Start-up aims to help families on vacation

With three children ages 9, 6 and 3, Jenni Cheff has spent many years either hauling awkward child paraphernalia on vacation or making frantic phone calls to pull together everything her children needed to be safe and happy away from home.

“I remember visiting family in Ohio when one of them was less than 1 year old and scrambling to find something for him to sleep in,” she said. “I had friends calling their friends. And even if car rental agencies rent seats, they don’t guarantee that the seat will be there and if you take your own you have to lug it through airports.”

Cheff decided that she could help smooth the way for families traveling to the Flathead Valley and potentially create a booming business along the way.

Cheff, who left her job recently as assistant vice president at Glacier  Bank in Columbia Falls to be a stay-at-home mother, purchased brand-new baby and child equipment and officially opened Glacier Baby Outfitters on June 1.

“It was a small investment, reasonable for a start-up business,” Cheff said.

Vacationers can rent cribs and other items that make sleeping more safe for children, high chairs and booster seats, infant car seats and booster chairs, jogging and standard strollers, hiking backpacks, baby monitors and safety gates, and play items such as jumpers and bouncers.

The website lists a number of packages as well.

“We’ve done our research and we know the best products,” she said.

Based in Cheff’s home in Columbia Falls, Glacier Baby Outfitters delivers the items anywhere in the Flathead Valley tourists might be staying and to car-rental agencies. She assembles everything and provides any instruction necessary.

“When they get into town, it’s all there and ready and they don’t have to worry about setting up,” she said.

She also provides a baby concierge service. For a percentage of the receipt, she’ll shop for baby supplies such as diapers, wipes, formula and baby food, so vacationers don’t have to immediately run to the store for baby products.

Cheff said that baby-gear rental businesses are well established in other tourist-oriented places such as Hawaii and the Disneyland, and she said they are common in Canada.

She felt that the Flathead Valley could easily support a similar business.

“Between Glacier Park and Big Mountain, we’re a year-round destination,” she said.

Family visits might help fill in the gap during the off season for tourists, she said.

“Not only are we marketing to tourists, but grandparents as well,” Cheff said. “They have family coming to visit, and instead of calling family and friends, they can just rent what they need.”

With her degrees in finance and accounting and more than 15 years of experience working at Glacier Bank, she has confidence in her entrepreneurial abilities.

“At Glacier Bank we prided ourselves on customer service,” she said. “I will bring that to my business.”

She educated local tourist businesses about her new service by delivering rack cards throughout the valley, emailing all the vacation-rental-by-owner listings she could find, firing up her website and Facebook pages and asking friends to spread the word.

There have been a number of reservations already, so she said the business is off to a strong start. Customers can go online to reserve equipment through a downloadable order form or call Cheff directly.

For more information, visit www.glacierbabyoutfitters.com, email glacierbabyoutfitters@gmail.com or call 261-9363.

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.