The story of La Petite Crème will sound familiar to many entrepreneurs. Years ago, brand new mom Cecile Largeau was looking to solve a problem. But she couldn’t find the solution on her local market shelves. So she created a product, improved her family’s diaper changing routine, and La Petite Crème was born.

About La Petite Crème, Organic Diaper Cream Handmade With Love

La Petite Crème started out as a personal quest. The quest of a French maman to do as the French do. Changing bébé diapers does not involve baby wipes in France. Rather, French diapering lotion is an all-in-one cleanser, barrier cream and moisturizer that does the job for the most tender and most precious skin in our families. So Cecile created a premium organic diapering lotion at home in her kitchen, then she realized that there was a demand for the product outside of her own family and circle of friends.

Steady Growth And An Increasing Need For Traceability

For over a decade, La Petite Crème grew slowly and steadily. Their small team was managing the entire operation using paper and pencil for inventory management, production and sales. “With all of our data on paper, there was a lot of potential for user error. We could always catch errors, but it was tedious,” says Cecile. As their operation grew, it became a burden to not only train employees on how to make the product but also how to record data and catch and correct the human data entry errors. “We were anticipating a big growth spurt, and we knew we needed to eliminate the laborious process of record keeping that could potentially hold us back,” remembers Cecile.

In 2018, La Petite Crème became USDA organic certified, and the need for streamlining data entry became a priority. “We needed a digital version of our records. And the annual recertification process demanded traceability,” says Cecile. So she started looking for an ERP solution.

Not all small businesses are as lucky as La Petite Crème, because in addition to being an entrepreneur, Cecile is also an IT engineer. “I had previously worked for a software company as an onboarder, so I knew how much of a pain it could be for a small business to integrate a system that is too big. Small businesses just don’t have the bandwidth to adapt the system to their needs! It can become a full-time job to nurture the ERP system,” she says. So with that in mind, Cecile selected Wherefour as the perfect fit for La Petite Crème. Wherefour’s suite of solutions offers the right amount of customization without the demand of re-inventing the platform to suit individual needs. The inventory control, inherent traceability and effortless compliance is the perfect fit for small to medium businesses poised for growth. “We’re a small business with big business needs as far as compliance,” says Cecile. “And Wherefour is a great partner in what we do. The software is supporting us, we’re not supporting the software.”

Onboarding With Wherefour, Challenges Made Easy

Admittedly, Cecile did not think that onboarding would be easy. But Wherefour’s support team made the process a breeze. “I was immensely surprised by both the quality of people we worked with and the amount of time and resources put in place by Wherefour to make that onboarding easy,” remembers Cecile. She and her team had the perfect amount of training sessions, video tutorials, and access to a dedicated Customer Success Specialist to make the onboarding process smooth. “I could tell there was an intention by Wherefour to make it very complete so that getting the software running would be easier for us.”

Cecile’s team had less software experience than she did, so the process was daunting at the outset. But Cecile and the Wherefour team members prevented that experience from being overwhelming. “I told my team to trust the process. I could tell that Wherefour’s platform was well-structured and that there was a plan.” Instead of being overwhelmed by the possibilities, the onboarding process was smooth and thorough, and the benefits appeared almost immediately.

Cecile Largeau, founder of La Petite Crème, shares how Wherefour’s onboarding support made implementing ERP easier than expected.

How La Petite Crème Doubled Production With ERP Management

Since implementing Wherefour’s ERP platform into their operation, La Petite Crème has doubled their manufacturing capabilities. “Before Wherefour, we needed one whole day to prepare for production, one day for production itself, and then another day to track our production results. Now that our manual data entry time is eliminated, we’ve doubled our manufacturing. We’re able to have two production days every week, and we’re confident that we can do even more. We’re not scared of increasing capacity,” says Cecile.

Starting with one formula in a residential kitchen, La Petite Crème is now producing two formulas and 10 skus in their own dedicated manufacturing facility. “Our growth is going to be exponential,” says Cecile. “With Wherefour, we are finally to a point where growth is manageable. It has given us the confidence to tackle other areas of our operation, and now we can focus on other things.” That potential is on the horizon, as employees are just starting to lean into the possibilities. “Our employees have gained a lot of confidence in their ability to grow. The ERP system has relieved the weight of the paper trail, and our team has options that we didn’t have before.”

The new partnership between La Petite Crème and Wherefour shows a lot of promise for a bright future ahead. Cecile looks forward to activating barcode technologies in their manufacturing facility and enabling direct integrations for accounting, e-commerce and shipping soon. “We intend to build on top of the inventory management and compliance basics now that we have a good software partner.”

When La Petite Crème was born, Cecile’s kids were babies too, and the business and the family grew up together. The babies became little kids when the company moved out of the kitchen and into the manufacturing facility. And now both are officially in their teenage years. Cecile remarks that nurturing teenage kids and a decade-old business feels the same in many ways. “Teenagers are ready to have a life of their own. We held their hands for many years and now we give them tools to do things by themselves. In a similar way, Wherefour is the perfect tool for La Petite Crème and I’m proud to watch it grow,” she says.