N.J. woman turns common car seat problem into a thriving business – NJ.com

Any parent can tell you about the frustrations that come from children’s car seats, and their unique ability to quickly become dirty.

As common as that issue may be, until recently there weren’t many solutions to it besides going through the long process of removing the seat, cleaning it, and putting it back into the car.

Recognizing how routine the problem was, and how little time parents have to fix themselves in today’s times, one New Jersey mother decided to take that problem and turn it into a new and now thriving business idea.

Lauren Siclare, a mother of two young children, founded BuckleBath, a mobile service dedicated to conveniently and thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing children’s car seats. Siclare, a Madison resident, was featured alongside her upstart business on Thursday’s live episode of ABC’s Good Morning America.

The way the service works is that parents in any of the 19 towns and cities it currently provides to can book an appointment through BuckleBath’s website to have workers come to their driveway on the spot and clean and sanitize the child’s seat. BuckleBath follows car seat manufacturer guidelines, and it only uses all-natural products in its cleanings.

“Prior to BuckleBath, there wasn’t a mobile business that could come to your driveway and clean your children’s car seat,” said Siclare, who started the business in 2019. “I saw a need for (this service) and the business did not exist, and so I created it.”

The genesis of the business’s idea came about on a typical morning at her daughter’s day care’s drop-off car line. Siclare noticed that crumbs were falling out of the seat as she was taking her daughter out of the car.

“I was embarrassed and I thought to myself, ‘my house is very clean, my daughter is perfectly clean, where are these crumbs coming from?’” Siclare said.

After dropping her child of, Siclare went online and to her phone’s app store to find a service that could come to her and clean the seat, and ended up with nothing.

After doing some more research, the Madison mother said she discovered that crumbs are actually closer to being the least of problems concerning children’s car seats, as she found that a car seat can often harbor twice as much germs than a toilet seat.

After that, Siclare decided that if no one else could provide a solution, she’d make one herself. Siclare left her corporate job at Google, cashed in her stocks, and used it to find a solution and eventually start her business.

Siclare taught herself the ins and outs of sanitizing and germs and brought in a doctor who specializes in germs (who is now on the company’s board). Through her research, Siclare discovered that even something seemingly as harmless as letting your child sit in a grocery cart can bring a huge amount of germs to a seat.

A typical cleaning is done on site in one of the company’s vans and takes about 20 minutes while costing $57. A popular, more extensive process can be finished by the end of the day and runs for $107. BuckleBath has also partnered with some YMCA locations and Kiddy Academy to cleans seats while children are in day care, so parents can pick up their kid and the seat at the same time.

“We basically took an idea and a problem that all parents had and figured out a way to create a white-glove kind of service that all parents could want to use,” she said.

In addition to solving a routine problem for parents, Siclare hopes that her business can provide something of an inspiration and empowerment to other people, especially moms and women, who have a good idea but are hesitant on taking a risk and fully committing to make the idea a reality.

“It’s not easy,” Siclare admitted. “If you think it’ll be all rainbows and sunshine, it won’t. The reality of it is, when we first launched, even as we hired a lot of cleaning associates to go out there, I did a lot of cleanings myself. I rolled up my sleeves and and went out to provide the best possible service, because I know that moms have their hands full and they’re non-stop busy.

“My advice, and what I think you’d have to be okay with if you start a business, is that you have to be ready to literally roll up your sleeves, and work 24/7 and still be able to be a great mother, while making the business a high priority.”

It didn’t take too long for Siclare’s hard work to show in results, as word of mouth, referrals and positive reviews helped the business grow so quickly that she didn’t have the opportunity to give her friends first dibs, so to speak. Positive reviews on a Facebook group for mothers actually helped book the Good Morning America appearance, as a producer for the show happened to be a member of the group.

The COVID-19 pandemic provided some challenges for BuckleBath, as the fledgling business even had to postpone a potential trial run of offering in-store services at a major retailer in New York City, but Siclare says her company has used the time to grow, and the general increased awareness of cleanliness and sanitizing has actually led to an increase in business.

While the company mostly serves towns in Morris, Union and Essex counties (as well as New York City), Siclare has plans to expand to southern parts of New Jersey by the Spring, and also to franchise and go national in two years.

“I want to give people the opportunity to work for a company that’s going to be family first, very supportive and a wonderful place to work,” Siclare said. “My goals are two-fold, firstly to expand nationwide and then to hire good people who can love working for BuckleBath. The people that are on the team now, they do it with their heart, all across the board. I know with such a solid team, we’ll be able to grow into a wonderful company.”