. “Their willingness to help has just been extraordinary.”

Word of Stouffer’s business has since “spread like wildfire,” she says. In the last two years, her products have been featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, and she has been able to continually release new product lines. Mom Made Foods is currently in seven states and Washington, DC, as of this writing; by the time you read this, it will likely be in quite a few more.

Meanwhile, Stouffer can be pleased Emory was born when he was. Today, she would have no trouble finding baby organic products on the shelves and quite possibly wouldn’t have started her business. The organic market, of course, has exploded, where one can find anything from organic bed linens, laundry detergent and even toilet paper. In both riding the organic industry wave, and finding a friendly neighborhood SBDC, Stouffer found herself in exactly the right place at the right time.