Promoting Family Mental Health Through Play
Abbie Pabon and Emily Enstad founded Present Not Perfect Play Company in 2021 as an online community for parents like them, who were home with their young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the company began producing and selling sensory play kits for families and looking into opening a brick-and-mortar storefront, Pabon and Enstad decided it was time to strengthen their business knowledge and skills.
Pabon joined the Fall 2022 cohort of WARF’s free UpStart program, where she met Katie Rice, UpStart Program Director and WARF Venture Relations Manager, and Michelle Somes-Booher, director of the SBDC at UW – Madison.
“It was amazing,” she says. “In UpStart, Michelle worked with me on our business plan and Business Model Canvas. We put lots of thought toward our pricing model, our target market, and our target audience.”
Pabon then participated in the SBDC’s Accounting and Projection Clinic (APC), run by SBDC business consultant Anne Inman, in 2023.
“The Accounting and Projection Clinic helped us with financial planning and required us to do a lot of work,” says Pabon. “We got a line of credit for the business for the first time last year from Greenwoods State Bank in Lake Mills, and we provided three-year projections and our business plan.”
Pabon and Enstad also met with Somes-Booher for several business consulting sessions.
“The SBDC has been amazing,” she says. “Any question that has popped up, Michelle has been there giving us guidance and advice. She’s been an incredible resource.”
Pabon says she’s tremendously appreciative of the support her company has received from the SBDC.
“The SBDC has been so helpful; I owe them a debt of gratitude,” Pabon says. “It’s such an amazing resource, especially for women entrepreneurs, and I loved that everyone we worked with was also a woman.”
Growing from an online community to a product-based business
Pabon and Enstad launched Present Not Perfect as an online community that normalized and supported family mental health, drawing upon their professional backgrounds in elementary special education (Pabon), and art therapy (Enstad). They began by sharing family mental health resources and favorite picture books and expanded to products–they launched a proprietary line of sensory play kits in Fall 2021.
“My oldest daughter has some sensory differences, and after using sensory play bins with her at home, I was inspired to try to create a few of my own,” Pabon says. “I shared one online, and the response was staggering. Everyone was asking if they could buy a kit.”
Now, Present Not Perfect sells multiple lines of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) sensory play kits online, at 30 retailers in the U.S. and several in Canada, and in their new Lake Mills store. Fans can also purchase subscription boxes. The kits include homemade, all-natural playdough or hypoallergenic sensory sand, and each kit’s theme connects to an emotional literacy skill. A booklet of Social Emotional Learning resources comes with each kit.
Pabon and Enstad make their playdough in-house and purchase the moldable sensory sand wholesale, along with the small character pieces. From time to time, they work with independent artisans on unique character pieces.
“Our playdough is made with flour and has gluten and coconut oil,” Pabon says. “One of our values is being inclusive and accessible, so having a hypoallergenic sand option was important.”
In February 2022, Pabon and Enstad won second place in the “Daring to Disrupt” Instagram contest, co-sponsored by Katie Couric Media and Ally Financial, for their efforts to disrupt the mental health industry as women entrepreneurs.
“In our pitch for the contest, we explained that we were trying to normalize family mental health and add a playful lens,” says Pabon.
Their subsequent growth led them to UpStart and the SBDC in the fall of 2022, and then they designed and began producing their own container for the play kits–a double-sided, two-ended jar, manufactured in Menomonee Falls.
“That is also unique and sets us apart,” says Pabon. “No other sensory kit out there has this design. We wanted families to be able to take it with them when they’re traveling or going to a restaurant. Kids can open it independently, and it’s easy to clean.”
Expanding to a brick-and-mortar storefront
Now, they are celebrating the opening of their brick-and-mortar storefront in downtown Lake Mills, at 123 and a half North Main St. The store is their new production home, with retail and event space.
“The space is multipurpose, with a coffee shop inside the building,” says Pabon. “We created it to feel like a big, comfy living room that you and your kids are welcome in, with play spaces naturally embedded into shop design. There’s a dollhouse on the wall in one nook, and a sensory table in another.”
One wall is painted with magnetic paint, so children can build with magnetic tiles and play with magnets on the wall. The building, a former bank, features glass-paned walls that divide the space. Next to the coffee area is the “make and take room,” with floor-to-ceiling shelving, and drawers containing all the pieces that go into Present Not Perfect’s sensory kits.
“We want to offer regular hours for people to come make custom kits,” says Pabon. “They can choose their own colored dough or sand and fill it with anything they want. The only rule is that the lid must close.”
Pabon and Enstad hosted a pop-up event during the Lake Mills Ice Festival in early February.
“Families tried it, and it was so much fun to see kids’ creativity blossoming,” says Pabon. “One child filled the entire jar with bananas, and I thought, whatever makes him happy! We’re all about creativity, self-expression, connection, your sensory preferences, and what speaks to you in terms of textures and visuals. Preteens and teens were also making kits. It’s fun for all ages.”
The store will also offer birthday parties on weekend afternoons, in which children can make their own sensory kits.
“Kids will start with a jar of white dough or sand and can choose a color add-in, a glitter add-in, and a scented essential oil, then choose their pieces,” says Pabon.
Continuing to grow
Present Not Perfect has found success in social media marketing, where the company began.
“Because of our roots in a pandemic, when all socialization was digital, and we and other moms were feeding our babies in the middle of the night and using our phones to connect, we have a robust community on social media that’s been very positive, and people are rooting for us,” says Pabon. “We share a passion for normalizing the challenges of motherhood and mental health and connecting with kids through play. We have worked really hard to build that warm, welcoming space online and take a lot of pride in it.”
Pabon is enjoying the company’s expansion into stores and hearing friends tell her she found Present Not Perfect kits in other states. She stays focused on her and Enstad’s reasons for starting the company in the first place.
“We’ve learned from Michelle, Anne, and Katie to come back to our why and let that propel us forward,” Pabon says. “When things start to feel overwhelming, we look at our mission and values, and that helps center us when we’re trying to move forward.”
