Looking for opportunities online, she came across the idea of selling gift boxes composed of infant development products. On July 2, 1998, she started GeniusBabies.com (http://www.geniusbabies.com ).

With little cash and limited technical expertise, Michelle defied the odds and built GenuisBabies.com as a premier online baby boutique, featuring developmental and educational baby products, toys and gifts, prenatal through pre-K.

There is so much to learn from reading Michelle's story - from dealing with web designers to patience in working out deals with manufacturers. She shows that the route to success in e-commerce is no different from that of a traditional business: hard work and determination are still important ingredients.

As they say, "necessity is the mother of invention." And it is! From the moment I learned that I was pregnant; I knew that I wanted to stay at home and take care of my baby. I did not want to return to work full-time as a Social Work Supervisor, yet I wanted to provide a supplemental income to our household.

I absolutely wanted to stay home. Every time I thought about leaving home and putting this infant in some caregiver's arms, the more I wanted to stay at home.

I was online all the time looking for jobs, posting on the different job boards for things that I can work from home. However, I discovered that there is not a great amount of legitimate work-at-home opportunities. I even responded to those work-at-home ads advertised at the back of a baby magazine, only to find that those were scams.

I was expecting my first child, and I was very interested in prenatal and infant stimulation - particularly utero learning and classical music effects in baby development. I was spending a great deal of time researching pregnancy, prenatal care and baby development on the Internet.

I was on an expecting moms board and they were talking about "Oh, I'm using classical music for stimulation for my baby." Then the light bulb went on that I combine my two passions: the desire to stay home with my baby, and my interest and belief in infant development and stimulation.

During that time, I was living in Atlanta and the Governor started a program distributing classical music CDs to all the babies born in Atlanta hospitals. It caused quite a stir, but it gave the idea of prenatal and infant stimulation more promotion. It was great timing for me, as there was a lot of buzz on how important the first twelve months to three years of a baby's development.

I began looking at different infant stimulation and pre-natal products. I started thinking of those junky baby gift baskets - and there is nothing worthwhile in them, just little tubes of lotion and powder -- that people pay about $60 to send to family and friends. Everyone in my family received them every time they had a baby, so we had tons of those. People spent good money to send them, and they were things that they couldn't use.

I thought I could combine some things that would be beneficial to a baby, preferably those that could have long lasting positive effects. My idea was to put together classical music CD, infants still video - there were some in the market that had just come out that I love like Baby Einstein, and Baby Mozart - and they are wonderful. Then throw in an infant development toy. I made them more affordable, starting with $19.95 to $99.95.

The entire business started with those gift packages. There were 5 for babies and 5 for fun birthday gifts. The products increased as the business grew.