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Jennifer Telfer started her retail career as a pitchman at county fairs where direct customer contact is a testing ground for all manner of products.
Now that she runs a business based on her own invention - a stuffed animal that doubles as a pillow - that grassroots approach is used to introduce new product lines.
"My son had a whole wall of stuffed animals and one that he liked to sleep with had flattened out because he'd lie on top of it like a pillow," she said.
Hence the idea for My Pillow Pets, which Telfer and husband Clint launched in 2005 with $40,000 in startup capital earned from CJ Products, their first venture that specialized in such wares as chamois, custom bows and no-sew curtains sold at fairs and home shows.
After designing and ordering the manufacture of six different Pillow Pet styles, with straps that can be opened so that the toy forms...